Early April on the Farm

There isn't a whole lot happening here on Honey B Farm right now, but I went around the place today taking photos of what things are like at this time.  Today we are finishing up the last of the maple syrup making.   To our dismay, it has not been a good year for maple syrup.   The weather has just been too warm!   The night temperatures have barely hit the freezing mark, and the daytime temperatures are very warm.  The sap has not been running well.   Some years are like that.  We take what the Lord gives to us, and this year we have only made about 3 finished gallons of syrup.  That translates into about 24 pints.   That's hardly enough to sell, so this year our maple supply is just for us and for gifts to family and friends.   Here are some photos of today's sap gathering and maple syrup making.  The past couple evenings have not even hit the freezing mark, and today and tomorrow the temps are almost 70.  This will truly be the last for sap, as now the trees are in danger of budding out, and "buddy" sap is awful for making maple syrup - makes a bitter, bad tasting syrup.

Harold drives our Lo-Boy tractor around the woodland paths to gather the sap.

Harold pours a bucket of sap into the barrel.

The top of the barrel has a filter so that we pour clean sap into the barrel.

The bags aren't very full of sap at this time of the year. 

A view of the evaporator.  There are 7 sections, and each section has a small hole where the sap runs from one section to another.   Harold made this evaporator himself several years ago.

The inside of the stove has fire brick all around

The back of the stove has sand and fire brick to keep in the heat.

Harold tears up birch bark, which makes a really good fire starter.

Within 20 minutes he has a good boil going!  You can't see it in this photo, but there are 5 sections boiling!

The 2017 maple camp.  It takes patience and a lot of time and wood to boil up the sap.  You keep adding sap as it boils, add more wood to the fire, skim off foam, and just wait for the near-syrup to bring into the house for finishing.

We have two small lakes on our property.   One lake we call Two Squaw Lake.   Here are a couple photos of it.  This pond iced out early this year about 4 days ago.

The front part of the lake is a shallow bog.

The back part of the lake is deeper and supports much wildlife and birds, especially trumpeter swans and ducks and loons.

In the woods now, there are signs of wildflowers beginning to grow.  Here are tiny bloodroot flowers making an early appearance:

All over the woods there are these small bloodroot plants growing.  They are usually the first wildflowers to bloom.  Spring is here!

Besides cutting wood for maple syrup making, Harold has been getting an early start on next year's wood pile.   Easier to cut firewood now before the mosquitoes and ticks and thick woodland growth gets going.

A good start on next year's firewood!

Everywhere the fruit trees are beginning to bud out.  There's hope for a good fruit crop!

Apple tree buds.   We didn't kill off our tree after last spring's fiasco with frozen water!  We will have apples again!

The Nanking cherry bushes are in full bud mode also.   The mice chewed the bottom bark a little, but I think the bushes will survive and give us fruit.  That is, IF we can keep the birds from eating all our cherries!  Nanking cherries make an excellent jelly.

And now for some photos of our farm cats today!

A turned over bin makes a good place for a cat to contemplate life!  I always wonder what cats think about when they just sit there!?

This is Fluffy, the only summer kitten that survived the winter.  Perhaps her long hair saved her.  Unfortunately long hair cats do not do well out here on the farm, as their hair mats easily.  I am constantly brushing Fluffy.   As a result, she usually runs when she sees me coming with the brush!

This is Smokey Joe.  He was an early kitten from last year.  And very wild.  He ran away from home, and I found him down the road after several days.  I tried to catch him with heavy gloves and a cage, but he would have none of that.  After many huge struggles, I gave up and decided he would have to live on his own - eagle bait, for sure.   A couple weeks later he came home and would have nothing to do with me for months.  By the end of the summer, though, I managed to tame him down, and now he is a constant companion!  Always wants to be held, always by my side.  I cannot go anywhere around here without Smokey following me.  What a long way he has come!   From "wild kitty" to being a constant buddy. 

 I have started to plant things in the greenhouse.   As an experiment to see how early I can get tomatoes and veggies to grow, I put a few tomato plants, leeks, herbs, lettuce, spinach and radishes in the greenhouse.   This is almost 2 months earlier than regular gardening out in the big gardens.   So far so good.   I spent many an enjoyable afternoon cleaning out the greenhouse.   The garlic I planted last fall is up and growing nicely, too!

Just beginning to grow things in the greenhouse.   So far I have managed to keep  temperatures of 50 to 70 degrees in there, so my early tomatoes should do OK. 

The garlic planted last fall has wintered over nicely and is up and growing!

And that's about the sum of things as of April 8 here on the farm!   Sometimes it seems like nothing is going on, but the cycle of life continues.   Spring is here and we are starting to be busy with gardening and chores.  Everything is coming alive again!   The birds are back, the cats have survived the winter, the trees are starting to bud and flowers are starting to bloom.   Life is good.   Nothing spectacular - but sometimes the simple life is best....................