A Busy Day!

The six puppies that will go to their new homes this weekend were taken in for their vet checks this morning.  Here they are in the back of the car looking as cute as ever! :)

It was baking day for me. First I made sour dough bread.  It takes all day to rise, so you have to get started early.  Next I made five loaves of my whole wheat bread.  Here is a stack of sour dough tortillas that I made for lunch.  They are so simple to make, but it's not a quick job.  The dough is just three cups of starter, three cups of flour, and three teaspoons of salt.  That will make about 8 tortillas.  I just roll them out and cook them in my cast iron skillet until they are brown on both sides.  Normally I shy away from foods that are very time consuming to make, but these are so good - and I had a craving for one. :)

 

 



Todays lunch - chicken and veggies wrapped in a sour dough tortilla, blue corn chips, and lacto-fermented salsa.

 

Whole wheat bread - with one loaf missing!  "Mike...?" :)

This morning at 5am, while some were still in bed, Mike was out in the sugar shack firing up the evaporator. :)  The sap has been flowing good for the past few days.  Today the boys and I collected 96 gallons!  Mike is still boiling and will likely be at it until about 10pm.  A long day.  Not really!  He enjoys it, and we enjoy going out to visit with him.  We ate lunch and dinner out there today. :)

Here you can see that the vents above the evaporator are open to let the steam out.



This is the evaporator pan.  You can see the pipe where the sap flows in and the different compartments that the sap flows through.

Jonny is checking the sugar content.

Got to keep that fire burning!!!  The firebox gets filled every 15 minutes!



That is a HOT fire!  And a nice pile of coals!  Hot dogs anyone? :)

Dinner - lamb stew and garlic toast by a warm fire with the smell of  sweet syrup in the air.  Wish you were here! :)

  The finished product! :)

Well, time to go!  My sour dough bread is finally ready to go in the oven, and I'm itching to go hang out in the shack with my hubby! :) Night! :)