YMCA Fun

Sunday night was Family Fun Night at the YMCA. 

And boy did our family have fun!  

Rock wall climbing 

And swimming. 

It was back to the farm to collect sap today. We gathered another 75 gallons. 

Later this week we boil. 

Goodnight!

Sap to syrup

I might be skipping a few steps here, but you get the idea. 

Wake up. Take a picture of the sun coming up. (This step is optional)

Collect sap. (This step is required)

Throw a few snowballs for good measure. 

Admire the pretty snow. 

Start a fire. 

Tell Remington to not eat firewood. 

Wait. 

Watch. 

Add some more firewood. 

Ice a cake. 

Wait some more. 

Watch some more. 

Bake brownies because the cake is gone. 

And.....,

Keep waiting. 

Sorry to disappoint.

We didn't have enough sap to pull any finished syrup off today. We boiled for six hours today.  That much sap took about thirty-six hours to do last year. 

Our pans are larger this year, so we will not have any finished syrup until we cook another hundred gallons of sap. Then we will pull sap continuously until we stop for the year. 

Mother Nature isn't cooperating. Temperatures have been way too cold this past week. Next week the temps will be way too warm. Because of these two factors we won't get much syrup this year, but we definitely are more efficient going forward. No more around the clock cooking marathons. 

Gotta go throw another log on the fire. Stay warm!

That puberty thing again

Grant is hitting puberty a few years early. He proudly proclaimed that he had grown chest hair. 

Can't see it?

How about now?  

I think he cheated and drew it on. He wanted to "grow" more chest hair and some whiskers. I nixed the idea pretty quickly. 

I am tired of snow. We have another 16-18 inches on top of what we still had on the ground from the last snow. I am so ready for spring. And once again, school goes until June 6 because of multiple snow days...nine and counting. There goes summer break. 

Speaking of school. Grace found out her science fair project did not get sent to district this year. She was disappointed, but we are so proud of her.  She did get a perfect score on it, so that is reason enough to celebrate. 

John performed in the solo and ensemble contest last Saturday. 

Parents are not allowed in the performance rooms, so I listened from the hall. 

He sounded really good on his solo. He also performed a duet with a friend from band that plays French horn. He received a 1 on both performances. That is the top score possible. Of course since I am a loser parent I had to give him grief about getting such a low score. He was quick to point out the scoring is done with a 1 bein high and 4 being low. 

In farm news we have lost seven baby goats to cold weather. No survivors. I can't wait to get a barn done so we have shelter for things like this. One momma still hasn't given birth. I hope she holds on for another week. 

We tapped trees last weekend for syrup. 

So far we have roughly two hundred gallons of sap to boil. 

Let's hope that new evaporator does its job well. 

Stay warm!

Breakin' All The Rules

Lesson of the day -

Sometimes it is okay to break the rules.

Grant has been upset the last several days when he has gotten home from school.  The problem? 


Girls

Older girls are sitting in his assigned seat on the bus....the front seat that Grant very much enjoys sitting in.  We've talked about things to do in this situation.  He has tried them all.  He asked them nicely to move.  He told them it was his assigned seat.  He even asked the bus driver (who assigned the kids to seats) to make them move.  No luck.

So I helped Grant get rid of the offending seat stealers.

We discussed things that girls do not enjoy....you know....burping, passing gas, picking noses.  I suggested that he simply sit in his assigned seat with the girls.  I also suggested he might indulge in a few practices that are otherwise considered socially unacceptable while sitting with them.

He did.

They moved.


Hey.  Sometimes you just gotta go against the rules.




By the way.  Grant does not actually wear glasses.

 

He was wearing these as part of a demonstration during a field trip to Glassworks.

The glasses make the yellow flames disappear so the workers can see the piece they are forming.

Each of the kids got a chance to see through a pair of the special glasses.

I even got to ride the bus with my buddy.  How many more years will he be excited to ride a bus with mom?

 

Happy Tuesday!!