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Saturday, March 07, 2009

 

Looking for Spring...




We took a little walk out back yesterday looking for signs of spring. We found a patch of yellow flowers in amongst the trees. We were also surprised to find a deer carcass in the middle of a small meadow. Somebody had a tasty meal! One less deer to eat the tomato plants this summer!

We took our bikes up to Hueston Woods State Park this morning for the traditional 'pancake breakfast'. Since the temperatures today were to reach the mid-seventies, we thought we would ride our bikes around the park and down to the sugar bush to watch the making of maple syrup. Check out the flags above the truck...did I mention the wind was blowing?






Traditional methods of making maple syrup.

Traditional ways of tapping the trees. I suspect now that the raw sap is tapped and transported through plastic tubing leading to catch containers, keeping out contaminants. The raw sap then goes to the evaporator. Sap is 97% water; the rest is natural sugar and nutrients. Forty gallons of sap are needed to make one gallon of maple syrup.
We rode a nice twelve miles around the park. Had a few short steep hills. Wind. Traffic. It was nice to be outside riding!
Did I tell you the best part? We were down at the sugar bush, I had gotten my pictures. It was time for a very steep, gravelly climb back to the top. The hay wagon was waiting for visitors to climb aboard to take them back to the parking lot. Three visitors were on the wagon...plenty of room remained for two bikes and two passengers. We climbed aboard and rode up that hill!
Remember to spring forward this evening!

# posted by Martha @ 4:27 PM
Comments:
Martha and John,

It is nice to be surprised by the first flowers of the season coming out.

I do remember the first time I went back to the "Sugar Bush" that Nina and Squeak had in their back 40, and how muddy it was to get back there. That way before we were even married.

I also just put a comment on Miss El's baptism blog, so be sure to go back and see. I hadn't had the electricity to do it before. I am glad that our power wasn't out for longer than it was.

I was glad to see a comment on my blog, since I don't usually get any at all, thanks.

Charlie and Jane
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : March 08, 2009 11:16 AM
 
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