Maple Give-Away

In celebration of canning our first few batches of maple syrup we are giving away one 1/2 pint of 100% Pure Maine Maple Syrup! 

To enter simply leave a comment on this post anytime between now and April 7th. Make sure to leave your name in your comment so that you can be notified. Only one entry per person please!

1 random winner will be chosen on April 7th via the random number generator at 9pm EST. The winner will be notified through a post the following Monday (April 9th) and will have one week to respond before a new winner will be chosen.

Good Luck!

Brood Box: Before & After

The chicks brood box. 

Looks nice doesn't it?

 But it hasn't always looked so nice.

A few weeks ago it looked like this.

Dad found the box in the barn/basement and Jason wanted to keep it for his truck, but then the urge for chicks struck. Dad needed something to do while he boiled sap so a brood box project seemed like a good idea. Dad spent some time with the box in his shop and now the box looks cozy. More than enough room for the 19 little fluffly bodies coming to live in it in a couple of months.Best of all, Dad had most of the pieces here, the lumber is all reclaimed from other projects or broken objects.

The box features a hinged top is hinged for easy access, four handles to make it easy to lug around, and a little door if we decide to take it outside and let the chicks roam supervised when they get big enough. 

Can't wait!

Meat Loaf

Come on over to The Kitchen and see what we've been eating for lunch!

It Drips

Got some encouraging news when we checked the sap buckets. It's running!

In the Woods

There are signs of spring wherever we look. The ice is broken on the "bog", water is flowing free under the bridge, the piles of snow are melting, and we can walk out to the taps. 

It's actually unfortunate that we can walk to the taps, we prefer to take the snow machine out into the woods. Right now all our taps run into buckets on each individual tree. As we look toward the future we'd like to get lines that will run from tree to tree and into a central location for collection. 

The sap is slowly dripping it's sweetness from the trees. Today Dad spent some time working outside and boiling down more sap. He brought in several large yogurt containers inside to finish boiling at a later date. We haven't had a "good run" yet of sap, but expect one soon.

Plans are being finalized as to the amount of fencing to put up this year. It looks like the chickens and ducks are going to get about 100 foot square yard to run free in, which include the duck pond, some shade trees, a little hill, and a lot of grass to scratch in.

Preparing

We are all busy fixing, planning, shifting, sugaring, collecting, mapping, counting, celebrating, dreaming, reading, learning, and discussing.

There is an air of energy, preparation, and expectation in the house.

• Preparing to have one less person in the house as Ben has started the process of moving out. 
• Preparing a map of the back yard as we plan out things like: fences, coops, and gardens. 
• Preparing for the future as Dad considers almost doubling our taps to 100, if he and Jason could make a few more roads this summer. 
• Preparing for canning by sending Jason to work with an order for jars and lids.
• Preparing the living room to open it up for daycare as we have decreased their space when we increased the family size.
• Preparing to switch gears from winter to spring.
• Preparing ourselves for a "baby" who keeps getting older and will in a year be officially "full grown".
• Preparing a lists: seeds that we have, seeds we need to purchase, and plants to buy when it's time.

First Day of Sugaring

A few days ago Jason went out and collected sap from our thirty taps. He happened to collect on a cold day and it was all frozen. He managed to get all the buckets emptied despite their frozen state and bring them back to the garage where it will be boiled down. We estimate (hard to do with frozen product) that we have about ten gallons to start. These ten gallons will be carefully boiled until it is reduced down to one quart. 

Today was our first boiling day and Dad spent most of the day getting the stove together and testing out a few additions to his wood furnace. The next time they go out to boil and it's sunny we will take some better pictures. Today we are in the middle of a slow moving snow storm and it was not the best day for taking photos.