Get ready...get set... wait...

Ah spring. At mid-February in Minnesota it's probably jumping the gun to say spring is starting. But enjoying the 30 and 40 degree days we've had recently, many people are thinking about spring and summer. Here are a few things about spring in Minnesota.

1. There is no way 30-40 degrees felt so warm back in October!
2. Here in Minnesota, we start putting coats on when it gets down to 30 or 40; and we start taking coats off when it gets up to 30 or 40!
3. Spring in the northwest is beautiful. Flowers blooming everywhere, temperatures warming, people start planting things... There is one word for spring here: UGLY. All the piles of snow turn blackish-brown, and as they melt you see garbage everywhere, and there are huge puddles everywhere. Yeah. It is not a pretty sight.

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about our spring plans - and mostly that involves waiting around at the moment.

Jeremy has a planting station with grow lights all set up in the basement. This should be a bit easier than last year's set-up, but it's all an experiment trying to figure out where it works best, how much space we need, etc. But... who knows when we're going to get around to actually starting seeds!



Jeremy also has the chicks' brooder all set up and ready to go.



We invested in a sweeter heater which a lot of people here swear by. So we'll start the chicks out with this and move the heater (that long white box thing on top of the brooder) out to the coop when the chicks are big enough. But the chicks? Alas, we've been delayed another month because the hatchery has had trouble hatching Marans lately.



And lastly, Jeremy has been working hard on getting ready for the start of the new mushroom season. He's been tracking down new yards to store logs in; designing new shade structures; researching new varieties to grow and new methods of growing. And, he designed this sweet mushroom inoculation table:



It has several stations because he's hoping to get volunteers (especially those who want to learn about mushroom cultivation) to help him with the whole process.



All the spawn arrived a few days ago and is waiting in the root cellar.



But the logs? Jeremy was planning to start picking them up today, but it turns out the logger is delayed because of some broken equipment. So it probably won't be till Friday! Jeremy is pretty bummed about this.

So in the meantime, he's been dreaming and making plans for getting rabbits!