Well, we are seeing turkeys again on our back lawn!  Of course, they probably knew Woody, our dreadful cat that chased one big turkey away a few days ago, would be napping inside to avoid any possibility of getting caught in a rain shower.  I first spotted one turkey far down on the lower lawn this morning, but that one flew off into the woods.  I haven't seen turkeys do much flying unless they are frightened, and as far as I know, that one this morning had nothing to be frightened of; however, there is sort of a brush barrier created by the logging we had done a year ago, and I wonder if flying over it was easier than trying to pick a way through.  These birds are impressive in the air.

Then this afternoon as I was working on my computer, I noticed a big turkey meandering across the back lawn, heading north; then within about a minute, a second one showed up taking the exact same route.  Both disappeared into the trees and brush at the edge of the lawn, but then I think they caught sight of Fred washing the car in the driveway.  The first turkey took flight, but the second one ran - both headed south.  The one that ran made good time, in spite of the underbrush and irregular terrain left by the logging.  They may have been Jakes, or young males - or possibly a couple of young females; I didn't see a beard, but they did look pretty large.  I'm wondering if perhaps there will be a nest near by.  We had one a number of years ago - I think I counted something like 16 eggs in it when we came upon it by accident while walking one day.  We left it alone, and later in the summer there were lots of small turkeys around with some large ones, and we always suspected it was that brood.

Other than the turkeys, we haven't seen much wildlife moving about this spring, but I'm sure there's plenty out there. 

We had a rumble of thunder a little while ago, and there has been off and on rain, like yesterday.  The temperature outside has been about 60 most of the day, so it really isn't an especially warm day, and now there's a strong south wind picking up.  That could mean some power outages - soggy ground and high winds are not a good combination.

I sprouted my supply of potatoes yesterday.  That brought back nice memories of doing that for my Grandmother Bolton when I was a kid.  They always had a large bin of potatoes in the earthen cellar under the kitchen at the farm.  I remember it had only one very small window, and was always cool and damp, even on the hottest day of summer.  Remembering that reminded me of watching my grandfather cutting seed potatoes for planting.  He sat in a chair with a wooden plank nailed to the seat.  A good sized butcher's knife was imbedded at the end of the plank.  Grandpa Bolton would sit straddling the plank with the knife facing him, a bag of potatoes on one side and a bushel basket on the other, and sliced each spud so it had just the right number of "eyes" on each piece and then tossed it into the basket ready for planting.  Occasionally he'd let me slice one, and that was a big treat.  I was too little to slice them by myself, but I guess I was just the right age to feel very important at the task of sprouting them.  When I was a little older, I got to help when it was time to dig them, too, a back-breaking job, picking up potatoes, but my back was young and strong then, and I don't remember ever feeling tired or sore.  

Planting corn with Uncle Bob in the spring was different.  We used a horse-drawn single row planter, and it was my job to lead the horse back and forth to keep the rows straight.  It was hot, dusty and I always managed to get a sunburn; and at night I'd be dead tired from the miles we'd walked, and would fall asleep with the pungent smell of vinegar wafting from my sore, hot, red skin.  Vinegar took the sting out of a sunburn, but it didn't smell great.  By the end of the summer, as my Scotch aunts from the city would say, I was "brown as a nut."  I don't think the sun was as hot then as it is today.

It would be nice to see a little more of that hot sun pretty soon so things would get dried out a bit.  I have a few seeds I'd like to get into the ground - not potatoes, but other stuff.