Dear Family and Friends,

Hung out sheets and pillowcases this morning. Seems a long time since the sun was warm enough to dry out laundry. Can’t wait to put my face into the warm, dry sheets and inhale their fresh-air fragrance. Makes me think of my grandmother Bertha Mann who had her laundry on the line by 6:30 am. My sister and I used to joke that we hardly had our clothes off before she had them in her washing machine.

While I was hanging out the laundry I could look over to the new property and see our neighbor Rickie plowing a strip for this season’s corn and watermelons. I couldn’t resist going closer. Paul stands behind him on the big blue tractor. Sasha runs behind them in the furrow created by the two-blade turning plow. Great excitement for all of us. We pick up great handfuls of the earth to get the feel of its damp, rich texture, to inhale its fragrance. Not as loamy as the field across the creek but pretty close. This is the first time this field has been plowed in a long time. Even before we bought the land it had lain fallow, mowed a couple of times a year.

Just yesterday Paul came over here to rip-plow the bed that grew last year’s tomatoes, peppers, and okra. For the first time Sasha was allowed to ride behind him on the tractor. You should have seen his face—so proud to be up there with his dad watching how it goes. They share a deep fascination with (reverence for) the processes of turning the earth. Sasha always wants to be present when Paul is using the tractor to plow or cultivate or even if he is digging with a spade. Last year when the loamy earth across the creek was first worked Sasha just rolled in it. Sasha has been “rototilling” with his hands as long as I can remember. He just kneels in the earth and digs with his hands just like a hound. (He has no experience with said creatures).

Robin and Madeline are in Bowling Green to pick up our second short-term intern at the Greyhound Stop. (She also has lists from me and Paul for another stop at Chuck’s Liquors). Our first intern arrived two days ago. In preparation for these arrivals she and Paul worked on opening the big outdoor, now summer, kitchen. This is the first winter they have not had to stand on the cold concrete floor of that uninsulated room, dealing with frozen water and barely above -freezing temperatures even with the wood stove cranked all the way up. I used to come to breakfast wearing every layer I had including gloves, and cap and hood. I remember being amazed at how long it can take a kettle of water to boil when it is that cold.

Once again, on a very cold morning, a pair of lambs were born. Unfortunately the larger of the two, a male, did not survive. So we have this delightful little spotted ewe just beginning to get the feel of her legs under her. We watched her very carefully for the first few days because she seemed very wobbly on her legs. She would often walk a few feet on her knees with her hind end high in the air. (The pair born a month ago, over twice her size now, were leaping about at the end of their first day). Just yesterday I noticed her leaping about, even straying much farther from her mom. When she got too far she stood there calling “wa-wa” almost like a human infant. When I looked out again she was sleeping in the warm sunshine between the two month-old lambs.

There are a few tiny purple crocuses poking up in my yard. Peepers have been peeping for almost a month now. Phoebes have reappeared. Chickadees sing their springtime song.

Goldfinches are shedding their winter green for gold. In less than two weeks we observe the vernal equinox. A new season begins. Love, Louise