Mariton: Some Perspective

by Tim Burris, Preserve Manager

I thought that this was the winter that wouldn’t stop, but this week helped put things in perspective.  I started mowing Mariton’s meadows on Monday.  This has been an annual ritual at the end of March for over 20 years.  When you spend a couple days going around the fields with a tractor and brush hog you have plenty of time to think.

There was still a little snow in the fields, and more in the woods.  Of course, as I mowed I recalled other years when there was snow at the bottom of the fields.  On Tuesday, I started early and finished before the rain.  The rain turned to snow before day’s end  and actually coated the ground.   In years past, I have mowed through snow squalls.   This year I was bundled up with four layers, heavy mittens, and a wool cap.  In the past more often than not, I wore insulated coveralls over all of that to stay warm.  We often get some shirt sleeve weather in March (not this year), but I have never mowed the meadows in shirt sleeves.

With twenty years of brush hogging the fields, I remember some warmer years.  However the cold years are the ones that stick in my mind, and there were quite a few.  Going around the fields I watched Bluebirds checking out the nest boxes and was reminded that April always follows March mowing, and is always warmer.