Walking to the barn, you notice that the air has a nice southerly feel to it and the sun is actually giving off warmth instead of its usual bright yet cold stare. It is starting to melt! Spring is coming! It’s the middle of March and this is the final melt! Here on the Homestead the last melt of winter is a long awaited sign – though not a very pretty one. The season can almost be described in one word… “Mud”. While mud is a promise of the green spring to come, it can be a very dreary time.
What a mess the barnyard is! The golden straw that had been dropped on the way from the barn to the kennel to stuff warm dog houses throughout winter is wet and grimy, leaving a matted pathway to the barn. Rain comes, saturating the first 3 inches of the soil, but because the rest of the soil is still frozen the top sucks it all up and becomes a soggy mess, splashing mud up walls and on white buckets, leaving everything dirty. As the pond melts and rain fills it up, the overflow pools into an enormous puddle – of course – right in the middle of the pathway to the garden. The little kids need to be lifted over it as their little boots would be filled up instantly.
How does mud season affect normal life? Well, for one thing, we don’t have as many guests over. The driveway is in a very sloshy state, and if driven on wrong it could be made impassable with big tire tracks cutting deep in the soft gravel. Also, it isn’t as fun showing friends the barnyard in its sad estate. We have to remind them that it’s not always like this! But that’s mostly for our sake, to remind us that it will soon be clean and green again.
Laundry has to be kept running constantly to keep up with the many little kid clothes that come back after exploring outside incredibly muddy! You just have to bear through a few weeks with a dirty laundry room, renamed “Mud Room” as little boots always manage to leave prints on clean tile.
The dogs love the mud! They are consonantly running and playing with each other in it, which causes them enjoyment, but terribly bespatters anything or anyone around them! You never can keep them clean – no matter what! And the muddy paws get on everything.
The garden looks quite sad this time of year. Almost like it has been washed up, with sunken rows and dead weeds clinging to fences. We can’t wait until we can clean it all up, plow under the trailing weeds, and redo the rows and paths. Then we’ll cover it up again with black plastic and start planting! During this time you also constantly keep your eyes on the ground, searching for the bulbs planted last fall. You can’t wait to see the lovely gold of daffodils!
But no matter how dirty and ugly the beginnings of spring can be, all through the winter you search and long for it! Every year we excitedly start seedling indoors and dream of the days when you can put them in the earth outside. You know no matter how dirty, muddy, and brown it is outside, in just a little while it will be the beautiful lush green that we love! So we thank God for the mud of Spring!!!
Deuteronomy 11:14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
Rosehaven Homestead 
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