Is it spring yet?

According to Accuweather, the coldest historic average day around here has a high of 27° and a low of 7°.  (That's average.  Extreme lows get much lower than that, down to about -15° to -20°.)  There are actually about fifteen days with that average high and low, the middle of which was about five days ago.  This is our coldest time of the year, however the thermometer made it up to 47° today.  It was already 43° when we woke up this morning.  I keep waiting for the clouds to clear too, because the forecast was for sun.  Yesterday, this scene was covered with a couple of inches of snow.

My day is about half done, I suppose.  At least it's 1:48 and I've got plenty of time to do more things.  But I've just come in from the woods where I feel I got a decent cardio workout and I feel like sitting foe a few minutes, so I'm writing.

I went to the country store and greenhouse operation two miles down the road this morning where I'd gotten salvage greenhouse plastic last summer.  They have two more 100' long, circular arch, 20' wide high tunnels that were damaged in the snow storms a year ago that they've never taken down.  I figured that because it's an early warm day, I should ask now if I want more plastic.  They didn't want to take the plastic off these yet, but he did give me a couple of old chunks that were folded up and stashed out of the way.  I haven't measured them yet, but he said one is 32' x 28' and the other is a similar size.  I'll use them for various things, from more greenhouse to just laying on the soil in the early season to get it warm and dry quicker.

Then I got in a couple of cart loads of firewood from the drying shed into the basement.  I started the year with six tiers, each 11' x 6' x 16-18", plus blocks of stove wood.  I now have four and a half tiers out there, one of which is new.  I also have a cord of slabwood left in the woodshed behind the summer kitchen.  I started with 1 1/4 cords of that.  And I have about 3/4 cord of little ash blocks from Peavey Mfg. Co. in the drying shed, and another cord of them in the old sheep hay shed, which is another bow top greenhouse type structure.  I'm good for this winter.

Next winter I'll need more.  I did some cutting a year ago in the woods to the east of the house, and I need to get all of that out and dry before it rots.  I got about six cart loads out, got good and sweaty, popped a cart tire by poking the valve stem with a branch on the ground and ripping the valve stem loose, and now I'm writing.

I noticed a few things though when I was poking around closer to the greenhouse this morning.  Firstly, of the seeds I planted two weeks ago (lettuce, kale, carrots, leeks, beets, cilantro, endive, and a few more that I can't remember) there are sprouts in the arugula.

Not much to look at, but there are three sprouts, each by a finger tip.

Not even in a cold frame, a volunteer catnip is doing okay.  I throw that scrap of plastic burlap over it at night to help it along.

And finally, the peppermint is sprouting.  This is outside, up against the south wall of the greenhouse.  It's unprotected, except that when it snows, the snow falls off the greenhouse and the peppermint is the first thing that gets buried.  When it melts, being up against the south wall gives it a little warmth and protection too.

Alright.  It's now 2:40.  I've had one business call while I've been writing, so no, I haven't wasted a whole hour at this.  But I'd better grab a dry shirt and get back to it.