Oh, Portland. I love you but this weather is a little ridiculous. We don’t get much snow here, especially not in March, but on the third day of spring we woke up to an inch of snow. Sairshe was a little sad to see the flowers she planted covered in snow.

By the time I got to work, the forest was full of melting snow dripping from the tree canopy and the newly blossomed trilliums were heavy with moisture.

But then things turned around and we took advantage of the weekend’s nice weather and embarked on another front yard project.

We made some raised beds and the kids, still in their pajamas, were quick to get into the middle of the action.

Sairshe is the self-proclaimed “Queen of the Dirt Mountain.” Mike is getting tired of shoveling dirt.

We transplanted our blueberries that used to grow in the backyard.

The best part? We actually made money on this project. Here’s how it broke down:
Lumber was $60 – $50 gift card = $10 cost. That’s pretty good but it gets better. Nice people 7 blocks away just happened to be giving away a pile of fill dirt from their garden that was just the amount we needed. Convenient, right? They were so happy someone took their pile o’ dirt that they paid Mike $20, giving us a $10 profit. If only all home improvement projects could turn out like that.
From afar our berries look like bare sticks but up close they are showing signs of spring.

I also cleaned up our strawberry patch and found this one eager blossom. Maybe we’ll have early berries this year?

After all that work we had plenty of time to lounge on the couch. For the record, I didn’t edit the baby’s eye color at all. Really.


Our chickens are all laying regularly again after their winter hiatus, a real sign that the days are getting longer. I love that their eggs are all different colors.


I’m enjoying the sun but not holding my breath that it’ll stick around quite yet. Who knows. Maybe it’ll snow again this week.
How’s your spring shaping up?
Tags: berries, chickens, raised beds