Happy Birthday Claudette 88!

 Wayne and Claudette both got t-shirt for their birthday with Zoey on it. I think they liked it? 

More photos to come after dinner tonight. We are having breakfast for dinner since Claudette loves her waffels. 

Easter

I should have taken a bunch of Easter Photos, but I kind of forgot. 

My fruit tart. It turned out good, just a little messy. I added too much milk to the filling. Added fresh whipped cream on top before serving, which was also messy. 

Easter egg hunt with madelyn. I didn't get a photo of Evan. He is getting sooo tall! A few more inches and he will be taller then me! 

 

Maple Syrup making!!

 My 2nd try at Maple Syrup making! It was a sucess! Wow, lots of time involved in making syrup. I think over 8 hours total. 

The first step was purchasing the taps and buckets to collect the sap, $63 dollars for that set up. 

The easy part was collecting the sap. It's just where to put it, if it's not cold or there is snow on the groud. We had an empty frig and a few large pots to store the sap. We have 2 maple trees that are 27 years old and on each tree we could do 2 or 3 taps but we started out with the supplies for just 1 tap per tree. I think we had at least 70 liters of sap in all after I disposed of at least 40 more liters of sap from other tries at making the syrup. 

My first attemp to make maple syrup, I used a hot plate and our camping stove. Neither got up hot enough 200*F to keep it at a boil. It was hot enough to reduce the liquid but not hot enough to make sap. At the end, I brough in the sap and finished it off, cooking it above the 219*F and the syrup turned to rock candy. I only made a tiny amount on the bottom of a gravy boat. 

We decided this round to speand another $70 and purchae a turkey frier set up. 

We hooked up the propane tank and strated to boil off all the liquid which took from noon to 9pm. The only issue with the turkey frier, is that it turns off every 10 to 15 minutes and you have to restart for safey reasons. People used to burn down their houses with the hot oil and turkeys catching fire. Its a pain to get up and have to relight it, but at least its safer in that you have to watch it. Good thing it was a nice day, so I sat outside to tend to my pot. 

It started to turn darker amber color the longer it boiled... Once the sap water mostly was boiled off, I brought it inside to finish the process of making sap, reaching 219*F. That was a long wait too becuse I still had to boild off water. 

 

Logan made some labels

With all that sap it made 4 jars, which I boiled  to clean and filled hot, tipped over to seal. 

We did a pancake taste, test when it was hot and yum! Good. It turned out dark, thin, and hazy but very sweet and good tasting syrup. 

There will be sugar crystals that settle to the bottom because we skipped the filer process. I didn't want to lose any syrup because we hardly made any. Plus, I dont have the correct filter system. 

 

I still have another 5 gal pail to make another small batch of Syrup. I'll give myself a week break and try it again next weekend. In all, not a cheap set up initally, but now that we have all the equipment it will be a spring/ yearly project. 

St Patty Day!

 

Blizzard of 2026

 They hyped up a big spring snow storm. We only got around 6" last night, but today it's going to snow all day and high winds/blizzard. 

Saturday before the storm, we went to Riverfall Wisconsin for their potato soup festival. We went around to 15 businesses all off Main Street to eat soup and have a few adult beverages. Such a fun day. At the end, everyone met at the park to find out who was the soup winner and to draw names for the prizes. They were giving away gift card from $300 to $30 and I received a $40 gift card to Tatersall. 

Maple Syrup

 We have 2 maple trees in our yard. We bought the supplies yesterday. Tappers, buckets with lids and a drill bit. Set up it late yesterday and got at least a gallon of sap from the front tree. Not much from the back tree as the drill ran out of power and we didn't get the tapper in 2 to 2-1/2 inches. We have enough to start the maple syrup making process. 

Now to read up on the process!

Boil to 219+F.. It takes a long time! 

Had to switch up from a hot plate that wasn't getting hot enough to a propane camping stove. I also boiled more sap that was collected from both trees. Probably another gallon and added that to the sap on the stove. I'm hoping that I can finish a batch tonight. Still at 200+F and boiling off the water. It's slightly amber in color. Once the 219 temp is reached. I need to filter off the sugar sand through a coffee filter into a bottle. Sooo looking forward to having pancakes and homemade maple syrup tomorrow morning. 

Birthday 23!!

 Happy 23rd Birthday Hessoo.