April Fool

I heard on TV that 79,000 new blogs are created each day. I wonder how many are slowly dying. It seemed such a long, dull winter--like something that would happen in Moscow. Skiing and snowshoeing were not possible for me because one of my knees went bad on December 28th. My husband tried valiantly to keep me walking at least a little most days. He developed a short trail in the woods between us and one of out neighbors so we wouldn't have to put the dogs on leashes. He likes to get Brown, the goat, out of his little winter pen for some exercise every day too, so we had to take him along. I found it hard to be patient with him while picking my way across crusty snow with sore legs. We had lots of fights. I was vey touched by how quickly Sadie would come running to defend me during these encounters. Of course, this meant that I had to be dodging both of them on the narrow icy trail, but it's the thought that counts. We called this walk "going to see the porcupine". There was a big fat one curled in a ball on the branches of various pine trees for many, many days. We never saw it on the ground, but it was usually in a different tree each day. The poor trees were virtually stripped of bark at their upper levels. I wonder if any of them will die. His diet of bark didn't seem to be making the porky heavy. One day he was way out at the end of a branch, but it wasn't bending down even a little bit. One had the feeling that he was always watching us, but we couldn't see his eyes or face. We took field glasses along and viewed him from various angles, but all we saw was a ball of quills. At the end of March he was suddenly gone....Another feature of this long winter was our frozen septic system. We had very little snow, so when the way below zero temperatures came--down, down, down went the frost in the ground. Those of us who hadn't covered our back yards with straw found ourselves in big trouble. No doubt you've heard that old saying, "You never appreciate getting rid of water (and other stuff) till the pipes back up." First the pumping man comes, then the plumbers, then your husband futzes with it until Spring arrives. And it did! Warm winds from the west came. All the snow melted. We were outside in just sweaters poking a hose and hot water up our drainage field pipe. The ice melted. All systems were go. I was planning to start raking the yard this week. Everything was wonderful. April 1st. Rain changed to snow. Temperatures began dropping. Ten degrees this morning. Do I despair? Heck no. Northwoods women are tough. Spring birds are coming. Juncos and purple finches and goldfinches are already here.