Joyful Survivors

Even with 6 months of winter, and still being under so much snow and ice, my succulents and semps along the south end of the garage are already showing that~

 They ARE Survivors.  They give me Hope.

 Even being covered with water...

the most bitter winter has not deterred these hardy souls.

As the snow and ice are finally receding,  there 

is even hope for the Daylilies, insisting on saying, 

" Bring it on."  

I had to laugh at the way these tulips just refuse to die.

Another " bring it on " moment.

The way the moss spirals around the dead maple surprised me,

But, I Like It! ~ A burst of green in a woods full of knee-deep snow.

The Purple Phlox as well as the Red Semps are always

a first spring welcomed sight.  It won't be long and they 

will put on quite the show.

We had temperatures as bitter cold as minus -40's this winter, 

but even in the shallow planters, the succulents are 

true survivors.

If you haven't ever grown succulents, semps, sedum, ~ and

you live in unforgiving temperatures, try them.

They will not only take the cold but the heat as well.

The varieties are unbelievable.  

Maybe because I have one of my own, or 

just because I love these survivors, I had to include my

" Sweet Williams," pushing themselves through the ice.

But, Most Miraculous to me, of all,

was what I found in these tiny 1 1/2 inch baskets on

the burro's side, holding less than 1/2 inch of soil, ~

were these miniature sedums.  What a surprise,

for this has been our most bitter and long snow winter

since 1905.  

I said to the Lord, " You are my Master!  All

the good things I have are from you. "

Psalm 16:2

  

And I thank Him for bringing me joy today.

BlessYa

On Phoebe's Return

The Phoebe that nests in our barn each spring, is home for the summer.  The only problem is, she is wondering what to do next!

 Good grief.  There is still so much snow,

the barn door is frozen shut. And....

 it looks more and more like she has to decide 

whether or not to stay.  She has been flitting from the

garage roof, to the sawhorses by the garage door,

 to the planter hanger in-between the garage doors,

thinking, ' she might just have to nest in the garage,

this time.'  

 While trying to decide on this gloomy day,

Mrs. Rabbit decides that maybe she should 

nest in the garage.

Mrs. Phoebe was having none of that.  Immediately,

she put the run on her, dive-bombing and chasing

her right out of her new domain. 

Phoebe has staked her claim.  Now, only to keep

Mr. Bill from closing that door the rest of the summer.

That will be her next challenge.  

 Apparently we will be having at least another

week of  ' iffy ' weather and YES,

these Are Snowball Hydrangeas.

 As for that sunshine trellis below, I have only one thing to say,

"  What do you think you're smilin' about?"

All's fair in the war of winter.

Come to Wisconsin, one and all.

If you should want to see the weather change,

wait just a few minutes.

I promise, you will love it.

Have a great week

From we northerners.

Our Family Plan - Maple Syrupin'

It is That time of year again when the Maple trees are being tapped and the crystal clear sap is turned into Pure Maple Syrup at the Creekside Cabin.

The hygrometer measures, not only when the syrup is syrup, 

but also whether or not it is done to perfection, hot or cold. 

 More about that later.

It's a ' timing ' thing, making syrup.

The weather has to be cool to cold at night,

warming steadily during the day to afford a drip,

drip, drip in the buckets until they are full of that

crystal clear sap.

The sap is collected in 5 gal. buckets that are carried from tree to tree, sap bucket to sap bucket, emptied and strained into 15 gal. barrels.

oops, forgot to downsize this pic.

anyway, from the 15 gal. barrels the sap is pumped into the large tank that has a drip system assembled at the receiving end, dripping the sap into the cooking pan.

The sap runs through copper tubing from the large storage tank and into the cooker which you can barely see due to all the steam off the top of the pan.  The pails in the background are sap warming also.

All of this primitive way of making maple syrup, family style, is done over extremely hot coals under that cooking pan which is about 3 ft. wide by 6 ft. long. and 7 inches deep.

As you can see, there is still a lot of snow, mud and melting going on here, so it gets to be a pretty messy job done outside.  I heard the boys talking about making a cook shack for this part of our operation.  If they are going through all this trouble to cook syrup, then I say, " Heck, Ya! "

Since we do not have the new-fangled, high tech reverse osmosis system of doing this, it takes many hrs. of watching the sap boil~~~

and boil~~~

and boil and roll and skim!~~~

until, finally, it's ready to~~~~

pull the pan off that hot, hot fire, then

place it on another table, lining the pour spout over the 

straining can.  It's an intense moment.

Finally, open the spout and let it pour!

Let the liquid gold strain through the orlon bag and into the clean milk can. 

The syrup is at it's ' near finished ' stage.

The sun is setting on our day, a very long one, 

so the next day,

the syrup was reheated to the ' hygrometer ' point

and canned.  The first batch was that golden glow, 

the second much deeper colored but they both taste

Fantastic of Maple Goodness!

The Ping test to assure the jars have all sealed, and 

we are done with batch #2.

It's a very s l o w process but we do this at the

CABIN, so it's a wonderful thing.

Even in the snow.

Thanks for following our ' family plan.'

Blessings

Let-Me-In

He wants IN...

 Six a.m. this morning and who's sitting at my door?...

I think Cottontail wants to come inside.

 The snow is still so high up to the bottom of the deck, 

that Mr. Cottontail hopped on top of the snowbank and right onto the deck.  He's done this before.  I've seen his tracks.

but now..........' how do I get off of here?,  he's wondering.'

As we patiently await spring greens,

we will  ' watch wabbits.'

A note on the maple syrup operation:

Mr. Dedication Bill was up and out of the house by

5 a.m. to restart the fire to continue cooking off

the syrup.  There is so much snow out there and wet and mud,

I must admit, I'm not missing the sap gathering time.

However, I don't mind being the ' driver.'

Have a great weekend, my friends.

BlessYa

Enough Already :-/

Enough Already.  The entire state is suffering snow and ice once again.  You can see the many layers that have attempted to melt on the cabin deck, but ' again ' it is snowing, blowing, wet, miserable, depressing.

 I want to see my flowers where the snow is piled high.

They are under there somewhere.  And green grass would be nice.

 Stay ' tight,' apple buds, our winter is not over yet.

The guys are out in this unforgiving weather,

collecting maple sap from the trees,

under a tented sap cooking pan, boiling off

what syrup they can before nightfall.

Then they will shut the operation down for the night,

only to fire it up again in the morning.

By tomorrow evening, we should have another

batch of pure maple syrup ready to be jarred and sealed.

Maybe, just maybe, with all this extra snow, 

the grandsons will get to finish that snow tunnel,

afterall!  

Have a smiling weekend.

If I don't get completely snowed in,

I may just be back.

BlessYouAll

My Kind of Day

Finally.  Finally I got the rest I needed and just what the doctor ordered....a day of peace and quiet in the woods.

 I must admit tho, it was a mess out there.  Right now, the woods is still so wet with snow, deep snow.  The trails and roads that had been plowed all winter are either glare ice or mud.

 Our object of the morning, was to empty the sap buckets.  It had been raining and rain and maple sap makes for a muddy brown mess that gets dumped right onto the ground like Bill is doing above.

 Frost is heaving and making muddy roads.  Later this evening when we went back to gather clear sap, the roads were really getting sticky, gooey, pulling the side-by-side all over the place.

 Last year it was in the 70's and 80's by now and the maples budded out quickly.  Once that happens, the sap rises to the tree tops and anything in the buckets sours just as quickly....thus, the end of season.  We don't mind the snow.  We need cold nights and warm days for perfect sapping weather.

Murray Creek just below the Cabin

 With great regret, most all of today's sap had to be dumped out.  The rain off the trees falls into the buckets and turns the sap brown.  The sap that makes premium maple syrup for our family, comes out of the taps clear as spring water.   It also makes the best Maple Sap Coffee while we wait for the sap to cook down into syrup.  Mmmmm Good Stuff!

 I sure enjoyed the day, even the water melting and rolling on top of the ice down and around the bends of the creek.  

 We even saw this sweet little yearling on the way out and the way home again.  He was kind enough to stop for a photo shoot.

 Seeing so much snow on the ground yet however, does concern me when the fawns start to drop.   They are going to have a rude welcome into the world.  I hope they don't have to find warmth 

' under ' the snow.

No, this is not a real fawn.  It's a rock that I'd painted years ago and forgot to put away last fall.  It's just starting to peek out from under the edge of the flowerbed that still has a 3ft. snowbank on it.

I will show you another flowerbed next time.

Thanks for coming along to the woods and the cabin with us.

It was a blessing for me.

SLEEPLESS~

It's way past my bedtime.  I cannot sleep.  My head is spinning.

Concentration has passed me by.  I have so much muddling within this wee brain of mine.  Have you ever had a sleepless night like this?

Tea.  Chamomile Tea. Another blanket.  Complete quiet.  Does that mean I have to leave my bed?  Bill is snoring.  His bean soup is working.  There is no peace in this room.  There is no place in this room for me right now.  Mercy, I cannot breathe.  The recliner.  I will try the recliner.

I wonder what the young adults are doing at this hour!  Not to worry, I wouldn't do that.  They have sense, do they not?  Oh, for pete sake, they are in the garage working on the 4-wheeler, or are they?  no?  

Is it still raining?  Has it turned to snow yet again?  Did I just hear a cricket?  It can't be.  If they have any sense at all, they are still deep in hibernation.  It's far to cold for them yet.  I wonder how far the kids got on their travels.  They hoped to be in New Orleans by now.  It was nice they checked in this morning.  

Oh my gosh, if I drink this tea at this hour, I'll just get to sleep and have to go to the lady's room...dear me.

I pray that my family starts to get healthier.  I worry about all of us, lately.  Is the sun going to shine in the morning?  The maple syrup operation is going full-steam.  We should have syrup by tomorrow afternoon.  I forgot to get the lids for the canning jars.  I sure am having my share of senior moments lately, and I don't even feel old yet.  I look in the mirror, tho, and it scares me what I see.

I wonder how my sisters are all doing.  I saw my twin this morning and he's doing so much better.  Thank God.  We just may have a chance to grow old together yet.  What a mess upstairs.  Tomorrow, maybe I can tackle one closet at a time, slow but sure.  Just like the Tortoise and the Hare, I go slow and Bill goes fast.  We always end up at the same place come nightfall.  See~~~I'm a mess tonight.  Cannot sleep.  I think I will go watch a movie, or bake something.  What will I conjure up for those hard working Maple Syrup-making boys tomorrow....I'll read for awhile.  That always slows me down, calms me.  When I start to reread a sentence, I know sleep will soon come.  I will read.

             ....surely, by now, ALL of YOU are asleep....

                                          'cept Me.

Thanks for stopping and reading this nonsense~~~  love ya  ~~~  

BlessYa                                   ** 

Dar