SPRING!!!!!

At long last we have a blog post that is not about winter! It has not rained since last Friday. The temperatures have been in the 60s and the sun has returned. It's amazing how great the sun makes the day. Before we bid all of winter farewell, we have a picture of the very last bit of snow in the yard. This is beside the garage where there isn't much sun.

We have enjoyed the sun with a new greenhouse. This is just a little plastic one, but it reaches 90 degrees in  short time. We have a picture here of Ryan and Gary working on it. Ryan and Matt assembled most of it.

In fact, this greenhouse works so well that we baked our plants the first day that we used it. Many of the tomato plants are a total loss as the leaves turned white and the plants collapsed. There are lessons to be learned in using this, and the first one was to buy a thermometer. After an initial burst of sun and heat we went into a solid week of cold, wet weather and had to keep the plants inside, where they did not thrive. We bought some lettuce plants at Lowe's that fit right into the weather we were having.

Today these plants went into the raised bed, so we actually have something green growing outside!

Isn't this a sight for sore eyes? There have sure been days when we couldn't imagine seeing plants growing again.

Today we took a ride up to the lake to check the camp.  As we drove to Portage we saw people all along the way doing work in their yards. It was warm enough to shed the jackets, and raking and cleaning was the task of the day. Gary and Andy did this work yesterday as you can see.

In one weekend Gary has cleaned up the flower beds and the back lawn, so we are ready for spring.

The lake still has ice in it down by our camp. The upper part of the lake is ice free. Here you can see that the water is high and an area of ice fills the middle of it.

Despite the ice, at least two ducks have returned and are enjoying the water where it is open.

Finally we are seeing signs of spring and a little color. Our new tulip bed is full of buds.

We have pansies in blossom outside the door.

And one lonely daffodil is in blossom.

The camp has made it through the winter, and enjoying the sun this afternoon at the lake was just the beginning of another season long awaited!