Oh spring, where for art thou?

Thursday, March 20 was the Vernal Equinox, the official first day of spring. Except in Ely, Minnesota. Here we’ve just about given up on spring.
Monday was the last day to get fish houses off of area lakes. Never mind that there’s still two or three or four feet of snow on area lakes.
From what we can tell, those fish house folks had their work cut out for them. Or they literally had to cut their fish houses up in order to get them out.
There was a fish house on Miners Lake this year that had a trailer mounted to the side of it. Pull it out on to the lake with a wheeler then tip the house on its side. Brilliant.
But when there were feet of snow to go through to get it off the lake, a new plan had to be thought up. So the ingenious fish house builder rigged up two heavy duty plastic sleds that held the wheels. The house was tipped and pulled off the lake with a snowmobile. More brilliance.
We just need to figure out a way to get to summer, and soon.
At the grocery store the checkout clerk was musing about the current state of the outdoors. She didn’t mention snow or ice or slush or leaking roofs.
“I miss the smell of dirt,” she said.
Now that’s tough to argue with.
Last year on the fishing opener in May, there was a snowmobile riding around Burntside Lake, on the ice. People ice fished on May 11.
The Ely Echo iceout contest is in full swing and there’s a fair share of pessimists submitting their entries. April is fine. May is okay. But June? And August? Seriously?
Our advice is to sit down this weekend with a seed catalog and plan out your summer garden. Pick out what you’d like to plant and harvest later this summer.
You may not smell the dirt, but at least you would be in the right state of mind.