Bone tired, what a good feeling...

I know many of you can relate that after a winter of being cooped up indoors it is such a blessing to get outside and work in the fresh air! We worked so hard, we didn't actually have time to get pictures. We were trying to cram in as much as we possibly could, before our weather turned sour. Which after two days into the 60'sF, we woke this morning to, yep! SNOW. It doesn't appear it will stick around long and the moisture is a blessing indeed. Shamefully, I admit I am grumbling about the mud, we were almost dried out, almost! Cortney took over laundry and began working on cleaning and spreading seeds from last years flower heads. She was careful not to remove all the mulch and dead leaves, as we still have hard frost until end of May. At a later date we will clean out 80% of this mulch and mix the soil a wee... bit so get the seeds germinating. This is how I like to grow flow gardens. The Lord puts colors together much better than I . While Cortney was working on crossing off her list, I took to cleaning, pruning, thinning and then spread a nice layer of composted manure mulch on our raspberry patch. It was a battle, and to look at my arms you'd think the raspberries won! Next I turned the soil in a raised bed, added composted manure, worked it in and began transplanting strawberries. These are berries we had in a plot but the weeds and grass invaded so badly last year I was afraid we'd lost them all. They fared better than I'd hoped and was able to transplant 100 plants and still have that many more to transplant elsewhere. Once transplanted I covered them with a thin layer of straw, just in case it turns cold again. I also sorted and cleaned up dead branches from the front yard, some saved for craft projects and the rest broken into kindling pieces. We still have the herb garden to clean up a bit, leaving mulch for protection, as well as the sun chokes need thinning and dead stalks cut away and burned. We also need to haul more composted manure to the remaining flowerbeds and we need to clean off the top of the root cellar, spread some wildflower seeds( to thicken what is already there) and cover with compost. Sometime this week or beginning of next week we have a young man coming to dethatch and aerate the yard. This hasn't been done since we planted the grass 6 yrs ago and boy does it need it! I explained to the young man that I'd like the thatchings left here, I'll add it to the garden when tilling, the composter and if there is extra I'll hang onto it for mulch around plants. Well, we're heading out to clean the barns and let the girls out, if they want. I'm also making bread and buns( for Easter as well, as hot dog buns from supper tonight) We're trying to use up root cellar produce and will have potato salad, a relish tray( carrot sticks, pickled beets, dilly beans and pickles), baked beans( made from scratch) and the buns are for Italian sausage. Have a blessed day everyone!