Soggy Spring

Well, old man winter apparently heard about my hint comment and is trying to get back at me.  He seems to be throwing an all out tantrum, flailing around, throwing rain, snow and wind every which way.  I recognize the tantrum, because it feels strangely similar to the fits my baby has begun to throw. (The doctor says it's normal and I should be worried if she doesn't throw tantrums.  Easy for her to say.)  We are to expect snow tonight, nothing serious, just annoying.  Old man winter also seems to have some influence over springtime's decisions and has convinced her to not allow us to see the sun for a few weeks.  Seriously, he has got to get over it and move to the other hemisphere already.

It is nice to see that Spring has plans to move on in anyway, snow squalls and cloudy skies not withstanding.  There are blossoms on a few bushes and the leaves on the lilac bushes have made themselves known.  There is a tint of green haloing many of the neighborhood trees; a little foreshadowing of the coming leaves. 

In garden news, I batted my eyes at the wonderful husband and he put my little raised bed garden together, well, the outline anyway.  I moved my winter sowing experiments inside to try to protect them from the tantrum throwing toddler.  It seems to have backfired though.  She now wants at them even more.  We still need to get materials together for the second raised bed.  The dirt is still a bit of a problem, although I did break down and use a home depot gift card to purchase four bags of steer manure (cheap, but still... I'm a rancher for crying out loud!) and some special garden compost stuff, which came with a mail in rebate.  Six dollars back will buy me a few seedlings I think.  We did not buy enough to fill two raised beds, but it's a start I suppose. 

We have some friends that have some top soil that we could use, but the getting it here is difficult.  As of right now, my plan is to use the bags we just bought, once they are empty, to transport some dirt here.  It's going to take a few trips and we'll have to wait until things dry out a bit.  I'm not really anxious to plop a few bags of mud into the back of the van.  Our minivan has  been cussed more than a few times lately for not being a truck.  Sure would be easier to haul all of my garden stuff around if I had a truck.  I realize now that I have been spoiled all those years on the ranch.  There was a never ending supply of compost, trucks to haul it, tractors to load it and space to put it.  This urban gardening thing is tougher than I thought it would be, and I'm not even started!

I'm linking up with the Homestead Revival Barn Hop!