Spring Visited

 It's been a couple months since Spring visited our little "Castle," but even though it was a brief visit, it was one to remember!!

Full of blooms, and beauty!

Here is a glimpse of our little visit with Spring!
(Warning: this post is picture-full)

{Birthday Tulips brought Spring inside, before winter had quite opened the door to it outside}

 One of the first signs of Spring's visit outside were found hidden in the bushes along our driveway - Pussy Willow.

 {Maple Buds}

 {Spring Green}

 I was thrilled to find that we actually had Daffodils here at the new house!! Only a few, but still a balm to this Daffodil lovers heart!

 The Moss in the woods picked up their little heads with the warming weather...

{May Apple peaking up}

{Tulips arrived outside}

{Cheery Daffodils}

The fun about living in a new place when spring visits, is getting to discover all the little secrets and surprises - like the Orchard floor being covered with sweet little Violets.

{Trout Lilly}

{Barefoot Swinging}

{Buds beginning to swell}

The birds accompanied Spring on it's visit. It was thrilling to hear the air swelling with different bird songs every morning.

{Flycatcher}

{Wren}

{Bursting Blossoms}

The Lilacs sent spirals of perfume into the yard.

{Robin's Eggs}

{Cute little Froggy}

{Happy Dandelions}

{In full Blossom}

The smell of the Apple Blossoms in the Orchard was incredibly beautiful!

We even found some Morel Mushroom in the woods! (yuck!!)

{Wild Flowers}

So there is a brief glimpse into what our "Castle" and it's surroundings looked like when Spring came to visit.

~Chs

The Mighty Huntress

 I honestly am trying to get caught up on this blog... but life keeps on interfering! :) I have so many random photos as well as big events from the past few months, I really have a hard time knowing where to start!

Well, lets start here.

Sadie Rose is the best farm dog ever! Not only is she great with our farm animals, she also keeps vicious predators away.. like this small bear that was creeping through the woods!!

 Ok ok.. so it's a ground hog, and no they aren't a threat to the chickens directly. But he was undermining our shack back in the woods, and Sadie decided it was time for him to go!

Nice job Tadie Wose! :)

~Chs

Fluffies!

It happens every spring... the promising of "not too many chicks mom," the dragging out and cleaning of the incubators (since the Broody Mom's aren't starting early enough), the ordering of eggs of special breeds, and the watching, collecting and setting of our own eggs. 

Then comes the 21 day wait.

But it's all worth it when these cute little fluff balls hatched out!!

At first the little cuties lived in our house, but, thankfully Charity had 2 broody hens who with some slick moving, excepted the babies as their own!!! (Hey, those hens had the shortest sitting time ever! :P)

It's always best the way God made it to be.. raised by a Momma!! 

Learning how to find bugs... Mmmmm Yummy!

I love how the Hens find little bits of grain and pick them up and drop them over and over in front of the chickies.. to teach them.. Good Momma!

Hello!

All the blondies.. The Hen actually rejected some of the darker chicks... so biased.

Thankfully Olivia, the rock hen, wasn't so picky. :)

Charity also had a Silkie Hen that went broody, and combined with some she put in the incubator she ended up with 11 little puffy chickies. Silkies kind of look like half rabbits half chickens.. :) 

(above photo, A natural egg picture, Josiah made for a contest this spring)

So, there is a peak at the fluffies that have been invading our farm. And believe me, these were just the beginning batches.. I've lost track of how many we have now.. 

~Chs

A Sweet Memory

Sure enough, days have flown by and Maple Season is long gone. 

This year we were blessed to be able to have enough trees on our own property to not have to run around elsewhere. 

But one of the things we didn't have was a sugar shack.  But there was a rickety old frame of something that might have been a chicken coop once upon a time. And this funny frame is what we chose to recreate into the temporary Sugar Shack.

All the spiles, and buckets were pulled out and washed, and the weather forecast watched diligently for the first "run" of the sap.

One warmer weekend (ok, so it was warmer compared to the average temp back then!!) Josiah decided it was time, and grabbing his hand drill and some taps, went out to the big clusters of Maples in between the house and the pole barn to start the Maple Syrup season!

The first hung bucket of the year.

So, we ran out of time, and funds for the sugar shack, and since we are hoping to re-purpose this building for something else, and build a proper shack in the future, we decided that tarps and plastic were going to have to do for now. :)

The man and his shack.

Inside, once Josiah had the boiler set up, and running, and with the sun coming in the front, it really was quite warm in there.

One of the best parts, I think, is going around each day, up and down the back hills, to collect the sap, and see how much each tree produced.

Since this was the first year tapping these trees, Josiah took a detailed chart with him and tested, and documented each trees sugar content every time!

Another awesome part about the season is the smell. Seriously someone should discover how to bottle up Maple Syrup scent and sell it!! 

Last year we tried making Maple Sugar for the first time!! And it was an amazing success. Somehow with stirred Maple Sugar, you get more sugar than the syrup you start with! And it's very good too. ;)

Half the fun this year, was having people over to show everything to. 

And of course once all the work is done, a pancake/waffle supper is just the thing!

Josiah put 55 taps in all on our property, and the total syrup intake this year, was over 12 gallons! Here's hoping for more next year!

Yes, it's been a while since Maple Syrup season was over with... things have been piling up so fast here, that I haven't had a chance to share. But it was a immense success, and now a sweet memory.

~Chs