spring forward!

Last year's front garden!  Can't wait!!

Well, a big old Happy Saturday to everyone!  I hope your week was as productive as mine and you are planning on having a nice relaxing weekend.  It is supposed to be gorgeous here in Buffalo today, as it sure was yesterday!  Gosh, yesterday, the sign on the bank actually said 69 degrees when I drove by in the afternoon.  I sure hope Mother Nature isn’t playing with us too much and we actually have an early spring this year.  Last year's was such a long winter, I think we really deserve a break this year.

I was worried about the lack of snow pack and the upcoming fire season but I just got an email from Marilyn Connelly, our Homeland Security/Emergency Management officer, and she says we are 130% of snow pack up on the mountain, so that’s really cool.  She was rounding us all up for another season of possible flooding preparedness and as the head of the Disaster Animal Response Team, I’m one of the ones that has to keep an eye on what’s happening with the creek that flows through the middle of town.  Last year, we were at 600% and it was a close call that the town would have flooding.  We even had all the businesses sandbagged last year that were close to the water.  We got really lucky last year, the snow melt ended up being nice and gradual and even though there were a few times the creek level got very high, we never had to implement any evacuations.  This 130% is just about right and there shouldn’t be a problem at all. The feds insist that we be prepared with our team, though, hence the email blast from Marilyn.

I was just down yesterday walking Thistle along Clear Creek and it was anything but clear! There was a steady stream (pun intended) of very muddy water coming off the mountain so it must already be melting pretty well.  I always wonder how the fish like it when it’s so muddy! We have some excellent fishing in Clear Creek.  On a warm spring day, before the creek turns to a summer trickle, you can see fisherman in waders all up and down the creek, casting their fly lines, even right in the middle of town. 

We aren’t out of the woods yet, though.  Now is the time we get the really heavy spring snowstorms.  The first year we moved here, we had a 3 foot snow on April 15^th that took down the Eagles roof and many other properties here in town.  Of course, just a day later, after the damage was done, the snow had melted away as if nothing had happened!

So, today it’s supposed to get right back up into the 60’s and I can’t wait.  Rob and I have to go to Sheridan to meet Bobbie’s mom (of the 5 dog fame that I walk with) who runs a boarding kennel where we’re going to leave Thistle while we’re on vacation next month.  We’re taking Thistle along, of course, so she can meet Barbara, too.  I was talking with Bobbie last night at happy hour at the Moose and she said her mom was really looking forward to meeting Thistle as she’s been watching her grow up through my pictures on FB. Barbara and I just recently friended each other on FB and really haven’t had a chance to talk yet.  If she’s anything like Bobbie, I know I’m really gonna like her.  Of course, anyone who dedicates themselves to animals is okay in my book, right?

We are also having lunch with Chuck Belus while we’re over there at the Dragon Wall Buffet to discuss his new website some more.  He’s the guy I told you about earlier that has a great band! A lot of his music is the rodeo rock genre like Chris LeDoux and we just love it! It’s kind of weird that we are meeting with him the day after the anniversary of LeDoux’s death.  I can’t believe Chris has been gone since 2005.  He was such a down to earth guy, not like most musical stars.  He helped so many people in this community when he wasn’t on the road touring.  I used to bump into him at the grocery store and in local restaurants all the time and he was just like the rest of us. He was always such a gentleman, tipping his cowboy hat at the ladies and always willing to make small talk.

I am getting such spring fever, I don’t know what to do with myself!  This warm weather has finally uncovered my Christmas solar lights I had stuck in the front garden and I was able to get some of them out of the ground yesterday.  See, the ground gets so frozen here in winter, that sometimes I just have to leave them in the ground until this time of year. Because of that, mine are just pretty snowflakes on sticks and white trees, that way, they just look like winter ornaments and not something I have to worry about yanking out when I can’t do it to save myself! I’m actually going to miss the pretty twinklers out there! I couldn’t get my little white trees out of the ground yesterday, they are a little deeper and still frozen but I imagine that will soften up today or tomorrow at the rate it’s staying warm overnight.

After I get those buggers out of the ground, I’m going to start clearing out last year’s dead stuff in that front garden.  I noticed some of my perennials are already starting to shoot up some life into the garden. I may have to mulch them to protect the little things as I don’t think they should be coming up quite yet.  We have gotten our front flower gardens so they are pretty much maintenance free with all the perennials we have planted.  Mostly, I just have to throw in a few marigolds and border creepers and we’re done.  I do have to put in my dinnerplate dahlias that I dug up last fall.  Rob and I both just adore flowers and I think we have one of the prettiest front gardens in town, if you ask me. Last year, we even had a resident garter snake which is the sign of a really healthy garden.  He liked to lay out on one of the scoria rocks I put in there to sun himself every morning.  I named him Jake, as in Jake the snake.  They are great for keeping the bugs out.  One of my girlfriends is terrified of snakes and it’s amusing when she comes over and he’s out.  Gosh, Jake is only about 12 inches long, for Pete’s sake. Of course, if he comes back this year, he may be larger.

Jake the Snake- isn't he a cute little thing?

My parents used to have a cabin in West Virginia that was deep in the woods outside Berkeley Springs.  We had a black snake that lived under the deck. The deck ran the entire length of the cabin and so did Mavis, the snake.  We’d be out on the deck having lunch and you could see the end of Mavis’ tail at one end of the deck and she’d have her head up and looking at us at the other end.  I think she was close to 14 feet long!  Black snakes are not poisonous so she didn’t bother us a bit, again, she kept the mice out of the cabin while we were gone and I’m sure kept intruders of the human persuasion away, as well! She mostly lived in the rafters underneath and was very calm and friendly for a snake.  I don’t mind snakes, as long as they aren’t water moccasins or rattlers.  Growing up in Texas, I saw a lot of those buggers and to this day I stomp when I go on hikes on the prairie around here!  Just want to make sure they hear me coming and get the heck out of the way!

We have this great area outside town that is a petrified forest, it was once a lush swampy forest area millions of years ago.  It’s a great place to hike and to take friends who are visiting.  There’s huge trunks of ancient trees all over the place and the view of the mountains from out there is spectacular!  There are also about a gazillion rattlesnake holes out there that keep you very sharp eyed when you are out there in summer! I took a girlfriend out there once with her two little kids and as we got on the trail, I spied a rattler slithering across the path.  So, I turned to the kids and said “Let’s march and sing our way around the paths!”  My girlfriend looked at me rather puzzled until I silently mouthed the word “snakes” to her and boy, you should have seen her start getting those boys marching and singing! It was hilarious!

Of course, boy will be boys and they quickly discovered the holes everywhere and were throwing rocks in them and sticking their little faces down close.  We had to come up with all kinds of stories about why they shouldn’t do that without alerting them that they were in danger. We did finally tell them that those were rattler holes and the boys were suitably impressed although I think they secretly were hoping one would pop out at them.

Now see what I’ve done, gone off on another story tangent…..geez.  Must mean I need to get moving with my day or I’ll sit here and just keep going.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend wherever you are and that you have lovely weather. If you don’t, and have to stay indoors, I hope you find something fun to do with yourself, anyway!

Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush. ~Doug Larson

If there comes a little thaw,
Still the air is chill and raw,
Here and there a patch of snow,
Dirtier than the ground below,
Dribbles down a marshy flood;
Ankle-deep you stick in mud
In the meadows while you sing,
"This is Spring."
- Christopher Pearse Cranch