Gearing up for spring

Yesterday was the official first day of spring but signs of spring have been everywhere.
Back on March 14, one could see slush holes opening up on the Rainy River in front of the main street in Emo. By Thursday afternoon from that same street view, the river was open as far as the eye could see to the east and already had passed the dock located on Front Street.
The river will continue marching westward and early open-water walleye fishing on the river soon will commence.
Meanwhile, the first seagulls have returned to Rainy Lake and already were squawking on the ice in Sand Bay having returning from their wintering grounds.
The slow snow melt has made for a drier spring and already the ice-caked sidewalks have forfeited their sheets of ice in favour of solid concrete and large pools of water blocked from flowing off onto the streets and into the storm sewers.
The highways are dry and the streets are drying up. The gravel roads are clearing of snow.
The rich black earth on the north side of the highway again is creeping out from under the snow. New fields are being cleared and brush is being piled high to be burned.
The natural gas pipeline is being repaired along its route from Rainy River to Fort Frances, and backhoes are moving across the frozen bush and lowlands to reach repair sites.
The warmth over the weekend now is exposing all the maple leaves that fell after the first snowfall of last October. In more normal years, all of those leaves would have been raked, bagged, and hauled to the landfill.
The thick salt and sand build-up on my boulevard will require lots of work to rediscover the grass when all the snow has disappeared.
Driving back from Duluth on Saturday afternoon, loggers have forwarded all their tree-length wood from the bush to be close to highways. Locally, cutters are operating at night when everything freezes over to get their wood to solid logging roads to be able to deliver fibre to mills during the full spring thaw.
Small creeks and rivers have begun to flow once again.
The west end of the district is coming alive. Truckloads of boats have been clearing customs, making their way to boat dealers across Northwestern Ontario.
The Emo Chamber of Commerce already is planning its annual “Spring Fever Days” for April 19-21. Boat shows are being planned. In the next week, the crew at Emo Feed will move across Canning Lane to their new facilities.
Everyone is gearing up for spring.