We were all stoked last week to have some warmer weather. It was beautiful! Temps around 70 and sunny skies. The kids managed to help in the yard, ride their bikes, and generally enjoy the outdoors.
I threw off the grill cover for the first time since I don’t know when. I can’t remember today what we made but remember it was good. Thursday of this past week I grilled some filets, mushrooms, and sweet onion to go over some greens. That was nice!
In between all this good spring stuff has been bad winter and wet stuff. Take for today for instance. There was a cold front that rolled through here Friday night. It was 38 degrees when I left to drive into school yesterday. This morning when I dragged myself to the back door when rising there was snow flurrying about and dusting the deck. It doesn’t seem to want to let go.
Earlier last week we had a little bit of rain. You may have seen the news. Even though it rained for three days straight I was amazed when Dad phoned on Wednesday making sure we were alright. He had seen the reports of flooding, etc. and was concerned. The ground was certainly wet here and there was a slight trickle in the utility area of the basement but not the flood our family was asking about.
Tracey found herself filling sandbags on Thursday. Fenton, Missouri is less than a 20 minute drive from our home. She works at the animal hospital that got some press this past week. The staff along with many volunteers built an 8 feet tall sandbag wall to protect businesses in Fenton. We were both stunned at the video and still photos shot in around the Fenton area on Friday and Saturday. There’s a major intersection at I-44, where Hwy 141 goes under the interstate. The water filled almost the entire space under the interstate.
By the way, the river that crested is the Meramec River in case you want to learn more.
So we’re tired of the wet cold weather and are ready for Spring. I think my winter theme here at LAN has been bad luck. So today we unveil the spring look. I had to swipe a couple of photos to make it work because our trees are just now starting to bud. My Iris and other perennials that are shooting up in the flower beds have yet to bloom. Some parts of the lawn are showing some green which reminds me that I need to lay in some seed and fertilize.
On the bird front, we’ve been working on attracting blue birds. The local bird guy got us all wound up over this several weeks ago. For those of you back East this may not seem like a big deal but apparently here in St. Louis these birds migrate in towards the end of February and March. If they pick your yard for summer vacation it’s a big deal.
I have my box up in the best place I can offer for my humble spread. I have yet to get the live grubs though. Go figure; the bird guy gets me juiced and then doesn’t stock the grubs. I’m planning another trip down to the store this afternoon for the grubs before I pack it in.
The big bird news is our mama Dove. In the fall we had a Dove with two chicks on our front porch. To our amazement about 3-4 weeks ago she was back on her nest again. The bird guy told me it was highly unusual for birds to have a clutch that early (and I think he thought I was pulling his leg). Sure ‘nough though we have seen one chick so far. It made an appearance last weekend. We’ve been keeping some seed close for mama to grab a quick meal now and again without getting too far in the cold.
Happy Spring everyone. For all those with dogwoods in bloom know we are jealous. But we won’t be too far behind now that April is around the corner.
