Hurricane Farm

A task up ahead is to section the pasture off into at least two, maybe three areas for grazing.  That way, we can rotate the animals from one area to another and keep the grass from getting too low.

With that in mind, I responded to an online advertisement for "Fresh Cut Cedar Posts."  There were 30 of them and I was told that I might need a LARGE truck to carry them all.  No problem, I thought, I have had 60 fence posts in there before, I can easily fit 30 cedar posts in...

How wrong I was!  These things are gargantuan!  Two trips in the truck and some heavy lifting left us with this nice pile of fresh cut logs:

Fence posts!?  I think not.  These are way too nice (and huge) to use for posts.  I will use some of the smaller ones for end and corner posts, but I have some other plans for the large ones.  My sugar shack design has now changed from "traditional" shack to a post and beam pavillion-type deal using these cedar poles!  I think that it will be unique and also let us still enjoy the "outdoors" aspect of sugarin' that we love so much.

The sugarin' season is just about up, but here are some photos of last week's late night boil.

The whole family was out there working on making the sweet stuff, and we managed to even rig up some lights so we could see what we were doing.

We had a "warming" fire going as it was starting to get pretty cold again that night.  It hit about 20 degrees, but the sugaring season is so short that one must take advantage of every possible moment!

We had a pretty yummy dinner out there!

We even set up a little serving table!  We're so lucky that the kids enjoy this sort of thing...

In the past, I mentioned that we have the fire so hot in the evaporator that you can sometimes see flames licking out of the smokestack...In the next picture you can sort of see them shooting out a little bit.  Watch out!  Hot fire!

We still have a few more gallons left to boil, but it looks like we'll be topping 11 gallons of pure maple syrup this year!  Quite an improvement from our make-shift efforts with Hotel pans over an open fire...

Gallons of our finished syrup ready to be bottled into glass jars...Yummy!

I came in to look for the camera to take some photos of the little project that I am immersed in right now.  The tractor is in many more pieces than it should be.

I have the exhaust off, the manifold nuts came off like they were brand new.  I am glad that I sprayed them with "loosen up" stuff for many weeks.

I should have the new exhaust on in an hour or so.  If I can find the camera, I will post some photos of the old and new parts.  If it all goes well, there will be a shot of me driving it around the farmyard...

We had our first lambs this morning.  I was out to check on the animals and had to chase the ducks out of my workshop in the barn.  Messy things, ducks.

After that I was checking in on the other animals and noticed what I thought was another duck getting underfoot amongst the sheep.  But wait!  That duck has four legs and a tail!  It's a lamb! 

We had two lambs.  Twins, I'd say.  Though one is completely black and one is white.

We'll have some photos up later in the day.

Every since we started farming--with four chickens and a rabbit--our family has been keen on lending a hand.  From my dad, who chops wood, gathers sap, and gives tractor rides, to my Mom who brings really tasty spinach salads, to Erica's Mom who makes us custom "Hurricane Farm" T-Shirts, to her Dad who allowed us to have a "farm" when renting out his house.

Then there is my brother:

Above please note how he is examining the power cord that I am currently using to illuminate my sugarin' operation.  He's a fire-fighter and a consummate stickler for details.  Thanks to his unceasing vigilance, we have yet to burn anything down (accidentally) here at the farm.

There's my  Dad and brother working hard keeping the boil going.  I have to say that my dad split a ton of wood and we were able to boil for three days on the stack that he left us with.

One of the greatest things about this new evaporator is that we make so much syrup that we need to draw some off while boiling...We made over 5 gallons of syrup from that last boil!  Above see my Dad using his new gloves to hold the hot pan.  Look really closely...I labeled them "Left" and "Right."  Heh heh.
 
We have a good time here from time to time!

Thanks for the help throughout the sugarin' season, Dad!

Love,
Chris

Ok...I generally write about our farming exploits, mishaps, and (mis)adventures.  But I do want to let a few of our reading friends know what we were up to a couple of weekends ago.

We've been Phish fans for several years.  In fact (beware --> TRUE STORY):  When I met Erica, who was living across the hall from me in an apartment building that folks claimed was an abandoned chicken coop, I asked her what she was doing for the weekend and if she wanted to go to a concert.  

"Sure," replied Erica.

"Well," I said.  "We'll be gone for a few days.  Do you like tents?"

"Tents!  I thought we were going to a concert?"

A few days, campsites, and scenic by-ways later, we were in Indiana at Deer Creek to see three days of Phish.  That's how I hooked my wife, I think. 

So we ended up spending the next few years going to Phish shows together, continuing our education at UConn, teaching, and dreaming of having a farm.  Just as we were starting to look at farms to purchase, Phish decided to break up.  It's been four years or so, and we've been to see lots of live music, we still camp all the time, but we were exuberant when we learned of the comeback of our favorite band. 

They scheduled three nights in Hampton, VA.  This is a great smaller sized venue with a 1970's rock concert vibe.  You can sit any where you want (we love right behind the drums--that's right--behind!) and it reminds one of Cameron Crowe's magnum opus Almost Famous.  Yes!  1970's arena rock (with better sound systems and more expensive t-shirts and beer). 

Of course, the tickets sold out in minutes flat, but we managed to score a pair.  I always loved that the tickets are "cooler-looking-than-your-average-ticket."  I still have some old mail order tickets from my earlier shows that have the seat number printed with a dot-matrix printer. 

Above is a shot of the Hampton Coliseum during the day.  Still pretty cool looking.  They call this place "the mothership." 

But, if you look immediately below....

This is what it looks like at night.  Spaceship indeed.

We encountered our fair share of fun people and had a great show!  Sometimes we work so hard here trying to fit everything in that it is almost hard to relax when away from the farm.  I always worry about the animals, the water in the barn dripping, or some other catastrophe...But we are SO lucky to have some great friends who come and look after our place when we get a chance to get away.  (Thanks Jamie and Jeff!)

Here are some other non-farming shots from our camera:

An angel on her way into the show...

A troubadour working the crowd outside before the show...

Ok, so you have to have gone to Phish show or festival to get this final photo below, but...

They have installation art.  It is really pretty cool.  In fact, I'd say that the modern music festival owes much of its appearance to the three day fests that Phish used to host in the late 1990's...Here we see some block creatures (there are live people inside those box-masks) fishing in the Coliseum fountain.  They actually had imaginary fishing rods and were fishing for the red balloons.  Pretty neat.  Plus, it keeps everyone else out of the water!

What a great time!  We are so glad to have our favorite band back and to be able to re-live some memorable moments in our lives.  

Back to farming on the next post...

It's time for an update on the maple sugarin' here in Connecticut.  It's been a really busy week--with a brief trip to our favorite Phishing hole last weekend (more on this later)--but we're full scale on our maple syrup operation right now.  We've got a great system to allow us to boil sap during the week as well as on the weekends.  Erica fires up the evaporator during the day, and then it's my turn as the daylight slips away.

We will be running the evaporator almost non-stop Friday through Sunday this weekend.  We have a few hundred gallons of raw sap to boil with more to collect as it continues to flow.  Weather conditions are perfect!

So here is our set up in full operation.  We've been cutting the slab-wood and splitting it into small, almost kindling-sized pieces in order to get the fire raging inside of the evaporator.  While cutting and chopping, we take a break every 5-10 minutes to add more wood to the fire.  It's a fluid process that needs constant attention.  Leave the fire unattended for 5 minutes too long and it's almost out!  The slab-wood (mostly spruce) burns quickly.

Here is a pile of split spruce and some pine.  Imagine putting 2 x 4 scrap into a fire.  That's quite close to the effect we get with the split spruce.  At times it seems like a race as Erica feeds the fire and I split wood to replenish the pile.  My brother is coming tomorrow for a visit, so perhaps I can get him on the splitting task for a while.  This miight make for a good trade for a trunk load of firewood for his fireplace.



In addition to always adding wood to the fire and splitting some reserve wood, we must keep a constant eye on the level of sap inside of the evaporator.  We need to refill the 5 gallon reservoir of the "SD 3000" every 15 minutes when we're really boiling.  Here Erica is adding more sap.

It looks like I've momentarily caught up with the splitting!  That pile, though it looks impressive in this shot, will only last a few hours while we're at peak boiling.  Luckily, the softwoods split readily and I can use my axe instead of a maul.  Aside from 5 gallon buckets, the axe is the most important tool on our farm.

On Monday we got a surprise snowfall!  That didn't keep us from boiling, though.  You can begin to see how much heat is generated by this process by noting the large circle of melted snow (the ground in that area is actually DRY from the heat) around the evaporator.  The heat radiates for several feet.  (Hey look!  The tractor moved.)

While it's rather hard to make out, you can begin to see the color of the syrup as it forms in each of the chambers within the evaporator pan.  The raw sap enters into the channel on the bottom of the photo and moves along to the channel at the top of the photo as it becomes more concentrated.  We then draw off the "near-syrup" using the spigot and finish it off on our kitchen stove where we have much more control over the intensity of the heat.  Check out the coloring of the liquid in the top-most channel.  Almost syrup!

Anyone remember that game "Hungry Hungry Hippos"?

It seems as I get a little older and look for games for my kids I find myself missing my childhood games more and more.

In fact, just after Christmas I purchased a "Crossbows and Catapults" game because I remembered spending hours on end building castles and walls, and then hurling plastic checkers with the crossbow and catapult trying to knock them over.  My brother and I had some pretty intense and fun games in our parents' hallway.  I still say hardwood floors are the best for this game!

At the time (being just after Christmas, I guess) I could only find one store with the game in stock.  It must have been popular last year.  So I looked on eBay.  Whoa...$150 for the original edition.  Man, what did I DO with all my old games?

So I ordered the new edition...It's sort of like the one that I used to have.  Only not as well made.

I guess my point is that things should be saved, re-used, and passed on.  Right?  What is all this about buying new things all the time?  Especially when they are not anywhere near the quality that we used to have, use, and love.

Someone should tell this to our hogs...They seem to LOVE my new drill (another new product that pales in comparison to the older ones...).

Will pig drool void the warranty? 

I can see it now:

Customer Service Rep:  Is that a bite taken out of the handle?

Me:  Yes sir.

Customer Service Rep:  Who would do such a thing?

Me:  Well, sir, my pigs, sir, prefer Mexican food.

Erica's friend gave us her old truck and it is a great addition to the farm.  It arrived rather noisily, but a new exhaust clamp and gasket took care of that.

Now Erica can take the kids out and about on farm errands.  Since this has an extended cab, there is actually room for us all.  We won't be hauling cordwood in this one, but we still have the big truck for such jobs.  We were able to get farm plates at a reduced price (they still do that here in CT) and we ordered a new logo for the sides.

I spend a lot of time looking for exactly the same font as on our other truck, but this was the closest that I could find.

We've already put the truck to use picking up the pork from the butcher's, picking up our pig feed, and gathering maple syrup.  We use three 36 gallon totes to haul the syrup sap (oops) back from our new sugar bush.  The totes fit in perfectly and we can drive the truck within meters of our evaporator for easy access to the sap.

It was pretty cold when Erica and Violet put the new logo on the doors.  I am glad that this is a job that Erica takes.  I have no patience for these vinyl stickers and would probably end up with the "C" stuck to the "R" below it.

You can see that Violet has a glove off...moments before she took in a rather large splinter. 

After a few minutes off to remove the splinter, the truck was finished. 

Here are the aforementioned totes full of fresh sap brought in from the sugarbush.

Finally, Liev takes a little time off from making mud cakes with his sister to lend a hand filtering the sap:

We've finished off this past weekend's batch and have about 3 gallons of syrup or so. 

No, this is not a recipe for a mouth-watering chicken dish, but a brief snapshot into how animals keep their own time.

It is a sure sign that Spring is not too far away when you find this in the barn...

The ducks, not as keen as the chickens, have also started laying.  They, however, drop their eggs all over the yard.  Some in the garden.  One under the tractor wheel (oops).  I think, though, that if the past is any indication, they will settle down and find a secure place any day.

The sheep are about to lamb and the rabbits are nesting as I type.  The few turkeys that remain are also laying a surprising number of eggs.  The next month here at the farm will be full of new additions! 

OK, OK...Here is a recipe!

CHICKEN SURPRISE

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 tsp. salt
4 c. thinly sliced potatoes
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 c. milk
1/3 c. chopped green pepper
1/4 tsp. pepper
8 oz. sausage

Ok, ok.  I know that it's winter and that there are rodents are in the house.  I get that.

I also get that their job is to lurk about at night, being heard yet not seen.

But I don't get how the heck they did this:

Yes, that is a chicken finger.  Yes, it is trapped in the mouse trap.  No, I did not use it for bait...

Somehow, the mice managed to not only steal the peanut butter from the trigger but they also put a half-eaten chicken finger in there!  It seems that we have some creative and sardonic mice on hand here in the farmhouse.

It's another snow day here in New England.  We have about 8-10 inches with another few on the way.  Luckily, I spent some time working on the tractor yesterday.  It's a 1963 Farmall Cub, by the way.

Last month, I ordered a plow extension plate which makes the small plow on the tractor into a bigger small plow.  It worked great today.  Pushing the snow was no problem at all.

Recently, though, my tractor has been suffering during start up and also while running under load.  I have all the parts for a magneto rebuild and the tractor repair man will be coming by (hopefully) sometime soon to show me how to rebuild it.

Meanwhile, though, I was able to install a new carburetor.  I also have a new manifold and exhaust system to put in as soon as it is a little warmer.  I added a new throttle assembly (sort of like the gas pedal, though you run it with your hand) and also flushed out the transmission (it froze up earlier in the winter!  water got in there) and added the missing gasket that allowed water to seep in. 

It was still running rough after new spark plugs (I've now experimented with every brand on the market) and wires, so I cleaned out the main jet in the carb, adjusted the governor a touch, and it seemed to work pretty strong today.

I think that the spark is still sort of weak, so the magneto rebuild should have the tractor as good as new.  (As good as new for a 1963 tractor, of course.)  The new exhaust will also bring down the relative noise level I suspect.

This is a photo of the small plow without the added extension plate.

Did I mention that it's a snow day?

What is a snow day without some sledding?

We were cleaning out the young pigs last weekend when our kids came up with a new sport:  pig soccer.

After moving out several loads of dirty shavings and mud, we dumped in the new wood shavings.  The kids decided that they would help to spread them around the pen using their feet.  The pigs loved the action! 

Enter the soccer ball.

It appears that the pigs enjoy a friendly game of soccer from time to time.  Above, you can see how they arrange their offense.  The one in the front is about to block for the one with the ball...

Here they are, trying to regroup, after my son scored twice in a row.

We had put the soccer ball in the pen with the last batch of hogs as they were constantly dumping over their water pail.  We figured that they might "attack" the ball rather than the bucket of water.  After learning that they could not eat the ball, our old pigs left it in a corner of the pen.  These new pigs, as you can see, have learned a thing or two about soccer balls since then.

Update on the sap flow here in Scotland, CT.  (How come they did away with the old Conn. abbreviation, by the way?  I was always partial to that.)

We added 10 more taps in our new sugarbush up the road and collected the sap that ran over the past 24 hours...100 gallons came in from the new taps.  This is prime time for maple sugarin'!  At this rate, we will have to be gathering in the morning and the afternoon.  The trees here in our woods have also picked up and we gathered another 30 or so gallons.  Since we're in a valley, our temperatures are always about 10 degrees below the rest of the area.  Not so good for the early sap run, but great for extending the sugarin' season!

Did I mention how useful these things are?

We'll be sugaring in earnest now for the next several weeks it looks like.  If you are in the area, give a call and stop on by to taste some warm maple syrup.  It looks like some snow for the next few days, so we can serve it up "sugar on snow," the good old fashioned way!

It seems like our farm grows a bit more by the day.  Last week, we had a conversation about sugaring with some folks who have 100 acres on the opposite side of town.  Yesterday afternoon found us setting 50 taps in their pristine sugar bush.  We are now up to about 150 taps and the sap is flowing.  The new evaporator resulted in the best and clearest batch of syrup that we've ever made!  We bottled on Monday and we're set to start boiling again this weekend.

We've completely sold out of full CSA shares and have a waiting list for next year, so it seems.  We may have a couple of half shares left, but the response to this endeavor has been stunning.

Orders for chicken coops for Spring delivery are rolling in and we are thinking of taking in more hogs as demand for our pork keeps coming in.

Speaking of expansion...We've been eyeing several fields at the end of our road as well as across the ajoining road.  We are hoping to be able to come to some arrangement to perhaps lease the land, rent the land, or put in an offer to buy some of it outright to expand the farm.  Of course, the sort of capital needed to buy a field is not easy to come by, but there are at least opportunities for our farm to grow right here in the local area.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=65+kasacek+road+scotland,+ct&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=19.588751,36.5625&ie=UTF8&ll=41.719984,-72.09044&spn=0.008969,0.017853&t=h&z=15

Here is a link to the Google Maps Satellite image of our place.  Our place is marked with the bubble "A."  The fields in question are an inch or so to the North and East.  Much of these are for sale. 

As it is coming upon March here in New England, we find ourselves looking towards the reserve piles of split firewood that we stacked off to the side so neatly way back in the summer.  With little time to keep up with daily splitting during the sugaring season, these stacks of reserve wood come in handy.  They are nicely stacked--neatly, and in tight rows--as these piles represent the first wood nestled away for the cold season that seemed so far away back in August.  The wood in nicely seasoned and sets ablaze with the mere suggestion of a match.

But, there is something not quite right with this wood.  In fact, it is short.  Very short.  Split too small, and short.  Hmm.  What was I thinking back on those humid summer nights while cutting and splitting this wood? 

Was I so excited to be splitting wood and dreaming of a crackling fire in the wood stove?  Was the sweat that was stinging my eyes allowing the saw to cheat a little?  Did I forget how the larger pieces burn better, longer, and in the end, make for less work?

Whatever the case, I have been thinking deeply on these "Summer pieces" as I haul them in from the stacks each late Winter night.

While sugaring yesterday we heard something moving around in the woods.  And there is a lot of noise at any given time here at the farm.  It must have been huge! 

Luckily, Erica had our new camera and was able to capture what might soon become a world-famous photo.  When I was in 5th and 6th grade, I used to love reading about UFO's, the Loch Ness Monster, and other oddities.  This photo makes me think that we have our own mysterious beast lurking out there in the woods...

What WAS that lurching about in the woods?

We decided to investigate!  We did not find any tracks as the snow had mostly disappeared and the muddy ground was still somewhat frozen.  But, we did find some leavings...

Was that the remainder of this mysterious monster's lunch?  Maybe that is why this farm was deserted when we moved in...

Here Violet picks it up for closer inspection.  Looks like a deer bone.  So we know that this creature is an omnivore.  Interesting...

What have we here?  Further evidence of SOMETHING in the woods...

It's great having kids and exploring the woods.  You never know what stories will be pieced together.

We fired up our new evaporator and worked on our first batch of maple syrup yesterday.  We'll be finishing off a little over a gallon of syrup this morning!

We were warned by several people--both in books and in person--to NEVER let the level of the sap get too low.  Otherwise, we might scorth the pan and ruin it!  (Psst...I actually did this to one of my little pans last year, don't tell anyone.)  So to avoid this devastating mistake, we designed a measuring tool.  Note its fine wood grain, robust coloring, and tightly hewn edges.  With a little practice, we were able to keep the sap level just above that bottom line.  This meant 2" of sap in the pan.  Perfect for evaporating.

Here is a picture of the steam rolling off the top of the pan.  It took some adjustments, but we eventually learned the correct amount of wood to put in and the frequency of feeding the fire.  It needs the hottest fire imaginable! 

Here you can really see the fire cranking.  We were planning to use some of last season's left over--and really dry--hardwood for sugaring.  That is what I used to do.  However, the folks at the maple sugar making store suggested that we use pine, as it burns hotter and quicker and is more desirable for use in one of these units.  We had about 1/2 cord of slabwood from the local lumber mill left over from our summer parties and we used most of that yesterday.  Erica called the mill and they delivered a little more than 3 cords of slabwood yesterday morning.  That should be enough to hold us for the sugaring season, but the mill has plenty more and is more than happy to deliver.  That's a relief as we were a bit concerned about our truck when they loaded that first bundle in back in the summer.  The truck was riding LOW...

Back to the issue of keeping the sap level constant.  When in full blaze, the evaporator is supposed to handle 8-10 gallons per hour.  We did a little measuring and timing and it seems that we were close to 10 at our peak yesterday.  Lots of improvement from my exploits in previous years.  Below is a my "S.D. 3000."  We like Wallace and Gromit here on the farm and tend to name our inventions the way they do.  (Anyone recall the B.V. 6000?)  I used--that's right!--a five gallon pail and added some plumbing.  It takes a little patience to get the valve dripping just right, but the old "Sap Dripper" is doing its job.  I might switch over to a ball valve as they seem to be easier to adjust than the gate valve that I am currently using.

The "S.D. 3000" attaches to the evaporator via a hose and is able to supply fresh sap on demand.  Once I move the evaporator into the sugarhouse, I will be making the "S.D. 4000" which will not only drip sap into the pan but will preheat the sap.  I will be running some coils of copper tubing around the lower portion of the chimney pipe where it exits the firebox...That should heat up the sap as it drips from the bucket and help speed up the evaporation rate even more.  Who knows, maybe I'll work on that sooner...

My Dad came down again this weekend to lend a hand.  This photo finds him skimming the top of the sap to remove some undesirable content (a little ash still gets in from time to time as we are still boiling out-of-doors). 

Of course, there is lots of waiting while sugaring, so we decided to work on some other farm tasks.  We have a batch of replacement laying hens--about 45 or so--that need leg bands so we can identify their age.  My Dad figured out the banding tool right away.  Glad I didn't try this by myself.  I probably would have ended up banding my thumb to my index finger!

And then, of course, there is the tasting of the syrup...

Both Violet and Dad agree...it's not done yet.  This was Violet's third or fourth tasting.  She was out there with her wooden spoon just about the time that I finally got the fire going!

We'll post some photos of the finishing and bottling process as it progresses.

Here is a photo that my Uncle sent me after I mentioned one of my Grandfather's paintings in a previous post.  I am not sure when he painted this one, but the one below of him actually painting is from 1963.  I imagine that Grandpa painted the snowy maple sugaring scene after a winter's drive to VT with my Grandma and Uncle.  They were always driving around to points North, South, and West.  They oftentimes would go points East, but that would require using their boat (which they had).

Below is a photo of Grandpa working on what I believe to be a painting of a wharf in Rockport, MA.

We owe quite a bit here at our farm to my Grandfather, I suspect.  He always bought me REAL tools for Christmas, even when I was 4 and 5!  He would take me down into his cellar workshop and let me pound nails into scrap wood with my hammer, or let me reorganize his nail-holding coffee cans.  I use the same system here in my workshop and our kids have hammers and enjoy pounding nails into scrap wood too...

For some reason, I used to always confuse the two terms "wood chuck" and "ground hog."  So now I've taken to calling them "Wood Hogs" or "Ground Chucks" just for the fun of it.  While clearing out some nasty prickly bushes and reclaiming several hundred square feet of land, we happened across a neighbor's dwelling.  I knew that he was around last summer, and many a time was that I saw him scamper off in that general direction, but now we know where he lives.  My Grandpa used to have a large ground hog hole just down the road from his house.  We used to take apple peels and other yummies to him when I would visit.  I think maybe my Grandpa had made a truce with the little critter as I don't recall ever hearing about his gardens being invaded.  Our little guy is welcome to stay--for now...We'll see if he develops a taste for our garden greens come summer time.

I wonder how he will feel about our new landscaping of his front lawn?  It seems that he is still sleeping away in there.  No tracks were to be seen around the hole...but we'll keep a close watch out for this "Ground Chuck."  Or was that "Wood Hog?"