GONE COUNTRY

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Natalie is just about a year!! Wow!! She is one happy child!

Kathrine is 3 1/2 and going one 10. She is one interesting critter.

Paul is two and full of energy and always up to something.

Natalie being cute.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Maple Syruping!!

First you tap the tree and hang a bucket on it to catch all the sap...the cover keeps stuff out like leaves, twigs, and little creatures looking for shelter and/ or something sweet to drink.

Each day you send the guys out to gather all the sap into the wagon on the left of the picture. When the wagon is full you dump it into the huge tub there in the middle of the picture. From there it drains down into another tank under the lean-to looking thing on the right side of the picture.

Here's the sugar shack and wood shed. All the steam in the picture is from what is being boiled inside. The wood all goes in and is used right there in front of the tractor.

This is the evaporator where the sap drains into and is boiled down to syrup. There is no electricity out here in the woods so either you work in the daylight or you use lanterns. The wood all goes into the doord there in the front of the picture.

After you have syrup made and it is taken out of the evaporator it goes into the canner and is heated to 180 degrees and then canned up into tin cans and it seals up all on its own b/c it is so hot.

That is the syrup making process as told by Jessica and is very fun to be a part of. If you are ever in my neck of the woods in March I would be more than happy to take you down to the woods and have Mr. Forrester explain it a whole lot better than me. Company is always welcome!!