Homesteading Adventure #5: Holy Springtime!

Wow-wee! We had an insanely busy weekend! Spring is upon us....I can feel it!
Of course in Geauga County, Ohio, there will still be at least another 12 or so inches of snow before it's truly Spring.
Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day! There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was at least 40*.

We started our morning by driving to Huntsburg to Hershey Montessori School (http://www.hersheymontessori.pvt.k12.oh.us/about_montessori/index.htm) for pancake breakfast. It was Amazing!!!! The best pancake breakfast I've had yet.
The school itself was so awesome. I'd love to send the girls there, but it's awfully pricey. I might check into financial aid or see if I can save enough money for each of them to go for one year in high school if they'd like to. It would be an amazing experience.

We dropped Lizzie and Maggie off at their dad's and Jeremy and I had a full day planned.
Our to do list:
Cut slant boards for roof of coop
Frame nest boxes
Take down dog kennel
Grade yard
Frame Chick Door
Tap Maple Trees

We stopped at Walmart in search of cheap containers to use for collecting sap. We have 7 maple trees in our yard and we were going to need enough containers to put 2-3 taps in each tree. I remembered that they have a water station there so I grabbed Jer by the hand and said, "come on! I have an idea!" Just as I thought.....cheap containers! Gallon jugs were only $0.64. I started loading up my arms full of gallon size milk jugs while Jeremy kept telling me that they weren't going to sell us empty containers. I'm shaking my head at him and saying, "Jer, what? They are going to make us FILL the containers so we can go home and dump them? Of course not!" We walk to the front of the store loaded down with jugs - it's at this point that we are thinking it would have been smart to take a cart with us - with all eyes on the two idiots buying empty jugs. When we get to the cashier, she picked up the jug....obviously thinking it would be full and over compensating the lift. She scans. It rings up as Water Container and Water Refill $0.64 + $0.36. It was at this point when the confusion set in around our aisle. She wondered if we'd like to fill them since we were being charged for water. We laughed and said no. Then she asked the cashier at the next aisle what to do. She didn't know.She also asked if we'd like to fill them since we were being charged for the water. Our cashier suggested just charging us for the refill, but not the bottle. The second cashier suggested calling a manager. The entire time Jeremy and I are laughing and telling her that it's fine. We don't want the water. We will pay the extra $0.36 each. It's really not that big of a deal. It was getting embarrassing! And Jeremy was shaking his head at me, as if to say, "See???? I TOLD you we were going to have to buy water!" Of course, now they are both asking why we would want empty jugs. So I explained, as if it was a normal occurrence, "to tap our maple trees...." Which started a whole new line of questioning......

When we got home, Jeremy went back to work on the coop and I went to work tapping trees. The set up we came up with this year is pretty cool! Last year's tree tapping failed miserably.

By the end of the day, the coop frame was in place on pavers and there were 8 spiles running sap!