Sugar Shack Times

This weekend has been fabulous!

   Yesterday afternoon we hauled sap, ran it through the R.O., and started boiling around 5:30pm.  We had 14 visitors in total, each one adding to the excitement.

   We had the Cribb family, Bill (a friend of my hubby's that they use his camp to have "guy time) and 4 children, Logan & Gary, Dillan B. & Ethan P. and of course, Arnold.  The kids enjoyed crawling and climbing around on the wood pile and in the loft Larry built to get them out from under foot.  They can have a birds eye view of all the sugaring commotion. 

   The smell in a sugarhouse that has an evaporator that allows the steam to penetrate the air within it's walls is such a sweet smell.  The bigger rigs don't allow for that.  They have hoods to make them more efficient.   

   When I smell it, I think back to when I was younger;  We too had a loft in my grandfathers sugarhouse to get us out of his way.  But it was so much more than that for us kids.  We loved it!  Grampa would be down below in his rocking chair.  Getting up to check if he had syrup yet in the pan by watching to see if the liquid would apron off his scoop.  He or my uncle would fire the rig.  I loved seeing the burning embers inside. 

   Gramma always had colored pickled eggs in the sugarhouse window for my grandfather to snack on, along with those white hard old fashion crackers. 

  

   On my way down to the sugarhouse from home, I could smell the sweet steam throughout the woods.  I always would stop by some of the big maples and take the buckets off to have a sip of sap. 

   There was this patch of mayflowers that would always greet me on my way down, along with white Appaticas, yellow Attertongues and purple Trilliums.  Although, those flowers emerging usually meant the season was coming to an end. 

    After we finished boiling Nicky & Sam and my hubby & I went sugarhouse hopping!  The twisted Teas were going down easy and it was just a fun night.  We went to 3 sugarhouses that were still boiling when we came around; Newetts, Blakes, and Madisons.   

   Then to add to the greatness of this weekend, Logan came up bright and early this morning and we took the horses out for the first ride of spring.  You forget after a long winter just how much you love it!  It was not laid back by any means though.  The horses had a ton of built up energy and wanted to run constantly, we had to hold them back the whole time.  The bounce of the trot they were on was constant.  When we returned back to the barn of course, my white horse had to roll right in the manure!  She looked sick!  And that wasn't intended on the "cool" sick use of the word.  I lead her down to the clean snow and she dropped again to roll in the fresh snow so it cleaned her a bit.  Having a white horse is always....who am I kidding....she's anything but white depending upon where she's rolled last.  Sometimes she's even green in the summer from grass stains.

   We're boiling again this afternoon and I'm excited because my brother and his family are coming over.  Even though we live within 20 miles of one another we don't get to see each other all that often.  With each of us have 4 children involved and lots of activities, it's impossible.  Life was a bit more simpler when they were all younger for sure.

So here's to all you folks that are reading my blog ~ I'll have a donut dunked in syrup later today for you.  Oh shoot, I'm still watching my eating.  I'll have one of the kids eat it for you.  Better yet I'm making bread dough to fry in the sugarhouse tonight so they'll have one of those and think of you all (for me, of course!)  Hope you enjoy!

You can come to the sugarhouse and we'll fill your containers right there on the spot, as long as you want the grade we are making at the time.  It's been Fancy to Light amber.  We also have containers but it's nice to have them filled right into the sizes you use at each meal sitting or recipe worth.  I recycle all the store bought jelly jars.  Perfect size for our uses and then it doesn't take up room in the refrigerator.  $37 gallon, $20 half gallon. and smaller sizes available too.

We also sell in bulk to Highland Sugarworks if your far away and need syrup.  Here is a link for purchasing through them;