4H begins

Today I took Carissa to a rabbit selection clinic.  She is the first one to have something in 4H so far this year.  She will be doing market rabbits.  David will be training and showing Bandit.  Isaiah will be doing chickens.  Both broilers and pullets.  It should be a learning experience for the whole family.   I have already learned we won't be just buying a rabbit and fattening it up.  Rather we will be getting 2 females and breeding them and then selecting the best babies and then showing them.  If all goes well.  Many more updates and pictures of our adventures to come.

Out and About in Ohio

One of the things I regret about our time in Texas was that I didn't get out and enjoy things with the kids more.  There were lots of things we wanted to do and see, but just didn't make the time for.  Now that we have left, who knows when we will get the chance again.

So, I made a promise to myself that when we moved here I would get out and see and do things.  I wouldn't wait and miss my chance.  Sadly, Aaron wrecked his truck the night we got here and so it was in the shop for a month.  We got it back last week though so it was time to start going places.  :)

The first outing we had was to the Little Buckeye Children's Museum.  I wasn't sure how enjoyable it would be, especially for the older kids, so I just took Joey and Caitlyn.  They had fun, but it wasn't what I expected. 



 

Caitlyn LOVED this drum. 



 

Joey peeking out the window in the treehouse/fort



 

Joey saw this and thought it was a giant Risk game

 

Caity loves to play with the baby in the mirror.  :)

 

Yesterday we had our first family outing.  We braved the freezing weather and went to the Maple Syrup Festival at Malabar Farm.  It was pretty fun and educational.  The visitor's center has a lot of information about farming and rural Ohio.  And it was really neat to ride down to the sugar camp (on a horse drawn wagon) where they had several stations where they explained how sap was gathered, boiled down, and made into syrup and even sugar.

 

 

The whole gang on the wagon heading down to the sugar camp

 

The Native Americans used to collect and boil sap in a hollowed out log using heated rocks.

 

The Pilgrims improved upon the hollowed logs and cut bark by using spiles and buckets to collect the sap. They also have a cover over them to keep out bugs, dirt, etc.  It is just removed for this picture so we could see the sap.  It was too cold to see the sap running.  In fact, sap is about 98% water so here you can see it frozen in the bottom of the bucket.

 

Now they use plastic tubing and buckets and reverse osmosis to collect sap and make it a little quicker to process.  It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup here in Ohio.

 

 

After the sap was collected by The Pilgrims they would boil it.  The first time they boiled it would be to make a syrup.  Then they would transfer it to a smaller kettle and boil it further to make sugar.

 

This is the big collection container at the sugar house they use now.  The workers collect the buckets and climb the ladder to put the sap in this 750 gallon tank.

 

 

The sap from the tank goes into a cauldren heated by a wood-burning stove where it is boiled until it reaches the right consistancy.  They even have a grading system and what we get in the store (the cheap stuff) is very dark because it is only maple flavored.  True maple syrup is much lighter.  You can see all the steam  in this and the previous picture that is created from the water being boiled off,

 

 

Some maple sugar.  It is pretty sweet.  We learned some interesting facts though.  Maple sugar has more calcium than milk.  It has lots of potassium and other vitamins, minerals, and nutrients.  It is lower in calorie content than regular white sugar.  Basically, because it is less refined, it is healthier.  If it weren't so dang expensive, I would switch.  It is kind of funny to think that long ago it was the main sugar and white sugar was the expensive luxury.

 

For dinner we had pancakes with our genuine maple syrup.  Yummy. :)

 

 

And just for fun......Can you name this location from a movie?  It is one of my favorites.....

 

....Shawshank Redemption!  This was the location of the opening scene.  Most of the movie was filmed in this area, including here at Malabar Farm. 

All in all it was a fun, if not very cold, weekend and I'm sure there will be many more fun and adventerous weekends to come.