Watergarden

Meri's first "watergarden" of the year ;-)

Where to begin??

Well, I have quite a bunch of pictures from the last month or so. I'm sure I won't get to them all in this post anyhow.  We had a computer virus end of March, and that computer was very touch and go with powering on.  Sometimes it worked sometimes not.  So we decided to not get it fixed and now I have Tanya's old computer, hopefully for quite a while!

The last month has brought many changes, such as a goodbye to a dear SIL & family moving out west.  It sure will be different, Joe & I were dating when Charles & Tanya moved back to WI.  So it's going on 12 years!  We will definitely miss them, but wish them the best and hope Wyatt continues to do well out there.  At least now we can go out west & visit =)

Then we have the kids new favorite toy, er pets??   2 baby goats =)

Muffin Top--orphaned baby goat, the kids get to feed a bottle a couple times a day.

 
Moon Drop who is no longer into bottles, but rabbit food now !  She is a pygmy goat, so this is about all the bigger she'll get.  Muffin is a regular sized goat, and he's just a bit bigger than her now!

So if the kids (mine heehee) aren't outside with the kids (goats ;-)  they're inside with Sweetie Bird

Growing up I had a parakeet, who was so much fun, he'd talk and come out of his cage and sing all the time.  Sweetie has a ways to go on the letting us hold him part.  But we'll get there.  The kids try every day =)

What else?

Cousins squeezing in a bunch of play days, enjoying the sun (&some rain) it's all fun when you can share it with your cousins/friends =)

Lastly, a picture of the kids/friends/cousins last Sun. after mtg. & lunch...special times...

variety

 I dragged this piano out of storage a while back and the kids love playing/pounding on it =)  You don't have a song until the volume is cranked UP!

 This is Tom Turkey.  He's quite large, scary, yet exciting for the kids.  We were looking after a friend's house for a few weeks, and the kids got to know him quite well.  He reminds me of a guard dog.  He'll puff out his feathers, make some noise and keep you in line!

 Joe working under the truck one spring day.  Mud, and grease, dive right in little boy...oh, he already did ;-)

 Cousins a seesawing =)

A walk up "Rock Mountain"

 Waiting for mom

 King of the mountain

OH! the view!! We had climbed pretty high!

Jake, Emily & I enjoyed a break from maple syrup a few weeks back and took a nice hike up "Rock Mountain"  It was pretty steep climbing, but we made it!  And the view was beautiful. 

A few things...

Well, it's about time I do an update!

We've been busy on our new experiment this year...Maple SYRUP!  It has definitely been a good year for learning, as most years there's way more sap I've heard.

As it is, we had PLENTY, over 150 gallons to work with!  Some of it went bad with the unseasonably warm weather, so it never got boiled down.  STILL, we ended up with 24 12-oz bottles and a few quart jars of syrup.

Joe tapped over 200 trees this spring, using a tubing system that runs from tree to tree and collects in a barrel.  This works great if there is a clump of trees fairly close together.  That way you don't have to hang individual buckets.

Then we spent each day boiling it down, and just waiting for it to change to syrup.  We have a hydrometer (it's similar to a thermometer) that tests the hot syrup/sap.  You fill the holder with hot syrup and when it gets close to being done, it will float up in the holder.  Then into jars it goes!
The syrup is really good, and we love the fact that it's REAL, no additives, etc.
We've sure been eating a lot of pancakes lately =)