Yep, it's the weather-

The weather is crazy; you're pretty certainly aware of that.  The media are full of "warmest on record" and so forth; pretty much daily.  It's affecting us, daily; also; and has thrown our "what we're doing this month" schedules entirely out of whack.  Leaving us about half the hours in a day we need.

Just so you don't forget winter altogether: 

That's a beautiful typical late March/early April "sticky" spring snowfall, and lovely icicles on the house eaves.  Except that was Feb. 2nd, when snow usually falls as powder, at 0°F, and never melts off the roof...

And last week:

I sent Elly scrambling out of the greenhouse, after dark, to try to catch any photo she could get- of the sudden arrival of the Redwing Blackbird migration - flock after flock; on March 8th; weeks ahead of "normal".  You realize; there isn't going to be a "normal" - ever again.  We're well into unstoppable climate change; and we don't know what happens next.  Except, it won't be normal.

Our most urgent messed up schedule has to do with sheep and horses - "normal" would mean snow on the hard frozen ground.  In winter, we don't/can't move paddocks, and we expect to feed hay.  The Icelandic sheep are wonderfully easy to care for in winter- they eat little, and utterly refuse to drink water if there is any snow available at all.  The horses are more work; they'll challenge the electric fence when snow prevents good conduction, and they prefer liquid water; though they'll eat a little snow if they need to.  For both sheep and horses, sledding their hay to them is not difficult.

When the thaw comes a month early -sleds work poorly on mud, and wheels can't be used until the ground firms up.  The sheep must be watered, and paddocks for both must be moved, or they will pound the ground they are on into oblivion; wrecking good pasture for years.

And it has to be done now.  Like, really; that's what I'm doing as soon as I hit "post."  

Which skews everything-  But - we're still here; getting tubelings going in the greenhouse; just not much time for writing just now!