Eleven hours and 7 gallons of sap later… Light “Fancy” grade Maple syrup from our very own trees! Kevin’s dream come true. We got about a pint total from the 7 gallons of sap.
We started around 5 pm last night. Here’s a short video of the pot of sap boiling with a warming tray beside it on our wood stove. The stove was kept at about 600 degrees. The house was very warm and moist from all the steam. We had a nice sauna for the evening!
Pouring sap into the pot for boiling at 5 pm:
Jarring finished syrup at 3:55 am:
Near the end the kids must have sensed the excitement because by 4am they were all awake and sampling syrup with us. We then squished into bed together for a few hours of sleep.
Our oldest celebrated his 6th birthday this past week. We had a small celebration during the week with stuffed crust pizza, and Grammy and Grampy over for dinner. Saturday we had a “Wacky Inventor” party with 5 friends from his kindergarten class. We collected recycleables and set up the spare room to be the “laboratory” where they made inventions. Kevin ran the party and I was hot glue gun lady. It turned out quite fun. The kids had a great time. (I was definately relieved when it was over!)
B-day boy had a half chocolate/half carrot cake triangle birthday cake with cream cheese frosting. Daddy made his request come true. It was quite tasty.
Sunday we had some more family over and had a brunch/birthday party with crepes (the birthday boys request) and other delights from Uncle A. and Aunt J.- “Cinnabon”-style cinnamon buns and extra chocolaty chocolate chip banana bread. We also had a sprinkling of fruit and hashbrowns to mellow out all the sweets!
Some of my favorite memories from this birthday:
- The birthday request,that mommy put him to bed on his birthday (Kevin usually does bed time). - The exhuberant joy over his Andre Boccelli cd. He loves Boccelli. His Nonni would be so proud!
————————————————————————-
It’s Sugarin’ Time!
Kevin has put in a few taps on our Maple trees over the last few days. Warm days and cold nights are when the sap starts to flow, so nows the time. We’re hoping to get about a quart of syrup from our small set up this year. For those not in the know it takes about 35 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of syrup after you boil off all that water!
Here’s our first tap, Kev. bungled it a bit hence the sap dripping down the tree. He’s got the hang of it now though!
I think we have about 2 or 3 gallons of sap so far. It really is exciting to see a full bucket of sap, cool fresh and slightly sweet. I’ll let you know how it all turns out. We are hoping to do some boiling this week. It looks as though we have enough trees for about 20 taps, which would yield about enough sap in a season for 5 gallons of maple syrup. That would require an outdoor set up for boiling the sap and lots of planning. Kevin is hoping to have it prepared for next years season.
As promised here are the before and after photos from our trading spaces, though in actuality spaces did not truly get traded.
The boys did sleep in our room on Friday night and their room did get painted Friday night and Saturday morning.
Their team leader (daddy) did not quite have the time or energy to get the plan together and instead made and fed them some scrumptious pancakes baked with ricotta for breakfast Saturday morning, then brought them shopping to buy a tap and bucket for one of our maples to do a slight bit of sugaring (making maple syrup), some seeds for their own personal gardens, and to get a present for the gymnastics bday party Val attended in the afternoon. They had a full day at any rate.
Here are the before and after pics of their room.
Before:
After:
Our oldest son loved the colors, middle son was quite peaved to see the yellow go so we found some fun things to put up to make the space more cozy such as the quilt I made him before he was born and a painting of flowers I had done. He said it should go near peter pan because tinker bell likes flowers and would come and visit. The youngest guy seem pretty neutral about the whole thing.
An icy storm last night left our trees covered. I took the photo below this morning. When I went out to the car a little while later I was taken aback by the loud crackling sound of the ice covered trees blowing in the wind.
I have decided to repaint the boys room this coming weekend in an effort to get them more comfortable in their new bedroom (and ease up on the late nights trips to mommy and daddy’s room, especially before baby #4 arrives) . Right now it’s a sort of stark yellow and is chipping anyway. I was thinking of some sort of safari colors (tan and green).
I mentioned it to the them this morning and they insisted that we do it like a Trading Spaces -boys versus girls episode (which yes they have seen a few times). I was then informed that Daddy will be helping the boys as they redo our bedroom upstairs, and I being the lone girl will be working on the boys bedroom. I’m definately enlisting Kevin’s help after hours though when the boys are asleep up in our room
Check back soon to see some before and after photos!
I realized that I really hadn’t any pictures of myself pregnant with this little one. My photographer friend is going to get some studio pics soon, but just in case I decided to get a few shots myself today in the bathroom and take advantage of the fading afternoon light.
The fact that there really is a kid in there still amazes me…
I love how this little sprig of flowers looks on the sill by the kitchen sink. It matches so well the snowy background and reminds me of the flurries and storms we’ve weathered this past month in our cozy new home.
Baby clothes have been neatly tucked into the 3 drawers designated for them in my dresser. The bouncer and a few other baby items are being cleaned. Yes… baby preparations are officially in process.
My due date is April 14th, though I have felt quite exhausted the last few days. Luckily Kevin has been home on school vacation and has been helping out lots.
