Photo Shoot

We were blessed to have our dear friends the Everitt's visiting us this summer! Staying true to our tradition of making matching t-shirts and forcing the kids to pose for a photo shoot... here are some of the pics:

Jessica and James

Ethan and Samantha

Samanthan, Ethan, and Sarah

Carrie and Emmalie

Carrie, Emmalie, and Nelson

And Mollie!

Wally 

 Roy

Nerf Battle 2012 and Ethan's 10th Birthday

Our Ethan turned double digits this summer and with it the biggest birthday party yet! This battle/party had been in the works for months! James and Ethan are very much into Nerf and were begging to have a bunch of kids over for a full blown Nerf battle. So we decided to go ahead with it for Ethan's birthday party. We had four teams each with an adult leader. Each team started out by going to one of four stations; face paint, get your gear, rules, and creating a team flag. Once trough the stations the teams headed to the woods for 30 minutes to build their forts. Once all teams were back to base camp the battle began! The rules were a capture the flag/treasure hunt type theme, the first team to find the "golden tiki man" and be back to base camp with all members and their flag wins. 

Let the battle begin...

Here is Ethan the warrior!

Going over the rules with the teams.

James' team with their flag.

A little bit of team strategy.

Whenever you were "hit" you had to come to base camp for 1 minute. I was able to get lots of good shots of the kids while there.

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Mimi and Papa were brought water balloons to add to the fun! 

 And in the blink of an eye...

a little water fun can turn into... WATER FIGHT!!!

After the battle was over we all gathered around for cake!

Ethan got lots of awesome gifts! Thanks goes out  to everyone who made his 10th birthday the best one yet!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

We love you!!!

Boiling Sap: Our Set-up

Our first batch of finished maple syrup! It took many hours to produce but is so satisfying to see, smell, and taste!!

Each batch seems to go a little bit smoother as we figure things out as we go. Here is our basic set up using a double propane turkey fryer that we borrowed from Pat's dad.

My "clothespin" can has now been re-purposed as a pre-heater for the cold sap. The sap is poured through a filter (an old shirt) and then slowly leaks out of two small holes into each pot. The sap warm as it sits in the can and the slow leak ensures we do not "kill the boil".

Here is another view of our set up. We decided to put up this small tent to keep the falling snow out of the pots. It also helps to keep out the pine needles and debri from the trees next to us. The chair is for brief moments of sitting! It's been too cold to move far from the pots warmth anyway!!

A night time pic of the steam in our little tent and Pat checking the progress!

Set up #2 was given to us by a friend of Pat and seems to work pretty well if Pat is home to get the fire going. I cannot seem to figure it out!! Once the fire is going... the pan on the left is used for warming and then ladeled into the pan on the right which we try to keep at a continuous boil. This method has some flaws, the ash from the fire below seems to find it's way through small cracks and into the boiling sap. The small cracks would not have been there if the pan that came with it was useable but after several attempts at repairing a crack in the bottom we went with these two cheap-o turkey roasting pans instead. We continuously skim the gunk out and it gets filtered two more times before bottling so the ash does not end up in the finished product. Also our wood is not dry (lesson learned!) and so we sometimes have a hard time keeping a continuous boil.

It is most definitely my favorite method though because it is WARM! There also seems to be more action involved with this system and keeping busy helps you forget the frigid air.

This pic shows our sap storage barrel that was also donated to the cause by some friends. Pat continues to pack snow around it so that the sap will stay fresh throughout the week until we are ready to boil again.

Our total so far is 4 1/2 gallons of finished syrup! My goal is to have 5 gallons stored away to use for eating and cooking throughout the year. We are hoping for anohter 2 weeks of the season and so are definitly going to reach our goal, even after giving alot away! We are so thankful!

"And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." -Genesis 2:9

Our Maple Syrup Adventure Begins!

We officially have Maple Fever!
I have been reading lots of "grow your own", "make your own", and "do it your self" type books and just happened to come across Backyard Sugarin' by Rick Mann at our local library. He makes it seem so easy and fun to produce a small supply of syrup in your backyard! In my excitement I began sharing all the info with Pat, then fever hit us! We collected all the supplies and even located some great trees (in Jackson at Pat's parents house and at their neighbors)! Last weekend we decided it was time to set the taps.

These photo's are by James who was sent with strict instructions to take pics of tapping the trees since I could not come (I was home with a sick babe:-(
Here Pat is pushing his homemade sap collection sled up the field to the sugar maples.

We had gone out earlier to identify and tag the trees that we are 99% sure are sugar maples?? 99% because the fever hit us after the trees had lost their leaves and were buried by a foot of snow! I researched how to identify them just by the buds and the leaves that I could find after digging in the snow at the base of the tree. If I'm wrong we are sure to end up with some interesting syrup!
Here is James' pic of his Dad drilling the tap:

Next the tap is set in the hole and the bucket and lid are placed. We got a great deal on taps, buckets and lids from a friend of Pat's who had extra he was not using.

Here you can just barely see the first drop of sap coming to the end of the tap! Success!

This little video was also shot by James and then edited at home (with a little help from Mom!)


We have now collected over 35 gallons of sap and are looking forward to trying our hand at boiling this weekend! Stay tuned for more pics coming soon!!