After a long winter....

As of April, the violets and violas in the greenhouse are coming back to life. The temperature had reached well below zero, but these little beauties really define "hardiness". I plan to have more of them this summer and keep them in the temp-regulated coldframe in the greenhouse for next winter. They are truly a flower of happiness.

Back at it, syrup at last....

Pouring the sap into the tank

Carrying the sap to the tank

Filtering the syrup

Collecting the syrup

Taking the specific gravity

First maple syrup

March Sugaring, Here we go again

Here we go again. It's March, 2013 and we have hung 53 buckets on our sugar maples around the boundary. We are waiting for a good run, but have already collected the sap from a couple of slow runs. The temperatures are all over the place, 40s day, low 30s night. We need the colder nighttime temps to get the sap moving. But in any event, we are ready.I plan to make a video of the sap dripping into the buckets so that we can hear the great dripping sound.

Bob, the Belgian work horse has left us

Today I got the news that Bob, the wonderful Belgian horse that worked for Marc Farrow, our logger, passed on. He had been sick for awhile and Marc finally had to put him to sleep on Sat. Feb 9th. Bob touched many hearts, delighted so many who knew him and became a media star on Youtube while he either pulled logs or moose for Marc. He will be missed. Watch him here Bob pulling a log  and  Bob's last pull for us, Dec 27, 2012 Bob's last pull for us on Dec 27, 2012

Christmas Tree, Blizzard and Woodrow

Hello everyone, it is our first real blizzard of 2012. Please enjoy the day... we have been, and have a look at our tree (our largest gray birch yet), and the mounting snow outside the window. Woodrow has the right idea on a day like this.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL...

Last Days of Logging

Bob, the 25 year old Belgian horse I have mentioned earlier, came back to our winter woods to help Marc finish up with the last of the trees for the winter.  John waits for Marc to load the logs onto the carrier in the video below.

When we arrived home on the day after Christmas, all the logs that Marc had cut and we had piled, were being loaded onto a 10 wheeler bound for market. We are done for this year, but there are plenty more trees for Bob and Brumby to help with next year.