It has become too difficult to get through the swamp to reach the creek.  But now that the pond is beginning to open up, I can use the pump.

Overnight frosts refreeze the pond’s surface and also the water in the pipe, so I must wait until afternoon before I can draw water.  By then, if the sun is shining, the pipe water is quite warm.  After that has gone through, however, it is pretty chilly!

The pond’s thaw is timely: I will be having a visitor next week and he has no sleeping bag.  I had to wash the blankets that have been covering the coolers and potatoes all winter.  They are too big to take to the church washing machine.  A handy sink is a recycled bathtub taken from a trailer.  It needs to lie at an angle as the plug leaks.  It is not very elegant, but it works.  I haul my bathwater to the house in milk jugs.

The other day I walked past the rhubarb patch where I had scattered the ashes to melt the snow, and the first leaf buds were showing.