Just a general catch-up, I have nothing earth-shattering to say today...
Spring is with us, and it has been great start to the year - dry and warm. The lakes are open, we have heard peepers and loons in the last couple of days, crocus and daffs are blooming and even the grass in the field has started to come away. I got the top field clipped off, but am still pinching out rocks that the frost heaves to the surface to wreck unwary mowers.
It's easter weekend and it should be torrential rain in a traditional Arran sense, but the forecast is for sun and temperatures averaging 22deg :-)
The new greenhouse is still coming along, but shouldn't take too much more work in time to fill with transplants for sale.
The kids have been very busy. Cameron won his Grade 6 Science Fair and went on to the regional finals where he came away with a prize. Breagh designed a 'peace poster' which went on to Provincial level and was given an 'honourable mention' - they framed it for her and is currently on display in the school. Cam was headhunted to play drums and played a gig at Westfield Hall last week with Billy Martin & Old Country - they want him to sit in whenever he can! Breagh is working on her Heritage Fair projects. They are both in full swing with 4H, in particular the public speaking component just now.
What else? Well, with Jane's work and my interest in woodland, we've been out at a few workshops recently. Last weekend we went to Windhorse Farm in Lunenburg County. Jim Drescher manages a 100 acre block of old growth woodland which has been continually harvested for over 100 years, and serves as a model of sustainable approach to forestry. The woodland with big trees, diverse species mix and regenerating younger woods accessed by low impact sawdust paths, and extracted by horses is a lovely place to spend time, and indeed in addition to selling timber products, they also provide retreat and conference facilities. The whole place was really inspiring and a privilege to visit.
Showing posts with label woodland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label woodland. Show all posts
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Sunday, March 9, 2008
The sap is rising!
It's time for the first harvest of the year, and one I have looked forward to for a long time. I remember a fellow tapping birch trees in Lochranza when I was Breagh's age and have harboured a desire to do it ever since. Since we now own our own woodland, including several sugar maples, I have been waiting for early Spring to get doing. Jonathon came over the other day to say he reckoned the time was right - several warm sunny days with cold frosty nights, and the sap should be running.
We helped him put the taps, or spiles, into several of his trees and dashed off to the hardware store to buy some for ourselves. A brace drill, 7/16" (none of your metric nonsense here!) auger bit, 4 spiles, 4 small buckets, 4 plastic bags plus ubiquitous bundle of baler twine were required and off to the woods we went. Luckily, we have several sugar maples at the edge of our woods, at the top of the main pasture and because the buckets need emptying, we looked no further for larger trees. It's recommended that a tree should be at least 7 inches in diameter, but most folk wouldn't tap anything less than 12". We drilled a hole about 6cm deep (a 6cm hole with a 7/16" bit - hey! I'm ambidextrous), on the south side of the tree, about a metre (note, euro spelling) up. After cleaning the hole, the sap was already dripping out and tapping the spile into the hole with a bucket hung on in the center (sorry, couldn't resist), resulted in a satisfying steady drip. Plastic bag over the top in case of rain.
The sap is only 2% sugar, or so, but tastes nicely sweet and can be drunk fresh, used to make tea (note to self: could do with some mint leaves next year) or, most famously, boiled down to make maple syrup. It takes about 30-40 : 1 reduction to make good syrup, so a lot of boiling. Jonathon pointed out "it'll take the paint of your walls" with the steam, so we'll try to put the jeelie pan over the firepit and do the boiling outside.
In other news, Jane has been working with the horses on a daily basis and Mocha, especially, is coming on really well. Kids are doing fine, Breagh has applied to go on a week-long vet camp in Prince Edward Island in July. Cam won 3rd prize in a moose-calling competition! I've just about decided on a new business name, more on that in another post.
We helped him put the taps, or spiles, into several of his trees and dashed off to the hardware store to buy some for ourselves. A brace drill, 7/16" (none of your metric nonsense here!) auger bit, 4 spiles, 4 small buckets, 4 plastic bags plus ubiquitous bundle of baler twine were required and off to the woods we went. Luckily, we have several sugar maples at the edge of our woods, at the top of the main pasture and because the buckets need emptying, we looked no further for larger trees. It's recommended that a tree should be at least 7 inches in diameter, but most folk wouldn't tap anything less than 12". We drilled a hole about 6cm deep (a 6cm hole with a 7/16" bit - hey! I'm ambidextrous), on the south side of the tree, about a metre (note, euro spelling) up. After cleaning the hole, the sap was already dripping out and tapping the spile into the hole with a bucket hung on in the center (sorry, couldn't resist), resulted in a satisfying steady drip. Plastic bag over the top in case of rain.
The sap is only 2% sugar, or so, but tastes nicely sweet and can be drunk fresh, used to make tea (note to self: could do with some mint leaves next year) or, most famously, boiled down to make maple syrup. It takes about 30-40 : 1 reduction to make good syrup, so a lot of boiling. Jonathon pointed out "it'll take the paint of your walls" with the steam, so we'll try to put the jeelie pan over the firepit and do the boiling outside.
In other news, Jane has been working with the horses on a daily basis and Mocha, especially, is coming on really well. Kids are doing fine, Breagh has applied to go on a week-long vet camp in Prince Edward Island in July. Cam won 3rd prize in a moose-calling competition! I've just about decided on a new business name, more on that in another post.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Oxen
Jonathon, our nearest neighbour, yoked up his pair of oxen today to extract some timber from his woods. Well, it was more to give them some exercise, but they might as well be of use at the same time.
There is a long tradition of working oxen in Nova Scotia, and there are still many pairs in this part of the province, though they are mostly kept now for showing. The county fairs have many classes for pulling or logging, but not that many years ago, they were the backbone of agriculture, clearing land and every task from ploughing, mowing, spreading manure to hauling logs.
This pair are Herefords (with a bit of Durham?) and are incredibly placid and well-behaved. I wish my cows were more like this!
In other farm news, our flocks and herds expanded somewhat unexpectedly this afternoon, with the discovery of a pile baby gerbils in the critter cabin. Dammit, the pet shop assured us that we were buying 2 male gerbils!! What do you do with unwanted gerbils? Leave us a comment with your best suggestions?!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)