It's Official

     We have officially declared the arrival of spring in our neck of the woods.  However, we don't look for the usual signs of spring.  We know that when we see a robin, it only means that the little critters have made the trek back home.  We saw robins months ago, and consequently, they had to trudge around in the snow like the rest of us.
     My dad used to tell us that when you first smell a skunk, that is the first sign that spring has arrived, but I saw one (and smelled it) along the highway awhile ago, and it sure didn't feel like spring outside.  In fact, we had another foot of snow a week later.
     I used to think that when I heard thunder from a storm, then, that was the sure sign that spring had arrived. Well, we had something very unusual this year, thunder snow.  Weird..........and very deceiving.
     We heard the reports from the far away country of Punxsutawney that spring was supposed to arrive early this year.  Yeah, we wanted to skin us some groundhog, too.
      No, I saw it just the other day. The first, real, sure sign that spring has arrived:

     Yep, it's official! Spring has arrived. It has finally become warm enough that the tractors have been pulled out of the sheds, the farmers have emerged from their hibernation and the fields are buzzing with activity.

  

     Can you smell it? Inhale deeply and drink in that fresh scent of newly turned up soil mingled with the essence of diesel and anhydrous ammonia.  If you bottled it, you could probably sell it and call it "eau d' tractor".  Ahhh, spring has officially arrived...........but you'll get that  in a small town.