It's noon and I've planted 3 peach trees and done about 1/2 the chainsaw and clean up work from the last storm. I'm ready for a glass of water and a nap.
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Getting ready to make a tagelharpa.
I have two really nice, clear pine planks (making two), and have the other components - bass guitar tuning gears, violin fine tuners, and, of course*, a 1/2 lb bundle of horse hair - on order.
* "Tagelharpa" translates to "horse hair string instrument." Traditionally, the strings and bow are horse tail hair.
Two new rosebushes , for the ends of the grape vine rows.
"Julie Andrews," pink one, and "Double Delight," red with pale yellow centers.
150 onion bulb are now relaxing in the humus, planning out their short lives.
My outdoor stock tanks are leaking. I have line them before I can put my water lilies and rushes out. Dang nabit!
I just got confirmation that my hurdy gurdy kit is on its way!
I ended up buying three nice lookin' peach trees.
Trying to find a local nursery where I can buy a few apple trees. You'd think that in a rural community there'd be options other than Big Store's meager offerings.
After two trips to the bank, I think I've managed the bank transfer to The Netherlands for my hurdy gurdy (which auto correct imagines should be hurry buddy).
Back after big Michigan ice storm.
We lost power (meaning no electric, heat, water) from Saturday until yesterday (Friday) evening.
My refrigerator smells like the parts shelf at a morgue.
But I can flush the toilet now.
And I didn't wake up cold.
The temperatures dropped drastically for a while, and I got caught up on the boiling. Now they're up again, and I'm collecting about 10-15 gallons of tree juice again.
I'm astonished to discover that I should end up with about 3 gallons of grade A pure maple syrup.
I'm considering stashing some away in case that lovely country that loves maple leaves gets angry and stops sending syrup to the country I live in.
Too cold for two days for the maple juice to run, but it's started again this afternoon. That gave me a chance to catch up on boiling it down - I had three 5 gal buckets to boil down to one bucket.
I had to move the boil down outside into a huge cauldron over a propane burner. I feel like I should dance widdershins or something.
I'm now sitting with three buckets of freshly collected maple juice.
I've had to move the boiling process outside because the house was beginning to fill with mist.
I think I'm going to spend the night watching syrup boil.
Good weather. I'm getting about 5 gallons of maple tree juice per day - it oughta continue like this for the next week. Should end up with lotsa syrup.
5 gallons of maple tree juice today. Looks like the temperature is going to hold in the right range for a while, so tree juice shall flow.
Brought in another 2 gallons of tree juice yesterday. Today, it's back to 17F and too cold until Monday to get more.
I got the first bit from the maple trees today. About a gallon of juice from 12 trees. It's just the start.
Snow has melted enough that the trip to the trees is more of a trudge now than an epic journey.
The snow is doing that thing where it melts down during the day, then freezes at night so it gets flater and flater, and slicker and slicker.
No tree juice yet, though.
Tapped 10 maples today. I have 2 more to go, but ran out of buckets.
The snow is still high. I should have worn shoes (snowshoes), but didn't want to bother. I regret not bothering.
I think that tomorrow it will be time to start tapping maple trees. Last year I tried tapping two trees. This year I have 12 marked and ready to go. -
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