This is the time of year when, at least up here in the northern Rockies, we are teased by a few warm days and tempted to get the seeds in the ground and joyfully wait for rampant green growth everywhere. A few things are in, but it will be awhile before cold nights give way to the kindness of warm ground.
Of course, this all started months ago, when mom gets through the dead of winter with seed catalogs and the warming promise they offer.
She plans gardens, finds intriguing heirloom varieties, starts ‘way too many tomato and pepper seeds.
And we order many trees. 
We have planted trees as long as I can remember, and I’d say the boss has been planting here with other helpers long before me. Now the little boys help out too.
It is always good to have help digging the holes
There are apples, pears, plums, all kinds of berries, and evergreens, mock orange, roses.
This year we have added more apples, replacing the favored Frostbite that was girdled and murdered by voles. Every year now, as she gets older, the boss tells me we will add no more trees.
Every year, we add a few.
She added a row of tough, hardy pears. There are 6 more butternuts, a few oaks, enough conifers to start our own Christmas tree plantation, I think. 
There is a plan and a place for them all, but I don’t know why she likes putting in so many. Planting trees is a lot of work.
Sometimes, it is necessary to sit in the shade of an old oak and read a book.
Here is a good one: The Man Who Planted Trees :https://amzn.to/3sDc2Uc
And another classic, A Sand County Almanac: https://amzn.to/3wtbaT5
Tree planting is nearly done for the year. We plant them early, usually in snow, but of course, we did just wake up to snow this week. 
The planted love the wet, cold weather. The planters, not so much.
And more often, we have blessed rain. 
We fight off voles and deer, another part of my job. I monitor watering and I fertilize sometimes, too. Many grow, some rapidly shoot up and others painfully hang on, slowly fighting for their spot on the ranch. Some succumb to too much wind, drought, deer, voles or other brutal difficulties of life.
With every plant, we bury sorrow and worry in the hole, waiting with faith and hope for the reward. We plant for others, mom tells me; we reach optimistically into the future when we carefully put them in the ground.
It is both sad and satisfying when each new tree is safely settled into fresh dirt. I know we will never sit in the shade of this years saplings, maybe never pick the fruit. It is optimistic, generous, brave to plant a gift far into the future. 
Maybe someday, Sprout and his brother – and their grandchildren – will pick butternuts, apples, pears on these hills.
Perhaps those we will never know will find sustenance from this Holy ground.
For now, I follow mom , with her shovel and bucket of trees, in a slow and quiet pursuit. Ours is purposeful focused, patient work.
The feel of the cool earth under my paws. Resting in the shade of a bigger, older tree. 
I hear coming up soon, is National Cheese Week, of all things. Maybe it is cheese month or highlighting one variety of cheese. There is a chance to celebrate everything, although I’m not sure I’ve heard of a National Tree Planters Day – I would be the poster dog for that, I tell you!
But regarding cheese, I’m a bit of a connoisseur. When I first arrived here, I admit I liked McCheeseburgers, but I have certainly refined my tastes since. My predecessor, the great Ladysmith, only ate Tillamook Vintage White Cheddar, and of course the many cheeses mom makes.
I have more common tastes and recognize the rattle of cheese wrap from a sound sleep; I will come running and expect a generous taste of everything from cheese sticks to my favorite Colby-Jack.
When I sample her delicacies, I have to watch the Heeler expressions; the wrong side eye and I won’t get any more.
There may be some outstanding cheese in the future and I don’t want to lose my special status as official taste tester.
Making cheese is kind of like planting trees. There are many careful steps, patience and waiting. Like the garden we will plant when the frost is finally gone, produce will come in its own time.
But like the trees, some take much longer. Look forward with patience, because most things worth having aren’t instant. It takes time for good things to grow.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” – Galatians 6:9
