Not much is changing here in the north country. Spring is definitely here, bringing us a real variety of weather including even some snow on Thursday. Friday brought snow flurries and some rain later in the day, so it was pretty much a "wash out". Today is beautifully sunny, warmer than normal, and quite windy.
We took the above pictures while on a walk on W. Shore Rd. today. Mud season is here!

When I was a kid we always looked forward to the March winds to help melt the snow and move spring forward. Seems like it brought out my freckles, too. We are thinking the winds and weather we're having now may signal the end of sugaring season. If so, it will have been a pretty short season and you know that means the price of maple syrup will be high this year. You might want to grab some of last year's if you can find it - it'll be just as good now as it was when it was first put into the can - and did you know you can freeze it? I have that on good authority, Glen Goodrich, our neighbor. Glen's family have been making excellent maple products for something like seven generations, so I think they know what they're talking about. Glen says after you open your gallon of syrup, pour what you'll use up in a few weeks into a clean container and store that in your refrigerator. Close the gallon can back up and deposit it in your freezer. It'll keep perfectly even though it's been opened, and when you need to replinish the refrigerator container, the syrup will still pour (it won't freeze solid). This is much easier than the way I used to do it. Once I'd opened my can of syrup for the first time, I would sterilize pint or quart glass jars, bring the syrup to boiling point and pour the hot syrup into the hot jars and seal. That way I could store the individual jars without worrying about mold or fermentation happening. It worked just fine, but it was a lot more work than popping the can into our freezer.

So, happy spring from Joe's Pond. The ice is a-meltin' and the birds are a-singin'. Haven't spotted a robin yet, but I'll bet they fly over every once in a while to see if there's much bare ground at Joe's Pond yet. Once we have enough bare spots for them to find food, they'll be here.
In the meantime, we have lots of other species keeping company in the north country.