Banishing mounds of reluctant winter .... a how to guide... ´¯`*•.¸¸✿♥✿¸¸•*`¯`

As our 2014 May Day Celebration approaches... (May 10th, 11 AM to 5:30 PM), we have a small dilemma happening here.  With the winter from Siberia finally winding down, the wake of the the winter has left mammoth mounds of frozen snow.  It just so happens that these mammoth mounds are strategically situated in areas that will be used during the event. With seventeen days to go, nerves are getting worn with worry that it won't be gone.  What's a person to do?
  One area of concern is where several exhibitors will be placing their canopies and setting out their crafts, so too there will be some Tarot Readers doing the same, in this area.  Right now there is a good 3 feet of snow existing quite happily.  Yikes.  One other area of deep concern is the parking spots for show coordinators.  There is 4 feet of snow reluctantly melting slowly. Ye gads!
  Our creative son dove into his 'junque pile' of hoarded cast offs and pulled out a pump, some hose and 3 batteries.  Hooked the batteries together then to the pump, and hose.  He placed the hose in the creek, and attached the batteries to the pump and also to an old ratty sprinkler.  Walla! It worked, and he is now sprinkling the heaped snow with water and thus melting the mound!  The other, larger mound is further from the creek and posed a problem of removal... until I grabbed the garden shovel and tore into that mass mound of reluctant winter!  I am basically UNSHOVELING the snow!  And it's working!  It's work, but I can use the exercise, so it's a good thing in many ways.
  One problem... I had yesterday.  I went into the studio breathing hard and with sweaty brow and thought I would rest and make a necklace and matching earrings.  I happen to be at an age now, that glasses are needed to do anything with jewelry... grrrrrrr.  Oh well, it is what it is..  Anyway, I didn't get far with my crimping tool because my glasses fogged up and I couldn't see what the heck I was doing!  So I had to cool off before I could get any jewelry work done.  I did, and also made a nice dent in the dang monster mound.
  So you see where there is snow, there is a way, more than one way actually, to get rid of the stuff.  We are confident that it will be well gone before May 10th, with no testament of what was there, nowhere  to be seen.

Hosing the snow!

Unshoveling the Mound!

  Hope you can come to this years May Celebration.  Not only is it a benefit for the Petoskey Women's Resource Center Safe House, we have some talented and lively music lined up for all day toe tapping.  There will be 22 exhibitors showing their handmade art, jewelry, fabric creations, carved wood art, herbs, live plants, lotions, soaps, candles, Tarot Readers, psychics, mediums, Faerie art, Reiki Healers, unique vintage items, and the best Taco's on the 45th parallel.  You will have the opportunity to weave the ribbons around the May Pole and participate in an Earth Healing Ritual.  How can welcoming Spring get any better than that?  Just bring a donation for the Women's Resource Center, a love offering for the bands, and enough money to buy a gourmet taco or two, and some fine crafts.  The Jordan Valley is rocking in the growing season with all the right things this year.  Oh yeah, don't forget that Mother's Day is May 11th, you can buy her a great gift right here.  May I also suggest that if you shop in our humble store, Sacred Sparks, we happily gift wrap our jewelry and unique treasures in a wonderful, sparkly way.  Just sayin'...
  I'm off to "Unshovel" some more snow... Later......

A Bright Sun is rising!

I know, 'so what's so big about that?', you ask?  Well, here in Northern Michigan, as with other areas about the country, this 2014 Winter is reluctant to let go of our lives.  Sunshine is a welcome thing for raising our depressed spirits and promising some temps that may melt some of what we just received on top of the lingering deep piles. 
  Yes, winter has overtaken our lives like nothing else.  We, here at Sacred Sparks, have been working full time on, may I say the word 'survival', and not sound too dramatic? 
Of course, you might know, because of the past mild winters and making it through with excess wood for heating, we backed off last year, waited till October to start gathering.  Very bad idea!  Mid October brought us rain, normal, of course for autumn, but once the rain started, if forgot to quit!  In fact it was having such a grand time, the rains decided that a continuous deluge was better that sporadic!  Over 20 inches of rain fell over the course of mid October to mid November, making it pretty impossible to venture onto hilly inclines to cut downed tree tops, (this years gift from a neighbor friend).  So, ultimately we were caught short on wood for heat.  Now it's April, the heating season is normally winding down... NOT the case for 2014!  We have learned a valuable lesson the hard way. 
  The constant scramble to remain warm has been an overpowering, totally consuming time issue here.  Thus leaving us short on all the other things we normally do.  Such as, creating art, building a new chicken coop, doing minor repairs that we saved for winter tasks.  
  All this behind thing has left us short and stressed... add that to the never ending winter... we, as well as everyone we know are truly stretched to our limits of remaining calm, cool and collected!  Yet, we try, succumb, acclimate and continue on, with the ever going hope that soon Spring will finally break from her chains of Winter's grasp.  We look for the little signs, that will grow into bigger and better signs of a new, warmer season to wrap it's fragrant verdant arms around us all. 
  Just had to get that out of the way. We will be busy this coming year, prepping for 2 winter's worth of fire wood! My next post will be much sunnier I promise.  The Sun is shining today with a promise of some melting.  That is a good thing!