Spring has arrived and the loons are back in the pond. Ducks and geese are here. We hear the loons calling at night and it's a wonderful sound. Being in the woods on the edge of a pond really made the winter special. Just heard the coyotes a few nights ago, right outside the door. The dogs went crazy! We can hear them call at night. I think they are watching us. It's funny because one daughter leaves her shade open so she can look out and see the night and all it's glory and the other daughter closes her shade to block out all the "scary" things in the night. I'm hoping it's a stage and she'll eventually keep her shade open so she can look out into the night. We kept a small patch of the ice clear of snow for ice skating and I went snowshoeing and cross country skiing across the ice until MARCH! The dogs had a blast running across the ice and playing in the snow. We didn't get out the ice fishing gear and we never had a bon fire on the ice. We were toasty warm with our propane heat. We only experienced about 3 days of frozen water pipes. It was a bit chilly on the below freezing mornings to go out and use the outside facilities but we managed all winter with very few complaints from the children.
To give ourselves a break from the Maine winter and to visit with family and friends. We took a much needed vacation to the south for 2 weeks in February. It was fun to be barefoot all day and to run barefoot on the beach everyday. I also did a 10K trail race in southern Florida. The race director had just finished the miami half marathon barefoot and it was nice to meet him. He had great enthusiasm for running and fitness. We came back to face the task of digging our way back to the camper through 3 feet of snow. 
The kids love it here. Call it home and it is. It wasn't all fun and glory. We had times when the tight/small space would get on our nerves and we'd need a break from each other. But for the most part things were ok. We taught the kids to play cribbage this winter and my 10 year old loves it. She's competitive like her mama and has beaten me on several occasions. We had two pigs that went off to the butcher before it got too cold. It was a sad day but we knew they would feed us all winter and every time we have bacon the kids ask me which pig it is. It sounds like a terrible thing but they wanted to say thanks for their food and honor the right pig.
The fiddleheads passed before I could pick any. :( The dandelions are ready to be picked but I don't have the space to process the jam this year. I still have a few jars left from last spring though. I went out to my cold frame and opened it up and low and behold we have kale and swisschard growing. YUM! I haven't planted the garden yet. We just had another 32 degree night so the garden will have to wait a couple more weeks. But our compost pile is growing by the day and the hay bales that we put around the bottom of the camper this winter for insulation are going to be the new home for my potatoes. A friend gave me a Jerusalem Artichoke, which is a root vegetable, and I've planted that and am hoping for the best. My raspberries over wintered and are gonna be strong and tall this summer as well. Things are growing like crazy and turning green and we are excited about it all.
Looking forward to the summer....
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