Early sunshine

It's almost 9 p.m. and I am trying to convince my children that it is actually bedtime. Unfortunately, the light is no longer working in my favor in that regard. The sunshine now lasts until 8 and the daylight well into 9 and when it is clear, like it has been the last few days, it is very difficult to get the brains of little people to go to sleep. For that matter, it will soon be difficult for me to do the same. This is the GO time of year for me. But I'm a little ahead of myself right now. See, it really shouldn't be spring yet. Spring doesn't happen in March, but the past few weeks have definitely felt springy. And when I put the coffee grounds out on the garden two weeks ago, it actually stayed and the snow is now a good foot and a half lower where the grounds are. Grounds to the ground. Very grounding. OK, OK, I'll stop. Also emerging in this great melt is the leftover pieces of the hoop house from last year. I have to choose if I am going to try to resurrect the plastic hoops or replace them all with conduit (bent metal). I may try the conduit if I can afford it, depending on how many of the plastic hoops were broken when it went down last fall. I should have taken the plastic off well before the snow started, but I saw a friends' house which stayed up all winter, and I thought maybe I could get away with it. No such luck up here at 1200 feet. Sigh. So back to square one, only not really. The beds are all in and the water system is in place and I think the front and back pieces will be easy to fix. So once I can get in there, the mess will be minimal, I think.

But what was I getting at? It's not TIME to be thinking about all this yet. There is still a whole month of winter potential here at Latitude 59. April can produce some substantial dumps, and I don't want to be the one jumping the gun and getting slapped back into submission by the reality that I live in Alaska. So I have not done things like shovel the snow off my walkway or put away any variety of winter wear. Skis are still out. I'm not testing fate any more than I have to here.

On the other hand, it is starting to sneak into my head that maybe, just maybe, this summer will be one of those summers - the kind where you actually drag the kiddie pool up on the deck a couple times and children voluntarily climb in. We are due, and if it happens, I'm totally ready. So much of the work I did last year will pay bid dividends this year. And though there is still lots to do, I'm not worried. I'm not starting at the beginning this time but at the mid-point. And it sounds like I will have a good bit of help from Wwoofers this year, which is exciting.

It's Saturday morning, and the children got up cheerfully this morning and are playing with puzzles. My return Wwoofer Srishti is here and my friend Jennifer and her daughter are coming over for coffee and pancakes. Then the kids go to Matt for the weekend and I get a bit of time to myself. Outside a scattering of snow has cleaned up the world and an eagle is circling. How is it that I get this life, really?