thaw

a few days ago it was seasonably cold here...

and there was a reasonable amount of snow on the ground...among other things acting as insulation...we will be getting to that in a bit...

in terms of temperature things today are markedly different...and all the snow is melting...

and, while the ambient air temperature is well above freezing the ground underneath all this snow has not thawed yet and the melt water is pooling behind ice and snow dams at the edges of the fields...

and when those dams melt and the water finds its way to the edges of the fields and runs off i would imagine there will be some significant erosion here and there...it is supposed to cool again later in the week...nothing like last week...it will slow the process but spring will come...so we will be touring the fields over the next few months to see how much erosion we find...

the snow in the winter rye bed ...

has declined in the thaw as well...however the insu;ation it provided left green rye in the bed after prolonged sub zero ( fahrenheit ) temperatures...

not having much choice the snow in the winter wheat bed has followed the path of that in the rye and declined precipitously...still leaving behind green wheat...i mentioned that it was due to cool in the ocming week and i am uncertain of how the loss of the snow pack will affect the plants...growing grain is a hazardous business...even in thirty-two square foot increments...we will be looking at that as well...

the grains were not the only beneficiaries of the snow's insulating properties...the new york import strawberries...

and their local counterparts are all happily green ad photosynthesizing away as the snow recedes...these are not your basic pansies.