Done for now.

The long awaited syrup is done, for now at least. The trees stopped running sap the other day so it was time to finish up. Next weekend it will be cold again with freezing at night, which makes the sap run. This is surprising, considering we are under a tornado watch with a tornado warning 30 miles from here. Anyway, enough with the weather report. The photo of the blueware pot is the syrup just before canning. A total of 2.5 gallons was what we ended up with. After washing the jars, lids and rings, I canned it all up. the grand total is 30 half pints, 12 4oz jars, and 3 pint jars.

Home Burial

I can repeat the very words you were saying ,
"Three foggy mornings and one rainy day
Will rot the best birch fence a man can build."
Think of it, talk like that at such a time!
What had how long it takes a birch to rot
To do with what was in the darkened parlor?
You couldn't care! The nearest friends can go
With anyone to death, comes so far short
They might as well not try to go at all.
No, from the time when one is sick to death,
One is alone, and he dies more alone.
Friends make pretense of following to the grave,
But before one is in it, their minds are turned
And making the best of their way back to life
And living people, and things they understand.
But the world's evil. I won't have grief so
If I can change it. Oh, I won't, I won't'
-Robert Frost

By the way, click on the picture to see full sized and notice how eiree the branches look. They don't look that way when the air is clear and sunny...

Saul's Treehouse Plans

It was kind of weird to see Dani-Hermit's blog article on treehouses. The eldest boy and I are planning on building one this summer. We have a couple of real neat books about how to build tree homes, not tree houses. I do happen to have a bunch of windows, boards, a pack of shingles and many jars of nails. Note: In the drawing, the things with triangles at the ends are dimension lines.

Saul will finish this:
"I'm planning on it to be 18 feet wide and 6 feet tall and it will have 8 rooms and a big hallway and a closet. It will have a rope ladder. There will be two doors and a dozen windows. To sit on there will be benches, cots, and chairs. There might be a woodstove hooked up to a brick chimney. It will be painted my favorite shade of red with a little deck outside. It is going to have a shingle roof, a smooth wooden floor and I think that's it."

mmmm...That's Maply!

"We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup."

Some of you may know that we do a small maple syrup production run each spring. I went to Fleet Farm this afternoon to buy more spiles (taps) so I could add more trees to my evil maple empire. Tomorrow, I will buy a few more spiles and consider that enough. I don't sell the syrup, but it saves me hundreds of dollars by giving in lieu of gifts for just about any occasion. So far we have about 50 gallons of sap collected, which will produce about 1 gallon of syrup. I intend to have about 4 or 5 gallons of syrup this year. You can do the math

Where the h-e-double hockey sticks am I?

Take it easy, settle down, I took a week off from the blog. The university is out on spring break and I neglected to get on the party bus with the buxom young UW-Stout chicks heading to Myrtle Beach. My only other option after missing the bus was to show up at work all week.
Work was great, it was nice to spend the whole week getting a bunch of stuff taken care of until I'm back officially in May. (currently I'm only there about 12-15 hours a week because I'm full time at school, which technically is part of my job).
The maple sap started to run this week. Last week I tapped about twenty maples and have a total of about 25-30 buckets hanging out in the woods. I will start boiling tonight, which will continue just about nightly for a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to this years batch of syrup.
The snow is melting, the yard is a swamp of mud and sod. The driveway has managed to stay firm. Spring is a few days away.
Out of things to say. See you all later.

A new whatzit

Here's your newest what-is-it. A few of you might just know this, maybe not. The first person to correctly identify this animal will get a free smart-alec comment on your blog from me, and a possible credit in my next post.
My wife is not eligible for this, nor will she be helping anyone.
I will give you two clues.
1) I have seen them.
2) They are vicious.
Dani has correctly identified this critter. Yay Dani. Way to Go Dani. You rock Dani. Anyway, here's what Wikipedia has to say: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_(animal)

Snow, Plagarism

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village, though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there's some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Frost

Can't think of a title for this yet.

I'm not much of a nature freak, I like to cut a tree down like the best of them. But, I think that we all should stop for 5 minutes each day to just observe what's around us. In that short time, you will see more than you were able to comprehend the entire day. After you're done, you can start the chainsaw up again.

"I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. "

~e.e. cummings

"In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia."

~Charles A. Lindbergh, Life, 22 December 1967

"God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars."

~Martin Luther

"This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it"

~Psalms 118:24