A Backlog of Babies..

Hey Readers!

 The baby animal pictures are really starting to pile up around here, so I'm gathering 'em all together and stickin' 'em up here for your enjoyment ...so enjoy! ;)

To start, we have a trio of baby bunnies from Theresa's rabbit hutch. I think these are the first bunnies that we actually arranged for--not the result of a jail (hutch) break out. lol!

For those of you who follow me on facebook, you saw that one was pink... Well he/she is clearly white now, and may have red eyes. They're too young to be sexed yet.

 The other morning, Theresa went out to do farm chores and, after days of sitting around waiting and watching her horse in the pasture, she noticed Sunny was in labor! It was quick and easy, with beautiful rewards. Theresa was ridiculously happy. :D

Hello there...

It's a girl!

 

It was so beautiful how easily Sunny welcomed Theresa's presence into that moment.

She was born on May 2nd, right after another spring blizzard (almost all melted already though!).

  

She's a gaited curly bashkir/Icelandic, sabino coloring which means she looks like she has white paint splashed up her legs and belly. She's miss personality plus. Check out that crazy spiral snip running up her nose!

The happy little family.

 

Her name is Kára (pronounced Ki-ra) which means 'curly horse' in Icelandic.

 

Next up, we had a baby cow born on the 27th of April.

Another girl. We are on such a roll with the girls--yea!

Steve was elected for the wipe-down-disinfect-umbilical-cord dude.

Tempting as it is to leave 'em on the Momma, we've found life much easier to just wean our caves right away and feed them Momma's milk from a nipple bucket. (Yes, that's a goat at Andrew's feet... he thinks he's one of the family. He even manages to sneak into the house now and again.)

Transporting to the baby barn!

 

And just a day or two later, the dreaded horn burning cap of shame. 

A duct taped cap keeps them from getting any of the burn paste on themselves.

And then, finally, this morning (May 5th), we had another baby horse born!

Meet Stella, our first bay horse ever (omg!)

Lizzy's mare, Starlight, had a (oh yes!!) girl! :D

Cute or what??

Her name, Stella, means Starlight in Icelandic (Mommy's name!)

And yes, we still have some preggo mares yet! Steve is certain that his mare, Perla (black one on right... no, the mule is not pregnant) is going to have the cutest one, so he took this picture of her belly to remind us all that hers will be the cutest (ah yes, the annual 'wars of the cutest baby' contest has begun...)

Finally, here are some of our baby lettuce greens in the greenhouse.

Steve's wheat grass operation in the greenhouse.

Theresa's baby tomato starts.

 

 That's all the babies I have to report for now. If you want to keep up with the ongoing 'cutest baby war' (wink), keep up with me on facebook.

April blizzards bring May snowbanks

 Would you just look at this??

Ridiculous. 

It's a drift left over from our last blizzard, AND there's another one on the way.

(The disturbance you see in the middle of the drift is where Lizzy tackled Michael during morning farm chores--if nothing else, fresh snow is always good for that.)

 This is what I'm pining for, in my dreams, our garden fence to look like:

And this is what it looks like in reality:

 I should be mad. Frustrated or annoyed at least. But I'm not. I'm actually finding the combination of the April 22nd date on the calender and the 13inches of snow predicted for tonight almost humorous... in a weird sort of way. Either that or I'm quite possibly going hysterical over it. ;)

 

At least there is sunshine in between the blizzards, with cute animals that never seem to lose their play (no matter the weather) and persistent robins in the trees. 

The baby goats and Kady play like litter-mates during the morning farm chores.

 "Spider! Eeeeek!"

I'm surviving this ridiculous excuse of a spring by finding quiet sanctuaries to meditate and write, like this one overlooking the river.

My critique partner (always nearby) falls asleep listening to an early draft (better ditch that one).

After spending an hour in this peaceful environment, with the sun on my face, my mood is considerably lifted and strong enough (though temporarily) to withstand any kind of weather. 

Well spring, who's laughing now?!
...Oh yea, I guess I am. ;)

Maple Sugaring: What it's about and how to do it for cheap..

 I'll be honest; if you are looking to make a quick buck, selling Maple syrup is a terrible way to do it for a non-pro, even though it goes for over $60/gallon.

That being said, if you happen to live up north and also happen to have a few Maple trees, there's no reason you have to break the bank to get started, and the results are very rewarding! We've been having a pretty good run this year, and I thought I'd share some of the things we've learned over the years.

Now, for those of you who have never seen Maple sap, it isn't the sticky, thick substance that immediately comes to mind from your Christmas tree pruning experience. In fact, it's pretty much water, with some extra minerals and 1-3% sugar. It takes up to 60 gallons of sap to boil down one gallon of syrup. For those of you who don't feel like going through that hassle, putting in a tap or two and drinking the sap straight is still a refreshing and very healthy thing you can do, even in the city! Keep in mind that the slightly-sweet sap only has a shelf-life of a week or two in the fridge, until it starts to ferment.

I'm not going to get into too much detail here, but let's go tap some trees! The goal is to put a small pipe, (around 1/2'' diameter or less), about 1.5'' deep into the tree. The pipe should be tapered for a tight fit, or much of the sap will "leak" out around the edges.. We've tried many kinds of pipe, looking for an inexpensive alternative to the $3/ea commercial pail taps. A 4'' length of 1/2'' cpvc, tapered on one end with a sander is serviceable. Avoid copper, as it quickly oxides from the sap.

The diy taps work well enough, but this year we broke down and started using a more commercial (but still cheap!) option. These plastic hoseline taps are meant to feed into a large commercial sap collection system; they're only $0.50/ea and the hose is $0.18/foot. We combined the plastic taps, 4'' sections of hose and repurposed milk jugs, as you can see in the following pictures.

 

 The jugs are simply hung from the taps with a loop of twine. So far we are extremely happy with this system, and now that we are doing over 100 trees, they are much more convenient than the cpvc pipes.

 Sugar water!

 This is another neat thing you can do with the pipline taps, if you have a cluster of maple trees in close proximity.

 

 This is your typical steel pail-tap, used with a 5 gallon pail here. Our best trees give about a gallon a day, so a pail this large is overkill.

 Straining the sap into a barrel. There seems to be many bugs that enjoy the sweet sap as much as we do!

 Boiling boiling boiling... This is a good way to use up all of that leftover firewood.. ;-)

 The stainless steel boiling pan might be the largest start-up expense for the "hobby" maple syrup maker. A couple 4gal pots could get you started in a pinch.. A nice pan is a great investment for a homesteader, however, and you will find uses for it all year round! (Apple sauce, rendering animal fat, tomato sauce making, even boiling clothes!)

  

We keep adding sap until there is enough 'almost-there' syrup for about three gallons. Straining the syrup can be a pain, as there is this "sugar sand" sediment that quickly clogs a fine cloth. We strain through a coarse cloth and accept a bit of sediment..

 

 How do you know when it's ready? Well, there are a few ways, but I generally just use a good ol' spoon. I keep boiling the syrup down slowly on the stove until I feel the consistency is about right.. It's not the best method for long-term storage, but we will be using this up within the next year, so I'm not overly concerned about it.

 

 There we have it! We're up to nearly 6 gallons of syrup for the year, and it's still coming. It's been a pretty good season for us! 

Hope that little insight inspires the curious among you to give it a try!

Thanks for stopping by!

Andrew