Our first taps and fence fixing
My hay arrived safely this morning, thankfully. It's been raining and yesterday everything was a slushy mess, but late last night it snowed. I was worried about ice this morning but when I went up to the barn, nothing was frozen at all, so I knew the road would be alright for the hay trucks.
There is only one really bad spot on the road, which we have every year at breakup. There is an overflow there and it always creates a lot of ice. It's a pretty big hole you don't want to hit too fast.
Yesterday everything was really melting...
Our Porcupine creek was open...
One of our apple trees is under water....
I spotted this guy in the maples watching me...
While I was up at the barn this morning doing morning chores, Snick was strutting around, showing off...
After chores were done, and we had breakfast, we set out to fix the electric fence. All of our pastures have one strand of electric wire over the fence to keep the animals, especially the horses off of it. It's been off all winter as usual, we usually unplug it when the snow comes. Rarely does anyone mess with it, but our big horse decided to break the fence down twice in February and he's been testing it everyday.
Does this face peeking around the barn look guilty?
The goats had a great time following us around to see what we were doing, and spent the entire time trying to get as much attention as possible, which is normal.
Flavious was laying on a log, looking rather like goat yard royalty...
Hilda and Maggie (the hen turkey) looked on, wondering if there were treats involved.
Chai Chai asked me the other day if my goats were shedding and they were not - but today, they are shedding away!
Basswood says "time for my spring coat!"
I also heard and spotted two Canadian geese, the first I've spotted this spring.
After the fence was fixed, we tapped our first trees. My hay guy told me most people are waiting until next week. The big producers have been tapping for a while now. Next week, if the weather reports are correct, will be a great run. We've been holding off since Tuesday we will have to be away from the farm for an entire day which causes a lot of trouble in the middle of boiling. But we just couldn't take waiting anymore!
The sap started running right away...
We put out 14 taps today to see how things are. The sap was running really well in most of the trees!
We found these fisher tracks not too far from the barn...
This is a fungus I've never seen before on one of the old maple trees...
Later in the afternoon while we were setting up our taps the wind came up and the air turned cold and damp, which is a lot less pleasant to work in. We came inside to warm up, and I mixed up my dough for pizza for dinner, and left it to rise.
Our little bunny, Bandit, who has been hanging about the house, has the poops. Not real bad, but bad enough to make a mess on herself. Yes, Bandit it turns out, is a girl!
So I gave her a quick, warm, bath to clean her up. She did really well although I don't think she was thrilled with me. I gave her a small amount of wormer, I've been holding off because we are not positive how old she is. Hopefully she'll be feeling better soon, she's getting lots of fluids and acting normal, so hopefully it's nothing major, although I'm worried since she's still so young.
The first picture was cloudy because the camera just came inside from the cold! I didn't realize it was fogged up right away, but it's such a cute one regardless.
After the bunny bath and the warming up we went back outside to work, and filled up our wood box which was empty.
The animals were more than happy to be put to bed since it's wet outside and the goats don't appreciate getting their feet wet. Douglas loves the water everywhere, Norman not so much. He likes to be carried as often as possible when he has to go outside.
Our pizza tonight was fresh spinach, red pepper, mushrooms, and fresh mozzarella...
And now that all the animals have eaten, and are relaxing, I'm going to relax by the fire as well and hopefully get a few pages of my book in tonight, I didn't get one line in last night! The words blurred and I figured that was a good sign I should just go to sleep.
Comments
My sister had goats and they would follow her everwhere she went. It was pretty amazing.
Thanks for sharing
Leontien
We have some maples and I wanted to see if we could get some sap but I think it will have to wait until next year so I can get the correct supplies.
I am in love with Wrambler and Flavious. What great names for such beautiful animals!
My horses pulled sap wagons for the Amish two years ago. We think it may have been in Michigan, but we aren't sure.
Reading your post made ME tired...I can understand why you don't get too much reading in at night!
I had a guy in at work about 3 weeks ago and he smelled like boiling maple syrup...it was a powerful cologne, very appealing ;) (although I have no idea how, since the sap would not have been running then...) I hope you have a good maple sap run this year.
N
You have the best photos. LOL Goats are a hoot, aren't they, always there to snoopervise the humans' projects.
Flavious looks so regal, great shot.
I'm really envious of your tapping though. What a treat to have your own source of maple syrup.
Chai Chai, I think we are all in for a lot of water this year - I hope it does not cause you any major troubles. Worst part of spring, floods, and MUD! and muddy animals = a very muddy you and house! You'll have a lot of fun making syrup :) And candy, that's really the best part.
Thanks Alla! :)
Thanks Dreaming, I was so excited when I saw you had Haffies too. That's amazing they pulled sap wagons, they are beautiful.
Hi Norma! That's just hilarious about the cologne, I bet it was very appealing! Maybe we should start marketing it? Maybe he was wearing syrup as cologne to attract women!
Slush and mud Leigh! Thanks so much, and I'm envious of your garden :) It is nice to have the sap and it's always fun to make, and of course, eat too.
Thanks for the comments and for stopping by all of you :)