Image by 이정임 lee from Pixabay

Happy first day of Spring! I can feel the sunshine in my soul today everyone! It is freezing out, only 25 degrees or so, but the sun is shining and happy and the light is returning. Birds are singing earlier, flowers are peeping, and it is that time of rebirth and growth and hope. I am making plans and lists for the garden, and today I am going to finally start some of my cold weather seeds. The radishes, the beets, the carrots, some of these more cold hardy crops are getting started today. I have been binging homesteading and gardening YouTube videos all week, and grabbed a new stack of springlike books from the library at curbside too. I’m ready to let this daylight in, after these dark winter months. I love those quiet, cozy months, but spring has a way of sneaking in and releasing such joy.

I have another reason for feeling so happy today – Billy gets his first vaccine today! I get mine on Monday. This is such an important step for us due to Wyatt’s health, and while we will still be in the group of people who need to be more cautious, it is also a huge feeling of relief. Although I am super nervous about this! Change and new things and the unknown can really create some anxiety for me and this is a trigger. I am focusing on the positives, about expanding our bubble to my brother and his family and my mom because they are going to stay locked down with us, about seeing my friends again, even if we are masked in places, it will be fantastic just to be with them. We already have a morning out planned, to go to a few local nurseries and pick up veggies and flowers for our gardens.

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Wyatt is ready for spring too, with his new haircut! Billy gave Wyatt a home haircut the other day and I have to admit, tears welled up in my eyes over how grown-up he looks here! Where is my baby??

We also picked up some local honey yesterday! We are using most of it to make mead – it will be our first attempt. We were hoping to make it and be able to drink it at summer solstice, but this won’t be ready to drink until at the earliest in August. It will be fun to do though, although I did think about people making moonshine and going blind, but Billy assured me that wouldn’t happen.

I have so many spring things planned – trips to vernal pools, creating a wormery, looking for tadpoles, and then I am going to start raising monarchs this year as well. I did not hear good things about their numbers last year and I feel like it is one small way I can help our natural world. I am planting a milkweed patch in the yard, with a little observation area for Wyatt to help spot eggs and caterpillars. It’s going to be fun!

We also had one of our friends wake up after his long winter’s nap this week – Samson!

In case you don’t know his story, this guy rolled up three years ago-ish, right to our front door, the day before a freak blizzard in October. So we brought him in and then I felt like it would irresponsible to put him back out. So we gave him his own little house and plants and he seems pretty happy. We get a kick out of watching him slide all over the place in his slow little way.

How are you all this morning?