Is the snow half over?

  It's really not as bad out as it looks.  Just finished walking the dogs and while there is 6 inches or so on the grass, the streets and sidewalks are mostly melted. Must be April in Colorado. When you're walking an old dog like Callie the sidewalks are what matter. Her gait has become tenuous and she's always had a problem of snow clumping in her paws so I was expecting at best a short walk with me having to coax her along. Seems it's a good day to throw expectations out the window 'cause she had no problems and seemed to enjoy the stretch.  Cooper, our 1 year old dog who looks like a penguin and was living up to his markings.  Jump in the snow, roll in the snow, walk with your head buried in the snow. Ah youth!

  As a gardener I think expectations is the thing. Denver by it's proximity to the Rocky Mountains gets extreme weather.  The Chamber of Commerce will tell you we get 300 days a year of sunshine and that's close enough to the truth.  They won't mention that our "all weather" airport has closed a few times due to weather and good luck getting there (or out of there) in a December blizzard.  The tornadoes tend to form out on the plains east of Denver but I've seen a micro-burst (the little brother of a tornado) here on the west side.  Chinook winds I've learned are just another name for laying awake all night thinking "jeez will the big ash tree fall on us or will the elm take out the power and the neighbor's house and does our insurance cover that!?"  That 300 days might be a spectacular 80 degree day in February, but geez is it the beginning of a drought? I've heard it said that extreme weather is to be expected with global warming and perhaps that is true.  I will freely admit that I am too dumb to know.  I am agnostic on climate change  ( https://www.thoughtco.com/atheist-vs-agnostic-whats-the-difference-248040 ), and I really think a lot more people should be also! As to Denver's extreme weather it's been that way as long as I've lived here. I just know Denver's weather is tough on trees.
 (I've cued up Don Henley's "End of the innocence" on the stereo I'd offer a youtube link but either copyrights or my dinosaur brain are not allowing me to find the 'album'.  I mention that 'cause as I'm typing about climate change and agnosticism the song "Little Tin God" came on.  Now, I doubt Mr Henley wrote the song with anything close to my twist but I will offer his words none the less as they spurred this tangent.  "You never have to get down on your knees for a little tin god.....If you stop and listen long enough You will hear your own small voice."  There are so many things that seem almost promoted as truth. To know them as truth would truly require a stronger brain than I possess and a life time of study.   It doesn't take too many 'Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction' to get you wondering what else is being used to manipulate public opinion. I have a list of skeptical views that I wonder about. I won't list them here not simply for brevity but because it is so encompassing that it is sure to offend each of you and leave you all sure I'm a whack a noodle. The tough part about being skeptical ends up being believing anything. Which is quite obviously a poor life strategy. The other choice seems to be joining the church of MSNBC or Fox News and thinking "they may not be right about everything but they've got a good choir!"  I will offer that I am currently hung up on my thinking regarding North Korea.

  Ah but we were talking Denver's weather.  One of the aspen trees snapped but any gardener knows you shouldn't plant aspen in Denver (They seem to get fooled into leafing out by 80 degree days - aspens aren't skeptical go figure!) and a medium branch came down from the volunteer tree out by the garage but a vigorous shaking seems to have protected the other small trees.  I'm pretty sure I can kiss fruit from the trees goodbye for this year but if they all make it, that counts as good.  The garden - well, we'll see.  I've managed over the years to develop strategies to lash myself to the proverbial mast to avoid the siren calls of a warm February.  You can start your peas and tomatoes on St Patrick's Day but don't put the tomatoes out till Mother's day!  Repeat this mantra and if necessary buy some seeds till the urge goes away.  Funny thing about buying seeds, it might be a cheap Scottish thing or some Gaia daddy thing, but if I buy seeds I gotta plant 'em.  This means each year my garden grows and yet is always crowded.

  In a desperate attempt to avoid planting something knowing that this storm was coming I've added a rather large bed along the path by our garage.  As much as this makes sense from a variety of gardening perspectives I worry that it is starting to encroach on the grass just a bit.  Grass is a bug a boo to the agriburbia/ eat your yard crowd.  I get the point, but ya gotta put the lawn chair somewhere on those days when the iced tea and a good book call.  I will say that this planting bed was a bit of kismet.  About 2 months ago I happened across some good sized red sandstone blocks on Craigslist free section.  I coulda hauled more but after three loads my little truck and my back said enough.  They've sat on our driveway with no sure place to go.  Now I didn't build the bed with them in mind I swear, but to the stone they edged it perfectly.  Last year's compost piles didn't break down that good due to a dry winter but again they filled the bed just about right. Even the plants.  Ellen and Nathan kindly let me steal some clumps of their strawberry plants which have done so well at the Mennonite garden (thanks guys!)  My hope is that the strawberries will spread and I'm thinking I'll add in asparagus some time in the future. The extra space this year will be filled with my extra tomatoes that came from true Siberian seeds Travis gave me (also thanks!).

  Ruth Stout is a gardening icon. Back in the days before the internet, gardeners would have flame wars in the letters sections of gardening magazines regarding her views on mulching.  I've kept a quote from her above my desk for years.  "People in general don't want to be told what's good for them but they might listen if you tell them something makes less work for them."   She lived into her 90's and I understand she liked to garden in the nude up until the end.  My kinda gal!  I've tried to bend my mind to more mulch and no till over the years it is oddly difficult to practice.  Just seems wrong like I'm not doing what I "should".  Perhaps it's the clothes.  Deb seems OK if I lose the shoes but more than that hmmm. I mention all of this as my YouTube ramblings have "discovered" (about a billion views - so!)  a new iconic video called "Back to Eden".  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rPPUmStKQ4

  Now Joan Baez is singing Oh Happy Days https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHtudIJyCbc and so I'll veer off again to note that my agnosticism on climate change certainly extends to a truer use of the word.  On good days I'm pretty sure there is no God. On crappy days I seem to do a lot of talking to him?!    I mention this because no matter your view of God, the Back to Eden video is worth the time to watch.  I would like to see Ms. Baez and this fellow meet. Perhaps MSNBC and Fox News could actually realize they also agree on alot. Just saying!

  I'm going to try to transition to using more of the Back to Eden method in my garden.  Oddly, the garden in the front yard and the pathways in the back have been mulched with wood chips for years.  This was mostly due to cheapness and the Chinook winds of Lakewood.  I was buying and using nice pretty bags of bark and buying more after the wind sent it somewhere.  Equally oddly the free wood chips from the tree services don't seem to blow away - and even if they do... it's free! The new bed will lend itself to this as it backs onto a path that I was intending to cover with wood chips anyway.  It also opens up the front yard to a bit more veggie gardening mingled with the fruit trees and flowers.  I'll try to keep my expectations down so God and my garden can surprise and delight me.

  The BoDeans are playing "What It Feels Like"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU4nG2b9TNk so even tho' the snow is still coming down gotta boogie!  Doug A.

 P.S. If my good friend Dave (hint hint Dave!) will remember he promised to help me I'm looking to transition this to a freebee blog site. Yeah I realize a modern person would just write this malarkey on Facebook but... Hopefully this would allow those of you who might actually have lives the choice to not go to the link or go when you want readin' time.  And you won't even have to unfriend me;~)  Please remember till this happens delete is a choice - I'll never know - and perhaps more importantly we each don't know how much time we'll have, we do get to choose how we'll spend it!  I suggest gardening.