Waking from Winter Slumber

What is spring? If spring is mud, green buds and daffodils – well our spring would be limited to the last week of April and first week of May (roughly)- and that is minus the daffodils – as the only daffodils you’ll find up here are indoors. We have been enjoying a couple weeks of above zero temperatures, teens and twenties. The goats have been outside most the day and even sleeping outside under feeders and in hay piles at night. The chickens are seeing their first direct sunshine since October. D cleaned out the chicken coop this week, and it smells like it outside. Our place smells like a farm again- lovely. Smells like spring. Feels like spring. We know that it will get cold again. It could be thirty below zero next week. So we have to keep perspective and not get too carried away….

I think of spring in Fairbanks as the time when it is warm enough to get out and enjoy the outdoors and the snow. Spring is sunny snowy days, icy roads and dog races. After making it through the darkest and coldest part of winter, everyone is a bit stir crazy and ready to get out and play, enjoy the snow while it is still here. So the sledding and skiing hills are bustling. Town is filled with walkers, joggers and bikers – dressed in their high dollar skin tight gear.

Spring is waking up and realizing somehow you slept and dreamed your way through the darkest days, which in retrospect are all a blur. What happened to all those projects I was going to tackle? Where was my inspiration and motivation? Did I really just sleep walk through two months of meals, cleaning, lessons, and fire stoking? February is a month for transitioning into action. Early action at that, baby steps; decisions, placing seed, chick and bee orders. Time to get out some white paper and plan the garden.

I have been feeling a little down lately. Restless but uninspired, bored, unproductive. This week has been a turning point. Time for more than dreaming. Time to lay down the novels. This week I did some research on chicken breeds. I’ve been reading about medicinal herbs and making a plan of what to grow and what to do with it once I’ve grown it. I borrowed a book on coloring and drawing with block crayons. I picked up another book on form drawing – a Waldorf drawing style or rather action, that I we are going to start practicing. The kids are always asking me to draw animals or people and I when I do so, I hate the result. I’d like to be a better story teller. These are both skills that will enrich our education, both the kids and mine.

The days are looking brighter, cheerier.  What does spring mean to you? Are you ready to wake up?

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