Spring Is Here

[DavePEI]

A funny photo published mid-winter comes to mind. It was taken outside of St. Dunstan's Cathedral in Charlottetown, and shows a fellow praying for spring!

More and more green (or at least brown) is starting to show up, and three quite warm days forecast for next week should improve the situation here 

[19and41]

We don't get snow very often down here, but when it does come it can get quite nasty with no infrastructure designed to cope with it.  I was at work the day this came along.  I had a cast on my left leg.  It took me 4 hours to drive the 20 miles home from work.  My niece was on the road for 8 hours.  Everything that fell on the roads packed and froze there and was like teflon.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2014/01/29/snowstorm-travel-disruption-south/5010845/

[DavePEI]

Our Gnome on the Range!
Gives you an idea of the spring melt towards the front of our property. Lots of snow left looking back towards the Museum. Most of this spring so far has stayed in the single digits. Today for the first time this spring it reached 20 deg. c., or 68 deg. f. It was election day on PEI, and I think the political rhetoric heated things up!

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Pretty funny how the grass is already green where the snow just was. Makes you wonder how long ago the grass started growing...

[DavePEI]

Pretty funny how the grass is already green where the snow just was. Makes you wonder how long ago the grass started growing...

Christian:

I wouldn't call it green, more like dead brown with a tinge of green. And that is snow left in the ditch on the left hand side of the photo, and little bits of dnow peeking above the pavement of the road. The grass is coming alive, but it will be weeks before we start cutting it. However, the tulip and daffodil sprouts are up at least three inches  they must have begun sprouting before the snow melted. Some trees (maple, etc.) are beginning to grow their blossoms.

But, good news. Today I was finally able to get into the barn! Everything is in good shape - a couple of boxes of stuff had fallen to the floor off the pallets, but nothing was destroyed. I left a roll of paper towel out there last fall the last day I was working there cleaning up stuff, and It was completely unrolled and run up into the rafters. I am guessing some animal had tried to take off with it.

There had been some flooding of the floor during the melt, but the pallets kept everything well above the water.

I keep discovering new items there in the stuff I got from Don last year - today I discovered a plastic cased AE Secretarial Answering unit, with an Amphenol input and a modular plug for a handset. I am used to the metal cased earlier ones for 10 and 20 lines, and have a couple of them, but this is the first plastic cased more modern one I have seen. I must ask Terry about that one!

I also re-discovered the key for one of my NE single slot panel phones - I lost it last year, thankfully after I had the coin door off. But it is found again, and I have reinstalled the door and lock.

I have promised a couple of people I would look for things out there for them - bear with me - you have no idea how many boxes there are to look through. It may take me a month yet, but at least I am finally able to get in!

I found several high impedance headsets I am going to check out to use with my crystal radios. They are damp, but hopefully they will check out ok. If they don't, I have lots of spare ear pieces for them...

As it is today, the path to the barn and Museum are now completely bare. Some drifts further out, but it is coming!

Dave

[19and41]

I guess I'll have to get a pic of my prickly pear cactus buds.  there are a load of 'em this spring.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Only a week ago, I could still see the neighbor's house very clearly. Not so much now, huh?

[19and41]

Here are a few pics of my cactus.  the larger green points are actually fiber bundles that form into the slender glass-brittle spines.  The fruiting bodies have the little flower buds on top.  They will have beautiful yellow flowers with tissue thin petals, fall off, then the fruits will turn purple and ripen and fall to the ground, waiting to be hit with the string trimmer and covering everything with lovely purple spots.  The birds also find them mighty tasty and enjoy eating them on things one would rather not be stained purple.

[DavePEI]

Ok, guys. You are going to hear the last from me on this topic for this year! As of today, the last bit of snow on our property will finally be gone. There is still some snow left on PEI, in the ditches, along the shore lines, and along the very edge of some wooded areas, but it is just about 100% gone here, finally.

We even have the first spring flowers up, little crocuses on the lawn. It seems everything it trying to catch up from the late spring. All kinds of plants are sprouting like mad. The first potatoes were planted the other day by a neighbour of ours (which requires not only the snow to be gone, but also the ground to dry up), and finally all fishing seasons are open, and the Northumberland Ferry, though late, is now running. Sprig had finally Sprug!

It is funny. Back in March, a CBC forecaster said that at the rate expected, that all the snow wouldn't be gone until May 25th this year. Now, that was amazingly accurate, as it isn't all gone everywhere yet, and it will likely be a week or two before it goes around the wooded areas, etc!

Dave

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Ok, guys. You are going to hear the last from me on this topic for this year!

Whaddya talkin' about, Dave? We'll hear from you in four months when the snow starts falling again!

[DavePEI]

Ok, guys. You are going to hear the last from me on this topic for this year!

Whaddya talkin' about, Dave? We'll hear from you in four months when the snow starts falling again!

Better not start again in four months! We had enough here to last a life time! But other than some left on the shores and around the woods, it is finally gone, and it is really shaping up now. Linda has the final sticks and leaves raked up, and the grass is greening, and we even had our first t-storm of the year the other day. Gotta get the lawn tractor running now - in a week or so will be the first cutting. Its a month late, but things are surely catching up!

Dave

[twocvbloke]

Finally going to do the first mow of the year myself, other people have already mowed (dunno why, their grass was brown and very dead looking!!), but I've waited for the grass to actually grow before cutting... 

I wonder how many tugs on the rope the mower will need to get it going considering it's sat for several months with only a couple of random starts....

[19and41]

I've already sharpened both blades for my mower.  I always have one in reserve.  Apart from dusting out the motor enclosure it is pretty much the only maintenance mine takes. 

[DavePEI]

Wow! 22 deg. c. 71.6 f. today, 22 deg. c.  71.6 f. tomorrow! Spent almost of the day in the museum without a coat! About time!

[twocvbloke]

I think it only reached about 17 degrees Celsius here yesterday, not too unpleasant though, made mowing easier (I try not to use the self-propel feature, it's good exercise pushing a weighty steel-decked mower about!!), and the answer was three tugs, mostly cos it's an auto-choke, auto-throttle Briggs engine that may get a manual choke & throttle (aswell as governor speed) modification in the near future...