March. I have a love-hate relationship with March. In Interior Alaska, March is the last true month of winter, which started in October. That is a lot of winter. When winter starts I love the snow, it’s beautiful and peaceful and I just have a little bit of a kid in me that wants to run outside and catch snowflakes with my tongue. Now, by the beginning of March, I hate the snow. I’m sick of shoveling it, blowing it, plowing it, walking through it, having it in my house, trying to get to my animals through the snow. I’m tired of frozen animal water, scraping my windshield of ice and dressing my kids in 3 layers just to get them outside. Right now, I have so much snow in my yard I have nowhere to put it. There are mountains of snow, piles of snow, it’s a real Narnia out there. I’m tired of overcast skies and lack of sun.
But….I also love March. It’s so beautiful. By mid-March, the sun comes out from behind the clouds and it is bright and intense. Real sun, not the pastels of winter in Fairbanks. A Sun that you can feel the heat on your face and is a rich golden yellow color. March is warmer as well, usually above zero, warm enough to get some chores done without your hands hurting and warm enough that you enjoy being outside. Oh, sun how I missed you. The days are longer, the sun is actually up by 7:00 am and hangs out until 8:00 at night, real daylight. This all means long, enjoyable walks with Joel, the kids, and my dog. March means renting a backcountry public use cabin and snowmachine in to spend the night. Playing cards by lantern light and talking late into the night with friends. Waking bleary-eyed the next morning to five rowdy kids yelling in excitement to start the day. Mid-March is also my husbands birthday which means our first bonfire of the year with friends.
March is also the month of hope, hope that the snow will start melting, and hope of spring and summer to come. Everyday walking outside to listen to the drip, drip, drip of melting snow, eyeing the snow piles to see if they possibly are smaller than the day before and if the icicles are longer. March is one month before the migratory birds come back and March is when the Pine Grosbeaks start singing and the Gray Jays build their nests.
I consider March the planning month. My plan of what I want to do on my homestead for the next growing year. My mind wakes up and excitement builds, ideas start churning. There are projects to consider, animals to buy, breed and trade, and with it animal housing to build, repair, and clean. There are garden beds to build or move around, trying to find the perfect place to grow various plants. There is equipment to clean, buy, dig out of the snow, or desperately try and remember where I stored it. Why do the baby chick feeders always disappear over the course of a winter? Or where are all the gardening trowels? I blame the disappearance of both on my kids. March is when I first breed my meat rabbits for the year, March is when I plan my garden and order seeds. Oh, the seed catalogs! It is the month when I start my seedlings, those fragile tendrils of greenery jammed packed into my only south-facing window. March is when I starting thinking about buying or incubating layer chickens and turkeys. There are also summer plans, non-homestead to consider. Family to visit. The negotiations start with friends and neighbors over animal care, past favors are considered and weighed. There are pantries and freezers to clean and inventory, taking stock of what you have leftover will determine what you will raise for the coming summer.
March for me is a roller coaster of emotions. A high amount of impatience for winter to be done and irritation that it is not. Vast enjoyment in spending time with friends and excitement in planning my spring and summer, all wrapped into one sun-filled, snowy month. Overall, I love March! Oh, if only it would stop snowing.
