My days off this week were spent catching up. I caught up on some rest, reading, and spring planning. Part of that planning is around upcoming school vacation and what tasks do I have that I can put my two boys to work on.
As a child I remember the annual spring cleaning during spring vacation. Couldn’t wait to go back to school. At my house, I call it excavation. You may laugh at the thought, but if you think about it, I bet you could envision an excavator coming in handy when cleaning out kids bedrooms. Spring cleaning as a child meant all of the walls, windows, curtains, floors,beds and furniture were moved, washed, turned upside down to get rid of whatever might be lingering in the corners.
Today, I am happy to simply see a floor and clothes put away. This task alone seems to take all day and is extremely exhausting for boys especially. They informed me that growing pains takes a lot out of a kid and that they need more naps. I wonder how my mother would have reacted to that statement? Actually, I know how she would have reacted, I simply won’t share it in this blog.
In the barns, spring cleaning meant all of the winter bedding was shoveled out and loaded onto the manure spreader and headed to the fields for fertilizing. This was done by my Dad and brothers. Today at our farm, it is an ongoing process that takes place on a weekly basis. Moving it from one site to another, loading it into spreaders, spreading it on fields and immediately tilling it in so as not to lose nutrients. This task alone from start to finish is a month-long process and dependent on weather and whether or not fields can be accessed. Those of you fortunate enough to live in or around farms know that the time has come for that wonderful task. Just remember, that it (the lovely odor) too will pass with the result being lush green pastures, fields of crops growing and animals grazing.
As my son Everet once said, “You can’t always get what you want”, and to add to that, I say, “But if what you want is greener pastures, than you must endure that which makes it greener”
Happy Spring