Field and Garden: Is your sump pump ready for spring?

During a miserable stretch of weather several winters ago, I asked my friend Earl Hepworth if he thought spring would ever arrive.

Ninety-three-year-old Earl looked at me and said, “Well, it always has.”

My friend’s words encourage me that spring will come, even if it’s not as soon as I would like. But as temperatures warm, conditions are likely to remain challenging.

Satellite images indicate tha...