Tapping Trees

We tapped our trees 2 weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to journaling it. I love tapping our trees-it means Spring is truly coming & I so love making our own syrup with our own trees & our own work. This week I've been so excited about Spring, I've been anxious to start several things. I remembered last year how I felt the same way, but didn't complete it all, didn't do any of it really well, like I wanted to. And then got stressed & was not a kind, patient mama. So, I restrained myself from ordering more chicks and vanilla beans to make extract and supplies to make soap & making paper pots to start seeds in.

First, we're going to finish the Maple Syrup. :)

And here's the pics of us getting started 2 weeks ago:

We had a ton of snow right before tapping. This is Susanna walking in her father's footsteps. :)

Jonah & Fletcher coming back with a tool we forgot. That fence is to the outdoor arena we put in last summer-we all worked to do it together-it's a good memory. My dh & I talked thru many subjects about the children-especially Hannah & her injured barrel horse. I cried many tears while holding boards as my husband drilled them to posts. And he did a lot of listening. And holding me b/w posts. It's neat how I can look back to that painful place & now see joy and a healed horse and a daughter with more faith & trust in God than she had before. Isn't it funny how a fence can make me think about all that?

This is so cool and the next pic is even cooler.

I love seeing my boy do this kind of thing. His cousin, Daniel, said when he saw this pic that Jonah looked like a pile of leaves with jeans. lol

The sap ran really well the first week, but not the second week. We should have tapped a week earlier. We don't think the sap season is done yet-we hope, anyway!

So far we've gotten about 40 gallons of sap. This past weekend we boiled it down. I enjoyed that part because we made time to all sit around the woodstove out in the barn & visit while it boiled. We also had fun quizzing Hannah on her horse questions for her upcoming quizbowl competition thru 4-H. It was a crazy weekend w/ lots of running kids here & there-and horses, too. I'm glad we made the time to just sit. The thick maple smell & the heat from the stove was like a lullaby. Made us all very sleepy.

So, from 40 gallons of sap, we ended up with 2 quarts of delicious maple syrup. Someone said to me they thought that was an awful lot of work & not much to show for it. But, I know better. And pancakes the next morning tasted SO good.