It's Winter Still on the Feast of St. Joseph

Happy Feast of St. Joseph!

Well, after a couple of really warm days that had the radio announcers stating that this has been the warmest mid-March in Wisconsin in 10 years, winter made its comeback today.  It's snowing and my chickipoos are keeping their feathers dry inside the coop.  The sap isn't running today either. 

I decided to stay inside and do laundry, dust, and otherwise clean the house.  I know, it's a never-ending job; somethimes when I think of house cleaning I am reminded of hamsters running on wheels in cages.  Anyway, I have been busy.

I went the other day and bought chicken supplies:  feed, grit, oyster shell, and bedding.  After unloading the truck I went ahead and shoveled out the coop, and put down fresh bedding.  I love the way those clean wood chips smell.  I did trip and fall though -- figures!  I always was a klutz and accident prone.  I was carrying a 50# sack of feed, too, when I tripped stepping up into the coop.  I landed on my right knee, and the first thing I thought was, "I think I'm going to barf."  Well, in our family, we would rather die than barf, so I didn't barf, but I sure took my sweet time standing back up.  The good news is I have just a bruise on my knee.  I also managed to poke my left hand on a protruding wood screw point, and that is pretty ugly.  I probably should have gone for a couple of stitches with that one, but I doused the wound with hydrogen peroxide and iodine, and it closed up well enough.  There is still a little swelling and a gross-looking bruise, but since I just had a tetanus shot a couple of months ago, I'm not worried about it.  The chickens are happy.

Yesterday bowling for recreation started again for our Special Olympics kids.  They all seemed happy to get back together again, and Lara was especially happy because she finally got to use the new bowling ramp and bowl with the kids.  She had the biggest smile on her face; it was such a joy to see.  Eddy bowled really well, too, and he seemed to be really enjoying himself.  I was happy to see him smile.  He is alway more verbal when he's with other young people.  I wish that he could talk.

So far I have about 120 gallons of maple sap.  I was going to start  boiling it down today, but I don't want to chance starting a fire when it is windy, especially since we are so dry here.  The snow when it melted disappeared in just two days and there has hardly been any mud.  Frost heaves in the road will knock loose a kidney, for sure, but we are really short on moisture already. 

It's almost supper time here, so I'll let you go.   The moon is in Taurus till tomorrow night so it's a good time to get some seeds started!