Mud Season has arrived! The sun is out and melting anything white and pretty in sight (except for me, of course.) See all the little specks on the carpet? That is sawdust from the mighty fallen soldiers strewn about the yard. Living in a field of wood chips and sawdust is a lot like getting sand in everything when you live at the beach — we’re finding sawdust just about everywhere. Good news is you can’t really feel it between the sheets.

Ew. You people are gross. Of course this is why I love you.

Yes, last weekend we got a GLORIOUS hiatus from the depths of winter and it was like throwing our sanity a life raft. After we danced about naked in the driveway for a while (not true) and drove around town with the sunroof and windows down blaring U2’s “Streets Have No Name” (true), we got down to business.

First, there were trees to tap.

Thanks to Brian’s brother Joe and his wife Annie, we were able to place about 40 taps. (Because some trees are large enough to take 2 taps, I count taps, not trees.) This past winter we had scored about 50 maple collection buckets with taps and hooks from Craigslist. After disinfecting them with boiling water, the trees were drilled and the taps placed. This was WAY easier than last year when we were sticking homemade taps in and then rigging them to plastic tubing that lead to water carboys. After one day, some buckets were already 1/3rd full. This week Dad added another 20 taps.

Then, winter slapped us across the face again and the trees stopped flowing. We’re going to inaugurate the boil this weekend.

After tapping trees, we then spent the rest of the afternoon clearing tree debris from the yard. Now, instead of 4 years to get a clear yard it’s only going to take us something like … 3 3/4 years.

To tell you the truth I absolutely loved it. While Brian, Joe and Annie were charged with burning brush, I was making piles of limbs to be chipped Fargo style. I was having a grand ole time sawing off branches and feeling like the Discovery Channel’s “Ax Men” was going to invite me for an audition any day now.

Then this happened…

Ok, so I got shiny* and went on a little photo shoot of the lichen on the felled pine trees. Some people take a smoke break … I shine light on the beauty that surrounds us. Call it a vice.

All told, we worked for 3 hours straight (minus water and art breaks) and the lawn barely looks different. I couldn’t help but smile thinking of my former life in NYC and what I would have been doing on a warm spring weekend: shopping the farmer’s markets for treats that other people produced and wandering around the city for exercise. Now look at me getting all buff in the fresh air as I build my farm by hand. I wonder how all my city friends are doing…

Now taking reservations for The Accidental Farm’s BadAss Country Livin Boot Camp!

*”Shiny” is a term coined by my very focused husband. It refers to my ability to get easily distracted and was inspired by a snorkeling trip. We would be swimming together, something would catch my eye and I would disappear, indubitably saying, “Ooooh, shiny!” My entire family is afflicted with Shiny Syndrome which now, come to think of it, might be part of the reason we have earned the name The Accidental Farm.