The Unusual March

This past March has been most unusual in its weather patterns, and because of that we have been blessed enough to do and see things which we normally would not experience till late April at least, if not May or June.  Following are some photos of some of our favorite late spring/summer things, done in March.

Hanging out the Laundry: We usually don't get to do this till summer, but the days were so warm, and the sun so bright, we decided to do it early, and were rewarded with the wonderful smell of freshly aired clothes in March.

Daffodils:  Most normal years I rarely have daffodils open by my birthday (the 28th of March) but this year some of them were open by the 18th. 

I had planted some different varieties last fall, and was very pleased with them this spring.

They made such cheerful bouquets!

Fruit trees: The Apricot blossomed early, opening it's lacy petals to flutter in the March breeze.

Forsythia:  Our little forsythia bush in the corner of the yard had lovely full blossoms this year, but when I tried to get Sadie Rose to pose with a forsythia in her mouth all she would do was eat the flowers! :)

Birds: Usually the birds come in full force come mid/late March, but this year we were watching Robins pulling worms and hearing Red-wing Blackbirds singing the first few days of the month.

Garden: We even were able to plant some of our lettuce seedlings from the cold frame directly into the garden box.

Peas and beets and radishes were all started in March as well!

We were very thankful for the warm spell in March, that allowed us to do so many "unusual" things, and cannot wait until the real spring comes.

~Chs

Trimming Trees

One of the many items we have been busy doing these past months is trimming trees.  We are very blessed to have a dear friend that has allowed us to "adopt" her orchard a couple years ago, so we have taken many different trips, to put the trees in shape.

"The Instruments of Torture" :)

One of the many trees in desperate need of a haircut.

The smaller branches we trimmed with hand clippers,

But some of the bigger branches required more strenuous sawing, 

and some slightly precarious branch pulling. :)

 

You didn't know that you could do ballet in a apple tree did you? :)

Once the big limbs were finally cut through,

Josiah hacked the branches off of the bigger limbs, so he could take the apple wood home.

All other miscellaneous branches were dragged away to the continuously growing, absolutely gigantic burn pile.  Such were our tree trimming adventures.  I promise to post more of our recent activities as soon as possible.  Thank you for your patience. ;)

~Chs

Spring Joys

 [ WARNING: This post contains a large amount of pictures, I am not responsible if your computer shuts down.  And, just to let you know, I could have put twice the number and not run out of photos.]

"The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day He created Spring." 

~Bern Williams

Springtime is the land awakening.
The March winds are the morning yawn.
~Lewis Grizzard

An optimist is the human personification of spring.
~Susan J. Bissonette

"For lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth; ......

The time of singing has come,
And the voice of the {Robin}
Is heard in our land."

~Song of Solomon 2:11,12 

Where man sees but withered leaves,
God sees sweet flowers growing.
~Albert Laighton

Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.

~Virgil A. Kraft

Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!
~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."

  ~Anne Bradstreet

  Spring is officially here, whether or not the calendar says so.  If you disagree with me, go outside around seven in the morning. You will be greeted with such a volley of joyous praise to their Creator from the mouth of multitudes of Robins and Red-wing Blackbirds, that you will be an instant believer in the arrival of Spring. 

The maple tree out back has finally decided to end our syrup making, by budding out in beauty.

One evening I was walking out back, and looking up into the Maple Tree, I saw a handsome papa Blackbird, warbling away and showing off for all he was worth.   He kept it up for 5-10 minutes and allowed me to get quite a selection of photos of his "highness".

I am very thankful for this early spring no matter how long it lasts, but I must say, as much as I appreciate winter and all it's peculiar beauty, I am quite finished and ready for a full blown spring for the next two months!

~Chs 

From Sap to Syrup

Here on the farm we are constantly learning and trying out new ideas on our 2 1/2 acres.  We have been blessed to be able to: grow a garden, acquire two dairy goats, fill a tool shed with our very own laying chickens, have our own meat-chicken business, raise multiples of abandoned fledglings, and most recently, make our own apple cider.   We are very grateful to God for his constant provision and guidance, and His hand was clearly shown in our latest venture - that of making maple syrup.

Last summer we were very blessed to be able to meet a young Christian family who were selling blueberries.  We became good friends, and were delighted to learn that they tapped the trees on their property and made maple syrup.  They promised they would let us know come spring, and that we could help them out.  Well, not only did they let us help them out (Josiah went and worked two full days with them) but they were so kind as to give us the equipment to tap our own trees!

So on the next sunny day, Josiah trudged out with a drill and the bag of supplies, and began to "tap" our huenormous maple tree out back by the pond.

As soon as Josiah made the hole the sap started running.  We quickly slid the bags on, and with a pat for the tree, left it to collect.

This tree is HUGE!  I mean, we are talking 5-7 separate trunks, all the size of a large healthy tree themselves.  So it had no trouble filling all 8 of the bags we put on.  In fact, we later upped it to 10 taps.  On one tree!  That is unheard of.

In one day (with perfect tapping weather) we had collected nearly 10 gallons of sap, so we began to contemplate just how exactly we were going to turn this "tree blood" (Faith's name for sap:) into a pancake topper.

After a day of making rounds with Mr. Reiche visiting all his "sappy" friends, we found ourselves the proud possessors of an old burning barrel (with holes) a heavy duty pot, and a rickety stove pipe.  In other words, we had a first rate evaporation station.

Beginning early in the morning, we stoked up the fire and began to boil down the sap.

All day long we kept the fire going and the sap boiling.  If the sap stopped bubbling, we had to add wood and get the fire burning again.

In the evening we brought the soon to be syrup, inside for the finishing process.

Once the syrup had come to the right temperature and consistency, we canned the syrup all ready for the next pancake breakfast.

So Saturday morning we invited Mr. Reiche over for breakfast to taste our syrup and give judgement on its quality.

It was delicious!!  We are very grateful for all the help we had in our making of syrup, and are very happy that our tree is doing so well and giving us so much sap.  We were blessed to be able to do two batches of syrup and hope to boil down one more time before the season ends.

~Chs

The Early Birthday Bash

Grace was born on March 8th, that is an undeniable fact.  But.... since Dad was leaving for California (which is a whole other story on it's own), we decided to celebrate Grace's Birthday on Monday, March 5th.  So dear Grace will really have a whole week of celebrations this year!!:)

Grace's elaborate menu included: Brined and roasted Turkey, creamy mashed potatoes, Buchty rolls, and the delicious Cashew Salad, all topped by a flavorful gravy.  (all except the salad that is ;)

Dinner was enjoyed by all, and then we rushed through clean up before showing a slideshow of Grace's life.

Josiah always has a creative way of wrapping his presents.  This year his materials included duck-tape! :)

Instead of a cake, this year Grace requested cupcakes.  So chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting were produced.

Happy 26th Birthday Grace!!!

~Chs