Frozen Ground

    Once again it's been a month since my last post, the Full Worm Moon has come and gone and in a few days the Full Flower or Pink Moon will grace the sky. I have walked the grounds of our farm and snow still predominates the landscape and there is little chance of planting onion sets by April 6th as we did last year. The kits have grown to nearly processing weight and Jeremiah, our replacement buck, looks great. Two of the three does are bred and soon Iris will be as well, all signs of spring and yet winter hangs on. The farm seems to be on hold, almost held in suspended animation, waiting for the weather that will allow growth of both animal and vegetable. The chicken run has yet to be finished but the pullets have been ordered and paid for and will arrive May 16th ready or not. 

    I didn't run a normal trap line as is my habit during the fall due to rotator cuff surgery but a friend of my son called and asked for help with a beaver problem. He had bought a new home in November and while they were moving in a family of beavers promptly cut down some twelve trees, when I had surveyed the damage I agreed to trap the colony. The winter has been productive with four large beavers caught, which will be turned into a beaver blanket and today I set once more to catch the remaining offending landscapers. The winter has been tough for trappers in Connecticut but we have persevered and trapping is part of what I do on the farm and so the harvest of beaver fur fits in nicely with our mission.

     There are still many chores waiting to be done on the farm which should have already been done, The raspberry canes should have been cut down in February and yet they stand as tall as they did at the end of the season, the bases finally visable after being buried under a four foot blanket of snow. The aparagus and rubarb are awaiting a coating of rabbit manure which still alys frozen under the hutches. Some of our ground is bare and free of snow cover and yet it lays as hard as rock unyielding as the stone it resembles. We are ready to begin our planning and planting and still we wait for the thaw of frozen gound.