It is spring!

It is spring, Mother Earth wakes up, the weather improves and there is a stirring in our hearts. We no longer feel as if we are fighting Mother Nature to keep our animals alive. We no longer feel as though we have to outwit the weather to have enough; enough wood for heat, enough hay for the animals, enough food in storage, enough sales to keep us going. Spring is a time of hope, a belief that pursuing self-sufficiency, while never 100% attainable, is at least improving every year. Spring is a time of babies, goats and chickens for us. There is more bubbling laughter as we watch the babies grow and play, there is just a lightness in our step that has been heavier in the heart of winter. 

It is spring. There is an inexplicable draw to play in the dirt, to plant seeds directly into the ground, to put seedlings grown under artificial light out into the real sunshine. There are the concerns of too windy, will it scorch the plants; too dry, should we water; too cold, will we get a late frost; too hot will it ruin the harvest or drive up the price of hay. Yet with all of that, we are drawn to thrust our hands in the dirt, watch our skin slowly change colour. Our hands and feet get black from the soil, our skin brown gently under the protection of home made creams that drive away the bugs that would make us sick.

It is spring and we no longer turn on artificial lights to mark the rhythm of our day, our bodies respond to sunrise and sunset, or the sound of birds playing in the trees. Mother Nature may not give us straight lines and yet we take pleasure in laying straight lines of seeper hoses that will deliver moisture to the plants we grow to feed ourselves and those in the local town unable to grow their own food. The day extends as we apply ourselves to do just one more thing before we head indoors. We eat when we are hungry, we remember to drink as our bodies need it.

It is spring, and we do not have the heat that summer will bring. We have near perfect temperatures in the 70'F. We bring out our trusty but worn summer clothes and hats. We change the scent of our skin cream from tea tree oil to lemon eucalyptus and cloves to deter the insects. We can dig all afternoon without fear of heatstroke. Though we have planted fruit bushes and trees there is still grass that needs mowing at least twice a week before the summer temps slow down the rate it grows. Yet that too gives us what we need as we use the grass clippings to mulch between the rows of vegetables.

It is spring. We start our year with a list of things to be done that could be daunting, but even that list has its own rhythm. The crops are rotated, there is an order that Mother Nature demands of us. Potatoes and onions, peas and radishes, there can be no rush with tender plants. We have four large gardens but once we decide on the rotation, the timing of each garden is determined by the weather, the strength of the sun and the date of the last frost. There is no fighting these things.

We are both into our sixties, why do we do these things? It is spring and we have felt the earth breathe and knew we had to respond!