Breakfast Birds? and Change

The trees were full of songs this morning. I opened my eyes and just out my bedroom window, the top of the trees were full of goldfinches, purple finches and chickadees. They were having a breakfast of chokecherry buds. Those not eating were singing all about spring being well on its way.Who doesn't love this time of year when the trees are budding, the flowers slowly poking their noses through the yet cold earth. It won't be long and the whole yard will be ablaze in bright floral colors , green, green grass everywhere, trees leafing out, birds making their nests, babies of all kinds of the woods being born and shown off by their proud parents. I can't wait to see the first fawns of the season. There are always families of them born in my woods at the edge of the lawn. So much to look forward to. Life is good.

Our family is going through so many changes too, this spring already. It's going to be another good year.

God Bless You Another Day

Hugging

We have always been a 'hugging' family, so this was so fitting for our home.

One day when my youngest son was just a teenager, he came home from school, hugged me, and gave me this paper to read. He asked if I could frame it and hang it up for all to see. Of course I would, and it has been hanging in our house ever since.

Some of you may have already read this but here it is for all to hold close.

...HUGGING...

Hugging is healthy.

It helps the body's immunity system.

It keeps you healthier, cures depression, reduces stress, induces sleep, is invigorating, rejuvenating and has no unpleasant side effects.

Hugging is nothing less than a miracle drug.

Hugging is all natural. It is organic, naturally sweet, no pesticides, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients and 100 % wholesome.

Hugging is practically perfect.

There are no movable parts, no batteries, no wear out, no periodic check-ups, low energy consumption, high energy yield, inflation-proof, not fattening, no monthly payments, no insurance requirements, theft-proof, non-taxable, non-polluting and , of course,

Fully Returnable.

So here a huge ((((HUG)))) for each and every one of you.

Have a blessed day.

From Sap to Maple Syrup

                                            It's Maple Syrup Season once again. 

 This story is from a couple yrs. ago, but the content continues each year as we make Pure 100% Maple Syrup again this year.  The only difference this season is that we still have a couple feet of snow in the woods, the trails are a mess but the process continues.  Today, we canned our first batch of pure goodness in the amount of 18 quarts.
Enjoy what we do for entertainment after a terribly long winter, plus what we do for our GrandLoves~like school out of school.  Maybe, someday, they will follow tradition that has been handed down in our family for the past 4 generations, or more.  Enjoy the journey!

Every spring in the north to northeast, the maple syrup you pour over your pancakes, waffles, ice cream, is being produced. Some families, such as ours, makes maple syrup by the gallons to supply the family table as well as to sell to you. This year, that job is being undertaken at my nephew's place under the close supervision of his wife. Everyone seems to get in the act tho, whether to gather the sap, or just wait for hours and watch it cook and evaporate from sap to syrup.Don't be fooled by a label that says 100% maple syrup. By law, 100 % can have as much as 60% corn syrup added and still be called PURE. What goes into these jars, IS 100 % PURE, with NO additives. You have not had the pleasure of real maple syrup until you have tasted 100% PURE with that beautiful amber color and thinner consistency.
It all starts at the maple tree, tapped with a metal tap that allows the sap to drip, one drip at a time, into a bucket hanging from the tap. Depending on the weather, best being warm days, cool nights, the sap fills the pails. Sometimes the pails need to be emptied twice a day or more, on perfect days.
My nephew uses his tractor fitted with a hydraulic lift that carries a 100 gallon stock tank. The sap is poured through its first filter before going into the tank.
Once the stock tank is full, it is siphoned into the 250 gallon holding tank which feeds the sap by copper tubing, into the warming pan inside of the sap shack.
Most home operations, do not have the convenience of a nice sap shack as this one that houses the working end of making maple syrup. The next step is to fire up the cooker with firewood.
The warming pan is where the sap makes its first run before entering the cooking pan. It sits at one end of the fire warming the sap until at least 80 degrees. The warmer the sap, the faster the cook-off. To give prospective, it takes 15 min. to drip one inch of sap from a 50 gal. drum, so imagine how long it takes to drop an inch from a 250 gal. holding tank.
At first there is much steam, evaporation. The copula fan on the roof is whirling its best as the steam rises. This whole operation sits table height off the floor built into a brick oven, open at the top. The stainless steel sap pan sits directly on top of the flames.
During the cooking process, lots of skimming of sap scum is spooned off the top. This helps to produce a clear product and is done repeatedly.
Of course, no cooking operation can escape the 'spoon' test. Once the sap thickens into syrup, it will drip slowly from the spoon. Actually, this is the 'excuse' stage, to taste-test the syrup.
Grandma, Mom, gets to stir things up. She just can't help herself. Afterall, SHE is the Real Supervisor, having made maple syrup the past 40 some years for our family of eleven. A wooden spoon is used to slowly stir at least once....cause Grandma says. What good cook could resist? Another excuse to taste...
Back to the business end. The fire has to be tended often to maintain a constant cooking temperature. The fire is hot and deep at 20 inches of coals the length of the 2x6 foot pan with 8 inch walls. It gets raked back, shoveled back and re-stoked over and over for the next couple of days until the holding tank is empty.
20 inches of hot coals, 2 feet wide by 6 feet deep
The young supervisor watches hubby measure the depth of the sap to see how much it has evaporated before cook-off is complete.Meanwhile, hot sap, beginning to turn amber in color, smelling wonderful of hot syrup, boils away. During the waiting and waiting and waiting, lots of sap coffee, bean soup, and cakes are consumed by all.
The cooking continues until the syrup reaches 217 degrees, comes to a rolling boil, the steam dissipates, and it's time to 'pull the pan.' Timing is everything.Pulling the pan of boiling hot syrup off of a red hot bed of coals and fire can be tricky. This 2x6 foot pan takes four strong, steady people to carefully guide the pan off the fire and onto a waiting table. The fire is then covered by the fella in the back, with a sheet of tin that keeps the flames from getting away. Safety first.
The spigot on the end of the pan is opened and PURE liquid gold comes pouring out. A quick taste is caught in a cup for all to taste. The drip on the edge of the cup proves a success. The syrup is again filtered through a cloth liner and a wool filter system of bags before emptying into a 25 gallon can.
My nephew in the center is so satisfied with the success of this batch as Grandma gives approval. It sure was delicious.One more time before it goes into the canning jars and syrup jugs, it gets filtered again to produce clear, beautiful liquid gold, as we call it.
So it goes, with the 'old fashioned' way of making maple syrup for your family. It's time consuming, a love-hate relationship between the product and the producer. Sometimes, you are up in the middle of the night to stoke fires and check progress. Sometimes the fire is let to go out and restarted in the morning. All good things come to those who wait., right?

The Big operations are using pipelines, pump systems, barometric pressure, automatic everything, etc. etc. etc., to make their job easier. A whole other story. Nuff Said.

Hope you all enjoyed what we did over the weekend. It was SWEET.

God Bless

Yesterday's Gone

Yesterday we were blessed with such a beautiful sunrise,

Today is a fright. I fear it is going to be a gloomy day.

I do love this picture taken through my bathroom window.

It looks warmer than anything I feel today.

The house just does not want to warm up.

Yesterday, also blessed me with my first sighting of a bluebird scout checking out his box of last year. He spent a good share of the morning just sunning himself, then left. I'm sure he went to get his 'sweetie', to let her know that they should wait another week or so because of the cold front coming in and promising even more snow by the weekend. Let's hope that is not so.Until next time, have a warm, sunny, weekend. I will be keeping the fire stoked.

BlessYa'll

Out of Hibernation

We are hoping for a less damaging spring with our neighbors, the North American Black Bear. The grey bird feeder lying on its roof, has an iron pole next to it with threading, that the bear twisted and turned until he actually broke the threading and rendering it un-usable.

The green metal squirrel-proof feeder is missing its pole. We never did find where the bear took it. The broken bird bath on the left was on the ground. The other birdbath base, is the only thing left. Notice the iron pole that secured it in the ground is bent.
Yet another bent pole and broken feeder. A hungry bear can be very damaging to feeders in the spring, especially just out of hibernation.
Be 'Beary' careful out there.
It's that time of year again. This was last springs 'black bear bender' from a big boy of about 450-500 lbs. Needless to say, the car went 'no where'.
This is the young fella, a yearling around 150 lbs., that did all the damage to my feeders in '07. I set up a trail camera off the steps of my deck to get this picture of 'who came to dinner.'

The Black Bear of North America are officially out of hibernation.

The weather has been unseasonably warm, about a month ahead of itself, in our area. Due to this, the black bear are out of their dens and moving throughout their terrain, in search of food, water, salt, whatever they can find to sustain themselves after a long winters nap. Time to carry the bird feeders in each night. I have lost many a feeder and poles due to them carrying them off or bending and biting them to get after the seeds within.

Unfortunately, this also means that they travel across many of the same roads that we travel on. At night, unless you see their eyes while they walk ,head down, you do not see them until they are directly in front of you. Even the smaller bear can do a considerable amount of damage to a vehicle and its passengers.

So, be careful out there as you travel to and fro, day or night, as the black bear are active once again. Don't forget to take your feeders in at night. And... Happy trails to you until we meet again.

Bless Your Day

Green, Rise n' Shine, Kite

In anticipation of spring gardening, my GrandLove would hang on the fence last year waiting his turn at getting in and helping with the planting...eventually he figured out how to crawl underneath the mesh fencing.Top of the Morn to ya....wake up and...
Let's go fly a kite...
That's it folks...been too miserable with a spring cold to be much company...

God Bless and Stay Healthy

Absent Minded and Bibs

Guess who's coffee was an hour early? And guess who, after posting to Spring forward, forgot?

All has been corrected and I didn't even loose any sleep over it. My 'old timer' neighbor calls every morning to let me know he's still kicking. He says, he never turns his clocks cause he would just have to do it again in the fall...good point Gene. I asked him if he was ever worried about being on time for his appointments? and he says, I'm always early in the summer and on time in the winter...LOL Those old fellers sure know what they're talking about. He says it's them there city edumacated folks that don't know no better. Nuff said., like my Dad used to always say when he heard enough.

Now about this lil' scrapper. His attire is the subject of the hour. My little grandson is sporting a pair of his absolute favorite bib overalls. They are camo 'just like Daddy's', he says.

Now, who doesn't love them.? They speak comfort from the shoulder to the ankle and who can argue with that. Nothing binding, always pockets to hide lil' things like Matchbox cars and trucks, a licorice whip, rocks, crackers for later, crayons for marking the spot and a toy hammer, just in case Grandpa needs help. Or shades in a pocket just in case Daddy wants to take a ride on the 4-wheeler, he will be prepared.

Or bibs for the big people who need plenty of breathing room, and pockets. Pockets for garden tools and seed, camera and pad and pencil to mark the seed trails. Seeds to be planted go in the left pocket. Right pocket holds the empty packets.

Pockets to carry change just in case you need to run into the Quicktrip for a soda for the road trip. Sunglasses have to be stored somewhere...front and center works for me.

Before I go, I have to share what happened here. Little Sis Colleen looking at Bill and myself, were getting ready one TX. morning, she for work, myself for the road trip home to WI. after a perfect visit. She was down the hall coming out of her bedroom, and I was coming out of the guest room just at the same time. Keep in mind now, that all week, my youngest son who was with on this trip, was getting pretty freaked out as to how many times, we would finish each others sentences, pick up the exact same item from a distance apart while shopping to comment on it, read the same card off the greeting card rack,...well, you get the picture.

Anyway, come the morning to leave, and what should happen? but we both come out of the bedrooms at the same time with the same thing on. Now that's kinship. To this day, this still happens, not only with Colleen but also with Mel and Cher, and of course, my twin, Doug. Well, we don't wear the same clothes...anymore...another story, another time.

That's all folks, for today.

God Bless and Have a WONDERFUL Day....the Sun is Shining