Mud season I

Mudseason is upon us. Making the difficult morning shuffle even more insane. Up at 5:50, still slithering out of bed with a 33 month old baby taking up more than his fair share of the Cali King bed. Coffee, dogs out , fire stoked, teeth brushed, splash face with cold water. Awake. Kids up, breakfast, clothes , hair , teeth, dogs shut into back porch, so they don't follow us. Mud boots, rain gear, and thankfully frozen muddy ground. We put lunches and backpacks for the three of us in the side saddle containers and a crate my husband attached to the front. All three of us on the 4-wheeler. Sophia 7 sits back snugging her brother in tight. Gloves on, push button, play with throttle, pump gas repeat a good ten times and she starts! We are off! We don't go faster than 10mph it is very rutted although frozen, some ruts 2.5 deep, don't get suck into this class 4 mud rapid on the right. Two moose on the left, Thomas yells "Baby Moose, Mama Look!" . Get sucked into the rut, but it's still frozen so I squeeze the gas, my fingers frozen and hurt ,figures I forget my gloves after spending several minutes getting each little finger into the little guys gloves. And there is my car! Much easier and faster than walking. This afternoon we will walk it so I can get a better feel where the lines are to drive it. Fun, fun, bring on mud season, agravated moose and silty stains that are impossible to remove. But the reward will be a gorgeous and green month of May, and our souls alittle stronger for surviving another North Idaho winter and mud season.