Day 3-5 on the Farm

Day 3: Clean out the maple taps.

Maple sugar is made from boiling the water out of the sap. Every winter (usually January or February) a hole is drilled in each tree for the tap to be put in. Each tap is run to a main line leading down to a sugar shack creating a large spider web of tubes draping through the trees. From there, nature does its thing dripping sap flowing down through the tubes. When the barrels are full, someone must boil all the water out of the sap which takes hours...usually through the night. 40 gallons of sap will be boiled down to 1 gallon of syrup!!! When the boiling syrup reaches 219.4 degrees F it’s ready to be bottled up! Fast forwarding a few months brings us to Day 3: cleaning the maples taps, lines and shack. The taps need to be removed from the tree truck, flushed out with water, and plugged up until next year.

Day 4: Cleaning the sugar shack.

When boiling such huge amounts of syrup, you are bound to burn some at the bottom leaving the vessel a mess. Imagine burning rice to the bottom of a pan and then having to clean it without soaking it....multiply this by 1,000. It took 4 of us for a few hours scrubbing and scrubbing. Don’t worry, we’re strong that thing is sparkling!!!

Day 5: Transplanting blackberries.

I used to love transplanting flowers with my dad when I was a little girl...so fun. Transplanting blackberries...not fun. Those darn prickers!!! They were everywhere. Took us a few hours, but we transplanted about 20.

Knocking out the taps.

The Sugar Shack.

Cleaning.

Clean.

Kyle bottling the syrup.

The syrup.

Morgan finishing off the row of transplanted blackberry bushes.

Adventure 2011: Taft HIll Farm

Two days ago we moved to Taft Hill Farm in West Townshend, VT which has the most beautiful view of the Green Mountains. The DuGrenier family is kind, inviting, and extremely knowledgeable. Robert and Kathy have lived here for 14 years with their 10 year old son Luc. Critter, however, is not that inviting...he’s the male llama that I’m sure you’ll be hearing more of. He shows his affection by awkwardly staring you down and randomly running at you.

So far our responsibilities have included learning how to feed the animals in the morning and to put them away for the night. The animals include: 2 llamas, 5 mini horses, lots of ducks (moscovy, shetland), lots of chickens (taft hill blue foot, lady kathy, copper scotch, and the special breed of luc dugrenier), 5 emus, 1 sheep, 1 ram, 1 donkey, 1 dog, 4 peacocks, 1 rabbit.

The weekend also included 2 inches of snow and slush which caused us to stay in doors on Saturday and work in the apartment in which we will be living once it’s done. Luckily my dad was here to help Robert put in bathroom tile while Kyle and I painted the ceiling.

Easter Sunday was spent eating a feast of a brunch, visiting a friends’ day old lambs, hiking down to Hamilton Falls, operating a back hoe, and feeling old jumping on the trampoline. The best way to convey how wonderful it has been so far is to show you!! Here you go.

PS- We miss everyone in Cleveland!!! Love you all so much. Thanks for being excited with us for this experience!!!

Peanut Butter and Fluff is the closest mini horse.

Horse poop turns into soil that is full of nutrients...notice how green the grass is that grows under the poop!!! This is why animal poop is composted and then spread in gardens...rich and nutritious!!

Dominant male peacock.

The pond.

Emu.
Critter the llama and Black Lightening the ram.
Marmalade the pregnant donkey.

A rooster.