Maple Syrup Time

Well, I can't believe how fast the snow is melting! I really need to get a digital camera to share more pics with you guys. When I go out to check the sap buckets tomorrow I think I will wear my muck boots. I have 5 gallons of sap already and if the weather is ok I think I will go ahead and boil it down tomorrow. I am really looking forward to seeing if my first attempt at making maple syrup turns out all right. If it does, I'll think about increasing the number of trees to tap next year. It was funny, too, today because a guy cutting tree branches away from the electric lines came to the door to let me know they were on the property and asked if I had any syrup to sell!

It was a pretty day. Tom went to town and I washed the windows and put up the window screens. I emptied the sap buckets three times, and the chickens almost came out of the coop. Chin Lee kept the hens inside and crowed from the doorway at me. Rotten chickens don't like getting their feet wet!

Inside, I dusted the house and did the laundry. And, I knitted two hair pieces for the boy dolls and managed to sew one on one of the dolls. I checked on the seedlings in the basement and misted them. I am surprised at how well the herb seeds are sprouting as many of the varieties are quite old. I do not have them under lights either -- just the natural lighting that comes through the window in Sarah's room (all the seed trays are on either her bed or her dresser). After we move part of the field fence out of the new right-of-way we wound up selling to the county, I will plant a lot of climbing vines. The maple trees and linden trees I am rooting seem to be doing all right so far, and if they take root, I will plant them around the field perimeter (along the creek and marsh). In a couple of years people will drive by our farm just to look at it! I am ordering some hazelnut shrubs and juneberries from St. Lawrence Nursery to start planting around the inside of the fence to join the elderberries and native plums. I can't wait to start eating some of that fruit! None of the other seeds I planted have sprouted yet. I planted tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, early cabbage, buttercrunch and endive lettuce.

Well, I'd like to keep talking, but it's getting late. Talk to you later!