Spring is coming

Slowly but surely.

More and more days no we have nice temperatures, wich means above 0 level. The snow really starts to melt away and more and more raw earth is showing.

In the very beginning of March Ron receives a phonecall from my parents. They had to make the difficult decision to have one of the deer, they had been feeding all winter, shot. The animal had been limping for a while and it became worse and worse by the day. They decided to call a neighbouring hunter to put the poor animal out of its missery. Once shot it became clear that one of the hindlegs was broken and beyond healing. But the question was if Ron would like to have the deerskin. Ron has a great interest in the outdoors and everything that's related, including working with hide an trying to turn that into leather... So of course the answer was YES!!!. He went down to my parents and got a deerskin that already was a little older, with the promiss that they would take of the furcoat of the newly shot deer and that he would get that one as well.
 But where to put a deerhide..... how about on the balcony.

 

and the head came with it

the body part.............

In the following days he tried to work with the material, but unfortunately the whole hide was riddled in holes from buckshot. We ar still waiting for the next deerhide........

On the same day we got the hide, we received another phonecall. One of our "neighbours" from the village called and asked if we'd like to have some fish. Ehhh.... sure... Ron didn't know the person in question, but Annalena did. Turns out that it was the woman living 2 houses further down the street. She's from Russia and they appearantly like to icefish. The fish were caught only minutes before. Ron, never having handled a fish felt a little akward. But, after a short introductional conversation with the neighbour, went home and put the fish in the fridge. Afet all I am the only one in the house who knows how to clean them, and I was out singing with the choir. A little later in the evening he took them out of the fridge to show them to our youngest, only to hear from our son that he saw them moving......... how could that be, they were supposed to be dead.......

The truth was, that they were only stunned, not killed. So that was up to Ron as well. He had never killed an animal before, didn't know how to do it either. He decided to bang them with their heads on the balcony railing. but boy.... were they hard to kill. He had to do this about fivetimes before they finally died for real.

So after I came home we had to start cleaning them, knowing they will turn bad if you wait too long with that. I thought this might be a good moment for Ron to learn and so I did the first fish and carefully explaining my actions, and Ron did the second....... he was a fast learner I must say......

Now they are resting peacefully in our freezer in the basement. 

After feeding all the wildlife surrounding us all winter, we slowly backed out. Now that winter was on its way out and spring was definitely on its way they had to learn to find their own food again. We did notice there were an awefull lot of birds around and Ron, after killing animals, was in the mood for some more possitive vibes, decided to try and lure the birds to come to him with food on his hands. So he stood there, really motionless, with food in his hands for quite some time, and I have to admit  they came really close. Just not close enough..........

and now we wait

Being a man of the outdoors, over the years he has collected quite a few items. Not only to himself, but for the rest of the family as well. Because we all like to spend time out in nature. But up till now we had no decent place to put away all this stuff in our new home. So we decided to re-arrange our basement a little, in order for him to make his ManCave. This is how it turned out.

the right side

The left side

More and more Spring signs are showing themselves, here and there one can even find a little colour in the garden. 

For me it has been a time of change, jobwise that is.  You all might remember that me and my colleges from the cleaningpart of the Prioleva company were sold to quite a bigger company called HomeMaid in Falun. from a small town company with only about 10 employees on the paymentlist we went to a company with at least 90 people in personell. With of course a whole other vision on how to get the job done. We got an "education" in cleaning and were sent out to do our work, we had done in our own way for quite some time, but now we had to do it HomeMaid style. That takes some getting used to. About two weeks after we started working for the new company, the first changes were made.  And a few more followed. It didn't make the "getting used to" part easier. But since we am used to changes and challenges, often by our own choice, it all worked out. 

All in all March marched on to it's end, with the weather variyng from freezing cold till lovely springlike. At the of the month the easterfestivities waited. The children had  thei hands full in making all kinds of decorations to themselves or the house. The most lovely of all, I think, is our little Easter Bunny with her handmade eggbasket.

The day before easter was one of those very nice springlike days, what better to do then sit out on the balcony, enjoying the sun with a lovely cup of tea.......

Or if you happen to be a child, play outside in the garden, without coat, climbing trees and pretending you're a cowboy or a soldier.....

And when the day ends, enjoy the view from the livingroomwindow, where the sun touches the trees turning the mountain a little redish in magnificent contrast with the whiteness of the snow........

So as winter is coming to its end, it's time to give it proper goodbye as well. With spring daffodills on the table, we enjoyed a good glas of Winter Alt....... life's good.

The last day of March and so Easter came. With the snow still out there, it was a challenge hiding the brightly collored eggs we made. Let alone finding them in time before they were completely frozen. I went out in very early and freezing morning, while everybody else in the house was sound asleep, and played for easterbunny in a morningrobe, hiding the eggs. So glad our neighbours did not see that.... or at least I hope. After that I went in and set the table and waited for everybody to wake up. With my kids luckely that doesn't take that long. So they went out an searched the whole garden for eggs. Obviously I did a good job, because it took a while before they found all of them. 

Look Mam, matching color ....

So we enjoyed a lovely easterbreakfast, not too much fuss, as usual. An then when you go out spring is saying hello again.....