The Anticipation of Mud Pies

It has been a very cold and snowy winter here in the Pocono Mountains. Right about this time of year we all get the winter blues, cabin fever or just a plain old itch to get outside. Well I am happy to report that we will get some relief from old man winter here this week. The next few days we will see temperatures rise up to 60 degrees. There has been a blanket of that white stuff called snow, 8 to 12 inches deep, on my front lawn since the beginning of the new year. At the start of February the snow gave way to back to back sleet storms. The storms left a thick shell of smooth slick ice that has befuddled my poor dogs for the last two weeks. They slip slide and scurry along the surface like something out of a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Every once and a while they might find a weakness in the shell and suddenly drop 6 to 8 inches and then look at me as though I had sprung open a trap door.

My kids have enjoyed all of the winter seasons splendor this year from snow tubbing, skating, snowman building, snow ball fighting, igloo building, sledding snow angels, icicles, the beauty of seeing the snow on the trees, teasing each other about eating yellow snow, hoping for school closings, delayed openings, taking their little cousins outside, and coming back inside to a warm fire and a hot cup of cocoa, you name it they have done it, and now they want spring.

By Friday the ground here will start to thaw and all but the hardest snow packs will have melted away. This will start my yearning for one of my favorite times of the year... MUD PIE SEASON!!! I have a lifetime love affair with the mud pie time of year. There are plenty of times in the Summer and Autumn where it rains and nature gives us plenty of opportunities to mess around in the mud. But there is no time, as great as the first warm days of spring, after a long winter to get outside and muck around in the mud.



If your kids are bike riding age then you can put them outside and they will be dirty before they know it. If you have younger cave boys they may take some coaxing to get all dirty since their moms have probably been telling them to stay clean their whole lives. My wife is pro-kids-outside but she is very anti-mud-inside. We have a front foyer in our house that is affectionately called the MUD ROOM, where we kick off our dirty shoes and hang up coats and sometimes have to shed pants in an effort to not track mud all though the house. In warmer temps you can feel free to spray your kids down with a garden hose and let them dry in the sun. The important thing is to have fun.

Fun starts with the traditional mud pie, or as I like to call it, Nature's Play Dough. There really isn't an older form of sculpture than making things outta mud. You can bring out your cave boys artistic ability and his imagination just by saying build me a mud car. For some cave boys you might have to be more active, like throwing a ball into some mud and letting dive on it like its an NFL fumble. I know where I grew up, the kids in my neighborhood loved to play football, soccer, kickball even tag if it meant we got to go outside and play on the sloppy field in the park across the street from my childhood home. If you have a super playful little Bam-Bam and a lot of perfect mud then you can try the Woodstock Woosh. The W.W.1 is a tribute to those rabble-rousing  60's kids who were not only lovers of music, but also of mud. They can be seen in the old Woodstock footage sliding down hills of gushy brown mud in their underwear. HINT DADS: Only try the woosh in really warm weather.

One thing is for sure, you won't need a tour guide or your credit card or a fancy spa for your backyard mud bath. We just need the end of winter and the gradual warming temperatures of spring time. I know its only February, but here in the Poconos were ready for natures rebirth  We are ready for pitchers and catchers to report, ice to melt, flowers to bud, birds to come home, and ground to soften.We love living where there are 4 seasons to our year but, boy sometimes I wish I could decide how long each one lasted.

Happy Spelunking
The Caveman