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It’s been a busy end of winter/spring here on Misty Acres. For awhile there, we did not think winter was ever going to end! Thankfully, it quickly went from freezing temps here in Wisconsin to T-shirt weather in no time. Everyone wants to be outside enjoying the sunshine here, so that is what we have been doing.

We’ve been a little quiet here on the blog and thought we would share with you a little bit of what we have been up to.

Maple Syrup Season is Here

Tapping Maple trees has been our biggest project. This is such a fun hobby to try out if you live in the northern USA or Canada where temps go from freezing at night to 40’s Farenheit in the day. It gets you outdoors collecting sap, when you could be just sitting inside waiting for Spring to come. Our family has thoroughly enjoyed it the last few years. And you get MAPLE SYRUP!

Daniel worked on the cooker all winter and we finally got to use it three weekends ago. It worked great and we are so happy with how much sap we can boil down now. The last few years we were using turkey fryers. That works good when you are tapping a few trees and trying out the hobby. Now that we have continued to tap even more trees each year, we could not keep up with cooking the sap on turkey fryers. Last year, we sadly dumped out 2 barrels full of sap because we did not have enough time to boil it down.

With this evaporator, we can easily boil down 100 gallons of sap in one day. That’s crazy compared to the entire week we used to spend boiling it down with our turkey fryers. I feel like it also makes us a little more legit as a maple syrup maker.

We officially have canned 13 pints of fresh maple syrup with more to come. Look at how pretty this batch turned out!

New to the Farm: Icelandic Rams

Many of you know that we picked up a few Icelandic sheep in the fall. Well, our goal has always been to raise and breed sheep and we were quickly running out of time to breed our ewes. The end of the breeding season is typically end of March. So, we bought 2 rams. They are so cool! I have to admit that I am okay with winging a few things, but these rams made me second guess getting them. They are strong and can have attitude. They break through doors like nothing we have ever seen. But, we are making it work and they are getting used to us.

They spent some time with the “ladies” and we are crossing our fingers that we may get some lambs this summer. These new additions have really made us change the way our pastures are laid out. We won’t be able to keep them in with electric fence and are now planning to put cattle panels around a few of our pastures to keep them all in.

Seed Starting Time

Early Spring also means that it is time to plan the garden and start seeds. I love starting seeds! Getting your hands dirty and the smell of soil. (ahhh…) I do not mind having tables full of seedling trays around every sunny window. Seed starting makes me happy! This summer, we are going to attempt to save our own seeds. We ordered several varieties of tomatoes from Seedsavers; plus some kale, swiss chard, peas, cucumbers, carrots, and beets. I am a little nervous and excited to learn this new skill. The seedlings are coming up nicely!

I can’t help but reflect back on our first year of marriage when we started seeds in our little townhouse. You can read more about our first attempt at seed starting in Our Story. We sure have come a long way!

New Chicks!

Can you ever have too many chickens? NEVER! We picked up a few new breeds of Chickens. I would really like to get some rainbow eggs happening here. We added some Sapphire Olive eggers, regular Olive eggers, and a few Midnight Majesty Maran’s for some dark brown eggs. I was also excited to pick up a few Lavender Orpingtons. I think they are really pretty! Just for fun, we picked up a Gold Laced Polish too. They will be a really pretty bunch!

Virtually Traveling to France

This year in our homeschool we are virtually traveling the World with My Father’s Word Exploring Countries and Cultures as our homeschool spine. We are going at a slower pace than recommended (it can be hard juggling everything). We are enjoyed taking our time, reading lots of books, watching movies, and tasting the food of that country. This month we were in France. One of the best parts of France was using Google Maps and touring the city.

We also purchased the Amanda Bennet Passport Geography: Europe Guide. They have a bunch of links for videos and information on individual sites. I found that I was struggling to find good videos when I turned the chrome cast on on the fly. This study has the resources to do lapbooks and could be used as a complete study on it’s own. We would just picked and chose what we wanted to learn about. I am not sure how I feel about it yet. Some of the video links didn’t work, and it did take us longer to get through France, because I wanted to hit what was in the study. It was still fun and a great additional resource if you are looking for more.

Next Stop: Germany!

What have you been up to this Spring? We would love to hear from you! Is there anything you would like to see on the blog?

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Are you thinking that you may want to raise chickens? Check this out! Also, don’t forget to sign up and print out your forms for the Put ’em Up Challenge. Make this year your best preserving year yet!

-Lindsay from Life on Misty Acres

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