In my head, spring has arrived................

The Carolina wrens agrees.  The pair built this tunnel nest in two days.  I've seen late winters that they build but abandon and other times the female lays her four to five eggs and sets on them through the bitter cold nights.  We can still see a snowstorm one day and seventy degrees the next, especially during March's transitioning from winter to spring.  

A few weeks ago I started assembling my new raised gardens and thinking about where the gardens would receive the amount of sunlight certain plants require.  The heavy wine barrel gardens had been scattered around and needed to be moved back into the sunlight.  The only way I could moved them myself was to dig all the dirt out and put the dirt elsewhere.  So a few days ago I started shoveling dirt into the wheelbarrow, moved closer to the raised gardens, and shoveled that soil into the new empty raised beds. 

Once I emptied the barrel I could tip it on its side and carefully roll it up the hill to place it in its new spot.  Last night in my sleep my fingers and wrists ached but by morning the aches were gone.  I wear Velcro wrist wraps when working in the yard.  This morning I emptied the second barrel the same way and rolled that one back up the hill to take its place beside the first.  Each of these will hold one tomato plant in May accompanied by parsley, sage, thyme, basil in the same beds.  So now four beds are in place and just need added and amended soil.  The other four still need cleaning up and the third wine barrel needs to be moved.  It felt good to stand back and see what I accomplished, that I discovered a method that I could do without help and get my gardens started before planting time. I'm mostly pleased that I didn't ruin my joints and took breaks between heavy lifting and tugging.  I'm done for a few days.  Rain is moving in so no outside work for two days.  All the houseplants are on the porch waiting for rain.  Saturday the plants come back in as there will be four nights in the thirties.  

Sage and parsley make it through cold winter temperatures.  

The new Station 17 Open House was Saturday.  There was a wonderful turnout of families who showed up for the ribbon cutting ceremony and stayed for hot dogs, hamburgers, cake, and ice-cream. 

Cliff's best friend, Dutch and my friend, Susan dishing out cake and ice-cream.  I'm hoping to find a picture of me cutting the ribbon,  Lots of pictures were snapped and I think I can get someone from the Cherokee Scout or another journalist who was there to forward me some photos.