Holiday Traditions

Christmas is a magical time of year, especially when you have children.  Over the past few years, we have evolved some great holiday tradition, and one is doing something special with Tim & Patrick's' friends, Emma and Anya.  Two years ago, we visited Santa's Village in December.  Last year, it was the Polar Express.  This year, we took them all on a sleigh ride around the hamlet of Jackson NH.  Although there wasn't quite enough snow as we had hoped, I think we've still managed to create some memories that will last a lifetime.

Fall Gone....

*Blink*.  That's Fall in the Northeast Kingdom.  The boys enjoyed using the new Cider Press during this ephemeral season....

While I continued to work on finishing off our basement, including my "man cave"... it came out nice!

 My favorite part of fall is the scenery, including this impressive Pumpkin display in nearby Littleton, NH:

Of Course, Halloween would not have bee as fun without our own display at home!  Our garden grew some impressive specimens this year...

Summer Updates

Its been a while since I have posted an update on the blog, so here is a brief recap of our spring/summer:

• Sugaring was very productive this past March.  We managed to make a grand total of 5 gallons of syrup with our mini-arch and 50 buckets.
• Our two ewes birthed a total of 3 very healthy lambs- 2 more females and 1 male. They grew very well over the summer months.
• May & June were VERY wet.  Brian Lacoss never managed to get a first cut off our field until mid-July.  Things got a little drier through the second half half, but we still got a lot of rain.
• The rain made for a very lousy garden this year- Things that did well were the corn, although late, our pumpkins & Winter squash, and potatoes.  Things that did not go well  were tomatoes (go figure- we need a greenhouse), green beans (bummer, these are a winter staple for us), and things that like hot weather.  We have a so-so harvest of beets & Carrots.  Loralee is committed to having a smaller garden next year focused on the basics.
• Timothy and Patrick really enjoyed their swimming lessons at Powers Park- Tim, at six, passed his level 1 test!  Patrick, however, is a fearless swimmer in his life jacket.
• I have been working with Wayne Carr on finishing off our basement.  Its coming along nicely, but slow going as we are mostly just doing it on weekends.

Our family recently came into a 75-acre woodlot & sugar-woods about a half mile from our farm.  Loralee and I are developing a business plan to begin a bigger (although still boutique-scale) sugaring operation.  A consultant estimates we can get about 1000 taps, and we will use a pipeline system.  Our plan right now is to get the woods cleaned up this winter with some light logging, then run our lines next summer.  We will probably just sell our sap for the first few years so as to recoup the initial investment.  All that will require some bigger hardware, which brings me to the latest addition to the farm:

In Like a Lamb!

One of our two pregnant ewes gave birth on Saturday afternoon.  While we knew she could go 'any day now', it was generally expected  as an overnight event.  Not so!  Saturday evening was cold, and when I headed out to do the chores, only 3 of our four sheep ran into the barn.  "Uh-oh," I thought.  I found Mama in the lee of the barn, out of the wind, licking one baby, and just giving birth to the twin.  I had to help, then quickly rushed the babies into the comparative wamth of the barn.

It turned out to be a frenetic night, as we helped to get the babies dried and warm.  Luckily we had a heat lamp for our chickens, and were able to set that up in the lambing pen.  We helped to introduce the lambs to their mother's teets, and they managed to take a little milk.  Despite frigid temperatures for this time of year (it dipped to one below on the farm last night!), I am happy to report that both babies seem to be healthy and doing well!

Did I say Honest Winter?

I take that back.  Monday hit 50 Degrees, and we have lost all the snow.  Today we experienced another cold snap, but need a few more storms to build up the snowpack....

An honest Winter

Winter came late this year, we never saw real ground covering snow until December 14th.  Luckily, we managed to have a white Christmas.  Since then, a series of small storms have left us with nearly a foot of beautiful snow.  Loralee and I have already managed to go Nordic Skiing more this season than all of last year!