Getting Ready for Sap Season

February at the farm is a time for getting ready for maple syrup production and this year is no exception. The harness is cleaned, and needed repairs are in process. We will start working with Bubba, walking him around in harness, then pulling a drag to prepare the trails for collecting sap. Bubba really likes to go, and we often stand in front of him to keep him from moving forward while we are pouring sap into the sap tank.

This year there is plenty of snow on the trails. We plan to jerririg a rounded front for our sleigh runners to make it so Mary Ann can sit on it while driving Bubba along the sap trails. We had talked about making a snow roller for him to drag using a piece of culvert filled with cement, but never got arount to it.

For collecting sap with the horse we use a 65 gallon tank on a very old pung. A pung is a low slung rig with shaves and a seat for two at the front. Ours has two seats (carries 4 people) and the back seat easily lifts off making space for the tank on the back. We tend not to fill it to the top, which could make it too heavy.

The sugar house is built, coupola and all. The evaporator in place complete with a new smokestack. Buckets and taps are emerging from storage to be prepared for tapping trees.

We have entered an agreement with some neighbors, who will tap trees and gather sap, which will make it easier to have enough sap to boil every day. It takes about 100 gallons in the storage tank in order to have enough to boil and in past years it often took a couple of days to have that quantity collected. The neighbors plan to help us collect sap and feed the wood fired evaporator. They have already helped us gather and stack wood and work on finishing the new sugar house.

In previous years there have been 4 or 5 days in the three week season that were "100 gallon days" but usually collection yields around 75 gallons a day and sometimes a lot less depending on the weather. For our trees it generally takes 60 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, and we do not want the evaporator to boil to low and burn. This year we hope to be able to boil every day once the season begins. The season begins when there are several days in which the nights are cold, and the days are warm, which is what triggers sap flow in the trees.

Stay tuned for more information about our 2011 maple season....

Getting Ready for Winter

It has gotten a bit cold before we were quite ready. The sugar house is going up "inch by inch", and we were recently reminded that "Inch by inch, life is a cinch, Yard by Yard, life is hard", so Mary Ann is creeping along inch by inch with whomever she can find willing to help and we are hoping to have a roof on the structure this week.

We have added electricity to the pole barn, tightened up the big doors at the back of the barn, and put up new perimeter electric fencing around the new field in the back. We have a fancy new fence charger that has a remote that locates problems in the fence line. We also installed a Nelson waterer (that fills automatically and will not freeze. This replaces the heated buckets that used so much electricity that our bills flew through the roof last winter.

Chores for the last few weeks have included carrying water from the frost free hydrant to the animals in the fields, carrying bales of hay in the wheelbarrow, and carrying small buckets of grain to them. The animals stand at full attention facing us as we move toward them, eager for their food.

Yesterday we finally had everything ready for them to move to their winter quarters, and the move was beautiful to see. Three of us, (Mary Ann, Lee Ann and I) led the sheep with grain from the orchard around the sugar house construction, through the barn and into the pole barn. There was hardly hesitation, and the sheep actually beat us there. Some of them immeciately went to the new waterer, as if they knew what it was for.

The insulation is up around the foundation of the house and the storm windows are down. The woodshed still needs to be reorganized for easy acess to firewood. We have had some fires in the kitchen wood stove that feel really good and will be essential to minimize the use of the oil furnace.

The upstairs storage area in the Tesseract is getting full of fleeces to be picked and washed. The ram lambs have gone to meat this week. They are small again this year, and we have concluded we need to grain them all summer in the future, which will increase the costs to raise them.

We have done statements for our CSA members so they can come to shop and reap the benefits of their investment with beautiful products from our store. Several people are knitting items for us to sell on consignment providing a nice array of scarves, slippers, hats, and other unique itsms in the store. Holiday decorations are up. Whew. What a beautiful time of year!

Hope to see you at the farm this month. Stay tuned.
Warmly,
Marty

Holiday Hours

Holiday Hours: Open Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 10am to 4pm through December 19th.

Come to the farm and see the sheep and goats that grew our yarns and...
Shop at the Tesseract for the fiber lovers on your list.


You are invited to our Holiday Open House Saturday, December 11th and Sunday December 12th 10am to 4pm
Yarns ~ Needlefelting Kits ~ Rovings for Spinners and felters ~ Knitting needles ~ and unique patterns for felted mitts, angora lined hat, spiral hat and tam, scarves and more.

We will be at the Norway Winter Farmer's Market on Saturdays, 10am to 2pm...until December 18th....look for the yellow Farmers Market signs right near the Fare Share Market....on Main Street Norway.