Maple Sugaring

Penelope on the right, raising her hand.

Pen helping to saw wood for the fire.

Sawing away.

The pot where the sap is boiled down.

Violet catching sap.

She was very interested in this.

Drip

Hollowed log for catching sap.

Violet with her branch.

Violet and the big turkeys.

Pretty hen.

Peek a boo through the fence.

Penelope asking about a horse she has loved and ridden for years, he died in the fall she found out. He was very old. She was told the farm will be getting a new horse soon. I was very pleased with her asking about it herself, even a few months ago she would have made me ask for her.

Violet being fascinated with all the sheep poop she kept finding everywhere.

Playing old fashioned games.

Violet petting Handsome, the rooster.

These fabulous boys, and they know they are.

Tasting maple candy.

Eggs found in the barn.

New Lambs

Pen wishing she could get close enough to pet them.

We went to the farm to watch them tap trees and boil sap into syrup. Penelope was very involved and interested, asking questions, knowing answers, and wanting to participate. We learned a lot, you can tap any maple tree, they even used to tap cherry trees because they have sweet sap too. The sugar maple is the best for tapping, not because it has better sap, but because it takes the longest to begin to bud, and trees can't be tapped after they begin to bud. This is a bad year for getting sap because of our mild winter, they don't expect to get much. We will have a drought this summer too, we learned, because without snow all winter long we start out without enough moisture in the ground.

Violet loved the chickens and turkeys the best, and I remember Penelope adoring them at her age too. Both girls played with the old fashioned hoop and stick games quite a bit. We searched all over for the sheep, having heard there were new lambs. We finally found them, but they wouldn't let us get very close. The babies sure were cute.

It was a mild, beautiful day, and it felt so good to be outside in the sunshine and fresh air. It was just what we needed after a couple weeks of sickness and being housebound.