Ah, Spring in Maine....

Ah, these first glorious days of spring in Maine! The snow is gone, the ice has left the lakes, the ground has un-frozen and the bugs have not yet hatched. We have a few weeks yet till the blackflies begin their month-long search for blood. Unlike mosquitos (which come after the peak of blackfly season), blackflies are gone by the time you realize you've been bitten. Best not to dwell until the season officially arrives though.

The weather this past week or more has been unusually beautiful. There's been no rain at all and the days have been warm and sunny. Tilling the garden last fall gave me a jump on spring. I was able to put compost on a few rows and turn them in using just a fork. It's still early to garden but I've been experimenting with season extension to get more our of our garden. It's not too early for peas, so they are planted as are carrots and beets and chard. I've covered the rows with remay this year to keep more of the days heat in the soil, we'll see what happens. Every year, I try something new.

Last year, I had such great success with lettuce in a simple raised bed covered with a tunnel that I'm doing it again. The "bed" is bordered with a box made of 2x8" boards, screwed together at the corners. U-shaped electrical clamps hold 1" pvc pipe sections to the inside of the box. 1/2" pvc "hoops" slips into the larger pipe sections when needed and plastic is clipped to this with garden clips. These cool clips snap over the pipe to secure the plastic to the pipe. With the plastic on and the hoop house closed up; it gets real hot inside during the day. So, in the morning I undo the top of each end piece to let the heat out and close it back up at the end of the afternoon to keep the heat in overnight. The theory is that this gets the soil warmer than it would be at this time of year and allows whatever is inside to germinate and grow. When my lettuce gets going and the weather gets yet warmer, I will replace the plastic with remay to reduce the heat and keep the bugs out. I am contemplating the construction of a larger hoop house to extend the fall season. We will have to see if I have the time (and funds) this year to construct one.

To my wife's delight, I have removed the plant starts from our bedroom window and brought them down to the walk-in cold frame I built last spring. The thermometer I placed there for the last week has shown that it gets no colder than 40 degrees in there at night (and about 60-65 during the days), perfect temps to get the starts hearty before garden planting later. It's about time to transplant the tomatoes into larger pots anyway. This year I've started broccoli and eggplant in peat pots so I will see how transplanting them pot and all, compares to removing them from plastic trays and transplanting. I'm also going to start melons and a first planting of cukes in peat pots to see what happens.

I've been spending less time over at the forest since January of this year. We've been trying to grow our business (with success) and I've been spending much of my time sitting at the computer, reworking things, reading and learning about marketing. I have managed to clear another portion of encroaching forest, turning it back to field. I've left and pruned the apple trees in this portion as well as left a few larger maples and an oak. So, it's not quite 100% field space but it's been opened up significantly. The soil has dried out enough that I was able to put the field mower on the back of the tractor and shred the many brush piles created from de-branching popple and balsam fir. Once I weld my chipper back together again, I will chip the poles. I'm more than a bit annoyed that a $5000.00, 3-year old chipper, used infrequently is falling apart. I would not recommend a Wallenstein chipper for anyone out there looking for one. I'm glad I learned to weld last year.

I have a few stacks of popple firewood to move, more poles to add to my corduroy road and a few larger trees to remove and I will be done clearing this area. The shredded and chipped tree material will be left as erosion control and to decay for a year or two. As the natural grasses start to grow, this will be my hint to seed. I use Conservation Mix from Agway that is a clover/grass seed mix. I also have yellow clover that I seed with. According to what I have read, this clover is deep rooted, bringing minerals to the surface, is loved by bees and increases the biomass (organic material) significantly. I'm glad to be done with most of this major work before the blackflies come; maybe they won't be bad this year.......

Spring, at last!

I was hoping that Spring had arrived on the first technical day of Spring. I heard (and saw) one lone Red-wing Blackbird in the treetops next to our driveway. We still had a bunch of snow and we were well into mud season; that most wonderful of times when the frozen ground thaws but has not yet dried out. It takes a while for mud season to abate. But here we are, freshly into April. The snow is about gone, the treetops are filled with a flock of squabbling Red-wing Blackbirds, the Robins have lazily returned as have additional small birds like Chickadees, Goldfinches (not yet gold) and Sparrows. I even heard a Killdeer yesterday. Maple syrup season is waning if not done as the temps during the night have been above freezing for a few days now. I've even seen a few flying insects and also pulled my first tick of the season off my shirt. Of course, it is still early and we could see snow yet again. A cruel yet not unheard of trick played by Mother Nature.

Over in our forest, the creek is full and happily bubbling under the new bridge. The small pond constructed a year ago last fall is full and the snow has melted off of the access road. I've been working lots less there this year as most of my time has been spent trying to hone our little company into a sustainable business. But, I have managed to clear back a bit more of the encroaching forest in the back field. The balsam fir poles are stacked in piles, ready to add more length to the corduroy road. Popple has been taken down, cut into four-foot lengths and stacked to dry for firewood. Branches have been piled together ready to be ground up by the bushhog and the smaller poles stacked for chipping.

We were hoping to get much of our field pine removed this winter but the sagging economy took most of the profit out of harvesting for pulp. The trees will wait till next winter. I will continue to prune and clear branches out of our harvestable pine stands as well as working on clearing a path that allows us to walk the perimeter of our land. Soon, the blackflies will hatch reminding me once again how bittersweet spring can be here. They too are a part of our landscape and a small concession we make to be able to live here.