Sugaring

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We have maple trees, lots of maple trees in fact, so it seems a natural progression that we should tap those trees and harvest our own maple syrup. Graham was so enthusiastic about this plan that he spent a good part of this last Saturday digging paths in the snow from one tree to another so that we could collect the sap. Essentially there is a 40:1 ratio, 40 gallons of tree sap equals 1 gallon of maple syrup. Graham felt that we should be collect about 80 gallons of sap to satisfy our yearly waffle, pancake, and french toast needs. The process is really quite easy, you drill a small hole in the tree, insert a tap and then hang a bucket or bag from it. The bags are more modern and less expensive, but the buckets have more of that New England feel. We opted to try both and see if there is any difference in performance.

Step one is done, now we just need some days over freezing with nights below freezing to get the sap moving.
 


Walking the Line

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After a couple days of being stuck inside putting up drywall, cleaning and removing old plaster we had to get out and play in the snow for a bit. Given the property is blanketed under 24" of snow drifts we figured it was high time we take out the L.L. Bean snowshoes and put them through their paces. It was a great chance to see things from a different perspective, without the other season's leaves in the way.