Hurricane Farm

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?"

It's back into the woods to start gathering sap.  It's been still pretty cold at night--it got down to 10 here last night--but the sun is doing its work during the day and there is sap to be gathered.  Here's Liev making his way across our smaller brook.

As I've mentioned before, we like to put people to work here at the farm.  We like them to feel like they are at home, and we all know that there is no sitting around while at home.  Here we have my Dad tapping a tree.  Watch out for that poison ivy, Dad!  Everyone helps out.  Liev is carrying the bag of spiles and Violet is supervising and explaining to my Dad how to use the brace.

A closer shot of my Dad hard at work.

In addition to using the new 5 gallon pails, we also put out our older style buckets on some of the smaller trees.  Even though they have to be emptied more often, I think that they have a warm old-fashioned feel to them.  My grandfather was a painter and he had a fondness for painting maple sugaring scenes.  There is one large painting at my Uncle's house that offers a glimpse of the sugaring process complete with oxen pulling out the sap from the woods!  This photo of our buckets reminds me of my Grandpa and that painting. 

Finally, here is our "Maple Syrup Quality Control Tester" hard at work.  Note that she does not feel it necessary to wait for the sap to be actually processed into syrup!  Her verdict:  yummy!