Snow melt and sugaring

This is a picture of the septic mound two days ago.

This is yesterday. The top of the mound always melts first and the deer always come to eat.

I tapped trees a week ago yesterday. In one week I got 4 gallons. Had to cook it yesterday cause you can only store it a week. This was the result. About 4 oz. I had the heat too high and I boiled it too long, so it has turned into some kind of maple candy. I would rather have syrup, but I think I can eat this too. Today I got 6 gallons and every tap was still dripping pretty good, so I'll check the jugs in the morning. It got down to 16 last night and up to 46 today so that's why it ran. Won't get below freezing for a couple of days now, so we won't get much again until it does. Flows best when it gets below 20 at night and up to 40 or more during the day. Mother Nature makes the decisions and all we can do is hope. Stay tuned.

Critters

The deer have been hitting the hay bales a lot lately, so I got some pics from the garage window. Guess I need to clean the window.

Nice big doe.

Doe on the left and probably her fawn from last spring.The doe has her head all the way in the bale. She'll have a tunnel in there pretty soon.

Saw this young deer from the window and she kept burying head, so I snuck out the front door and got these pics from the driveway.

She didn't see me until I waved at her. Then she kept eating anyway, so I started talking to her and she would just look at me and go on eating. I stood there for several minutes and talked to her, but she just didn't care. She was still eating when I went back in the house.

Well, my varmint pile finally paid off. A nice grey fox showed up late yesterday. I found a place in Duluth that will tan the fur for about 35 bucks, so I bagged it and put it in the freezer. I hope this will turn out good and if so will probably do it again. TH-th-th-th-that's all folks.

Ice fishing, Antoine and Sugar Time

First of all I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Favorite Youngest Daughter. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Also I want to say CONGRATULATIONS FAYFIE on your math accomplishment.

Last weekend my Favorite Oldest Daughter and I went ice fishing. We only saw two fish on the camera, but we caught one of them, so we batted .500. She took a picture of me with the fish and assured me that she would upload it by this summer some time. I don't know why this pic looks cropped, I didn't do it.

Wednesday The Boy and The FDL and the kids went Ice fishing with me. The kids got to see lots of fish on the camera, so they had fun for awhile. Grampa caught two fish that were about three inches long. Pretty small, but we didn't get skunked.

This was Antoine in November.

You remember this pic from February.

Here's what he looks like now. All the black frozen stuff fell off. Looks like he went to the barber and got a crew cut. I don't know if it will stay this way, or if it will grow back. We'll just have to wait and see. Thursday afternoon I started to tap the maples and finished yesterday morning. I put in 23 taps. I think I had 11 last year. It got to 43 degrees yesterday and we got about 1/2 gallon of sap. It's cold today and supposed to be cold tomorrow, so it won't run, but starting Monday temps in the 40's are expected for the next two weeks. As long as it freezes at night and gets that warm in the day the sap will run. Can't wait Yummo.

This and that

Just some stuff from the farm.

Here's Heidi sitting on Gramma's shoulder. Gramma looks a little worried.

This is a shrew. Brother kitty likes to leave us stuff by the door so that we know he's doing his job. Usually it's just parts, but it's always whole shrews. I found out that only some birds eat shrews. Other animals don't because apparently they smell really, really bad.

I haven't seen any coyotes on my critter pile, but the other day an eagle was on it. Way cool. They are so huge, they make the crows look like blackbirds.

This is what we bought today. It's not new, (we can't afford new) but it was the best deal we could find and will make some things easier around here.

Old farmer on his new toy.

Airport fun

Last night 6:00 PM I left to get Gramma from the airport. Nine hours later at 3:00 AM we got back back home. Yikes! The plane she was supposed to fly on had mechanical problems and had to be replaced. Then the plane they replaced it with had probems with the wing deicers and had to be fixed. Then while they fixed that the plane got low on fuel and had to be refueled. Then it developed ice on the the flaps and had to go over to the deicing station which was a fifteen minute trip one way. So it was a long night for us. We should be totally recovered in a year or two.

Snow! This is what it looked like on Friday.

This is what it looked like on Monday.

There's a deck under here somewhere.

It got to 36 degrees today. This is what 20 some inches of snow looks like when it slides off the shed roof. I'm going to have to think about this and do some modification. Not sure what yet but I'll figure it out.

Snow II

Made it to the airport and home. Roads weren't great, but were drivable, at least for some of us. Saw quite a few in the ditch, one guy spun out just a few cars in front of us. Saw an ambulance on the way down and four more on the way home. The utter stupidity of people still amazes me after all these years. Still more cars and accidents on the way home. I plowed out this morning and by the time we left the driveway was drifting in. It was about half full when I got home. When I plowed this morning I couldn't tell where the edges of the driveway were, cause the snow was level across it from the field to the pasture. The snow slowed down some by the time I got home, but now is coming down heavy again. I figure we added about 5 inches since this morning, so I don't know what we'll have by morning. I'll have to plow again. I am officially tired of SNOW! Anyway I have to drive down to the airport tomorrow night to pick up Gramma, so I hope it's done by then. Later.

Snow!

Well, last night when we went to bed there was about a 1/2 inch of snow on the ground and it was snowing lightly, but blowing hard. It looked as though we wouldn't get too much. Imagine my surprise when I got up and went to let the dogs out and I couldn't open the patio door because of all the snow. So I put my shoes on and got a shovel from the garage and made a path off the deck for the dogs. In my robe. No socks on. Heidi didn't mind, but I had to push Mick out the door.

This is out the front door at 5:30 this morning.

And this.

When it got light out I went to do chores and discovered we had about 15 inches of new snow. Yikes! It's still snowing pretty good right now. I have to drive Gramma to the airport this afternoon, so I hope I can dig us out. Stay tuned.