Filed under: March 2023 | Tags: firewood, maple syrup, maple syrup season, memories, Small Farming, Suffolk Punch horses
March 11, 2023
We have been crazy busy here! We completed the hog butchering on the day that hindsight would tell us we should have tapped our maple trees. We missed the first run, but did scramble and have been on track since. The photo above shows a sample from our first boil of 2023.
The contraption sitting on our evaporator with all the pipes, is a preheater. It preheats the sap using the steam. The heated sap enters the evaporator at 180 degrees F. A byproduct of this is hot water from the condensed steam that is collected in the round tank to the left of the picture. Having hot water and plenty of it, is a wonderful thing.
The preheated sap helps me burn less wood too. The steam from the boiling sap, usually just vents out the building, but this allows us to make use of the BTU’s that would otherwise be lost. It has upped my efficiency too, allowing be to boil faster, using less wood. There is still plenty of steam to fill the sky and make me remember my grandparents sugarhouse steaming away in my childhood memories.
I am using our son’s horses to gather sap this year. Our main team Amee and Abby are both on maternity leave. These youngsters have been doing a great job. We haven’t had much snow, but the mud has been plentiful.
A quick shot of our midseason lineup. We are about halfway through the season I think, but Mother Nature will let us know for sure. We got a little “sugar snow” this weekend. “Sugar snow” is a term I grew up with describing a snow while we made syrup in the late spring. We have seen buzzards, robins, a wandering ground hog and just today, red-winged blackbirds. These are all signs of the coming spring. The season will come to a close for us when the maples start to bud out or when I run out of firewood. I am pushing the wood pile to the limit. I want to completely clean out the stored wood. I will fill it all again with wood cut last fall and split when we fill the woodshed. Good dry, well seasoned firewood makes a very hot fire, the very thing needed to boil maple sap.
Our mares, hanging out waiting for their babies to arrive. It looks to me like they are ready for the big day. They are both just due, so in a couple days, we may have pictures of foals to share. In the meantime, I will keep working in the sugarbush and around the farm, waiting on the warm greener days of spring. Tonight we “spring” ahead with our clocks allowing for more daylight in the evening… I think I’m ready.
Filed under: February 2023 | Tags: home butchering, honey, maple syrup, maple syrup season, Suffolk Punch horses, weather
February 12, 2023
What a crazy busy month it has been so far! We started out very cold and seasonable. We attended a local chamber of commerce event in the nearby town of Geneva, Ohio for their Winterfest celebration. Amee and Abby were well dressed for the occasion. They got their manes and tails braided and all shined up to give wagon rides. The street looks lonely, but believe me it was bustling, just quiet at our loading zone.
They did an awesome job. People were very pleased to meet our girls. The traffic, the trains and the commotion from the celebration didn’t bother them one bit. They were included in many photos.
We are working on the last of our butchering for the year too. Pork has been the focus these last 2 weeks. Our family’s freezers are filling up. What a great thing!
These yummy hogs are now sausage, chops, ham and bacon. It’s good to have that work behind us!
Thanks to two very good friends, we got our 2022 honey all extracted. The bees gave us 26 pints of beautiful, mostly clover honey. It is good on everything. I like it in my morning tea.
Speaking of sticky jobs, the 2023 maple season is upon us. I am a bit behind, but plan to tap our trees this week. A few local guys are off to a great start and have made a little syrup already. This is a bit earlier than usual. That is part of the reason I am behind. I do have the sugarhouse partially set-up and a bit of my spring cleaning done. Hopefully we will have steam boiling soon! This wacky weather came out of nowhere, but as they say, “Time and the tides wait for no man”.
Filed under: December 2022 | Tags: firewood, maple syrup season, Small Farming, Suffolk Horses, Suffolk Punch horses
December 31, 2022
The end of the year is here. It is hard to believe that it has flown by.
In the photo above, our four grown up Suffolk horses enjoy their supper before turn out. I gave all of them haircuts and trimmed all the tails and manes. They were due!
Left to right; Hank, the new horse Rosie, Abby and Amee Quite a bit of power on display.
We are sitting through a rainy day. The bitter cold temperatures have left us. Now, we are having unseasonable warm days. Today was 55 F
We have plenty of work to do, but the mud and rain makes for a day off for us all. We will ring in the new year in a few hours. We will make our plans and resolutions and hope that we are blessed for doing it.
Maple days will soon be here. Firewood jobs are plenty. There are many youngsters to keep training and spring work is right around the corner. Instead of looking forward, I will take a minute to look back and reflect on a successful year that was 2022. There were sad days, mad days and glad days. I will hold on to the glad days.
Happy New Year everyone!
Filed under: March 2022 | Tags: family, maple syrup, maple syrup season, memories, Small Farming, Suffolk Punch horses, thankfulness
March 21, 2022
Last Thursday, we untapped our maple trees. The warm weather, with no freezing nights has brought an end to our maple syrup season. We pulled the taps from the trees, gathered up our bags for recycle and said thank you to the trees.
Today, I boiled water and started the big job of cleaning up the sticky pans and equipment. It is a job that is sweet, bittersweet! It means putting everything to bed until next year. This year’s season was only 19 days long for us. We did make some very nice syrup, but the season was about half what is normal. That is okay, we will be thankful for what we made.
Our son’s young team of Suffolk horses, Anna and Belle have learned quite a bit this season. They are looking forward to the next jobs of field preparation for the coming crops. It is a busy time, but we take time to listen to the “peepers” and watch for spring flowers. I love this life!
Filed under: March 2022 | Tags: maple syrup, maple syrup season, Small Farming, Suffolk Horses, woodland stewardship
March 15, 2022
Our maple season is in full swing It came upon us fast. It has been a crazy year with extreme highs and lows. Usually that is just what we need, but the sun too has been a bit fleeting. Warm days with no sun, makes the trees stingy with their sap. Then several days of below freezing stops the flow as well. No matter what, we will be thankful for what we get.
The road in the picture above has been used to collect sap for over twenty years. We even dragged logs on this road during a small timber harvest two years ago. The light impact of our horses feet compared to the ruts of a tractor or other wheeled vehicle can easily be seen. Real horsepower in a woods, even at this most sensitive time of year, is a very positive thing.
The sap is running after a very cold weekend. I like this time of year. It is like waking up in the morning. First you open your eyes and stretch, perhaps roll over and just rest a bit. Then you rise up and start your day. I think mother nature is just waking up, nodding off a bit, but will soon rise up and it will be full blown spring! The warm days and plentiful rains will make the grass green, the trees bud and the soil warm.
But for now a little cold a little ice will rule the time. I agree that I am ready for spring, but a few more days of late winter and perfect sap running weather suits me just fine. I really do travel down a road less traveled.
Filed under: March 2022 | Tags: draft horses, family, maple syrup season, Small Farming, Suffolk Horses
March 6, 2022
The maple season is upon us. Last week we got our pans sweet. This next run will start to yield 2022 maple syrup. It is a crazy, wonderful time of year. I love it.
We spent time today gathering the sap, going tree to tree and collecting from the clear bags. We had all sorts of friends and family helping. We used our youngest son’s horses today to pull the sap gathering sled. They are still youngsters, still in training, but they did an outstanding job.
Our girls watched Jake’s horses as we hooked to the sap sled. Watching are Amee, Abby, Grace and Bree.
Our stallion Hank will soon be on the sap sled too. He works best with our Abby. Since Abby got the day off, so did Hank. He will soon be working and taking it all in stride.
He is growing well. He turns three in April
Sometimes he looks at me as if to say, “What do you want?” I can’t wait for him to change that look to “come on , let’s go!” Soon he will be hauling sap, pulling a few logs and getting plenty of wagon time. The plow is ready and the days of spring are coming fast.
This is our filly Grace. Some of you will remember that she fell down an old hand dug well late last year. She lost about half of her mane in that accident. That was about five months ago. The hair is growing back in quite well and remarkably, it is coming back in her natural color. I was afraid that It might come in white, but nope. It healed very well along with her other bumps and scrapes. God is good!
So, we are marching forward in this month of March Stay tuned for updates and information regarding the farm, maple syrup, horses and our family adventures.
Filed under: February 2022 | Tags: maple syrup, maple syrup season, Small Farming, Suffolk Horses
February 28, 2022
We tapped the trees last Saturday. Now we wait for the first run of sap. This has been a crazy spring so we expect a roller coaster of a season. We need the freeze and thaw weather to make the sap run, but we need it to do both! Lately we get very cold weather and no warm or a day or two of warm with no cold. Time will tell how our season turns out, but it looks good for this coming week.
Abby and Amee did an awesome job pulling the sled while we tapped. A four wheeler or tractor would not have worked too well for us this year. The four wheeler would have gotten stuck in the mud and ice or perhaps even in the deep snow. A tractor would have made some awful ruts in places. The horses were steady and traversed the sap roads with ease.
I did take a tie rope along and even tied it to small trees when we stopped. They stayed standing and never tightened the rope. Often I was a hundred yards away or more. They couldn’t see us at times, but they waited patiently for us to return and move them and the sled to a new area. I am very pleased with them and their work ethic. They are indeed my partners.
Now, we wait for the sap to run and fill the plastic bags. We will gather the sweet liquid and take it to the sugarhouse to be boiled. Everything is almost ready and what isn’t, soon will be. Our sweet reward for the hard work will soon flow…and very soon flow over some hot pancakes! Here we go! Thanks to my grandparents and parents for teaching and sharing this love for the maple woods!
Filed under: February 2022 | Tags: Fabrication, farmer's budget, frugal, maple syrup, maple syrup season, sap tank
February 21, 2022
It is time to make maple syrup! We get excited every year for this season. There is one heck of a lot of work to do before the liquid gold is poured on pancakes, but this labor of love makes me smile every year. This year we frugally upgraded our maple sap gathering tank. Our old tank was galvanized and had begun to show the wear of many years of use. We bought the tank used ourselves and decided it was time to upgrade to stainless steel.
We looked into just buying a tank specialized just for this purpose. In fact last year at the close of our maple season, we ordered one. The manufacturer contacted me in late December to inform us that the rising cost of “everything” had caused them to have to more than double the cost of the tank. The new tank would have cost $3500.00 dollars! We cancelled our order. However, we still wanted to replace our old tank.
In the fencerow at a friends farm, I spied this old, small bulk tank. We made an agreement and I bought the tank for the cost of scrap. My buddy, who is a fabricator and welder, helped me rework the old tank. We welded the lids all in place. We cut a hole in the top panel to allow for this stainless steel drum. We drilled holes in the drum to act as a strainer and fill port for the tank. The barrel sits on four legs in the bottom of the tank making it removable.
The legs that the barrel sits on also hold a baffle on each side of the drum. This baffle is welded in the middle section of the tank and will hopefully prevent the slosh that comes with a big wave. The tank attaches to the sap sled/cart with a ratchet strap. A couple blocks give it more stability. It is possible that I will have to silicone caulk the top seams, but time will tell.
This project, the tank, the fabrication and welding cost me $250.00 and a dozen donuts. Sure, I have some time and some gasoline for automobile trips, but I am happy with this new rig. It accomplished our goal of switching to easy to clean and sanitize stainless steel on a farmer’s budget!
Our excitement continues as we set the maple syrup pans, clean everything in sight, tap the trees and complete other various tasks that must be done before we receive our sweet reward. Stay tuned, we will be sticky very soon!
Filed under: December 2021 | Tags: draft horses, firewood, maple syrup season, Small Farming, Suffolk Horses
December 30, 2021
I enlisted a little help, but the woodshed is now full! I am ready to boil maple sap for the upcoming 2022 season. This is much later than I usually complete this job, but I will celebrate anyway. It was muddy when we got off the driveway, but Abby and Amee handled it all in stride.
We have more wood that has been split, so a good start on the wood for 2023 season. It is my plan to fill the woodshed at the completion of the 2022 maple season. Once the woodshed has been filled, I want to continue with the cutting and splitting. The goal is to get to the point where we will be almost 2 years ahead on the wood supply. I already have the next 2 years worth of logs piled in a sunny place making this goal easily attainable.
After a day of wet, cold, rain and snow, it feels good to bed down. I don’t care if you are two-legged or 4-legged a warm dry bed is a beautiful thing!
We here at the farm hope all of our readers had a wonderful Christmas. We are also wishing you a Happy New Year. We look forward to each day gifted to us. We make plans, prepare and execute work, but first we ask for our endeavors to be blessed. It is hard at times to wait for things to fall into place, but thankfully they usually do. If things don’t go well, it is best to pause, examine our plans and even our hearts. One thing that I know for sure… God will make a way where there is no way! We just need to focus on the destination and not the journey…. for the journey rests in God’s hands.
Filed under: March 2021 | Tags: maple sap, maple syrup, maple syrup season, Suffolk Punch horses, teaching
March 15, 2021
We have been busy in the sugarhouse making maple syrup. It is a sweet time of year, but very busy too. The maple takes up many days, but the rest of the farm work must be done too. Our weather has been unseasonably dry for us. The temperature has been above average many days, but thankfully the nights have been cold, so the sap keeps running.
We also hosted the 2021 A-Tech senior class Horticulture students for a sap gathering farm field day last week. The horses were ambassadors who worked very hard. The kids all had a great time and I think they may have even learned a little.
We benefited from some willing workers as the class learned about forestry, small farming and all things maple!
So March Madness isn’t just found on basketball courts…it can be found in most any maple woods in spring. Here on this farm the “sap” runs… He also does animal chores, farm planning and other jobs around the farm!
Spring plowing will be underway soon, but first the maple madness continues…oh yeah…a baby horse should make the blog soon (about 30 days)…mama is starting to waddle a little when she walks.
RicelandMeadows 