Maple syrup, planting, bees!

Hey, let's talk about stuff that isn't depressing!  Some fun things have been going on here.  We finished the maple sap project and ended up with over a gallon and a half of syrup. You can see that in spite of trying several methods of filtering we still ended up with some sugar sand at the bottom of the jars.  I've decided to think of this as "rustic" and proof of its humble origins. Due to the weather (cold and rainy) we set up a canopy behind the house and I boiled the sap down with propane instead of over a wood fire like last year.  This means it doesn't have the smoky flavor that we all loved but it's still delicious. 

The kids and I prepped this row last week by hand and planted a goji Bush and three types of potatoes; purple potatoes,  Yukon Gold and Redskins.  This weekend we are going to till the next row over and plant greens and peas.

Little hands shelled a packet of peanuts for seed last night.  I think we ended up with about 35 to plant.  Tennessee Red was sold out months ago and this is a variety that takes a lot longer to produce so well see. Because the deer and rabbits ate our peanut experiment last year this time we are going to cover the ones in the garden and plant a couple in pots on the porch as insurance. 

We planted these seeds today. The alpine strawberries we've had before and love. We should see berries this summer from them.

A very heartwarming sight.  There are three honeybees in this photo and there was a fourth bee on a flower to the left.  I cannot even remember a time in the past years where we've seen four honeybees at once. It seems there's a hive nearby and the ladies have come through the winter alive and well. 

You can see the full pouches of pollen on their back legs to be taken back to the hive.  It means that not only does the hive have a queen that made it through the winter but that they now have baby bees to feed.  It was a wonderful thing to see today.

I guess I never followed up about the chicks! I'll have to take some pictures.  I think there are 8 of them in the old duck coop.  Looks like half of then will be little roosters. The pretty ones of course.