Monday Feb 28, 2022

The request........

Today was a really sunny pretty day..as long as the sun was shining. The cool air was quick to move in this evening!

Bob managed to tap about 2/3 of the woods by himself today. He failed to track his steps.....this would have been fun to know! He said he felt as though he trecked all over the woods today...

He was perhaps never so happy to see Evan and Brad in the late afternoon. He made a screen shot of their arrival on the life 360 app!  The boys tapped the south path to the former soft maple swamp, ........Brad did the outside and Evan the inside of the path. They counted lids this year and think that there are 456 taps.  

The sap was plentiful......this is a screen shot of the few seconds that it took for each tap hole to fill with sap.  It took about 2 hours for the first 2 inches to drip into the buckets.

...back to the request...when asking Bob what he wanted for supper....he requested roll on arthritis rub. Awfully early in the season for that.........

 Sunday February 27, 2022

Bucket and lid washing has been checked off the list in the last 2 weeks yea! This job is not a family fun favorite...but necessary. Bob and Gerri ran to Kansas presidents weekend for a baby shower and Cody's 30th birthday party......a very fun and fast weekend!! Meanwhile, the buckets were finished up by Brad, Adam, Kelsey and Evan...with supervision from Katie and Henry! 

Bob ordered a new attatchment for the power washer thinking this was the answer to our bucket washing woes....it worked but not the miracle we were looking for!!

A rain then sleet than snow storm slowed things up a bit for all. 

The fun thing in the last 2 weeks has been listening to Bob field phone calls from family friend Dave Green. These calls make Bob pull out the full repertoire of emotions..from banging his head on the wall to wailing in laughter. Dave and his neighbors are in their second season of "mapling" with a new evaporator and while clearly making progress....still have some questions. Bob made a treck to New Washington to see the operation in person on Tues Feb 22. They have a very nice evaporator and set up!! 

We start laughing when Bob's phone rings and we see Dave's name pop up. Brad's quote of the week response..... "Mom, this is why you never feed stray cats." We love you Dave Green! 

Today, Sunday Feb. 27th, started at church with Jambolaya after ...enjoyed this meal with our church family and then back to work. Gerri went to Sam's Club where apparently most of the world decided to do the same!! Brad, Bob, Adam, Muff and Evan threw buckets and lids out in the entire woods. Gerri showed up a little later....enough to realize that the north side of teh woods was pretty chilly!! The dogs enjoyed the run in the woods today as well. 

Bob is really impressed as he thinks this is an ironwood tree and he thinks that this woodpecker was pretty motivated to make this hole!!

The sun was shining and most of the snow was gone. 

Watch the ice in the above picture wave as Brad drives Walle forward!!

The plan is to tap trees tomorrow...but everybody is doing to their 9 to 5 except Bob.....so we will see what tomorrow brings.

The Blur from April 2021 and forward......

Announced to the family that we needed to do a catch-up blog…they retorted that they did not understand what there is to say about ketchup. Chief concern being that they seemed rather serious. The ever droning on pandemic has not enhanced our family’s intellectual performance.

 

The 10 months that have flown by since our last entry have been strange to say the least!  We are grateful to be well. The pandemic interfered with our ability to get buckets washed.....we still have to face that monster prior to the season of 2022.

Bob spent the spring saying good bye to Penta Career Center after 31 years . He enjoyed his time with his applied math and physics students over the years and did not grasp until early September that he was not returning!!

The field crop planting in the spring was a rocky process plagued by equipment breakdowns. Our most notable issue

was sitting for days over the Memorial holiday waiting on a new tire for our planter. 

 

Brad and Cody busied themselves going for swim looking for turtles! We also cleaned up a tree from the barnyard and hauled it to a small burn pile!

Gerri and Piper went for a ride between trips with limbs.

The entire family worked hard for a weekend at tree trimming and stump removal. This included a short encounter with a flying squirrel…that IS a real thing....you can see it in the in this tree if you closely!

 

Evan and Kelsey could name 2021 the year of demolition! They successfully did weekend warrior house demolition. They managed to clear and clean out the Metzger farmhouse. They enjoyed meeting with Don and Gail Metzger and getting some of the house history.

 

The sheep continue to multiply. They occupy two barns now. Portable fencing allowed them to graze the cover crops. Bob occasionally does chores and  while he complains some, he pets them all and mysteriously knows their names. 

Brad did a little online auction shopping...site onseen purchased this AC G tractor..........pleased him to no end!!

Hands down the most laughter we had in 2021 was a 3 week adventure with an escapee emu. This big bird showed up in unexpected places and entertained the entire neighborhood. “Cher” the emu frolicked about a square mile at large for some time making new friends in strange places.

Our future labor force increased by one on July 8^th with the arrival of the cutest lad .......Henry Clark….son of current farm slaves Adam and Katie! 

There were some quiet moments on the farm this year. The landscape can be serene.

Spring garden planting was a bit late, so we decided to try bale gardening. These are bales of rye straw that has been supporting our compost pile for some time. Our friend Kim Root has mastered this skill.....we did no prep on the bales but found this to be a "do again" project!! 

 

Labor day week Bob and Gerri ventured to Kansas for a house painting party that ended in lime green victory! We enjoyed our whirlwind visit!!

 

 

We made fun of Cody ...... borrowing the neighbor's scaffolding looked a lot like an episode of "The Red Green Show"!

The guys went to the woods in mid august and surveyed our supply of trees that were candidates for running through the mill. They subsequently went to work cutting down several trees in the soft maple grove. Enough boards were cut to build Gerri a small building for outdoor projects. Ironically the roof accounted for 80% of the cost of the entire project!

The building got a coat of oil to seal it and a nonslip floor painting over the course of the fall. It made its way to its final destination in the backyard on Feb 2nd . We have not been able to slide it out there all fall due to the wet conditions. It was certainly not dry the day it was moved...in the rain....but an impending snow storm and the need to get the snow plow truck in the barn pressed the issue. Brad describes this event as a "terrible experience". Gerri appreciated them moving it while she was at work and not present for this project. 

We celebrated with the Cleveland family Megan and Collin’s wedding September …beautiful day and beautiful people!

This fall was a frustrating rainy journey at times. Minor equipment issues slowed progress. The leaves were slow to fall, this photo was taken on Nov 25th!!

 

Our family spent much time and effort was spent appeasing Gerri’s specialty crop obsessions. (More on that later!) These projects too were hampered by the rain.

 

Cody and Amy came east to harvest their first Sandhill Rd. corn crop in early November. 

Cody and Amy creatively announced that we will have another generation of sugarmakers arriving in 2022!!

 Grandma Marsha made a whirlwind visit to Ohio in October. We enjoyed seeing her! It has been almost two years since we have seen them! 

It is a very long story…but we made a few batches of maple candy ….if you are going to learn how to do something….sell 600 of them for delivery in a week (sarcasm galore!) . This really improves your motivation to learn and deliver!! The entire family pitched in to get this order ready and Evan thankfully delivered the goods to Cincinnati on time! 

 

This Christmas..the market was good for syrup, but the farm workforce has been spread a little bit thin this year. Much time was spent shopping for bottles for the syrup…supply chain issues were evident.

 

Bob enjoyed a trip to Florida in January to visit with his parents. He enjoyed the sun and sand. Bonuses included a visit with Gail and Don Metzger and hauling home some orange blossom honey. 

                               

                                                                                       

As we start to think about heading to the woods…we have a great snow pack. We have been blessed with about 12 inches on Feb 3rd, 2022. Hearing that they have tapped in parts of Indiana already..think we are a few days away…hopefully.

 

more to come soon........