NH Homesteader- turkeys!

[farmerjan]

Yeah, @CntryBoy777 I also don't remember seeing any pics or even any real good descriptions of anything they saw....just that there were some places it was better not to go.....And how did the job hunt go????

 

[Bruce]

How is he going to build your house if you don't take the sawmill??

 

[NH homesteader]

We are not building a house from scratch. I do NOT have the patience for that!

He didn't send me pics, he only took a few. He has a friend down there he can work for if he doesn't find anything better.

 

[Bruce]

How is he going to build you a nice barn if you don't take the sawmill??

 

[Baymule]

Good thing @NH homesteader is relatively young, it takes 40 to 50 years for a sugar maple to get big enough to tap. She might be able to tap them for a few years before she passes

She didn't plant the trees she taps now...... I am big on planting trees. I am twice NH Homesteader's age, it doesn't matter if I get all the good out of the trees I plant. Someone planted the trees I climbed when I was a kid. Someone planted the fruit trees I harvested from. Someone thought more of the trees and future generations than they thought of themselves.

 

[Pastor Dave]

Where I live in Indiana, there is a creek (pronounced "crick") that is called Sugar Creek. It is or at least was lined with Sugar Maples. The settlers and maybe the Native Americans tapped them and made syrup (pronounced surp or sur-up).
Those were undoubtedly native trees that someone figured out made a sweet byproduct. The brown creek water definitely is not sweet, but does have some Small Mouth known as brownies.

 

[NH homesteader]

@Bruce I thought I replied but I guess my phone's on strike. I think hoop houses are going to work better for us down there than a barn. If we need anything bigger I like the carport barn @frustratedearthmother has over a regular barn. But I plan to have 10 as my limit for goats, and 2-3 of those will be bucks and won't live in the barn anyway.

We got a garage in a box to store hay in, it's12x20x8, and it's actually a good size for my goats. So might get another one (or something like it) and use cattle panels to keep them off the sides.

 

[NH homesteader]

Clara thinks it's too cold to boil sap outside! It was super windy yesterday!

All the stuff in the background is makeshift windbreak, it was so windy! So the front pan is pre-heating sap so it's hot when it's added to the boiling pan.

 

[Baymule]

Here, the syrup used to be sugar cane syrup or sorghum syrup. In the fall of the year, the sugar cane was gathered and fed through a mill, crushed, the juice extracted and boiled down to make syrup. The mill was either mule or motor operated. I had many a biscuit at my Grandmother's with sorghum syrup on it when I was a kid. Now it is rare to find such an operation. Too easy to buy corn syrup imitation flavored crap.

 

[CntryBoy777]

There are still cookers of cane and sorghum molasses around here. It is never called syrup, it is much thicker. The numbers have decreased, because laws have changed in the governing of the process, and making a small amount for just personal use is not cost effective. Many used to make it to sell for extra income, but the government wants their "Slice of your Pie" and many just sold the equipment, or it is rusting in place on the land.