maple syrup

So this year has been anything but a great sap season. Oh we had plenty of snow to help out the run of the sap! Rain and ice to boot. But the weather was so cold most all winter long, and well into the season it was still too cold, or just too hot. Really weird.  Anyways we did get some maple syrup, and some to sell. Not as much as previous years, but whatever. Tis the year for crazy weather.

My oldest girl, collecting one fine day.

 My second oldest girl collecting some more sap one fine day.

I'm stuck in the house finishing off some maple syrup. It was all darker stuff this year. I'm floating 60 briks in the cup back there. Time to bottle it. Just in time to get it done before chores if you can see the time ;)
Smells really good too!

Here is an area where we tap trees.

This is the ditch down the road from us. Looks more like it would be a stream. All the snow and rain we got finally melted!

Have a great day all!

milkin

So on this very long dreary Saturday I decided to post.  The snow is almost gone here, and the rain has been falling. I know some are getting flooding with the snow they have and then the rain. I'm glad I live in wide open spaces on a hill ;) But it is wet here. It's spring after all.

So I have been milking Maggie, and my husband has been milking Dandie. Just to get her used to it. I milked Dandie once while my husband tailed he, a few days after she had her first calf. She knocked me off the stool, into Maggie. I managed to get the pail before she spilled all the milk but landed in Maggie's stanchion. I curled up to keep from getting kicked in the head, thankfully she didn't kick me. She just scooted to the side away from me. I picked myself up and looked at my husband. He just grinned at me and said "If that happens again, hit the gutter." The gutter being where all the pee and crap lands, if you didn't know. I curled my noes up at that, and began milking Dandie again. She didn't knock me off the stool again. I have milked her since then and she's doing better.

Our son has been chomping at the bit to milk his cow. We put it off to get Dandie more used to it, and we needed a new disc for the camera. We needed a picture. So the other day he got to milk his cow, the front quarters all by himself, by hand at that.

Here is my boy milking his cow. The black thing is a cow kicker, to keep her from kicking. She hasn't kicked with it on either.

Here is the milk coming out!! We didn't have any gloves that fit him. The purple boots in the back are me! I'm watching with a great deal of pride.
My boy didn't stop smiling the whole time he milked. He kept at it and didn't complain his hands were sore at all. Now he milks all four quarters by himself sometimes. He's always quite pleased with this new chore. He loves his cow, and now that she is productive it pleases him he's big and strong enough to milk.
Have a great rest of the weekend all!