Winter of  2019-2020

Catch up Post!!

Time flies along and this year has been no exception!

Frustrating weather was the theme of 2019 for a multitude of US Farmers.  Nebraska and neighboring states had horrid floods that wiped out many farms. We had an exceptionally wet spring here in northern Ohio as well. Many local acres went unplanted this year but it all pales in comparison to what others suffered elsewhere. 

This picture was taken on May 25th...the plan was to plant a community garden at church that  day..did not happen.

The above picture was taken on June 20th at the corner of twp rd 178 and CR 21 .

Abundant moisture continued in the fall............

Halloween found it raining...again....Jack had some health issues and he bugged out to the warmth of Florida. Gerri and Karen made a trip to Michigan for syrup bottles,..... again in the rain!

November was a very busy month for Sugarwood Farms! Kelsey and Katie, with Evan and Adam in tow,...did a craft show and had a lot of fun doing so.

They worked with Bob making candied nuts to sell. This was a big hit! We painted up some of our older syrup buckets for sale ......this was a lot of fun..haven't showed Jack how we defaced them...until now :)

 Canning syrup for the holidays is always a bit of a rush and this year was no exception. One evening we bottled 14+ gallons of syrup which Bob said was pretty much a record for him!!

Cody and Amy drove in for the week of Christmas and the guys spent most of it at the woods. They are attempting to clean up the last of the logs down from the tornado of 2013. The supply of firewood for the sugarcamp was quite low and  the weather was conducive to the project.

They also made a quick tour of the woods and removed several trees that were down along the paths. Gerri, Amy and Kelsey made some amazing grape vine wreathes to entertain themselves during this project.

The guys rather quickly ran out of carts in which to stack wood.These carts make moving the wood about in batches with a pallet jack fairly easy.   Bob did some online shopping and made friends with a gentleman in Cleveland named Bruno (true story). Bob and Brad  made the snowy trip on Martin Luther King day and loaded Dale's 5th wheel trailer with lumbar carts (the kind you feel ridiculous pushing around at Lowe's or Home Depot). At any rate , we are "back in the carts" for wood business! Brad thinks we should try to race with them through the woods. 🐎

We have a couple of new projects in the works that have taken a lot of time and attention this winter. We have purchased some new processing equipment...more information on that to follow! Stay tuned for our mystery product!!!

Much attention has been paid to our future growth. Our family goal is to stay connected to the historical process that we enjoy and want to pass down to future generations and yet streamline things to a point we can all manage on the evenings and weekends. This week was devoted to refrigeration.....a big thank you to Newt, Bret, Brad, Kelsey, Bob, Adam, Evan, Cooper and Ben who worked really hard on our latest cool project! More to come on that as well!!

Thinking about somebody finding time to go to the woods soon!!

Sugarwood Farms