Sap Sucker

Liam and I took over maple sap collection duty today.  He certainly has a unique collection method!

With the subzero temperatures predicted for tomorrow, we needed to make sure that the sap buckets were empty so we didn't end up having to collect ice chunks on Friday.  The buckets were a third to three quarters full so it is a good thing that we checked!

Liam did almost all the bucket emptying while I lugged around the collect pails for him.  We also had a special back up helper in Dino today.  He lives with the family that owns the maple grove.  Dino was sitting in the middle of the road upon our arrival, he kept an eye on us throughout the collection and didn't want to go home at the end instead preferring to chase our van.  He must really love mapling!  

We did return Dino home before we left so he didn't get into any more trouble, lol.

Haunted Hike

In advance of our grocery pick up in Carleton Place this afternoon, Seamus, Alistair and I ventured along the Saint James Woods Trail for some fresh air and sunshine.

For Seamus and I it was a beautiful, warm afternoon stroll (6 km in 1.5 hours).

However, for some unexplained reason Alistair was not digging this particular forest.  He kept saying, "Scary, scary."  and then started repeating "The trees eat me."  After a while Alistair's unease began to creep all of us out.  That's when we started to see snakes and spiders all over the woods.  

The last straw was when Seamus discovered a "canyon to the underworld".  Fantastic, just what we needed.

I am usually a big fan of imagination but haunted forests are not my jam.  Thanks goodness it was broad daylight on a gorgeous sunny afternoon or I might have really gotten goosebumps!

The Syrup Cycle

As the maple syrup making continues on the farm, we are collecting, reverse osmosis-ing, boiling, filtering and bottling.  Ian collected nine buckets of sap Sunday evening.  He and I took turns getting up every hour and a half overnight Sunday to get it all run through the RO filter so that we could start the boil Monday morning.  We boiled all day today and were able to bring the "almost syrup" inside in a large stock pot to finish up on the stove tonight.  After even more boiling (though not overnight), we will be ready to filter and bottle by mid-day tomorrow.  Then it is back to the trees Tuesday afternoon to begin the process all over again.

Ian filtering out the nitre to get crystal clear maple syrup.

Boil, boil, boil.

Maple coffee is the perfect way to start the day.

Finding Fitz

I may have neglected to mention that on the way to pick up our new turkey hen, Gus, we might have also stopped by Moonfalls Farm to adopt a teeny, tiny rooster.

Since Charlie's passing, I have been feeling like our farm was too quiet.  I miss her vibrant braying.  This coupled with losing our elderly gentleman rooster, Beemster, over the winter, I left like it was time to recruit some new song writers.  Enter Murtagh Fitzgibbons, aka Fitz.  

Fitz is a purebred mille fleur Belgian bearded d'uccle bantam rooster.  He is about 8 months old and is only the size of a pigeon.  He has amazing feathered feet and is super gentle.  Best of all, his crow is amazing - it is the soprano version of a hearty cock-a-doodle-do.  I am so pleased.

Murtagh Fitzgibbons is small but mighty.  He is fitting in very well with the flock so far and has even started roosting cuddled up to all the lady hens at night time.

With a new song in the air, all is well here at Gael Glen Farm.

Dead Outs Get a Big Thumbs Down

I am a sticky mess and, oh so, exhausted.  Dealing with dead outs is the worst.  Honey extraction, at the best of times, is a sticky endeavour but extracting honey from a dead hive injects a whole new level of mess thanks to the hundreds and hundreds of mushy, decomposing, often liquefying, sometimes mouldy, bee carcasses still stuffed in between the frames.  It is gross.  

And to make matters worse, you would think that, at least, I would be safe from stings given that all of the bees I encountered today were dead!  But no, one bee still managed to sting me from beyond the grave.  Sigh.  On the bright side, my floor has never been cleaner (after having never been dirtier...but we'll try to forget that part).

This kind of mess in one's front hallway is enough to give even the best of us heart palpitations.

Liam's job was to brush all the dead bees off the frames (onto the floor 😱).

We will leave bottling the honey until tomorrow.

Poultry Matchmakers

On this rainiest of days, I loaded the three boys into the van and we drove to the east end of the city. Our important mission: poultry matchmaking.

After a while of seeking the perfect mate for Pecky Becky with no luck, I decided to place a classified ad on her behalf looking for a gentle turkey hen to be her forever companion.   I was thrilled to get a response from Farmer John who had a few sweetgrass hens in the mood for love.  Sweetgrass are a smaller sized breed of heritage turkey, just like Pecky Becky who is a Royal Palm.  They are apparently very good egg layers in the spring and are super friendly birds.  Sweetgrass turkeys are very resilient and cold hardy. They also do very well free ranging. This all sounded perfect and so we headed out to bring home the newest member of our farm family.  We are very pleased to introduce "Miss Augusta" (aka Gus) to Gael Glen Farm.

Gus fell in straight away with our flock of ducks.  They all enjoyed rooting around in the mud and muck.

Initially Pecky Becky was not sure what to make of Gus.  They kept their distance and watched each other from afar.

After a few hours, though, Gus started following Pecky Becky around like her shadow. Even better, Gus followed Pecky Becky right into the coop at bed time making our evening chores a breeze. It seems, so far, like a match made in poultry heaven. I did make sure to clip Miss Augusta's wings before introducing her to our flock in the sincere hope of avoiding having her meet the same fate as Pecky Becky's last turkey BFF.

And so, I think it might be safe for the boys and I to add "poultry matchmaker" to our list of abilities.   I really hope having a new "special friend" sparks joy in Pecky Becky's little turkey soul.

An Inter-provincial Adventure

We decided to step out of our comfort zone today and headed across the border to Gatineau Park.  I found what looked like a super hike containing a bridge, an old mill and a waterfall - all in less than 5 km.  Perfect, right?  Except that the trail was very hilly and still super icy; with two clumsy kiddos and a baby on my back this turned out to be pretty treacherous.  

We slipped and slid our way to the bridge.  Woohoo!

The next segment was still icy but with lots of very wet slush interspersed with ankle deep rivers flowing down the trail.  It culminated in a steep and completely ice covered descent to the mill ruins which were situated in the middle of gushing rapids with incomplete guard rails.  Amazing if you are an adult with microspikes.  Terrifying if you are a mother alone with three small children.

Even more unfortunate is that to continue along the trail to the waterfall, you are required to use the mill to cross the river.  So, nope and nope.  This was way too risky for my blood and so we turned back.  The kids were a bit scared of the icy hill and wild rapids and so were very good sports about aborting our plan to find the waterfall.  I promised them that we could come back with Daddy later in spring when all the ice and snow is completely gone and find the waterfall then.  Thank goodness that was good enough for them.

In the end the hike was not a complete bust.  We did not find the waterfall but nobody accidentally slipped down the ice covered hill and got washed away in the rapids either.  I am going to chalk that up to a win for now and be content to put this particular inter-provincial adventure on hold for another day when the hiking conditions are safer.

Honey Bee Clean Up Crew

I recruited Liam and Seamus to assist with cleaning up our dead hives this morning.  In the end we had three dead outs and two surviving hives (one was super quiet and fooled me when I peeked in a few weeks ago).  

I dissembled the dead hives and removed all the equipment from the bee yard.  

The boys scraped all the dead bees off the bottom boards and into the compost bin.  So, so many dead bees.

Liam and Seamus also dumped the wood shavings from the quilt boards (aka pillow cases) on top of our mushroom patch.  We then stowed all the extra equipment safely in the garage.  All that is left to do now is to extract the honey left in the frames of the three empty hives but that is a big (and very sticky) job - one we will tackle on the weekend.  

Once everything is all cleaned up we will be able to look forward to this year's beekeeping season and make plans for more thorough and consistent varroa mite control.  Onward and upward!

Warm Dirt is Simply Irresistible

I know I said that I could wait until May 24th to plant the garden but I just could not help myself.  The weather was so nice today that I had the boys help me spread out a sheet of plastic over top of one of my frozen pallet gardens in hopes that the sun would work its magic.  

Sure enough, by mid-afternoon - ta da - the garden soil was not only workable but deliciously warm!   I simply could not resist whipping out my lettuce, radish, chard and arugula seeds.  My special helper chicken and I tucked the seeds into nice straight rows in the warm, moist dirt.  

Ah, I so love gardening.  My dirt covered hands and knees were a most welcome sight.

Midnight Syrup

It was a very late night here at Gael Glen Farm but our first boil of 2021 is done!  Is there anything more gorgeous than these bottles of liquid gold?!

Alistair's Outrage

Motivated by the gorgeous spring weather, we had a very productive day on the farm.  In addition to collecting and boiling maple sap, we cleaned out the asparagus and sunflower patches, pruned the apple and pear trees, and planted spinach seeds in our largest (and only thawed) outdoor planter.

Inside we potted up our baby eggplants and then planted a variety of tomato seeds, rhubarb, lettuce, herbs and three types of both cabbage and kale.

Onions

Crimson peppers

The day went like clockwork except for one minor mishap when Pecky Becky unfortunately tried to mate Alistair.  I was alerted to the crime in progress by Seamus screaming.  I raced the 10 meters towards them in time to hear Alistair wail, "Pecky Becky Turkey NO HUGGIE!" and then his shocked and outraged yell as Pecky Becky attempted to climb on top of him anyway.  A quick swat to the beak and Pecky Becky was on her way to turkey "time out" with Alistair calling after her, "No thank you!  NO HUGGIE!"  

At least life is never boring around here and before we know it we will be back to eating our own fresh greens!

Maple Syrup Dreams

After heaps of family time yesterday, divide and conquer was the name of today's game.  

Ian and Seamus were on mapling duty.  They collected several full sap buckets this morning after yesterday's big run, ran the sap through the reverse osmosis filter and then started the boil.  The sap ran really well again today so we will be heading out to the maple grove again tomorrow for another collection.

Liam, Alistair and I spent our day enjoying fresh air and sunshine out in the forest.  We did the 8 km (2 hr 15 min) loop at the Foley Mountain Conservation Area in Westport.  The snow on the trail had melted a lot over the past week but we still encountered our fair share of slush, ice and very slippery mud.

Alistair has clearly perfected the art of hike napping.  He even snored a little today.

Do you think Ali is dreaming of all the
maple syrup his daddy and brother are making for him?

Everyone we pass always comments on Ali's mode of transportation saying that they would love to have his ride.  No one ever says that they want to be me, though, lugging this 35 lb snoring bag of bones around.  Lucky for Ali, he is adorable even if he is heavy!

It was a busy Sunday for all of us.  We were happy to reunite at supper time and share with each other all the things we got up to today.