(Roughly in the order that they appear to us yearly)
1. The pieces of the 7 inch base of ice on our driveway begins to break off and melt.
(This year our oldest helped it along with our sledgehammer)
2. Our kids start to wear shorts
(and walk outside barefoot – “Kids! Get back in here!”)
3. Removal of the Christmas Wreath
(we are wise enough to remove the pumpkin while it is still frozen)
4. The large body of melted water 50′ by 40′ in our back yard begins to form.
(We have entitled it Lake JamFam – the kids go slide around on it)
5. Warm Enough weather to go on our first picnic.
(The Ten Month Battle to beat last year’s picnic record begins)
6. Maple Sap Buckets on the trees
(And boiling sap on the porch)
7. Seed Planting is begun!
(In preparation for square foot gardening)
8. Our neighbor replaces his flags (including a US Flag and a Marines Flag)
(This isn’t done yet – they are looking pretty ragged)
9. Jamsco begins to wonder if the lawnmower will work after a winter of not being used.
(Should I get it to the repair shop now?)
10. Lake JamFam finally begins to recede.
(So we can finally get to our camper trailer again)
What are signs of spring at your home?
The Responsible Puppet 
9 comments
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March 30, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Debbie
Is our lake really only 50 inches by 40 inches? It seems to take up most of the back yard!
March 30, 2009 at 4:23 pm
jamsco
Feet! I mean Feet! Here, I’ll fix it.
March 30, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Sean
We start to hear the ice cream truck around 7 pm this time of year. Although, my wife sly-ly calls it the “music truck”. Our daughter hasn’t figured it out that there is ice cream inside yet. 🙂
March 31, 2009 at 8:35 am
Chris
Sean, your wife is a genius!
We used to get so much water in our backyard at our old house that we’d get ducks paddling around in it, and we lived in the city! We kept quiet about it so that the environmental protections people wouldn’t designate it a wetland and stop us from putting in drain tile, which solved the problem. (The previous owner said that the big maple tree would take up all the excess water they got in the spring, but it didn’t really work.)
Now that we are farther south (6 hours), everything blooms a month earlier–forsythia, daffs, etc. Those are my favorite signs of spring, and the little birds that come and nest in our birdhouses.
March 31, 2009 at 9:23 am
abigailsleftovers
How do I know spring is on the way? All the flower beds that I didn’t clean out properly last fall (but instead thought, oh the snow will cover them soon enough) reveal themselves to the world.
March 31, 2009 at 9:24 am
Chris
I was interrupted earlier and didn’t get to say how happy I am that we are not the only ones who remove our Christmas wreath just before Easter:)
As I have been thinking about signs of spring, I’m realizing that I’m pretty oblivious to all but flowers and birds. I’ll have to be more observant to other signs.
March 31, 2009 at 10:26 am
Chris
Oh, yes! the ground hog sightings as we drive to church on Lisburn Road. When the kids were younger they counted them. The record is either 39 or somewhere in the lower forties, depending on who you ask.
March 31, 2009 at 11:42 am
jamsco
Sean, I also appreciate your wife’s slyness.
February 24, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Sara Shull
It’s true. In Minnesota we set our own standards for what constitutes a sign of Spring! We’ve got one of those lakes in our yard. It appears in what we call “The Orchard” (Thus it is called “The Pond in the Orchard” and a smaller one in another area they call “The SOS pond” for some reason. Usually our kids start venturing out barefoot onto the wooden deck on sunny “Spring” days like today because the ice melts there first. But this year the ice is SO think on the deck we’re going to have to wait a bit longer.