Boiling

It has been a strange year for maple syrup so far. It has been unusually warm here and hasn't been freezing at night, so with that said we really haven't done yet. On Friday we enjoyed spending the day in the sugar shack boiling! I thought you might enjoy to see a few pictures of our day!! Hope you enjoy them!

 Filling the fire is an all day job! Talk about a hot.....

 Our little helper!

 She fills the cart and daddy and mommy empty it...

 While we wait for the sap to boil down we get our school work done. Who says you need to sit at a desk! The sugar shack works just as well!!

 BBQ Pork is cooking on our cook stove for dinner!! 

 Taking a break watching the temperature!

 We still have a little ways to go! Syrup is finished at 7 degrees over the boiling point of water! (see more homeschooling!)

 I have a feeling that this wood won't last the whole season.... 

 We make a lot of memories as a family!

 Ready for a drawl!!

 This is what our front pan looks like!

 Taking off the finished product! It will be run through 2 filters into the canner. I didn't think to get any pictures of that step though... SORRY...

 We always check each batch of syrup on the hydrometer! We want to make sure it has the right density every time!

just another picture of what we spend most of our day doing! Hope you enjoyed these!! 

THESE PICTURES OF THE PROPERTY OF AROUND THE FARM. PLEASE ENJOY, BUT DO NOT TAKE.

Family

I can't get over at how big the kids have all gotten since the family picture on here.  Our oldest two are both married and our baby is not much of a baby anymore. Where has time gone....... At Thanksgiving all of our children and their spouses were home, so I took advantage of it and made got a new family picture!!! With our daughter now living on the other side of the state and not seeing them often I really cherish the time we get to spend with them!

As you can tell it isn't very easy to get a good picture... I have a few that like to goof off......

We did finally get a good picture!!  Hope you enjoy!!

Tapping

It's that time of the year again, we are tapping!!!! I thought you might like to see a few of the pictures from today!

  we got most of our buckets out today! Hopefully we will be able to finish them up tomorrow and then on to all of the main lines on Monday!

All pictures are property of Around the Farm.

Long time no see....

Wow, where has time gone?? I guess here life has just gotten busy. This past year has had a lot of changes.... one of the biggest ones is that our oldest daughter got married! They had gotten engaged at our county 4-H fair during the over the hill dairy show, back in August! They then had a quick engagement and their wedding was out in our woods the beginning of November. With the reception following in at the pig barn at the fair grounds! It was absolutely beautiful, we couldn't have asked for a better day!! She has been greatly missed around here. They now live on the other side of the state. 😡
Hope all has been well with you..... Hopefully I'll be a little better at keeping up with our blog!!

Spring

This spring has sure been a different one... we were beginning to wonder if it would ever come. We had never had a spring that we maple syrup came sooooo late..... We finally got started the middle of April, which is when we are usually done by.  So, needless to stay we did a third of what we normally do.
The guys are getting things ready to start doing the spring planting.  Checking out all the tractors, cultivators, disk, and the planter.  In another week we will try and get the manure pits emptied onto the fields! We use as much manure as we can for fertilizer! Each field is being tested to see exactly what is needed. We don't want to use to much of anything!
Today the Amish came to start logging the Ash Trees out of our woods.  The girls sure had fun watching the big horses!  They act as if they had never seen a horse before! They are sure big a beautiful animals! So, they don't have to haul them home every night we are housing them in our shed where we keep our horses!  That is an added plus for the girls!
Our oldest, which is also our only boy, is getting married the end of May.  He spends as much time as he can getting Grandpa's old farm house ready to move in.  Life as we know it is changing rather quickly.
We are still milking 3X a day!  It is working out really well!  The only down fall is that we NEVER get to bed early anymore.  It is nothing to be up till 1:30 am...... it works though!!  LOL well maybe.... you may be able to tell by the way this blog post is written : )

There... I think I caught you up to date on life here around the farm! Hope you have had a great spring!!

baby it's cold outside

We have had a really cold spell here.... not to mention the snow.... and the ice....
I think you are getting the picture~  But, even with all the cold weather, and snow farming still has to go on....  it has kept us extra busy keeping the waters all thawed out, snow plowed to get the milk truck in at 2 in the morning, back up at 4:45am .. on top of the weather calves are still born everyday.  Here is a cute one that was born today!

I loved the way the goat had to watch what was going on!

This is what it is like outside after a few warmer days!!

Blessings~

POLL

Hey please take a few minutes and check out our poll.  We would like to see what kind of things you want to follow around the farm!!  We would love to hear from you!!!