March 2019 What a Month!

March was long, cold and stormy…a wingdinger of a month both in Wisconsin and the whole Midwest.  The month came in, not like a lion, but like a polar bear, a grouchy, pushy polar bear!  Storms and a stretch of bitter cold (including -17 degrees with strong winds) kept most people inside and wishing for spring in the first part of the month.  

Then midmonth it got worse with wet sticky snow and rain on top of that.  This led to disastrous roof collapses all over the area, including three neighbors who had shed roofs collapse.  Fortunately neither people nor miniature horse were hurt.  

Mark spent time helping by raking snow off the other section of one roof, and Hilde helped out by getting the right contacts for the neighbors who also had the road runoff detour into their yard as ravines opened across the road.  The Town folks had their work cut out to push back mountains of snow, regrade the road and then thaw and open reluctant culverts.

Even as the snow was reluctantly melting, the sap began, well, not running, but dripping in an intermittent way.  Mark and Hilde really had to struggle to get down into the lowland woods and get the taps in, and the first few days of gathering sap were equally arduous, since the ATV and cart could not get through the deep snow, and that meant longer trips carrying the pails of sap in very slippery conditions.  They managed to cook syrup three times, despite the challenges, and put up a generous supply of syrup for all the family pancakes.

During all the enforced inside time, both Henkels happily dived into hobbies.  Mark is constructing a digital decoder for his radio and Hilde has been crafting up a storm, including a total of nine fabric baskets, Easter table toppers, four chicken scratch projects and two quilts tops assembled.  Many more sewing projects are planned with the inherited stash from Hilde’s mother providing inspiration for many new ideas.

Hilde’s mother has been having some ups and downs, but is mostly doing well and seems to enjoy hearing about the way Hilde is using her fabric.  Arlene always says she wants to do her sewing, but never actually sews…she has a lot less energy this year.  Both Jim and John have had issues with raccoons this month.  John found one was LOUDLY gnawing on his siding and waking up Hazel in the middle of the night.  Jim had a sick coon show up and need removal before any kids interacted with it.  In Rudolph, the invasion has been smaller:  several wasps each day have been showing up, and the entry point cannot be found.  Since they are just waking up, they are slow moving and have been easy to remove.

Before the snow was gone, midmonth when roofs and runoff were vexing folks, the redwing blackbirds returned, trilling from trees and fence posts, and just as quickly, the sandhill cranes announced their return with clacking and prancing.  While the tulips are just venturing out of the ground, not even the Johnny jump ups or squills have actually flowered, but soon, soon, this tough Wisconsin winter will really be over.  On April 1, Mark and Hilde will start garden and herb seeds and prune the fruit trees.