Good Day Folks,

Aunt Eunice here. By the end of the day, spring will officially have sprung though it is a bit nippy at Quiet Valley. March 20, 2019 marks the spring equinox, the first official day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. This day is unique in that the length of day and night are close to equal, NASA explains. Spring equinox doesn’t always fall on March 20, but it still marks a brand new season.

According to CBS News, Equinox means “equal night” in Latin. And on the autumnal and spring equinox there are equal parts day and night. The Earth’s orbit puts it in just the right place so that it’s lined up with the sun. On the equinox, which happens twice a year, both hemispheres receive the same amount of daylight. While the spring equinox occurs in the Northern Hemisphere, the autumnal equinox is occurring in the Southern Hemisphere.

The spring equinox could occur on March 19, 20 or 21, depending on the year. Six months later, the autumnal equinox will occur.

A final winter activity, Maple Sugaring Day, took place on the farm this past Saturday and we had a nice crowd that came out to learn how to make maple syrup from tapping the tree to the finished product. Aunt Eunice was there helping though sometimes it seemed I was mostly helping myself to those wonderful pancakes and syrup! It was a nice sunny day, a bit cool when the wind would blow, but it was good to be outside.

April is almost here so May can’t be far behind. Farm Animal Frolic is Quiet Valley’s first major event of the year always taking place Memorial weekend and the weekend before. It’s my job to organize it and I have already started contacting volunteers. I am also planning the various activities that will take place. Lots of great things will be happening besides meeting our adorable baby animals.

New to Frolic this year is the U.S. Detachment of Engineers Civil War reenactors who will be encamped on the farm from Saturday May 18 to Sunday May 19. They will be happy to explain about their group and the map making they do. Also new this year is the PA WoodMobile coming on Saturday May 25 to show us what trees grow in our state and what can be done with them.

On Saturday May 18 the Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation Center will be coming again and bringing some local wildlife out with two presentations, one at 12:30 and one at 2:00. On Saturday May 25 Margaret Quinn will shear our sheep with manual shears, a very interesting demonstration. The spinners and weavers will also be in attendance doing a sheep to shawl demonstration. Wool freshly sheared from a sheep will be spun and then woven the same day into a shawl. The shawl will be raffled off at our Christmas event in December.

Now that spring has sprung it won’t be long until we are open to the public. I invite you to come out to our wonderful farm museum and see what we do here. I would love to meet you.

Thanks for checking in and hope to see you soon. Aunt Eunice