Early Springtime Chores

It's the time of year when we go from being hunkered down for cold and snow, to getting ready for summer weather.

This year the shift away from cold weather happened really quickly - like over a couple of weeks.  Normally this shift is more gradual - The weather will try to decide for a month whether it wants to rain or snow.  Then finally after a bit, the weather will dry out and start warming up.  This year we skipped the month of intermediate weather and went straight to dry and warm, at least for the moment.  Rain is in the forecast.

So we've been hitting the mid 50 degrees F (12 degrees C for our international readers) this past week or so, and the snow has been rapidly melting off.  Today I began some of the spring chores.

I removed the plow from the truck, set it on moving dollies, and moved it out of the way. 
(Click any image to enlarge)

After I removed the plow, I removed 500 lbs of traction sand from the bed of the truck, put it on a moving dolly, and rolled it out of the way.  Next I made a trash run.  We don't have trash service available, so it's up to me to keep on top of that.


Before putting the truck back in though, I removed the studded winter tires and installed the all-season (summer) tires on my dear little Subie.

I broke up and removed ice from the slab in front of the shop.   This side of the shop is north-facing, and so this time of year, most of the slab gets no sun exposure at all.  As a result, the ice here is the last thing to melt.  After the slab warms up enough, the ice isn't bound tightly to the concrete, and you can get underneath it with a flat shovel.  The sides of the slab are still frozen solid.

I baited and set out 10 wasp traps.  The snow is still quite deep in places, so I didn't put them exactly where I would have liked - but at least they are up.  I've already seen a wasp (or hornet).  It's important to get the traps out early, because the first ones to emerge are the queens.  If you can get the queen, that's an entire nest you eliminate.

And because it was such a nice day and the ice was off the slab, I went for a brief ride and pulled a couple of wheelies.  Warming up and steaming behind the tail

Tasty bison grazing on hay up the road from our house.  Not a lot of grass to feed on at the moment.

It was a pretty busy afternoon, especially since I had worked a 12 hour shift the previous night.