In which we're staying home and trying to squint at Spring in the distance

Spring seems far away.

Last week we had "fake Spring", which was lovely but didn't last.

Everyone on the property spent hours recharging solar batteries

Now, the clouds have moved in

Jim brought the metal-detection gear out to Haenaheim to help me pull nails and metal junk out of the dirt
before I start prepping the beds to plant in mid-May.

Jim found four black-iron water pipes buried in the ground.
(We don't know why they were there)

This is a Very Large Bucket half-full of weird metal, plastic and string that we dug up

The ten-day forecast calls for rain, followed by showers, mostly cloudy with showers followed by rain: normal, but not welcome.

Dressed to go grocery shopping in plague-time

The day after Fee got new shoes, most of the trails closed.*

*The Whitehorse and Centennial Trails are both open, but the parking lots are closed.
I found a spot to park, so I can still ride as long as I pack a snorkel for the weather.

Fiddle's new feet.  Mel pulled the pads off in November, and Fee's feet have improved drastically since then.
(also, she stopped throwing shoes!)

In other news, yesterday was Foxie Loxie's birthday.  I found his AKC Litter Certificate when I was excavating my desk at home.

Biggify to enjoy the ridiculous names of some of his noble forbears, especially
"Foxy Boy in Knickers" !

We celebrated by going for a walk on the Whitehorse Trail out of Darrington.  We talked about cake, but we didn't make one.

Fox's favorite flavor is "cough drop" and that would make a gross birthday cake,

Like many of my friends and neighbors who are locked down, I've been making bread.  There's something about making bread that makes staying home more cozy and less claustrophobic.

Whole wheat bread with pepitas and sunflower seeds. 
I've got some sourdough bubbling along ready for tomorrow's batch.

Elsewhere in the house, we perform Seasonal Summoning Rites.

We inherited several give-away greenhouse setups from friends and neighbors, partly as a result of
the legalization of marijuana in our state in 2012:  people no longer need to grow their own.

Susan Garlinghouse (and John Henry) sent plastic dragons to help with the bean project,
which hasn't started (and might not, this year, sigh).  But the dragons were bored so we
let them out of their little plastic bags to help with tomato seedlings.

I wandered around outside, looking for signs of Spring.

This photo is for lytha:  see, we have an outhouse too!

Down in the "stick garden", the raspberry and blueberry bushes still look like, well, sticks.  They have teeny buds on the end, and that's pretty much all.

The garlic we planted last October is doing well.
There is a white plastic salamander in the garlic bed, I don't know why.

The older blueberry bushes at the other end of the yard have the beginnings of buds.

Try not to think of asparagus stalks as zombie fingers coming up out of the dirt.

In Haenaheim, the Soil Amendment Union workers (Local 17) are hard at work.

Blue eggs from the Cream Legbars, dark brown eggs from the Barred Rock hen,
and light-colored eggs from the Swedish Flower Hens.

In the evenings, we watch "Star Trek: Picard" and I crochet hats and mitts to hand out to friends. 

I love this color-changing yarn, it's beautiful and soft.
The fingerless gloves are super-useful for chores.

Going back to "normal" (whatever normal will look like, once this virus business is concluded) sometimes seems like it will never happen.

But Spring probably will.  I can almost see it from here.