It's Maple Syrup season!

Have you ever wanted to make your own maple syrup or just wondered how it is done? Tapping maple trees and collecting sap is not a difficult project but, boiling that sap down is time consuming and requires a little patience which to me is worth it in the end!

Late winter and early spring is the time to tap your trees, you are looking for temperatures in the 40's during the day and the 20's at night, it is that freeze/thaw period which helps to stimulate the flow of sap and create the pressure needed to collect it. In our area that is usually late February or early march but, this year we have seen warmer than average temps and perfect weather to start now in early February!

So how do you tap a tree?

We use a 5/16" drill bit to drill a hole about 3 feet from the ground into the tree, you want a slight upward angle to a depth of 2 1/2 inches, once you have drilled your hole, insert a spile (tap) into your hole and use a hammer... we prefer a rubber mallet and lightly tap your spile to fit snug into the tree trunk, do not insert it too deeply because going too deep may result in splitting the wood around your tap and you will lose sap! did you know it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup? So you want to collect every drop you can with out losing any of it!

After you have the tap secure in the tree you have several options to collect sap. You can simply hang a bucket on the tap itself and collect the sap, if you choose this method you will want to cover the bucket with a lid to keep rain, snow and dirt out!

The method we prefer is to use old gallon water/milk jugs, drill a hole into the lid of the jug to securely fit the end of a food grade tubing which is attached to the end of the spile, this keeps everything closed and does not allow rain, snow, dirt or insects to get into the sap! 

The gallon container sits at the base of the tree and we secure it with rocks or sticks to prevent it from being knocked over! Check your trees daily and harvest the sap regularly to prevent over filling of the containers and loss of sap! you can store the sap in a refrigerator for up to 7 days before using it! 

That's all there is to collecting the sap and when the conditions are right you should get a good flow of sap which will put you on your way to making syrup

You can tap any maple tree! red, silver, black or sugar maple but the sugar maples have a better output of sap production making them the preferred variety. I have heard you can also tap black walnut and birch trees but, we have not tried anything besides maple!

The diameter of the tree determines how many taps you can put into the tree;

Do not tap a tree less that 10" in diameter!

10" to 14" 1 tap, 15" to 19" 2 taps, 20"to 24" 3 taps.

You want to collect sap until the tree starts to bud out, after that the sap produced will make your syrup bitter and make sure to remove the taps at the end of the season, the tree will close and heal itself and claim your tap if you fail to remove it!

I will do another blog post later to show how to boil the sap down and make syrup!

Give it a try, this is a great family activity and there is nothing quite like having pancakes with syrup that you produced yourself!

Spring water

We have a well but, the water from the well is full of Iron and minerals that make it undesirable, Anyone who has this issue knows how unpleasant it is to brush your teeth in the morning and the water has a rotten egg smell, oh... and white clothes are never an option, The sinks and the toilet become stained an orange color and when you boil the water it turns black....yuck! We have a filter that helps a little, but not enough!
So how do we solve this problem? One way is to collect rain water for cleaning and the other option is to find another source, which is what we have done for years now. We are fortunate enough to live near a tourist town with world renowned water and they offer it free for the taking at a spring source in the park, the problem with that location was that "we" became a tourist attraction and people would approach us asking to take our picture! We tried to go very early in the morning but there would be many other folks doing the same thing ( I am sure they have had the same experiences) but, we would still end up being an entertaining source from people who live in the City and have no idea that we were just carrying out our way of life!
A few months ago we found another great source in a cute little church camp and this place allows us the ability to obtain clean, cold, mountain spring water without being the talk at the dinner table in some fancy restaurant or tales from a trip to the country!
It is a lot of work to fill, carry, unload and store our water but, it has become a normal part of life for us and the water tastes great!

This water is coming right out of the spring underground and stays a consistent temperature all year, We use, clean and then re use our water jugs until they are too worn out to continue using them. I feel good about reusing and not adding to the land fill, some times we re purpose the worn out jugs for other uses around the garden or barn... they make great funnels, scoops and are great for plant protection in the garden!

We use old milk totes to contain the gallon jugs of water and generally fill around 100 jugs a trip, we Only need to make a water trip about every three months, depending on our usage; canning season requires more use than other months. These jugs are then stored in a cool, dry location until we need them in the kitchen. It is a lot of work to load, haul, unload and store all these jugs but, very worth it for good clean spring water!

Winter is NOT for butchering!

What do we do when it is 25 degrees outside with 14 mph winds?

We butchered, not that we really wanted to but, we had to, we butchered 6 chickens and 2 rabbits today for a total of 47 lbs 10 oz. of meat,
I would rather accomplish this in milder weather but we were low on meat in the freezer and these animals were way past the time for butchering.
It is very expensive to feed so many animals in the winter, not to mention the hardship that cold weather brings to both man and beast.
We had intended to have this done way back in November and not have to worry about it at this time of year but, a series of events had taken our time away from those chores. so now we are left to do our butchering in the middle of winter, we have 19 more chickens and 6 more rabbits to do before we are done.... not a chore I look forward to doing in warm or cold weather, but enjoy the benefits once it is all done!

Taking care of the Animals on a winter day

Robin and Willow

This morning is cold, its the kind of cold that chills you to the bone as soon as you walk outside. I greeted the Horses who are always glad to see us come down because they know they are going to get their sweet grain, Badger will whinny in excitement and then bite at her gate until she gets her grain, Willow whinnies and then gets aggravated with Badger biting at her gate. While the horses eat their grain, we feed and water the Chickens, Turkeys and our flock of Meat chickens and open the door to the coop to let everyone outside. The Rabbits are next, we fill their feeders and collect the water bottles to take up to the house to thaw by the wood stove, we will take the water bottles back down to them after they thaw out later. We put the Halters on the Horses and let them out, Willow has to go first, then Badger. They get fresh hay thrown to them because there's no good grazing right now, everything is frozen.

We of course spend a little time loving the horses before we return to the warmth of the house.

In the evening we return to the barn to feed and water again, Brush the horses ( I have learned to do this in the evening because they usually like to roll during the day) We clean out their hooves and muck their stalls, then they go in the stalls and impatiently wait for us to bring them more grain and throw hay into the hay racks. We collect the eggs from the chickens and close them in the coop for the night. When it is really cold out the chickens and Turkeys get some scratch grains before roosting to help keep them warmer through the night. We give the rabbits each a little hay and say good night to all the animals.

Sometimes going to the barn feels like a drudgery to get myself motivated this time of the year ( I am not a cold weather type of girl)but, Once I get down there, I actually enjoy it, I love being with the animals, petting and holding the rabbits or hugging the horses and watching the antics of the chickens. The animals provide me with a sense of calm and help me forget the stresses of the day and they always do something that will amuse me and make me laugh, Its then that I forget, for a little while that its cold out side!

Picking Strawberries!

We went to a local pick your own farm today and picked Strawberries!

This is my lonely strawberry from my own plant, so this is why we went the PYO farm for more!

My Mom and Ryan picking strawberries

A unique looking strawberry, doesn't it resemble a flower?

Ryan and myself picking berries

We picked 16 lbs of strawberries, 10 lbs are what I am going to make jam with and freeze for smoothies and other recipes!

We did enjoy fresh strawberry shortcake for desert tonight!

My Mom and I with our berries!
And these lovely ladies paid for our berries! We sold these 4 pretty poults last night and used the money from them to pay for the strawberries and the sugar for the Jam I am making!

We had a great day with beautiful sunshine and warm but not hot temperatures, there was a light breeze blowing and this made picking the strawberries very enjoyable, I really liked the time with my Mom, having nice little conversations while picking berries and Ryan had a great time! he was still talking about it long after we got home.

Now it is time to get busy making all that yummy jam for this winter!

Pint Size Helper

Ryan is such a good helper, he is ready to jump in whenever he can!

Busy helping Pop Pop spread new gravel for parking

Ryan loves to imitate what his Pop Pop is doing!

Whether its spreading gravel, building garden beds or feeding the animals, Ryan loves to help!

Boys and their Toys

We had some work done around our homestead on Saturday, we had an area that we are turning into parking graded down and the top soil removed and placed down by the garden area, He also graded some of the ground for our raised garden beds and had a manure pile brought up from the barn to the garden area. Then down by the barn we had an area widened and a wet weather pond worked on a little bit. It was exciting to see all this work done in such a small amount of time!

Here is the skid steer before they started

Ryan got the ride of his life for awhile, he got to ride in the skid steer and move some of the controls!

All the work that had been done in about three hours by this machine would have taken us about two months or more to complete by hand, The operator was a friend of ours and would not accept any money, God had answered a few prayers for us that day!

Little Helper

Alan started building steps that will lead down to my garden yesterday and Ryan jumped right in and offered his help!

He picked up the shovel and went right to work helping Pop Pop!

He sure looks like he knows what he is doing!

Ryan is not quite three years old yet but, he wants to help all the time, He will help me at the barn and he helps Alan with chores like carrying firewood! We give him little jobs to do because it just seems so important for him to lend a hand! I think we have a special boy here!!!

I won an Apron!

The Beautiful ladies at Marie Madeline Studios were having an apron give away and I was the lucky winner!

The apron is absolutely beautiful, very feminine and well made, the time and care that they put into making it shows in their work, they did a really great job and I would recommend anyone wanting an apron to check out their site and Etsy shop..... You wont be disappointed!

Thank You so much ladies, I will wear it often and with great pride!

Winter Barn Chores

It has been very cold here the last several weeks, we had an ice storm last weekend and today it is snowing. The night time temperatures have been in the low 20s, All these cold temps make my barn chores a little.... well I will be honest here...A Lot more challenging!

I have now started taking warm mash down to the barn in the mornings for the Chickens, Turkeys and Rabbits.

The chickens and the Turkeys got a mixture of oat meal and layer mash, mixed with hot water that I added some skim milk powder and a small amount of molasses with it for a little more nutrition and just a touch of a sweet treat, boy o boy did the chickens like that! they were all scampering, pushing and pecking their way to the bowl for some!
The Turkeys.... well, I think they have convinced themselves that I must be trying to poison them with any new food, they avoided it like it was something really bad and one of the Toms kept grunting and running at the bowl like he was trying to scare it away! I will give them a few days with it and they should start getting the idea of what it is and that I really am not trying to poison them!

The rabbits got a little warm oatmeal with the skim milk and molasses.

The warm mash gives them something to eat and drink while I defrost the waterers and refill them for the day.

I am going to make a treat for the rabbits today and thought I would share the recipe, I would love to take a picture but my camera has been temporarily misplaced.

Here is the Home Made Rabbit treat recipe,

like any other treats I would feed this in moderation!

1 small carrot, pureed
1/2 banana, mashed until really creamy
1 tbsp honey
1/4 cup rabbit pellets, ground finely in a coffee grinder
1/4 cup ground oats, ground finely in a coffee grinder
Mix pureed carrot, banana and honey in a medium bowl. Add pellet powder and ground oats. Mix until blended. Knead in your hands for 1-2 minutes. Roll out the "dough" in 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick layers between sheets of plastic wrap. Cut into small cookies (about 3/4 inch across). Place cut shapes onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes (check to make sure they are not browning too much). Turn off the heat and let the cookies sit in the warm oven for an hour or so.

Home Made Laundry Detergent

I use this Laundry detergent every day, It is safe for the environment and very economical but most important, It cleans my clothes better than any other detergent I have bought and that is important to us, we have a well and we have a high iron/rust problem here, this detergent keeps my whites white with out the use of bleach!
It takes just a little elbow grease and a small amount of time to make it but, that's well worth it to me for the benefits I see in the end!

I pay 99 cents for a bar of Fels naptha, 2.49 a box for each,Borax and Arm and Hammer Washing soda.
This detergent will go a very long way, I saw on another web site that it costs about 2 cents per load of laundry! That's a savings I can sure live with!
I buy all of these items at my local grocery store but, if they are not available in your area, you can purchase them over the Internet. There are several different recipes I have seen and tried but the one I prefer is this;
Grate 1 bar of Fels Naptha soap and add 1 cup each of Borax and Arm and Hammer Washing soda ( This is not the same as baking soda), Mix all ingredients together, I also run this powder through my blender a few times to mix it all together very fine.
Use 2 Tablespoons per wash for regular laundry, add 3 Tablespoons for hard water or very soiled laundry.... Like I said this goes a long way!
It will not make suds in your wash but it will clean your clothes better than those expensive name brand soaps!
You can add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to the final rinse if you like a perfume smell to your laundry, I like Lavender for my bed sheets!

Gathering Wood

We spent our day gathering firewood!

We cut, Chopped and split wood most of the day!

Hunter came along to help ,but he really just ran around exploring in the woods,

Lucky Dog!

The weather was perfect, just enough chill in the air to work without getting too warm or cold! We had a perfect blue sky all day,
funny how the weather can be so deceiving, we are expecting to get freezing rain and snow starting tonight.


When we came home, Alan split the big chunks of wood to fit in the wood stove and Robin helped stack the wood into nice neat stacks while I got started on fixing dinner. We ate oven fried chicken with my home made shake and bake seasoning, Angel hair pasta with a Parmesan sauce and snow peas, for desert I made Chocolate chip cookies!


We had a good time, got a lot of work done and it feels good at the end of the day!


Who needs a gym membership when you live in the country?