:Sick of winter
Posted: April 8, 2008 Filed under: DRambles on Black Mountain | Tags: Debby Rothman 6 CommentsRemember a week ago Sunday when I posted the gentle snowfall that morning was beckening me to slow down? It snowed at least twice yesterday and again in the night. Do you think if I listen to stillness of the snowfalls, if I pay them heed, it will quit snowing??!! This is the time of year that is the most difficult for me. It seems like spring has sprung everywhere else.
Certainly there are signs of spring. I hear birds in the morning. And the mud. Can’t forget the mud. Much of the snow melts within hours (this is not to say I can see the ground!!!), leaving sticky, mucky mud. Okay. Okay. I’ll stop whining. After all, in a few months when most of the rest of you are sweltering, up here fresh mountain breezes will flutter beneath bright blue skies. That’s when I’ll slow down! That’s when I’ll sit on the deck for entire afternoons!
This past weekend was another whirlwind. Rose Day. Tax Day. Sun Day. Over the past two weekends I’ve also spent time completing the requirements for recertification of my Red Card, the credential required for getting ‘behind-the-scene’ in case of evacuation for forest fires. Recert requires an eight-hour refresher in Wildland Fire Training and the infamous Pack Test. We were fortunate enough to be home when evacuation was required for the Black Mountain Fire in 2002. Had we not, my dogs would have been unattended for several days, not to mention possibly being the victims of the forest fire. Citizens cannot get beyond the barriers set up once evacuation is in place. I’m now part a group that formed that summer – Animal Evac Volunteers. My status on the Red Card is THSP – which means Technical Specialist.
Here I am controlling a ferocious dog in a mock-evac…
And here I am in full Wildland gear…
Kunza at FleetFire Timbers 
“The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You’re one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you’re two months back in the middle of March!”
from: Two Tramps in Mud Time by Robert Frost
Okay, okay, I’m only going to tell you this because as long as your reach is, I’m too far away for you to actually hit me:
Yesterday as I went outside to pick some spinach for dinner, I was completely blindsided to find that the first Bullock’s Oriole had already arrived. I have to admit that my first thought was that he was a month early…..But, ooops, not at all. He is right on time. Every year the Bullocks and the Hooded Orioles show up in mid-April. The males come first; then the females. They have a couple of nests of babies; fatten them up on sugar water; and by August 15th they have all moved on again.
Hoorah !!!!
Best get used to it, Deb … another storm a brewin’ for tomorrow and Thursday. At least we don’t have mud here on the flatlands … and the crabapples are trying to leaf out. Some hint of spring.
And, for once, the weathermen were right! It’s Thursday morning. It’s Cat Day. I’ve got to get to work by 8AM and it’s POURING snow. Rick and I are scheduled to fly to Chicago late tonight for a surprise weekend for Rocky’s (Rick’s dad) 80th birthday. Today will be interesting…
Chicago! Close to my Midwest Home! In your free time, check out the jazz clubs, deep dish pizza, the IKEA store, Frontera Grill, ride the El, munch a Chicago dog, lose yourself in the Museum of Science and Industry, walk around the Lake–have a great birthday with Rick’s Dad!
So, Spring having Spring here in CA, my heart has turned to Chickens. Anyone here raising chickens? I’ve got 10 in the guest room shower stall waiting to get big enough to go out into the coop which needs some serious refurbishing. I’m hankering for an incubator. Anyone doing this?
Susan