This past Feb-Mar has been the warmest since I've been here. Last year it was darn cold.

A few years ago, `09 I think, we had a long warm spell in early March and all the trees budded out and then leafed out. Then we had an ice storm and hard freeze for a few days after and all the leaves died and fell off.

In mid April there were no leaves on any of the hardwoods and in was pretty ugly. I mean, Spring is just beautiful here, but without the trees being leafed out it was ugly. Most of them did come back and leaf out by mid-May, but it kind of felt like the best part of Spring was lost that year.

All the trees are leafing out right now here. Our Crabapple tree started leafing out before it even bloomed, but it still bloomed in spectacular fashion this year.

Things are growing so fast here right now you can watch the forest close in around you. Really, you can, and it's pretty amazing when you take the time to see it.
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