On March 24, the woolie bears came out of hibernation. Although I haven’t seen them, my neighbors say the black bears are out and about as well. Sandhills calling. Vultures soaring. Great blues nesting. Ah, springtime in Big Woods country!

Then along came the April Fools Blizzard.

Somewhere between 10 inches to a foot of new snow, with drifts three feet high. All our paths blew in. The back storm door iced shut.

Having gotten blown around, the snow settled in heavily with a thick crust on top.

A few areas were almost blown clear.

But most places weren’t. Notice the snow blasted onto the garage door!

I cleared the path to the wood pile and then to the garage. Michael started on clearing the driveway.

Squirrels and mice got to the woodpile before I did.

I didn’t feel too badly as they were first out to the driveway too.

Small bits of bark blew and melted odd little tracks on top of otherwise smooth snow.

It took about 12 hours of steady work, but we got the driveway cleared. I’ve been limping ever since!

The Grand Girls came for a visit on April 4th, just in time for a hail storm.

Lilith decided being out in the hail was not as much fun as it might appear, so came in and did “crafts.” The girl has an imagination!

Zeke had a good time entertaining Petra.

Marble sized hail fell later that night. We’ve had flurries on and off ever since.

April 6th and my garlic gardens are still blanketed.

But the driveway is almost clear, with most of the ice hanging out in the ruts.

We visited with the Grand Guy today, basking in the 50° and sunshine they had in the Big City. We almost hit 47° here. The St. Croix River isn’t over it’s banks yet, but it’s getting there.

Today is Good Friday, and we commemorated with camarones (dried shrimp fritters) and papas doraditas (fried potatoes). We hide the potatoes packed in newspapers in boxes wrapped in layers of blankets and rugs in the darkest corner of the basement. They know it’s springtime. We have duck and chicken eggs incubating, betting that the potatoes know more than what our eyes tell us as we look outside. We will feed our clan Easter dinner, and then clear a space to start garden seeds. We have more snow forecast for April 17th. We hope to have our ducks on pasture by then. As my grandfather would say, “Pues a ver que pasa.” We will see what happens.

April 9th update: we still have drifts up to 18” deep in shady places, but the sun is doing its job where it has direct contact. The ducks have cleared their enclosure. We need to let them loose on the rest of their pastures! They are so hungry for green things. As are we all.