First Syrup of the Season

Sap flow hasn't started in earnest yet, but last week there was enough of a warm up to get the sap to fill a tank and do a day's worth of boiling.  It was a good trial run for the sap to come.

First a fire had to be roaring in the evaporator.

Then the sap was allowed to boil it's way along the pan, getting some over zealous foam scooped off when necessary.

When measurements show the sugar content is high enough, the syrup is 'drawn off' and put through a filter.

It took most of the afternoon and into the evening to get the job done.

Gearing up for Sugaring

March is upon us and that means the sap will be flowing soon and it will be time to make our maple syrup.  But before that can happen, there's lots to prep.

The dead mice had to be cleaned out of the pump house.

The snow had to be cleared away so the tank could be installed

The sap storage tank had to be hauled down to the pump house

And now the pump house is up and ready

There are over 300 trees to be tapped

and there are many many feet of line to repair, and still there are more chores to be done.  Stay tuned.

A Death in the Farm Family

This past week, one of our turkey hens died after a brief illness.  There aren't any vets in town that take turkeys for patients, so we were helpless to provide appropriate treatment.  We're very sad.  She was such a curious and friendly creature and provided hours of company and entertainment.  She leaves her sister, who I know will miss her.  Turkeys are flock animals and are always happiest hanging around with fellow turkeys, or chickens or people if that's whose around.  It remains to be seen if we find a replacement turkey. 

Fifteen to One

One cord of wood, burning hot in the maple sugar evaporator  will make fifteen gallons of maple syrup.  That means lots of chopping, stacking and storing of wood.  Don has been busy these past few weekends and evenings making wood cribs and chopping wood in preparation for the fast approaching sugaring season.  Lucky for him his good friend Pat Reed has been willing to lend a hand in the wood chopping. 

 

Frost Bite

It's gotten bitterly cold this month and keeping the chickens warm enough has been a challenge.  This poor rooster is low guy in the hen pecking order, so often he is left out in the cold, literally, unless I lock them all up in the coop.  On the extremely cold days, I don't let them out, but otherwise, I let them roam about in their yard.   Apparently the cold caused some frost bite on his wattle.  I had read the warnings in the 'chicken literature' about the possibility of this happening, but I didn't take the necessary precaution of putting vaseline on the crops and wattles.  I will be more cautious from now on.  You can see the cold damage on the edges of the rooster's wattle.  He doesn't seem to pleased with his situation, does he?

Turning Syrup to Sugar

Making maple sugar is easy....just heat and stir!  Well, maybe not that easy.  You have to heat your maple syrup to a very specific temperature, then stir and stir and stir and stir and stir and stir and stir and stir.  But you end up with golden granules that put white sugar to shame.

From Our Coop to Yours, Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

The Beeze Won't Freeze

You never know when winter is going to hit, so you have to prepare, usually sooner than you think you do.  This year we have gotten some colder than normal weather, earlier than normal.  The list of what didn't get done in time is too long to share, but one important item did get accomplished...winterizing the bees.
Honey bees are cold blooded and reflect the ambient air temperature.  If they freeze, they would die, so, to live through a long cold winter they need a source of heat. One big benefit is the fact that bees are furry. That fur provides a dead air space that insulates them. And when two bees get close together they have more dead air space and if  5000 bees cluster together they can all stay a bit warmer for even longer, using all that fuzz as an insulator to keep warm air in. So, for starters the bees all cluster together in the middle of the hive.  But that only works until there's no more warm air to hold. When there is no more warm air to hold in, the bees have to start making their own heat.  The bees on the inside of that cluster vibrate their wing muscles and  they warm up. And that warmth is moved up, down and sideways throughout the  cluster and keeps all the bees warm. To help keep that warmth in the hive, Don did a little energy efficiency and installed some insulation and a wind-proof wrap to their hives.  So now they are all tucked in, left to eat their honey, vibrate their wings, and hopefully keep warm and healthy.

Fall Harvest

The freezing nights have finished off the flowers and the tender vegetables. Now we're left to harvest the root vegetables and our perennial harvest of........

Catching Up

Wow....where did summer go? and where is fall going? There are lots of developments/changes/happenings at Sherman Hollow to catch up on. To start with, Maurine got a great start on her flower farm. Many different perennials were planted. She made lots of beautiful bouquets all summer long. and at the end of August she did an amazing job on the flowers for a wedding at the Monitor Barn in Richmond. The bees made a strong comeback and produced a surprising amount of honey. In mid-September we harvested about 50 pounds of honey!
  I am harvesting and drying lots of chamomile in hopes of making some tea to put that honey in.
 The new batch of chicks lost a couple of roosters to the soup pot, but the girls and one 'succession' rooster are now integrated into the rest of the chicken flock. Today I got one of the first eggs from one of the newbies. She still has a little maturing to do. Fall is now full upon us! No more time for picnics....it's time to prepare for winter, and next spring! Order and plant bulbs, till and cover crop the garden, winterize the chicken coop, and stack the fire wood.

We're In Luck!

I thought I had hit yet one more rock that I needed to dig out of my way in the vegetable garden. But a little bit of nudging with the garden weeder revealed not a rock, but a well corroded horseshoe. What horse, how long ago, plowed these fields and lost his shoe in his toils? Once the garden shed is built, we will hang his shoe over the door and hope it fills with luck for a fertile and bountiful garden.

A New Resident in the Turkey Barn

This guy is found almost daily, on one or another of the hay bales in the turkey barn. Lately, I've noticed that the turkeys aren't laying eggs anymore, but the end of their laying coincides with the appearance of this guy. I'm wondering if it's just that he's getting to them before me?

No Farm is Complete Without a Plow

Nothing is so quintessentially farm as is a plow. And since we had such a large area we wanted to turn over into gardens, and since I'd succeeded in almost causing a hot oil fire by overworking the tiller attachment on the tractor while trying to do so, we concluded we really needed to get a plow for the tractor. Don, the aficionado of Craigs List" Farm Equipment For Sale", tracked down a used plow right down the street. Despite it's very used appearance, it was in great shape. As Don dragged it behind the tractor and down the path, it reminded me of a water-skier putting out a dirt wake, and stirring up the earth into a stoney froth. Now we can plow through all that heavy, stoney dirt and turn it over and ready it for the tiller. None too soon. The rain has kept the earth a heavy, clumpy mess. With the help of some much needed sun, the plow and the tiller, over these next few days, we will get in the seeds and plants hopefully in time to mature before falls first frost.

Feathering Her Nest

It took seeing it in person for me to understand how birds actually do feather their nests. This lady turkey has feathered hers by pulling out all her breast feathers to use. Motherly love!! I only wish one of her eggs would actually hatch so that she might not have made all these sacrifices in vain.

Bad News and Good News

As you may already know, we lost 75% of our bee hives over the winter. Seems like most bee keepers had significant losses. We aren't even sure why. It may have been mites, but it may have been the bees warmed up during a warming period and then subsequently froze to death when the temps dropped again. Regardless of the reason,we'll be harvesting less honey this summer. The good news is, we've got 6 new 'nucs' (starter hives) from a local honey bee supplier and we're starting again. The other silver lining, is the bees that died left behind the honey they didn't eat so we were able to harvest that honey and resupply our inventory, which had dropped to zero. It's a little darker than the honey we harvested in August, most likely because the honey from August was wildflower/clover honey, and the honey we took from the winter stash was from goldenrodOur dead bees.The new hives You can see the difference in color in the picture. The honey on the right is clover, and the one on the left is goldenrod....or so I guess. Both are delicious and it's hard to tell much, if any, difference in the flavor.