Tuesday, March 20, 2012

March Winds

Today would have been a perfect day for flying a kite, if I had such a thing.  March winds are howling.  It is +12 and warmer in the sun.  The sky is clear and blue as the top half of our flag.

There is still a few spots of snow on the north sides of things but most of it is now gone.  The creek/river by our place is spread out into the hayland but not like it could have been if we had a fast melt.

Sunday, Tanya pruned the grapevines while I held/moved the big ladder for her.  Masha who had been here for the night, helped clean up the vines after. I got a picture of Tanya dressed for pruning in her teenage jeans with the store-bought raggy holes and patches and wearing her "Goodbye forever, young girl" black felt zipper boots with white fluffy band around the top.  A contradiction in fashion statements.  She said if I put it on the internet she would compost my corpse to grow flowers. I will put it on her computer as wallpaper.

Tanya is itching to get into her flower beds and has started working on anything she can reach from the sidewalk. There are hundreds of shoots coming up in tulip beds, crocus beds, hyacinth beds and daffodil beds.  I have no idea how many bulbs she planted last fall and neither does she.  Lots.

Yesterday we went into town and bought 33 twelve inch square patio blocks, three square meters worth, for under a dollar a block.  These are going into the flower beds in strategic locations so she can work in muddier conditions than last year.

Today she transplanted into individual little pots, 30+ geraniums from seed she saved last fall.  Said it was easier to start new ones than try to keep last years plants alive over winter.  We also picked up her seed order from InterFlora at the post office.

The dogs have stayed in their yard like good boys though they are dying to get loose.  Their yard hasn't been cleaned for months thanks to nice fresh snow falls that saved me the trouble at the time.  Today I went out to clean it and it looked like I had kept cows in there over winter or maybe elephants, instead of Fox Terriers. Fibre soaks up a lot of moisture and the cheap ($30 per 20 kg bag) dog food I buy them has a lot of fibre. Shoveled and swept everything into piles.  Maybe I can hire a corral cleaning contractor to spread them in the fields.

Kuchma has been banned from the house because he stinks up the place something fierce with Tomcat smell. But we made up a soft bed for him mostly in the sun and he can invite the neighbour cat over for meals once in a while.  He sure is lonely for human companionship though.  When we go outside he is meowing and rubbing all over wanting to be petted.  But just don't pick him up.

Andrei hit a huge badger on his way home from Krivii Rih two nights ago and wiped out the front of his Lexus.  Bumper, grill, headlight on one side.  So he borrowed our car.  It needed washing anyway.

Steps have been taken?  No, placed.

6 comments:

  1. These are my absolute favourite kind of posts, papa.

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  2. It has been very windy here as well. We had +16C here yesterday but winds gusted up to 80km/h.

    When you started your Days to April countdown it seemed a long way away, but we are almost there now.

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  3. I love your ability to be outrageous, big guy! But you have met your match in Tanya. I absolutely believe she would compost you! You two should be married! Oh, wait; you are married.

    Glad to hear the "spring work" is coming along well on your "farm," such as it is. The farm, I mean.

    We've had lots of wind, as DC has mentioned. Yesterday, it blew in rain, followed by a snow storm. Today it is blowing leisurely across the sun, while the snow is melting, and water is running is the streets. Though some of that water is from a freshly-broken water main. Ever imagined several apartment buildings without water because of one break? Only in River City, you say? Dreadful pity.

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  4. Well when life hands you lemons you make lemonade right? Wonder if dog manure would sell? :-)

    Don't know if I'll plant this year. Last year was so cold and wet here nothing grew. Took me nearly 6 months to grow a lawn where they replaced our water main.

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  5. DC, April is getting close. The longer days make me happy. I do not like the long dark days of winter. Not sure I could manage the Arctic anymore.
    RB, I hear they got lots of snow in western Sask where they needed the moisture? Broken water mains are not an unusual occurrence here in Ukraine either.
    Demeur, if all the dog poop in North America was converted to methane it would light a rather large city each year. Logistics is the main problem even city by city as it is all in little plastic bags, in thousands of trash cans.

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