It's amazing what a little sunshine & warm breeze can do for the soul ! The gloom of winter is put on pause and winter songbirds flit about happily. The chickens excitedly scratch into the softened soil & grass where ice & snow have melted away.My white quaterhorse, Dolly,cannot resist a roll in the mud.WHY does she do that?

February's brief thaw is the time to take advantage of the mushy soil to reseed the horse pastures.The fields will soon be covered again with a blanket of snow & draw in the seeds for the remaining winter's sleep. So, I sit at breakfast and browse through seed catalogues that arrive in the mail and mull over what I will plant this year . The garden is a whopping 185' x 185' . Each year it needs to be rotated .Potatoes can't go where they were last year, the corn will be on the opposite side~ or should I put it down the bottom ? If this goes here then this cannot go here, etc. I welcomed winter's arrival this year. It was a relief from the summer & fall canning & freezing , raising & butchering meat chickens and garden management. September was the end of garden 'management' .Weeding became a distant memory. I'd stand with my hands on my hips with a lost look on my face & say ,"Now I know I have 120 tomato plants in here SOMEWHERE ! By the time I dug that last wheelbarrow load of potatoes from the nearly frozen earth in November, I had had enough! How good of God to give us winter to rest along with the fruit trees . Spring will be here in another 2 months and with its' arrival a rejuvenated spirit to plow & plant and experience the great feeling of the cool freshly plowed earth on bare feet.!