Unhappy with Bell

Hello dear readers, fear not, I haven't abandoned you entirely. Our power went out two weeks ago due to ice on the lines (seems so hard to believe now as I sit here in a skirt and t-shirt!) and the power surge fried out internet box. And so we've been waiting for bell to send the new one we've ordered. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. We've called them 6 times now and each time they tell us "oh, yes ma'am, right away ma'am, we'll put a rush on your delivery". Well, if there's a rush on our delivery how come you have to add a new rush every time we call? And how come, when a rush delivery takes 2-3 days, we've now been waiting 14!!

Anyways, I'm typing to you briefly from Andrew's house. I've got lots to catch you folks up on from boiling down syrup and corking up the tree to a finished spool of two ply woolen yarn made by my own hot little hands, but you're gonna have to be patient with me, as I'm trying to be with Bell!

Blowin' Buckets

This spring has been so very windy in our neck of the woods that my sap buckets keep blowing right off the trees! The ground all around my tree is stained a tawny blonde colour, proof that the my sap has indeed been running, but my buckets weren't staying put to catch it! I'm still getting some, I think I'm up to about 7.5 gallons of sap now, but I betcha there's that again poured all over the ground!
Today I went over with a ball of twine and tied all the bucket handles to the spigots. Should help. Fingers crossed.

Happy Leap Day

There's something special about a date that only happens once every 4 years. Any leap year babies out there? I wonder how I would feel if my birthday only happened twice a decade, give or take.
My aunt Pam's baby is due soon, I'm going to have a new little cousin. A girl to shower with all kinds of nice, girly, homemade things. Though she's not due until the 8th of march, part of me couldn't help but wonder if perhaps I'd have a leap day cousin.
Scouring my collection of patterns for a quick and easy baby present, since I've put it off way too long.... any ideas?

Keep a Weather Eye

Part of the reason I want to become a homesteader/farmer is a desire to get back in touch with the world around me. The real world, the world that matters. Like the moon phases, the seasons, weather patterns. What different animals do at different times of the year. And what it all means to a person who doesn't just live on this planet, but with it. I wanna know more about the food in my body, the clothes in my back and the roof over my head, I don't just want to pay for them.
I like that through the humble beginnings of syrup making I now check the forecast every day, and have some inkling of what that means for the food being produced for my belly. It's a start.
I want to continue this awareness throughout the growing season this year, not just dump veggie seeds in the garden and weed and water sporadically. I want to give my garden it's best shot at higher yields.

Liquid Gold

I can't get over how dark and how sweet it is, straight out of the tree!

Fat Tuesday

Happy Mardi Gras folks!
I was fixin to make up a fantastic jambalaya over here, and get some real cajun smells and tastes going in the house. My family however has a much less adventurous palate. Instead it will become a pancake tuesday, with fluffy pancakes (and because having both pancakes and king cake seems gastronomically redundant, I'll be hiding a bean in one of the pancakes... hehe!!) . A shame it's not a few weeks later, we could have had homemade maple syrup on them! For tonight, Aunt Jemima will have to do, but I'll also bring out toppings like butter, jam and apple sauce. I'm gonna try to sell them on pancakes made from scratch. It's all about reintroducing the folks to real flavours, and leaning away from preservatives.

First Sap

Only about a tablespoon in each bucket, but it's running!