Spring has finally arrived!

This week up here in the frozen north country, spring finally came!  We had temps in the upper 60's, the snow is melting, and life is starting to become normal again.  We are finished with the maple syrup, as the sap is no longer running.  (Maple sap needs freezing overnight temps, and daytime temps above freezing).  For the past few nights, it never got to freezing.   We are all MORE than ready for good weather!  Everyone is done with winter.  Really done.  We ended up with about 4 gallons of finished syrup and put into pints that is about 32 pints of syrup. 

Here is a photo of our Belgian horse Dick wandering around the yard looking for some green grass to eat and just enjoying the fact that there is less snow.  As you can see, the driveway isn't as muddy, so I can park my little car by the house now.  We just have small areas of snow here and there.  Later this week, I will post an article about our new bees.  Friday we are going to go and pick up some nucs (bees plus a queen plus brood).   The birds are all back, singing, my farm cats are all over the place hunting, and we even have a couple new kittens.   I don't want to disturb Mama Cat just yet, but I will post photos of new kittens later on.

Our Belgian horse Dick walking in the yard

Making Maple Syrup Part 2

Today we are evaporating again.   We have already finished a gallon or two of final product and we will be boiling most of the day.  It's 34 degrees outside, but in the sun it feels warmer.  This weekend our snow should melt because the weather guys are predicting temps near 70 (if you can believe those guys!).  The sap will be running today big time.  Today I show you how we measure the syrup with a hydrometer in a special measuring device that Harold made.   There's a red line on the hydrometer to show you when the syrup is finished. (59 brix when hot).  We need to filter the finished syrup and let the niter settle out before reheating and bottling.  Our maple camp may look a little messy and muddy, but everything we need is there - a bucket to sit on, trays for tools and utensils, thermos of coffee, rags, etc.   We keep adding sap until we run out of it, and we keep taking off the finished syrup from the front spigot.   The first maple syrup of the season is usually a little lighter than towards the end, and the photo of the spoonful of finished syrup shows the color of the early syrup.   But it is really nice and sweet this year!  (It better be - after all our work!)  We will make as much as we can before the trees bud out and the sap becomes weird tasting and bitter.

Using a hydrometer to measure brix of syrup 

Close up of hydrometer 

 

 

 

Messy and muddy, but functioning maple camp

Adding more sap

Unfiltered finished product

A spoonful of finished syrup - sweet and tasty!

Raccoons in the Chicken House

So Harold goes to collect eggs the other day around supper time and close up the chicken house for the night.  As he puts his hand into the nesting box to gather the eggs, he feels fur!   Oops, that's not a chicken!  He bends down and peers into the nesting box and a pair of big raccoon eyes is staring back at him!   And the raccoon is making weird noises.   After the initial shock, Harold just picked up the whole box, raccoon and all, and dumps it outside.   The raccoon ran off.   We usually get about 14 eggs a day, and there were only 6 left, so Mr. Raccoon apparently had a real feast eating eggs.   Not good.

We remembered that we always put a radio in the garden 24/7 to keep raccoons away from our corn crop.  We put the radio on a nice talk radio station, and the sound of a human voice makes the raccoons think there is somebody in the garden and they stay away.   So we decided to try putting a radio in the chicken house!   Harold hung it from the ceiling and covered it lightly with a plastic bag to keep dust out.  So far so good!   The raccoons think somebody is in there talking!  Those egg-eating stinkers are leaving the eggs alone! Of course the chickens have to listen to talk radio from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.  Wonder if listening to Rush, Sean H and Glen Beck will make all our hens good Republicans,  savvy about politics and the economy?  hee hee!   Hopefully it won't stress the girls out.

Mud Season

With all the snow we had this year, the mud season is really bad - and will probably get worse.  Our road is almost impossible to drive on.  If it were not for the 4WD truck we would never get around, and even the truck slips and slides around on our deeply rutted dirt roads.  Ah!  The "joys" of living in the boonies on unpaved roads!  The snow is beginning to melt, and we're supposed to get rain tomorrow, so the mud will probably get deeper.   We're all waiting for spring to come, even the cats are anxious for things to get normal again.  I guess we really shouldn't complain, though.  Lots of folks in this country are dealing with flooding.  We are still very blessed if the only thing we have to worry about is a little mud.  Here's what we're looking at for road conditions.

Totally filthy truck (but it gets us around)

Our parking spot (boots required!)

Driveway is a little rough

Six of our 12 farm cats, waiting for?? (spring? food? mice? warm temps and green grass?)

By the way, you all know that if you click on a photo, you can see it in larger format.  Right?

Evaporating sap today!

It's a good sunny day today, the sap is running and we have cranked up the furnace and evaporator and we are boiling maple sap as of noon!  We will be boiling sap all day long and by this evening we should have the "near syrup" which we will store in large stainless steel stock pans to work with on Monday.   But today we'll just be piling wood into the furnace, skimming off foam with a strainer, boiling away, and gathering more sap.   We store the sap in the large stainless steel 250 gallon bulk tank to the left of the furnace.  We tarp it at night to keep dirt and critters out.  Before we put the sap into the evaporator, we strain it through a fine mesh strainer.  All day long we will sit and watch things boil, drink plenty of coffee, eat cookies, and listen to the Canadian geese and Trumpeter Swans flying over.  It's a wonderful life!!

I have tried to get these photos in the right order, but I seem to be having a problem today with this.   But you'll get the idea.  Harold made the furnace and the evaporator by himself a number of years ago. 

This year we lined the furnace with firebrick tiles

2013 Maple Camp

There's smoke in the stack! 

Sap is boiling in the evaporator

A nice boil

Still snowing..........

Would you believe we got even more snow today?   Not a lot, maybe an inch between yesterday and today, but it's almost depressing.  It's a heavy, wet snow and the temps are right around freezing, so the roads are extremely muddy and difficult to drive on.   We took my little car (Toyota Echo) to a friend's house because she lives on a paved road.   We use our big 4WD truck (i.e. the big gas hog) to go back and forth to her house and then get my car and drive where we need to go, and then drive back to her house, leave my care there,  and get back into the truck and slog around in the mud to drive home.   I think the mud season will go on for another month.

Usually around this time we are getting the garden soil ready and tilling up the ground.  I always start my seedlings inside and this year I even got a late start.  But look at how big my tomatoes are already!   The plants are about 12 inches or more tall.   Not sure what I should do.   Maybe trim them?

Growing tomatoes in the living room

Check out this photo from exactly one year ago.  We had blossoms on our Nanking cherry trees, and bees on the blossoms!   Not this year, that's for sure!  What a difference a year makes!

In 2012 bees were on cherry trees on this date in April!

Well, at least our chickens are still happy.   And still laying plenty of eggs.   We have a few "rainbow layers", Australorpes and Araucanas, that lay a light blue egg.   Most of our other hens are Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds.  Here is today's egg gathering:

We are hoping to gather maple sap tomorrow if the sun comes out.  Today was cloudy and snowing and the sap didn't run.   If all goes well, we plan to fire up the evaporator on Saturday and I will post photos of our progress.

It's STILL Snowing!!!

The snow is still falling..............and we're supposed to get another 2 to 4 inches.  Will it ever end?  Will spring ever come?  Maybe we will have blizzard warnings in July?  No gathering sap today - too cold for the sap to run.  A good day to catch up on indoor chores.   The Never Ending Winter can stop any day now.

Our dismal driveway

Tapping Maple Trees

Drilling a hole for the tap

After weeks of waiting for the sap to run, we had no choice but to go out and tap trees today.  The snow is very deep in the woods and getting around is difficult, as you sink in about 2 feet.  Sometimes you can walk on top for a step or two, only to sink 2 ft down on the next step!   But, if we want any maple syrup at all this year, we have to do it!  The daytime temps are above freezing (not by much) and freezing at night, and so that means the sap is running.   We tapped about 50 trees with much work this morning.  In a good year with little to no snow, we can tap about 200 trees.   We hope to tap more if the snow melts a little.   We need a good warm rain!  The photos below show the process of tapping.  We use stainless steel taps, and new clear heavy plastic bags that we fold into shape and hang via a grommet on a 3 inch screw.  At the end of the season we toss the bags, wash out the taps in boiling water and we're ready for next year.  Due to Harold's cancer, we were not able to make syrup the last 2 years, but he is feeling better now and so we are going to give it a try!   Some of the bags from yesterday are already almost full, so we will have to go the route again and dump the sap into our bulk tank for holding until we can boil on Wednesday.  Harold plans to make a type of sled to haul around the sap buckets on.  With all the work it takes THIS year to make syrup, I think the finished product will be selling for "about 100 bucks an ounce" !  Ha!

Sinking up to my knees in snow

Two helpful cats Spitfire and Skunker

One of yesterday's bags about half full of sap (about a gallon)

Hammering in the tap

Collecting Dutch

Everyone who knows me is well aware of my passion for collecting "all things Dutch".  For more than 35 years I have accumulated various colorful pieces of chalk-ware, wall hangings, pictures, windmills, tablecloths, dishes, and odds and ends - all vintage pieces from the 1950's when all of this was very popular.  My kitchen is certainly a colorful place with all the reds, blues, yellows and pinks of these items.  People always ask me "Why do you like Dutch things?  Aren't you Polish? How did you get started on the idea?"  I think it all stems from the early 1950's when my parents took me to the Tulip Festival in Holland Michigan.  Those trips always impressed me so much, and I loved the tulips planted all over town.  As a family we made several trips to Holland Michigan and I loved every trip.   Below are a couple photos showing me in 1952 at age 4, and then again in 1957 at the Tulip Festival.   Those trips, along with the popularity of Dutch-themed kitchenware of the times, began a lifelong passion with me.  Unfortunately, I think today's Tulip Festival is much more commercialized and the town is filled with 'tourist traps'.

My sister and I like to search the antique stores for new items to add, and sometimes folks will add to my collection when they see something they know I would love!  Earlier this month my sister and I found a set of planters at an antique store in Michigan City Indiana
that were just too cute to pass up!  And my son and his wife in Massachusetts found a lovely colorful hotplate tile and gave it to me while I was out visiting them earlier this month.  So, here are photos of me in earlier days, and photos of my latest 'treasures'!  I have always wondered why some people are collectors and some aren't.  Anyone have an answer to that??

L, 1952 me and Mom and sister.......R, 1957, me and Mom and sister and Grandmother

Planters from Michigan City

Tile from Massachusetts

My Visit to Old Sturbridge Village

Last week I took the Amtrak train to visit my son and his family in Northbridge Massachusetts.   One day we went to the Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge Mass.  This is a living history museum of life in Colonial times in rural New England, from about 1790 to  1840.   Here are some of the things we saw.   I could post so many photos, but this is one of those places a person just has to see to appreciate.   The costumed character actors there do a good job portraying life in the Colonial times, and there are also many museum buildings holding collections of clothing, quilts, utensils, clocks and glassware, etc. from the times.

General view of Village area

Sheep in the Village

Tinsmith's shop

Daughter in law Sarah talking to pottery maker

Spinning Wool

Farmhouse kitchen

Here's my start at blogging!  My son Jerry encouraged me to try this.   I'm always sending emails to everyone with pictures and he said it would be better for me to just do one story with photos and send it to everyone.   I've actually thought many times about blogging because I enjoy the blogs of others.  So, today we are getting yet another snowstorm even though it is mid April!  Even by Minnesota standards this stinks!  Harold and I are anxious to begin maple syrupping but the snow is too deep for us to walk around in, and the sap is barely running.  I always start my garden plants indoors and my tomatoes are almost a foot tall and there's still another month before I can plant them in the garden!  As you can see in this photo, it's snowing, there's snow on the ground, and my plants are getting big!  Where, oh where, is spring??