Adventures in Backyard Sugaring…Every drop counts!

We have been wanting to do some backyard sugaring for a few years now,  finally…….. here is a low cost simple start. In these parts maple syrup is the promise of Spring! And a commodity we enjoy year around regardless of its cost!

The following key was really helpful when figuring out which trees to tap and how many taps per tree, we went for the conservative thinking key

one tap in trees 10-18 inches in diameter two taps in trees 19-25 inches in diameter three taps in trees larger than 25 inches

Ten now eleven! maples tapped. Understanding why maple syrup is so pricey is easy when you think of the equation somewhere between 30 to 40 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of syrup is about average for a yield: did you hear 30 to 40 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of syrup! It is the rose essential oil of syrups!

Zoe is super excited to finally be doing this as we have been talking about it and reading about it for years….Here are some of our past reads! I think our interest peaked with this early storybook from the My First Little House series “Sugar Snow ” and then of course more details when we finally read the series. Then there was “Sugar on Snow”by Nancy Parson Rossiter and finally the classic Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky.

This week I hope to tap a few black birch, Betula lenta (must get neighbors permission first!)

 

Pteromyini or Petauristini……or what was that!

A Potentially Sad Mothers Day Story with a Happy Ending!

It was time to move our favorite birdhouse, one that Zoe built at a friends birthday party several years back.

“Hello who’s there”

I jumped back, is that a mouse?

No it is a chipmunk, no a squirrel….before we could ID it jumped right out and scampered up the old maple tree.

Cool a flying squirrel~Before I could think straight I had the bird house down and opened it up to put it in the truck….You know when you are moving you are on a roll…..out came the next which I thought was last years birds nest as we have seen birds previously nesting in it and out came a newborn. Based on this website I am guessing that it was between 5 and 10 days old!.

A little panic set in. What to do? What to do?

At first we left the newborn in the nest on the ground and covered it with a little box, but that did not feel safe from possible predators. Then we see mama start coming back down the tree, looking for her baby we suppose. Would she come all the way to the ground? With some quick thinking we placed the nest back in the birdhouse and the birdhouse back on the maple tree.

Phew,  Re-United! and then she poked her head out,

Are you still there? 

Flying squirrels are a mammal I know very little about! they are the oldest living line of modern squirrels! time to you read up on them!

 

As simple as a Puddle!

May began with tears, not mine, the girls. The floodgates opened about not wanting to move. I was waiting for it, I know how much she loves the land, her freedom when playing outside for hours, and the puddle.

Yes leaving the puddle caused a puddle of tears! As seen in these pictures the puddle is a big part of her play! It has been a source of tadpoles, frogs and salamanders, it has been the frozen waters of Alaska that Eskimos live on, fish and float in their rafts, it has been a beach on Hawaii!, it has been a marsh, a swamp. It is an endless source for imagination, many a friend has shared in the adventures of this puddle!

And so begins five days of good-byes!

Good bye Puddle!

 

more pussy willow love

 

Regression. . .

Jinxed!

 

Spring is nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!” ~Robin Williams

 

In the Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.

~Margaret Atwood

 

No matter how long the winter, Spring is sure to follow.  I noticed today on the first day of Spring 2011 that overnight the lilacs had formed buds, and the pussy willows burst forth… nothing makes me happier than the signs of spring. Did you all see the BIG full sap moon last night! WOW!

 

The Singer of Spring…

I woke up grumpy, the winter must go.

Then I saw a crocus push up through the snow.

And what is it making that crocus to rise?

The singer of spring has hollared–surprise.

(Sarah Pirtle, Pocketful of Wonder)

 

Just 4 hours south on Rosemont NJ, there is a world of (early) Spring.

 

 

Pussy Willows

Close your eyes

and do not peek

and I’ll rub Spring,

across your cheek-

smooth as satin,

soft and sleek-

close your eyes

and do not peek.

by Aileen Fisher

Its been a long cold lonely winter, Little darling

It feels like years since its been here

Here comes the sun,

Here comes the sun

It’s all right

(The Beatles)

This song has been heavily played recently, and loud!  as we prepare to welcome the sun back! In the meantime we plant Spring bulb into teacups! and pretend….while we wait for the snow to melt and the brown to turn to green.

 

 

Teach the children.  We don’t matter so much, but the children do.  Show them daisies and the pale hepatica.  Teach them the taste of sassafras and wintergreen.  The lives of the blue sailors, mallow, sunbursts, the moccasin-flowers.  And the frisky ones – inkberry, lamb’s-quarter, blueberries.  And the aromatic ones – rosemary, oregano.  Give them peppermint to put in their pockets as they go to school.  Give them the fields and the woods and the possibility of the world salvaged from the lords of profit.  Stand them in the stream, head them upstream, rejoice as they learn to love this green space they live in, its sticks and leaves and then the silent, beautiful blossoms.

 

~Mary Oliver

 

 

PS. A quick side comment is that we LOVE LOVE LOVE Sarah Pirtle’s Pocketful of Wonder. It is truly one of our family favorite CD’s. It is full of songs of wonder and possibility! If you have not heard it order it from you library and I guarantee you will be buying it! Oh and it comes with a PDF booklet with a ton of fun educational activities that can be done in relation with the songs and stories about how the songs came to be!

 

 

 

 

 

Our Daily Commute…

 

first signs of spring

 

Giant Birds Nest

a day of learning about birds, beaks and nests at red gate farm

in the rain

while weaving a giant birds nest

local sculptor joe landry

built the frame and all the participants wove the black birch, sassafras and balsam fir in and out, out and in……

creating the perfect home for the big bird!