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!!