Maple Sugar Season

This little homestead of ours made another dream of mine (and my family) come true - harvesting our own maple syrup. Last fall the children and I identified 3 large sugar maple trees on our property (and apparently we have a lot more! I'll share more on that later on). I told my mom about them and then for Christmas she got us this tree tapping kit. About mid-March we tapped our trees. We decided to do a trial run. We didn't have all the supplies (like buckets and boiling pans) so we thought it best to start small and only collect 10 gallons of sap. That took us about one week. Once we had the full ten gallons we made a make-shift set up to boil it outside. We spent the whole day outside watching the sap boil and adding more as it got low. You can see in the photos that one of the pans got too low (the dark one) and the sap started turning into syrup too soon - we are still learning. Once it was all down to about 1/4 of what we started with, we filtered it and in I brought it inside to finish the process. I watched numerous videos on how to tell when the sap has turned into syrup, each one saying it is pretty impossible and you need a special thermometer. Even so, our syrup boiled a bit too longer and was slightly on the sugar side. We weren't discouraged though. It was our first try and besides, it tasted better than any syrup we had ever had. We ended up with a pint of syrup after all was said and done and we enjoyed it that night over waffles and pancakes. I don't think we'll ever forget that experience and are already making plans for a real sugar season next winter - hopefully with gallons upon gallons of syrup to put away for the following year.

p.s. - When we were tapping our trees an older neighbor drove by our house and noticed our tapped sugar maple trees. He turned his truck around and knocked on our door. You should have seen the smile on his face when I answered. He was blown away that we were tapping our trees. It is rather unheard of out here for younger families to be homesteading or really doing anything besides watching tv and playing video games. He proceeded to show us all the other sugar maples we could tap on our property (and oh my do we have a lot!) followed by all the tips he could think of. He has lived in this area since the 1980s and used to tap his trees all the time. He shared stories about the sugar shack he found on his property and how all the boys on our street used to tap their maples and bring the sap to the sugar shack to be boiled into syrup to bring home to their mothers. I wish that little shack still stood. Can you imagine what a community they must have had here? How they loved thy neighbor? I would love to bring that back.
After he shared all of his wisdom and stories, he left he telling us he would go searching for any maple tapping supplies he had left in his barn and bring them down.He has since given them to us and we can't wait to use them next year. They are treasures to us, for sure!

Maple Sugar Season

Springtime/Easter crafts

I planned on having my spring book post up by now but wouldn't you know it? I can't find our spring books! They are in one of these boxes here but which one? I'll be digging through them this week but in the meantime I thought I would link to some of our past springtime/Easter crafts in case anyone wants to get a head start!

-Wool felted eggs (to replace the plastic Easter eggs)
-Beeswax egg candle
-grow wheat grass in eggs, watercolor painted eggs, and more crafts!
-Beeswax and tissue paper flowers

Springtime/Easter crafts

Crafting On

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

I know, I know. You are sick of seeing this blanket, but I haven't had a whole lot of knitting time so it has dragged on a bit longer than I anticipated. We tried something new on our homestead today and are ridiculously giddy over it. Any guesses as to what it was??? I'll give you a tiny hint - we references The Backyard Homestead and Back to Basics as we prepared.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

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Crafting On

King Winter

Eggs courtesy of Babette, Hei Hei, Meriwether, Sacagawea, Easter, Tum Tum, Gum Gum, and Susan



Old King Winter came out to play
And said I'm going to make this a very cold day
So he turned to the east ~ Whoooosh!
To the south ~ Whooosh!!
To the West Whooosh!

Then he turned to the North and said that's the best!
For my very good friend is the old North Wind
And when we play, we make a very, very, very cold day
Brrrrrr!

(from Mary Theines Schunemann, Sing a Song of Seasons)

Old King Winter please stop teasing us and come out to play! We keep getting flurries here and there but not enough to amount to anything. We got our toboggan out of storage and so look forward to using it again. Soon King Winter, please??? In the meantime the kids are amusing themselves with K teaching C how to drive the riding lawnmower and L trying to teach Baby F how to drive their mini tractor. That tractor has already come in handy a few times with L driving firewood over to our fire pit.

Unfortunately, our chickens don't feel the same way about the snow as we do. Whenever there is any snow on the ground they all huddle at the edge of the coop unsure of what to do. Eventually Sacagawea and Meriwethere Feather Lewis hop out and the others follow. They have the sweetest little personalities and crack us up daily. It feels so good to finally have our own little homestead. I look forward to it growing more and more.

p.s. - I love how Baby F's driving matches his personality - fiery, fierce and always at full speed.

King Winter

Family Homesteading

My friend and homesteading extraordinaire Teri Page just released a book (that I have been looking forward to) this week - Family Homesteading. My family and I have only just begun our long anticipated homesteading adventures so this book couldn't have come at a better time. It has already become an invaluable resource for us. I have been highlighting and taking notes as I read, trying to soak in all of Teri's wisdom that she kindly shares with us all. The funny thing is, every time I put the book down, I come back to find my daughters reading it. They seem to be as enamored with the book as I am.

I recently asked Teri a couple of questions about homesteading with children, hoping to glean some of her endless knowledge on the subject. I thought some of you might be in or near the same place as my family with homesteading and wanted to share her answers with you.

At what age do you think children can start with animal chores - specifically chickens and what do you think is the best way for them to start?

 Introducing children to animal chores can begin at a very early age - we first brought our babies to the barn as infants! - but actually entrusting the care of animals to the children is something that you'll have to evaluate on a case by case basis, based on maturity, interest, and ability. My kids began helping with chicken chores from a very early age. Their first job was to "socialize" the chicks by holding them! As toddlers, the kids accompanied us to the barn and carried the eggs back in a harvesting basket, tossed straw on the coop floor, and carried bowls of food scraps. Once they were tall enough to reach latches, they began opening and closing the coop and feeding the flock. Now that they are older (7 and 10), my kids are more engaged with the day-to-day of chicken care than I am. They know each bird by name and personality, and are the first to spot health problems or food shortages. I still enjoy accompanying them to the coop, but they are the chickens' primary caretakers.

How can you motivate your children to help out on the farm/homestead, for example, when they would rather be in the house reading? 

This is a great question, and I'm afraid that I don't have a magic answer for you! Kids have their own interests and hobbies, and I think it is important to give them the space and time to cultivate their own interests. On the other hand, the family has responsibilities, and kids are part of the family, so can be expected to contribute according to their age and ability. Some things that have worked for us: We have always tried to make farm and homestead chores about connection and fun. We plan the garden to include favorite vegetables, walk to the garden together to harvest, and cook meals that include contributions from their beds. When we were milking cows early in the morning, before the kids were awake enough to chat, we set them up in comfy chairs in the barn to listen to Sparkle Stories. Most importantly, we try to strike a balance between asking them to do chores on their own, and making it something we do together. I have had some of my best conversations while accompanying my daughter to the chicken coop. My end goal is for my children to experience a connection to nature, to the seasons, and to the other members of our family; it's not to raise little homesteaders (although I'd certainly love that!). I also want to cultivate a sense of responsibility and an ability to work hard and follow through with commitments. So I have to continually assess whether or not their contributions to farm/homestead work are meeting these goals, or if we need to make adjustments.


Terri also has a free e-course available to go along with her book here : http://familyhomesteadingbook.com/ Go check her book out!

Family Homesteading

beautiFULL

These days have been beautifully full. We took our dying dog Paw Paw to the yearly blessing of the animals on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. The children all brought a chicken as well and Baby F, who is not old enough to be responsible for a pet at the blessing, brought his favorite stuffed animal fox. I am sad I didn't get any photos of the actual blessing but if you just look at the face on my baby boy in the 2nd photo from the bottom, you might understand why. 😉😇

Kevin and I took the boys to a local harvest festival while the girls were having some special Grandma time. Baby F really enjoyed the folk band that was playing. I love to see him get into music like that. The festival couldn't hold a candle to our beloved Portland Waldorf School Harvest Festivals but we still had a good time. I think the boys were just happy to see firetrucks and pumpkins. They are easy to please.

Kevin had the chance to help out our landlord in the fields last week. Of course this made him a rock star to his boys. They watched in awe as he drove by. Our landlord is teaching him everything he knows about the tractors and farm life. Kevin told him just how much our boys love watching him when he is in the fields working so he brought them a John Deere book to look at and a toy catalog. I thought that was such a kind thing to do. It was a big deal to both my boys, especially L. I am afraid to say because well, Murphy's Law, but we really, really like our landlord. He is such a kind, caring person. We feel so fortunate to be renting from him and just to know him.

This move has been a blessing to us on so many levels.

beautiFULL