Homestead Happenings

Thought I give an update on the latest adventures here on the homestead.  First, I want to say how completely messed up I am over this weather! Who would have predicted that it would be in the 80s most of March, trees blooming, flowers blossoming, bugs everywhere...completely has left me in the dust with getting my garden started.  Totally believing that I had another month to get things in the ground before the mid-April freeze date, but now find my list of early plantings getting smaller and smaller.  When we moved here almost a year ago, it was still cool.  In fact, we had the heat on and didn't notice consistently warmer temperatures until late April/May.  There were no 80 degree days in March.  Looks like this years plantings will be experimental and hopefully we won't be hit with drought and 100 degree temps in July!  I think we need a green house.


Before this unreasonable weather began, we did manage to prune some of our very neglected fruit trees.  The apple trees were a mess and the peach were barely peach trees, because of so much overgrowth.  So we did what most would do...SCALP EM.  Not expecting any miracles in the way of fruit this year, but hope getting the dead and diseased limbs off, plus getting sunlight between branches will do wonders for healing in the years to come.  We shall see.

The work begins...

Here's one of the apple trees before....

Giving the limbs plenty of space...such that a crow could fly through in most directions is the general rule of pruning.

After...much better.  Little bush gets transplanted in the chicken run.

Ok, so next on the list...trying my hand at tapping maple trees.  Most of our everyday sweeteners consist of honey and maple syrup.  The bees are coming soon, but want to take advantage of the maple trees too.  I had only identified one prior to the fall, a silver maple near the house, but we probably have bazillions in our woods that I'll mark this summer.  Tapping season is between February and April when temps still dip down close to freezing at night but rise above forty during the day.  When the trees begin to bud, then tapping season is over.  Course this nutty weather messed up much of this season, but the tree did manage to fill one five gallon bucket almost three-quarters full.  It takes ten gallons of sap to yield one quart of maple syrup.  So, for one tree for a very short season, I thought it did pretty good. 

Here are what tapping spiles look like.  Had to order them online as NO ONE in this area carries them.  Don't know why as Tennessee has plenty of maple trees (guess because the season is so short weather-wise).  Also, you can tap any maple tree because they all produce sap.  Some varieties are sweeter than others but all will produce maple syrup.  Sugar maples are some of the best.




Trees over eleven inches in diameter can be tapped.  Those more than twenty inches can be tapped twice and so forth.  As long as you drill a hole for the spile as recommended, then the tree will heal back after it is removed and no damage to the tree is done.  It's like giving blood, you can do without some because your body makes more.  Same with sap.  You can also tap the same tree every year, just in different holes.  Pretty cool, eh?  This tree qualified for two spiles.



Now coming up with the right design to catch the sap took a little improvising.  My first prototype was a plain bucket with foil on top and no hose.  Course foil blows off and junk gets in the bucket.  I also ended up having to fence around the tree because our then curious dog decided we must have put them up for him.    So, the final products were water jugs with a hole cut in the center of the lid.  Spiles came with hooks to attach buckets, etc.  I used string to secure the container to the hook.  However, because it did get so warm it made the sap smell funny in the plastic container.  I hope to locate some stainless steel buckets for next time.



Drip, drip.  On varying days the jugs would be a quarter full or less and would have to be emptied daily.  I poured the days collection into a bucket in our chest freezer until there was enough to boil down.  Unfortunately, with the weather turning warm so early this ended the tapping season.  Over about the course of a  month there were about 2-3 gallons collected and that's from just one tree.  So, next season once I identify more, we should be able to get the ten gallons.

Once enough sap is collected then it has to be boiled down because most of the sap is water.  This is also better done outside so that the water vapor doesn't wreck the walls of your home.  Course this is especially true when boiling down ten gallons worth of sap.  I have yet to boil, because of such a small quantity and looking to see if I can save the sap from this year (frozen) and add to next years.  Rather doubt it though.  A really fun experiment and something our kids truly enjoyed learning.



So, what's next on the horizon besides the garden?  Our flock of animals is changing shape also.  The one thing you learn with farming is that life and death is well...part of farming.  Not that you become desensitized but the lifespans of animals are not as long as humans, plus variables beyond your control take life and sadly, it's just the way things are...

Our hens are great layers and the breed (Buff Orpingtons) are great with  children.  We are adding to our flock 9 more layers soon and plan to incubate a few chicks of our own next month.  Sadly, we had to get rid of our other Great Pyrenees, if you can believe that (Samson went away a few months prior).  Yes, Judah also began killing our birds.  Totally atypical for this breed, leaving the only reason due to possible inbreeding.  When we got them there was still an eight month old male from the previous litter in the pen with the parents and new litter, thus leaving two sexually mature males able to breed with the female.  Everyone we've consulted with about this agrees this could have been the cause too.  Judah killed two of our hens and almost our prized rooster.  I was literally chasing him around the yard with my gun firing near him to get him to let go of the rooster.  If Joe had been here he would have just shot him, but I couldn't do that.  My sister-in-law helped find him a good home that week.  We loved him and he was so good with our kids, we just couldn't trust him anymore as he had broken into the run. We are in the market for another dog, just don't know what yet.  We'll probably go with another Pyrenees, just not one that's inbred.  Very sad.

Beef cattle is a real prospect once our fences get repaired and possibly a Jersey for dairy.  We also are leaning towards raising sheep!  So excited about them, as you can milk them, eat them and use for fiber.  Course some varieties are better than others for each and we're still researching what we want.  So, lots of exciting possibilities still to come!