"ZooZoo Super Chick" & The Incubating Bathroom

Happy Resurrection Day!

Twenty days ago we placed a dozen eggs in our incubator, and yesterday morning the first chick fought his/her way out.  The name of the first chick thanks to Samuel is "ZooZoo Super Chick"  As ZooZoo gained strength and voice our cat Sydney and dog Asher gained interest in the incubator.  At one point Sydney was clawing at the incubator so we moved the operation to the guest bathroom (sorry Mom!) where we could offer more protection.  We also decided to move little ZooZoo to a small brooder (also in the bathroom) since it seemed like it was time for food and water.

The Incubating Bathroom

Little "ZooZoo Super Chick" happy on top of the food.

And today, Easter Sunday, two more chicks hatched.  

Here is one chick only a few hours after breaking out...

still waiting for a name.... maybe "jelly or bean"

We are planning that whatever hens come from this batch will become 

some of our egg layers.  

The roosters....well if they become to bothersome...they may become 

supper.

-Ken

A Day of Gathering (by Ken)

Micaiah Checks the bucket for sap.

This morning started before 7AM.  Some eggs and toast for breakfast with the boys, then Micaiah and I went out to gather the sap from the twenty taps we have scattered around Murmur Creek Farm.  Mic was excited to help with this and last night even wondered if he should set his alarm so he wouldn’t miss it.  He worked hard gathering the sap in a bucket then pouring it into the milk cans.  We gathered around thirty-five gallons of sap (almost a gallon of syrup after boiling it down!).   Then went to the barn to feed the animals.  Good Job Mic!

 Pouring the sap into his pail.

Then to the milk can (that can be hauled on my truck to the boiling shed)

I took the milk cans with me to the Lyndaker Sugar Bush where three of us and a tractor driver (Vernon) gathered around 1,700 or so gallons.  I think that was about a 1,000 less than yesterday.  Just for some perspective: Micaiah and I filled 3.5 milk cans this morning, and at the sugar bush if we put the two days of gathering sap in milk cans we would have filled around 440 cans.  No wonder I’m tired!

Boiling underway - steam filling the air.  

The tractor hauls the tubs of sap that are being unloaded into the boiling shed.

Outside you see the barrels that will be filled with with syrup.

Looking into the evaporator as steam rises.

Its a wood fired evaporator - and it eats a lot of wood!

 looking at the evaporator with the fire doors wide open.

 Keeping that fire HOT!

It was a shorter day today since we finished collecting all that needed to be gathered.  When I got home I realized if I stopped moving I would just fall asleep so I worked on a small cabinet project (finished that...after going to two hardware stores), checked on the goats and chickens, then went out and split wood by hand until I finished a nice pile.  Now I’m spent!  Goodnight.  -Ken

Happy Spring!

First day of Spring

Snow Day - No School

First Day Gathering (by Ken)

Four guys, one tractor, six white buckets with heavy-duty handles, and a trailer with metal tanks...and we were in business.  Today was the first day gathering sap from the buckets in the Lyndaker sugar bush, and we had the great opportunity to snowshoe in the rain most of the day!  Actually the snowshoes were on and off today depending on what part of the woods we were in.  For example: I would be getting along just fine in my rubber boots, then gradually the snow got deeper, then a few buckets later I’m past my knee in snow with two five gallon buckets of sap.... ok, time for the snowshoes again.

  

Other than being soaked through several times it was a good day with a good group of guys.  Three of us gathered the sap while one drove the tractor.  Actually there was a fifth person working full-time in the boiling shed keeping the fire roaring and the steam rising so the delicious syrup could be made.  When we came back with a load of sap from the trees to unload into the vat we would then stack a new load of firewood for the “boiler man,” and warm up a bit and try to dry off by the evaporator.  Then back out again.  By the end of the day I believe we brought in over 2,000 gallons of sap.  I’ll be back at it again tomorrow morning, and if all goes well tomorrow, we will have completed our first round of gathering.

Somehow even after all of this I still had a little steam left, so when I got home I went out with the kids and we put in twenty spouts and buckets near our house.  Then after a quick visit to care for the goats I finally got out of the cold wet clothes and had a nice hot shower.  A good day & I’m tired.  I think if I can finish this post I’m going to fall asleep on the floor or pretty much anywhere.

HOPE & Snowshoes (by Ken)

“Hope” - it’s what the trees seem to say this time of year.   The somberness of a long winter, cold temps still holding steady, and plenty of thick crusty snow...it’s just hard to imagine spring will come anytime soon.... but the Maple tree roots reach deep into the soil of a bigger story, and they begin to move that sweet sap up through their fibers to the barren universe above.  

I agreed to work in a sugar bush again this year.  I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking.  For quite awhile this winter I kept thinking I’ve got to find something else to do, so I have an excuse to say “no thanks, I’m busy” if someone calls and asks for help.  Then Vernon called me and I said “yes.”  Almost like there was something deeper in me as well that needed the season and movement of life.

Even though it can be physically strenuous work, it continues to be good for my soul, a great lesson in perseverance, and hopeful... Did I mention Hope?  There is just this subtle magical reverberation of hope among the trees that indeed life will come... it will...it really will... just hold on a bit longer.

I missed the first day of setting out buckets but joined the fun on Tuesday.  By the end of the day Friday we had set out a few thousand buckets, tapped the trees and hung the buckets.  Each day was spent walking on snowshoes.  I wore a pedometer one day to try and calculate the distance I walked, but I’m convinced it was wrong, because I nearly walked from 9AM until 4PM and it recorded under three miles...WHAT?  I think I need a more accurate recording device or a pedometer that picks up snowshoes.... Really I don’t walk that slow, even when I set buckets and tap trees.  

Shuffle, shuffle, bend, set, spout, ring, lean, reach, tap, tap, tap, bucket, hook, up, next, dodge, shuffle, shuffle, ouch stick in the face, shuffle shuffle... and on it goes.

At one point this year we loaded spouts onto the wagon.  There were seven buckets of spouts & rings, just spouts and rings!  Did I mention perseverance?  I think we had a bucket or so left over when we were all done.  It always just seems a bit crazy to me when we start, but little by little it all gets done.

The other good part of working in the sugar bush is eating and sleeping.  I packed my lunch this Friday: five cookies, five homemade energy bars, an apple, two cheese wraps, two P&J wraps, three hardboiled eggs, three large bottles of water, one thermos of coffee and a bottle of ibuprofen.  And I was STILL HUNGRY... ok, just kidding. I didn’t eat it all for lunch... I saved some for the ride home (and the good part is I still have some ibuprofen left for next week).  And after a day of walking on snowshoes, weaving through trees and brush, bending to set buckets or tap in spouts and hang a bucket - I’m tired...in a good way.

The only daunting thing left... every one of those buckets that sits out in the woods will be visited several more times as they fill with sap.  So the work has only just begun.... but then we get MAPLE SYRUP!

barn and playhouse