Wishing for springy weather

Still snowy... so no gardening yet. :( Although I have been researching a lot for when the snow is gone, and I can plant. One of the things I've been looking into is hugelkultur, which means hill culture or hill mound. It's a no-dig raised bed filled with cut branches, has excellent drainage, provides extra planting space, and seems like the perfect plan! Chris and I trimmed up all the trees in the front section of our forest so they would not be full of ticks come summer, and we thought we'd have to rent a chipper to take care of all the branches. This way we actually use some of them, and even if we do still need a chipper, the job will be quicker.
The boys had their library story hour today, and since there are only a few classes left and Gus is almost four anyway, Miss Mary said he could join the big kids in the hour-long kindergarten style class. I stayed close just in case August got freaked out, but he did great and loved it. I got a bunch of knitting time, and we didn't have to get there at 9:30. Afterward, we walked in the beautiful falling snow to Cabin Creek Coffee and got coffee and muffins.

Spring Break so far

We are completely snowed in today. The snow started last night and I think we have about 8 inches so far. The wind is making deep piles against the house and cars. Everything is shut down except the airport, so Chris still had to go to work. He took my car since it does better in the snow. The chickens are hiding inside and have not laid any eggs. They are probably just as sick of the snow as us!
This morning I used the last of the raw milk to make mozzarella. It was getting sour, which is actually called clabbered milk, and isn't rotten or bad like pasteurized milk when it goes beyond the best by date. It is still good for you and can be used for lots of things, although I'm not fond of the taste or smell when drinking it straight. It kind of reminds me of previously frozen and defrosted breast milk. I gave the leftover whey to the chickens since it is supposed to be good for them and was still nice and warm. I haven't tried the cheese yet but it looks good!
This past weekend Chris had three days off, so we decided to spend the weekend in Frankenmuth since we've been wanting to go back and explore and go to Bronner's when it's not Christmas and completely overrun. Bronner's is a 361-days-a-year Christmas store. We tried to book a room at the Drury Inn, which is our favorite hotel chain, but they didn't have any of their bigger rooms available, and none of the other hotels had any either. So we booked a room at the Drury Inn about an hour south of Frankenmuth in Troy MI. Its just outside of Detroit and we hadn't been to that area of the state yet, but we have tickets to go to a baseball game near there in a few weeks, and this would work as a scope the area trip. We were going to try and go to Bronner's still, but since it was Easter weekend, it was closed on Sunday when we were driving past on the way home. It was still a fun trip, and the kids enjoyed going to an aquarium and swimming in the pool. I got to shop at Trader Joe's, which we don't have up here. Bridget stayed with our friends, Dave and Sara.