Whoever takes six years between posts?

Real Spring is late this year. April 15 and snow flurries greeted me as I went out to milk and check my girls. A welcome harbinger is the blue heron in the shallow water of mid-tide on the ‘front’ beach, but she is not reliable. Last year we didn’t even see her until July, which, we figured, was after her nesting. We will have our own birds this summer...for as long as we can keep delectable blue egg laying hens alive in the eagle, osprey, owl, mink capitol of the island. I am belling one of the two adult goats to see if the gentle noise on the wind deters the predators. Cassie will wear a Swiss bronze bell that should let me know where my girls have wandered to find the not yet existent new growth to forage. This August marks the end of our ninth year on the island. For the last two ‘spring’ seasons I have been lettering the transoms and cove striping of wooden boats, mostly sailboats, one notable lobster boat. This job, more than anything I have done here identifies me as a true islander, not born here, of course, but established as really here. The Yacht Yard is the best place I have ever worked outside of home.