muskrat love

Sunday morning I let out the chickens and T-Bone and I went for a walk about. We noticed a muskrat on the opposite end of the pond. Not good news.

Muskrats dig burrows into the edges of the pond and as you are walking around the pond your foot and leg will suddenly disappear into the earth, deep deep down into a mucky hole past your kneecap. (Don't ask me how I know this)

T-Bone was after that muskrat like a shot but the little destructive beast had just a short distance to the water.

T-Bone let me know about 2 holes the muskrat already dug and I blocked them.

We had our boat on one edge for less than a week and it had already had an impressive hole started underneath.

Every time the muskrat popped up, the hard working farm dog chased him back in.

This lasted the whole day.

The chickens came to check out what was happening.

Some got drinks.

Refreshing.

Even the dog worked up a thirst.

The dedicated farm dog never did get that muskrat but we believe he packed his bags that night and moved on to another pond.

I love having such a handy helper keeping my legs safe from harm.

T-Bone is now out in the rain trying to rid us of a family of chipmunks wreaking havoc behind the chicken coop.

Thank you pup!

Happy St. Pattys Day!

I just finished a tasty meal of Corned Beef and Cabbage.

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Our last 5 days weather wise couldn't have been nicer. I sure hope the Arctic blasts of winter are gone for good. The fact that it is Michigan I know we aren't done but a girl can dream, right?

Over the weekend we raked leaves and...

...demolished the old crate coop.

You served us well for 3 years but it was time to go.

We couldn't justify keeping you and your leaky roof when I have this "new" beauty.

Nothing left but the foundation.

Our yard looks less trashy now. We still have a bit of trashy left but that's how we roll.

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I collected sap until I almost got tired of it.

All of this 8 gallon container.

Plus all these.

About 22 gallons worth, and the sap is still flowing.

I had to get our propane tank refilled so I could do this again.

Melissa asked for a close up of our hook system. Our taps had built in hooks so it made hanging the jugs easy.

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Not all good news though.

The winter was a hard one for us but it was even harder on our pond. The inhabitants of our pond actually.

It looks like all of our large fish have been wiped out. Bass, large mouth and small, and our stripes. All of the big Bluegill and Sunfish.

Both of our carp too.

The ice hasn't melted all the way yet so I'm not sure if any small ones are left.

We were stocking up as a future meat source and had only eaten a few last summer.

We were hoping to have a fish fry with our camping guests this summer. Sorry ladies.

I'm bummed, I had caught and brought home most of these fish myself.

Of all the years we have been here we have never lost fish over the winter.

Looks like I need to renew my fishing licence.

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The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. Dolly Parton

A tale of two syrups.

I usually make my own syrup.

Boil 2 cups of water, add 4 cups of sugar, stir till clear, add a splash of maple flavor.

Its usually cheaper than store bought and I don't care for the butter flavor most syrups add.

It's easy and I always have those ingredients on hand.

Hubby has been wanting to tap our maple trees for quite some time. Last year he bought some old syrup taps on ebay. Don't you love a guy who does stuff like that?

You tap trees right before the temps get in the 40's, so last Sunday he drilled and tapped 7 of our maples and rigged some milk jugs to collect the sap.

And we waited.

The chickens scratched.

I took a self portrait.

It got warmer and the daffodils peeked out.

We didn't have to wait long.

In a day and a half we collected about 12 gallons of sap. (it's really like water)



You have to boil it down outside unless you like your walls and ceiling to be sticky in your home.



I manned the pot.

The guys worked on the dock.

It boiled into the night.


Our first batch was thin, but tasted amazing. Our next batch, we boiled down more and was thicker.
I filtered it through t-shirt material to get out the bits and bugs.
In total we got about a quart of syrup.




Words can't describe how good this is, all I can say it was well worth the effort.
It turned cold again and the trees have stopped producing, we hope the next warm up brings more sap but since this is our first year we don't know what to expect.
We've read that some trees like silver maples don't work well for flavor, apparently we have the good sugar maples. <3>

"I am wearing shorts!"

I repeat, "I am wearing shorts!"

Hi

My poor neglected blog. Not that I haven't been doing things that are blog worthy, laundry can be quite fascinating right? Working on projects, sick kid for 5 days, and dealing with crappy weather takes the front burner and my blog, back burner.


I went on a Orchestra field trip with my son. I figured, when your kids enter high school field trips almost never come up so I jumped at the opportunity even if it meant to be at the school at 6am.

My Boy.

Not sure why this photo turned out this way, but I kind of like it.

The 9th Grade Orchestra.

The bus ride home.

I didn't even ask.

Thank you Mrs. Busdriver.

I signed up to do the same with the girl in 2 weeks. I love being a mom.