Our trees appeared to stop producing sap, so we pulled the taps after getting about 9 gallons of maple sap! We later found out that trees begin producing again if there's another cold snap, so we likely pulled the taps early, but that's OK - it was hard work to climb up the back hill to get the sap, especially when the trees were producing gallons at a time!
JD had a big bonfire 2 weekends ago to try and boil the sap down. While the bonfire was a lot of fun and used up a lot of the dead branches hanging around, it wasn't particularly efficient. We ended up finishing it up later in the week using the giant propane burner that we have. From 9 gallons of sap we ended up with 4.5 of these 100ml containers (~2 cups) of syrup. On Sunday night, we had French toast for breakfast and tried our new syrup for the first time, and it is delicious!!
As much as Wyeth says he's ready for spring and green, he definitely still loves playing in the snow. We wear snowpants to go pretty much everywhere because he always wants to walk through the snow and most of it is deeper than his boots.
For our snowstorm on Thursday, I kept Wyeth home because there was almost a foot when I woke up and I didn't feel like snowblowing before we went anywhere. Instead, Wyeth and I did an "adventure hike" to the post office (nearly an hour long walk in the snow for a 1 mile round-trip) and played outside.
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| Yes - the snow is mid-way up his back, and there is very little drift or berm there! |
On Saturday afternoon, Wyeth and JD built a big snowman in our front yard.
Wyeth and I also had a super fun Saturday morning - he had gymnastics in the morning at 10, and after that we went to the Feed supply store to order our baby chicks for the spring. The minimum order was 6, so we got 6, expecting that some might not make it. I specifically choose breeds that were gentle, good layers, or cold hardy:
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| Aracauna - lays blue/green eggs |
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| Black Australrop - breed holds the record for egg production |
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| Buff Orpington (ordered 2) - Quiet & friendly |
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| Silver-laced Wynadotte - large friendly bird (and super pretty!) |
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| Welsummer - cold hardy & calm Dutch breed. |
Our chicks will arrive May 10 or 11, and we'll set up a temporary house (likely in the garage) for them with heat until they are big enough to be outside. We're so excited!
After ordering our chicks, Wyeth and I went to the pet store to get the fish that we promised him after Onyx died. Jd got him all excited about Glo Fish - these are genetically modified fish that are flourescent colors. Of course, they are expensive. More than we realized. But Wyeth is SOOOO excited, so it's worth it. We set up the tank the previous week to give the water time to cycle, and on Friday I got the special blue light. When Wyeth got home from school, he was over the moon to see the rocks and everything glowing with the light. Saturday, we picked out 4 fish - 2 are neon green/yellow, 1 is pink and 1 is orange. Once the weather warms up, we'll order some more online. Wyeth LOVES his fish tank.
Wyeth is allowed to get up 30 minutes before we get out of bed, and on Monday morning, I came down to find that he had moved his chair over to the fish tank, gotten a box of raisins from the pantry, and was sitting there watching his fish. My heart melted!
One morning over the weekend, Wyeth also painted a Dr. Seuss inspired painting (they read Dr. Seuss books at school last week), which was fun to watch him do.
Jd's on an easier rotation, so he's either been home early to help with dinner, or goes to the gym and then picks up Wyeth once he's done, which has been super nice! April and May he has tough rotations, so it's nice that he has a little break.
And I'm doing well - 26 weeks. Baby Boy is kicking, and I get annoying Braxton Hicks contractions (not painful and completely and totally normal - just annoying). The Braxton Hicks basically make me feel like I overate at Thanksgiving, and now I'm stuffed and exhausted. Ugh. But they don't last long, and are to be expected. So everything is going perfectly so far!
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| 26 weeks - and look, I finally put a mirror in our room so I don't have to take bathroom selfies! |
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