It's Spring!

For the last week or so we've been enjoying gorgeous spring weather. The daffodils my mom planted last summer have been popping up all over the yard. The temps still dip into the 40s (and sometimes high 30s) at night but during the day we have been enjoying sunny and dry 70F degree temps. It's been wonderful! This means that Marc and I have been trying to spend some time outside enjoying the homestead.

A few weekends ago we decided it was time to clean up the screened porch. If you remember from when Marc was boiling sap, it looked a little like the picture above. There was wood stored along the long wall, the grill was inside and there was various syrup making supplies strewn about. So while Violet napped we decided to attempt some spring cleaning.

First move was getting all the syrup making supplies out. Sugaring season is over once the sap stops running and the trees start to bud. In total we ended up with 6 1/2 mason jars of syrup this year. As you can see the syrup from our first boil is a lot lighter then the syrup from the end of the season. I would liken our first boil syrup to a medium amber and our second boil syrup to a dark amber or maybe even Grade B.  Changes within the trees and the weather lead to the darker syrup. These changes also affect the flavor of the syrup - the dark syrup has a very strong robust maple flavor. We're going to have to try cooking with some of the dark syrup - baked beans, cookies, and breads.

After those supplies were out of the way Marc and I moved the wood storage frame downstairs into the garage. Then I was able to sweep up all the remaining pieces of bark and wood while Marc moved the grill outside. Along with putting the grill outside we also hung up our flags and moved the fire pit back outside.

The last step was to setup our table and chairs on the porch. One of our favorite things to do in the summer is eat out on the screened porch. For now we've been enjoying sun-downers and dinner out on the porch while Violet has enjoyed hanging out in her exer-saucer. There's nothing like watching the sunset over the hills and admiring our view of the valley and the pond as things slowly start to turn green.