Tapped Out

Maple syrup season has come to an end at this little place here.  Last weekend we actually hit 70 degrees.  Which really sent the maple trees into growing leaves mode.  The buds swelled to bursting, and I pulled my taps.

maple buds showing red

The taps had been in place roughly five weeks, the typical length of a sap run is about six.  Depends on the weather, of course.  The sap won't run if the days are below freezing, but the spring run is done when the days are very warm and the nights are consistently above freezing.  

tap removed, sap clearly not running

The taps popped out of their holes easily, and the tree will fill in the hole with new growth, just like how over several weeks a hole in your own skin heals with just a small scar to show where the puncture was.

After pulling taps, I loaded up all my buckets, taps, and hosing into the tractor loader bucket for easy transport up to the house, where everything will get washed and thoroughly dried before being put away for the next 10.5 months or so.

ready to haul in for clean up and storage

Once the final batch of sap was boiled down into syrup, I took a picture of all this year's batches to show how the color of the syrup changes as the season progresses.  It starts out very light and golden colored, becomes amber, and finally near the end of the season, becomes the brown color that is typically thought of when one says 'syrup'.

color progression

My yield for this season tallied up to be 14 pints, which is 1.75 gallons.  Not counting the small amounts that didn't fit into jars with each batch.  Those got eaten up on stacks of pancakes and waffles each weekend.  

Yarn Along: April

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I am joining Ginny today for the April installment of the Yarn Along.  Sometimes I can't wait for it to be Yarn Along day, and sometimes it sneaks up on me.  This month, it snuck up on me!  I didn't have my pictures ready or, really, much of the post written in advance like I normally do.

Since last month, I finished the Cadence socks that I was knitting for my Mom. I wasn't sure, when I started, if the patterning on the socks would be visible with the yarn she had chosen (frequent color changes), but they came out really well. Sort of self-striping, and with the pattern visible enough.

I almost, but not quite, got the stripes to match.

pattern, close up

Once those were done, I cast on my next project: a pair of Lace Wings socks that will be a birthday present for DD1. I'm doing them in Knit Picks Stroll in the color Sprinkle Heather (same yarn as I made these Crystalline socks last fall).  She had really admired the color on those socks, so I ordered some more yarn in that color to make a pair for her.  It's lovely soft and squishy yarn, plus this color has a really neat sheen to it.  I'm making good progress on the first sock; almost done with the decreases on the gusset.

After I got going on DD1's sock, I found myself casting on for a project I hadn't anticipated, using a yarn I thought I didn't like.  When this yarn came to me (in a subscription box this winter), my first reaction was "oh how ugly!"  The first ten times I looked at it, I just could not imagine myself making anything with this unappealing color.  In fact, I strongly considered cancelling my subscription!

It looks way better in a cake than it did as a hank.

But then, for some reason (maybe the weather, and the lighting turning warmer and brighter?), the yarn started making me think of pickles, and I was finding the tones more interesting than repulsive.  I began to entertain ideas of a shawl using this yarn.  And when Ginny shared this post that included pictures of a Nurmilintu shawl she'd made, I knew that was exactly the pattern my pickle yarn needed.  So, I cast on for a Nurmilintu of my own.  Although I call it "the pickle shawl".  

I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it once it's finished, because I like it all ready and it's hardly begun.

I did not read as much in March as I did in February.  Since the March Yarn Along, I finished reading Unsheltered, which was not as rough to read as I feared it might be.  Everything turned out well in the end, even if it was a surprising twist.

I also read two other books:

More Than You Think You Know by Cyndi Perkins.  I liked but disliked this one.  Parts were very interesting, but other parts were either too graphic or too whiny or too in opposition to my personal morals.  But then again, I'm rather prudish in my reading matter, so if the blurb sounds interesting to you, give this book a try!

Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center.  I liked this one. Not quite as much as the one I read by this author in February, but it was still a good read.

Currently I am reading Slow: Simple Living for a Frantic World by Brooke McAlary.  I like the author's writing style, but so far (about 50 pages in,) I haven't learned anything I haven't all ready known and/or practiced for years.  I think I will keep reading it all the way to the end, but then again, maybe not. We'll see how the next chapter or two go.

Quilt For a Little Rascal

Thanks to Toad's choice of a name for his soon to arrive baby brother (which their parents are not putting on the birth certificate, giving the little one a more normal name for real life), my third grandchild all ready has his official alias on my blog.  He shall be known as Rascal.

I knew, long before I knew his name (IRL or blog-wise), long before we had heard if the baby was a he or a she, that I would be making it a quilt.  Not only a quilt, but one in the Redneck Baby style I had inadvertently established back in 2012 when making one for K3, my first grandchild.  When Toad came along in 2014, I made him a similar quilt of simple 6" squares.  So of course I would use that same design scheme for Rascal, their little brother.

In each quilt, I have used one same fabric, the cream colored one I call the "Jesus fish" fabric.  Each quilt also has John Deere tractors, although not the same fabric or even the same color.  And each one has an 'outdoors' aspect fabric, be it deer, or camouflage, or other wild animals.  Toad and Rascal's quilts also share a fabric with soccer balls, as soccer was their Dad's main sport growing up (and he still prefers to watch soccer over watching football).

Rascal's fabrics

Although they all share the same layout, and some of the same fabrics, each quilt is individual, just as each baby is unique.  Kind of like how siblings share genes, yet those genes are in different combinations.

Rascal's quilt has been finished, and now gifted, so it is okay to share it (and show it off) here.  I put on a skinny border with the John Deere green fabric, then a wider border in the outdoorsy fabric, and did a simple stitch in the ditch for quilting.

simple light blue backing showing the quilting pattern

Skies of Blue

We've had some gorgeous weather lately.  Not necessarily warm (although it hit 60 last weekend!), but lots of clear blue skies.  Which kind of tends to make me take impulsive pictures just to record the awesome depth of color.  Blue sky is just so cheerful; it's invigorating yet relaxing at the same time.

this little place here

gathering sap

Toad running toward the sound of spring peepers

blue, reflected

birch against blue

even blue in late evening

embers fly into an even deeper blue

Beauty in Damage

By and large, most of the wood we heat with at this little place here is long dead.  Very rarely do we have a tree that was cut down live, then cut into firewood.  If we do, it's because DH is doing some trimming or tree removal for someone we know.  At home, we just cut up the trees that have died and fallen over.  Because the emerald ash borer went through the area right around the time we were buying our property and building our house, most of our dead wood is ash. Someday we will probably run out of dead ash to burn, but after 11 heating seasons, there are still plenty of dead ash standing in the woods. 

Because I'm tuned that way, I tend to notice things that most people overlook.  Which is why, when I'm out helping DH with firewood, or am stoking the wood boiler myself, I get distracted and have to dig my phone out of my pocket to take pictures such as the ones to follow.

Pictures of insect damage that is revealed when the bark falls away from a piece of long dead wood.  The insects themselves were a negative, yet the trails they left behind I find somewhat beautiful.  Some look like patterns, some like fingerprints, and some even remind me of the petroglyphs we saw out west on vacation several years ago.

To Find Order, First You Must Make a Mess

At least, that's how it seems to go for me. Whenever I'm doing a deep clean, or reorganization, or just plain trying to get things back into the system that works for me (versus reacting to everyone else or everyone else cramming their stuff willy nilly into my system. . .) things get messy before they get clean.

DH has been working long hours again lately, including days away traveling. So, I took that opportunity to trash our living room.

Well, destroying the living room wasn't really the intent, but it was a side effect of the project.  What I really was focused on was cleaning out the closet in the 'sewing room' aka my sons' old bedroom aka the bedroom Toad sleeps in when the grandkids are here overnight.  Through the last several years that room and closet have become increasingly crammed with stuff.  Most of it intended for sewing or knitting or quilting, but yet, it was a jumbled chaotic mess.

First, I pulled out all the bags and boxes and piles of old jeans (worn out at the knees, or in the thighs, or with broken zippers) that my grown children have graciously bestowed on me in the last handful of years.  They knew that no longer wearable jeans are the base material for denim quilts, and that I'd also mentioned maybe trying my hand at throw rugs made from jeans, so of course they would gift me with this resource rather than tossing them in the trash.

Except that with the exception of the quilt I made DD1 & Honorary Son for Christmas, I hadn't made a jean quilt since 2008.  For the Christmas quilt, I used part of a bin of old jeans that have been around that long.  Ones I'd already cut the unusable parts off of.  So the 'new' old jeans that have come in since 2014--when I cut up the other batch and put them in the bin-- ended up in a hodge podge of piles, cartons, etc. Where ever they could be stuffed at the time that the sewing room/bedroom needed to be usable for an overnight guest.

What I ended up with, once I'd rooted around and found every last pair of jeans, was a pile more than knee deep on my living room floor.

whole lotta jeans

 A pile that I commenced to reducing by cutting off the unusable parts, and setting aside the legs, which are what I sew with.  That tallied two 13-gallon size trash bags of scrap to throw away, and an entire 18-gallon tote of denim for future quilts or rugs.

trash

denim fabric

Once that task was done, I moved on to my stash of fabric.  Again, I rooted through the closet (and piles here and there about the house) until I found every last piece of fabric.  All of it went to the living room where it was sorted by type: cotton for quilting/sewing, canvas/duck, flannel, corduroy, fleece, etc; and by color.  I have so much fabric!!  Way too much fabric.  But, that's what happens when things become a disorganized mess and you don't know what you have.  Plus, well, I have grandkids and cute fabric is cute fabric and I can't resist buying fat quarters and entire yards with the intention of making it into something the grandkids will love.

It's a good thing I did this while DH was out of town, because I had fabric everywhere while I sorted it.  The living room really wasn't usable for sitting or watching TV for a couple of days.

DH definitely could not have sat in his chair

or on the loveseat

or the couch (except for note "my" spot is clean, so I can knit, LOL!)

Even the ironing board got brought down to the living room temporarily.

While the sewing room and closet aren't totally done yet, all the major stuff in them (jeans, fabric, and old stained & outgrown knit shirts--for future rag rugs), have been sorted through and organized by kind.  It's a good start on reclaiming use of my sewing room.  Although, honestly, I've been thinking for over a year now that maybe I should move my sewing space into the basement (maybe once DD1 has moved all her belongings and household goods from it to her own house) and set up the sewing room with bunk-beds, toy box and bookshelves and turn it into a grandkids visiting space.

Tapped

On March 8th, the temperature rose above freezing.  Not uncommon this winter of wide temperature swings.  However, the long term forecast (ie. two weeks) showed not one day of below freezing high temperatures.  Many days in the 40's. A few above fifty degrees,even.  And to top it off, the frost laws went on--I know this because the seasonal sign at the end of my road appeared the day before between the time I went to work in the morning, and the time I came back home at lunch time.

You know what that means!  No?  You don't?  It means that it's time to tap the maple trees!!

Since I still have the vast majority of the three gallons of syrup I made last year, I decided to only tap six trees this year.  I could probably skip syrup making entirely, but you never know what the run will be from one year to the next.  If next year is awful weather-wise, and I don't tap at all, I don't want to run out of maple syrup.  So, I'm tapping this year and making syrup, just in case.  An insurance policy, if you will.

Last year, I found and purchased (for cheaply) a bunch of food-grade 5 gallon buckets with lids to store my sap in between when I collected it from the tree, and when I boiled it down a day or two or three later.  This year I decided to upgrade my collection system: instead of using rinsed out milk jugs to collect the sap, I invested in some plastic taps, tubing to fit those taps, and drilled holes in the lids of six buckets to fit the tubing.

This upgraded system will hopefully keep the trips to the woods during the mushy muddy Spring thaw to a minimum, as I won't have to run out there twice a day on good weather days to empty my full jugs, (or at all on days where the sap doesn't run as hard).  Plus, with the buckets pretty much sealed (as the holes in the lids are just barely big enough to run the tubing through), there should be a lot fewer bugs to have to strain out of the sap before boiling.  When the bucket is full, I can swap it out for an empty one, sticking a hole-less lid on the filled bucket before hauling it back to the house.  Or, I can even leave the full buckets out in the woods for a day or two if I can't drive the tractor or four-wheeler 

Last weekend, I tapped six trees, none of which had been tapped last year or the year before (I like to give my trees a rest since I'm doing syrup on such a small scale).  So far, one tree has run pretty well, the others so-so. Those six trees gave me roughly 13 gallons of sap by Thursday afternoon. Then the weather took an unpredicted dive, becoming windy with snow and daytime highs only in the low to mid 30's.  The kind of weather that sap doesn't run well in.  *sigh*

So, Friday after work, I began boiling my first run of sap.  I finished it off on Saturday, getting some beautiful golden syrup with fantastic flavor. I think it might even be Grade A.  The pictures below were taken right after ladling it into jars, so it's still boiling hot and cloudy looking.  It cleared as it cooled to room temperature.

For my first run of 13 gallons, I yielded 2 1/2 pints, plus about another 3/4 cup that went into a dish in the fridge to be used for ice cream topping.  Just need to pick up some vanilla ice cream next time I'm in town.  ;0)