Sugar Shack!

The boys went on a field trip to a local Sugar Shack with their Royal Ranger group and I tagged along.  I learned a lot of information...but don't quote me on anything because the machines were loud and there was a bunch of little boys running around so if I missed something...sorry!  LOL!

This is the group of boys that went along with their cups of warm syrup to try.

Here a few pictures of my kids with some of their friends.

The gentleman is weighing the syrup here.  It has to weigh 11 pounds per gallon.

He is checking the syrup here to see if it is getting close to the right consistency.

This is the container he was checking.  Can you smell the syrup boiling??  Oh my!  It was a smell sensation overload in here!  It smelled just like maple candy!

This is my 8 yo listening to what the owner had to say.

He poured us each a small cup of warm syrup to drink!

It was soooo good!!  The only way it could of tasted or look better is if it was on a stack of pancakes!

This is Dick Sutton.  He is the owner that was giving the tour for the boys.

Here is my 11 yo in front of the big vats that hold the sap when it is brought in.  We were told that Dick tapped 4700 trees himself, with the help of his crew, but that he also does custom work for another 3000-4000 taps!  Some other neat information I picked up was that it takes 43 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.  He also said one tree gives about one quart of finished syrup!  He also said that trees closer to fields and roads have sweeter syrup than woods trees because of fertilizer and runoff from the roads and fields. I also learned that the metal buckets that used to be so iconic of syruping season are now illegal because they leach lead into the syrup.  That is why so many have gone to plastic tubes, bags, and buckets.

He let us taste some of the leftover sap that was in the vats and it tasted like slightly sweet water.  He said the sap had been filtered 3 times.

Oil candle wicks!

In light of what is going on in Japan I have been thinking more about emergency preparedness and what my family would do if the power was out for an extended period of time.  Anyways I came across these oil floaty candles on Hobbylobby.com.  (My local store does not sell them and I had to order them online.)  You take a small glass dish with water, add vegetable oil on top, and then add the plastic floater with wick....let the wick soak up the oil, and then light it.  From what I have read one bottle of vegetable oil is supposed to burn 1000 hours!  The wicks do not burn up as long as there is oil in the dish.  Once the oil is all used up the water will fill up the valley parts and smother the candle.  

The candle gives off as much light as a votive candle.  So, just enough light to keep you from stubbing your toe.  Or if you light a couple it could be romantic.

 I put a 1/4" of an inch of oil in this dish.  I have read that 1" of oil in a wine glass will burn for 3 hours. I TRIED to test the burn time last night but every time a little kiddo would walk by my candle they would blow it out!  Moral of this lesson.....make sure you stock up on plenty of matches!  LOL!

 You get 100 wicks in this package and 3 plastic floaters.  Enough to put some light in three rooms in the house for the evening.  The wicks were $1.99 and the shipping and handling was $6.  I ordered 6 packages so it came out to $3 a package basically.  To me that sounded like a pretty good deal to have on hand in case of an emergency and the power going out.  I know some will say "Oh, that will never happen!"  Well, I live in Ohio, far away from most earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, etc....but last year Hurricane Ike came so far in that it knocked out power for a LOT of people and my neighbor, who is on a different electric line, was with out power for an ENTIRE WEEK!  Ok, I cannot imagine that with 6 kids!  So whatever I can do to make the "WHAT IF'S" more comfortable for my family I will try my best to do it.  And $3 for a pack of these candle wicks fit in my modest family budget.

And no, I did not receive any compensation for plugging these little things!  Darn! LOL!

Bourbon Red Tom and my turkey hens!

This is my Bourbon Red Tom!  He is absolutely beautiful!

This is one of my hens that I hatched a couple of years ago.

These are my two turkey hens I hatched last summer.  I did hatch four but I lost two over the winter. There are pictures of them as babies way back in my blog. The one hen took more after my Bourbon Red and the hen in the front took more after my older hens...the darker colors with red tips.

Here is one of my older hens with one of the younger hens.  

I have 5 turkeys all together.  My Tom, my two original hens, and two younger hens.  I also have 8 chickens and two (useless) ducks out there.

This is why they say farm kids learn early....so I think it is safe to say that I will have fertile eggs when my hens start to lay.  LOL!

Puppy Love!

My 8 yo playing with my mom's puppy, Izzy.  Izzy is a lovey little thing!  She just loves to be picked up and loves to give kisses!  Here she was smothering him in puppy kisses!

Fuzzy Butts!

Our peeps came in the mail today!  I love getting peeps!  They are the cutest little things!  Listening to their chirping is just one of the signs that spring is on the way!  

Here is my 8 yo playing with one of them.

I love the little peeps with the darker stripes down their backs.

They are so soft and silky that you just want to pick them up and snuggle them!

I got 2 dozen and my mom got 1 dozen of these Golden Comets.

Rocky Awards!

Bill was nominated for a "Rocky Award" at our church this past week.  The "Rocky Awards" were a way to recognized people at our church who go the extra mile and go out of their way to volunteer and just do that little bit extra that makes them stand out.  Bill was nominated for "Sound Tech".  He did not win but the guy who did win the award was VERY deserving.  Bill was just thrilled to be nominated and the winner is a good friend of his and he was happy for him!  

Bill runs the sound system every Sunday morning for first service.  He sometimes stays into second service to help.  He also does a LOT of sound jobs for our Worship Pastor Jordan Biel....who is an awesome worship singer and Bill considers it a privilege to work with Jordan.

Cake Mix cookies!

These cake mix cookies are so easy!  All of my kids love to cook and bake!  If the younger ones (6 and 8 yo) can not make something on their own they can always talk one of the older kids into making it for them or with them!  Can you see the problem with that??  Well, that means we get to have cookies or a cake or a dessert nearly every night!  I guess the good thing is that by the time each of us have something no one can over eat on the dessert when you have to divide it 8 ways!  LOL!

The baby literally inhaled hers!!  She loved these!

She closed her eyes right when I snapped the shot but can you tell how much she was enjoying this cookie??

The recipe:

Your favorite cake mix

2 eggs

1 stick of butter

Mix all, then spoon onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees!  

It is so easy!  

The next time I want to try the chocolate cake mix with peanut butter chips.  The Funfetti cake mix makes excellent cookies too!  My mom makes the Butter Pecan cake mix and puts toffee chips in them!  YUMMO!!

Linda & Roy at Elk Leap Farm!

Here are the pictures I promised from Linda's little farm that we went to to get our goats bred. She has such beautiful animals! These are her Silver Seabrights. She also has some Black Copper Maran's and some Aremercaunas.
Micro pot belly pigs. If anyone is interested in buying one let me know and I will get you in contact with Linda.This is Sally Bear with her piglets.
Spice!
The Boer goats!

War Cry! Linda's beautiful Boer buck!