Wildlife woke up today!

Saw the local fox tonight for the first time in months! On my evening dog walk it was warm enough not to wear a jacket or vest, for the first time since last fall. Sooooo warm. Home Lake has lost almost all its ice; remaining are only two big soggy-looking ice sheets out near the middle. Tonight truly felt like spring, though astronomical spring (i.e., the vernal equnox, or March 20) is still a few days away.
Though astronomical spring is yet to come, the onset of meteorological spring has already passed - see definition of the spring season below from the Glossary of Meteorology (underline emphasis mine):

spring—The season of the year composing the transition period from winter to summer; the vernal season, during which the sun is approaching the summer solstice.
In popular usage and for most meteorological purposes, spring is customarily taken to include the months of March, April, and May in the Northern Hemisphere, and September, October, and November in the Southern Hemisphere. Except in the Tropics, spring is a season of rising temperatures and decreasing cyclonic activity over continents. In much of the Tropics, neither spring nor fall is recognizable, and in polar regions, both are very short-lived.

ENJOY THE SPRING, "WEATHER" ASTRONOMICAL OR METEOROLOGICAL!

Pepper & tomato seeds now planted

Today I planted seeds for seven varieties of tomatoes. Don't know how I ever think I'll have room for all the plants I expect to come up. Peppers haven't germinated yet; planted them one week ago. More and more green stuff coming up outside due to warmth. Today I began clearing all of last growing season's old growth out of the vegetable garden; should have done it in the fall I suppose. Still traces of compacted snow/ice in deeply shaded parts of the yard & garden. The compost is slowly thawing, and every couple of days I peel away another layer from the still-frozen core. I still have one compost bin that is likely totally frozen since it's sitting in the shade. The dog poops in the backyard like she never gets a poop walk; we'd be knee-deep in poop if she were only a backyard-dog (i.e., no walks).

Guess it's warm enough in the house for bugs; there's one walking across the monitor as I type.

When I was raking yesterday in a corner of the yard, I found evidence of bird mortality; wonder if one of the hawks was visiting the bird feeder? Bet so; not the first time they've found lunch here! In fact, while on a raptor tour at the Monte Vista Crane Festival yesterday, the tour guide said some bird-watchers feed birds for the express purpose of attracting raptors to the backyard for viewing!

Little green things popping up!

I'm a little taken aback by all the growth that's taken place on the south side of the house over the past few days. The plant in the image is catmint, which grows as prolifically as kudzu.
The garlic I planted last fall is also coming up, along with dianthus from last year, a volunteer hollyhock, and delphinium. I'm also seeing chives poking through last year's debris.
I started messing with my compost bins today while the temperature was in the upper 40s (but felt much warmer). Compost, however, is still frozen so not much can be done there yet.
Lots of kitchen scraps from our house and my office have piled up over the winter; I'm itchin' to start taking care of it! Plus I have so many leaves that I need to use. I REFUSE to put them out in the garbage.

February Snow Survey

Last Friday, February 27, was my monthly excursion to the Silver Lakes snow course to measure the snowpack. This will be repeated two more times in 2009. The day was very warm, sunny, and windy. At this site, the snowpack measured out to about 165% of normal, compared to the survey in January at this site which was about 190% of normal. I'd expected a lower number since we have not received much snow since the January reading.

The photo to the left shows me holding--in my left hand--the scale suspended on a telescoping ski pole, and in my right hand is the notebook for recording the measurements we take at ten sites within the course. Snowmobiles & their moronic drivers had driven over our course in several locations, and the resulting compression of the snowpack distorts our readings. We thus had to take several samples at a couple of the sites to get an accurate reading.

Just finished seed order!!!

Wow, kind of a $ splurge tonight. I decided to go wholly with Johnny's Seeds this year for all my new vegetable & flower seeds. First I went through my seed stockpile armed with a seed viability chart, and got rid of a few packets based on age. Then I have 3 or 4 other packets (parsley, nicotiana [had that since '02 and not once planted it!]) that I'm going to do a germination test on versus automatically reordering. I think I've only done a germination test once before. I'll wet some paper towels, then spread several seeds out on the towels, then roll up the paper towels and put in a plastic bag. The test in our house will be keeping it in a warm place as is recommended. Depending on how many seeds germinate, I'll either use the seeds or toss them in the compost pile. My seed-starting reference book recommends waiting a maximum of three weeks for most seed varieties to germinate.
My purchase tonight includes green beans, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, peppers, tomatillos, kohlrabi, beets, chard, lettuce mixes, melon (haven't grown these before), cucumbers, sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, and joe pye weed (very iffy here).
I went a little crazy with ordering sunflowers - they're such enthusiastic plants, and the birds & bees love them so!
What Fun!

Sandhill cranes & companions out & about

Sandhill cranes (see image), Canada geese, various ducks, and red-winged blackbirds were in abundance, both visually and vocally, this evening on my dog walk. The ice on Home Lake is beginning to show puddles of water on top. With a high today of 52 degrees (F), it really felt like spring! Pretty difficult not to think of gardening, planting seeds, etc. right now. But ground is way too wet. Will have to settle for looking through the seed catalogs instead. Our yard still has snow cover on about 50% or less of its area. I actually did some pruning yesterday on some crabapples and a mountain ash.

Green Cone composting unit

In yesterday's post I mentioned a Green Cone composter. I bought my first one (left image) more than 15 years ago when we were living in a rental duplex, because the landlord wasn't enthused about me having a stand-alone, open compost pile out in the common yard. The Green Cone (also known as a Solar Digester) seemed like a perfect solution.

The part of the composter that holds the composting materials is actually underground. The photo to the left shows the laundry basket-like black section - this is the part that is put in the ground, and the green part attaches to it, above ground.

All of the moisture in the materials leaches into the ground through the holey basket, and the effect of the sun hitting the double-walled green part and creating air circulation eventually converts the organic materials into compost. Getting the compost out can be a difficult project, but fortunately it's not necessary to do it very often (less than once a year, depending on volume). Obviously, this unit is more designed to deal with organic materials in an environmentally sound way (i.e., not landfilling them), and has only a minor focus on producing useable compost.