Maple Syrup! and more

Last weekend we finished the maple syrup job. We started boiling in our big tank on Saturday morning. We got a good fire gonig and it went really well. At about 6:30 Saturday night we had to shut it down so the syrup wouldn't burn. On Sunday we brought it in the house. We were down to about 12 gallons. We emptied a full 5 gallon bucket the the 1/2 full one into 3 stock pots on the stove and got that going in the afternoon. We boiled from 2 until 9:30 when we were able to put it in jars. That left one full 5 gallon bucket for me to finish on Monday. So I started boiling on Monday morning at about 9. I kept it going until 5:30 when Shane and I put it all into jars as syrup. We ended up with a little more than 2 gallons of Syrup. It was a lot of work but we had a "Grand Slam" breakfast last night and it was SO YUMMY on our pancakes. And the boys had a great time with it. We will definitely do it again next year!

Jace and Jen and Kirk and Ben also came to our house on Sunday and we lit the first camp fire of the season. We cooked out hotdogs and had a nice little "picnic." Kirk and Ben left shortly after lunch but Jen and Jace stayed all day. Jace helped Shane build our new pig pen. So we are ready to get our baby pig! I am ready to get outside and get the pig and the chickens and start a garden. Mom ordered chickens for all of us and they should be coming mid April (I think). We need to build a chicken coop by then. We are looking over plans and figuring out what we need! Thanks Jace for your help!!!!