Weeding the Walkway

I spent some time today weeding the brick walkway up to the front door.  The weeds are already taking over!  My new handweeder was great!

Strawberries

The strawberries are weeded.  I used my new gardening tool-the hori hori knife from Japan.  It was a great tool to use.   It even works on dandelions.  I don't know if I can say I enjoy weeding now, but I enjoy using this tool!

Potato Planting

I planted all of the left over Yukon gold potatoes in the garden today.  They filled up the row we set aside for potatoes.  Now we'll have to find a new spot for the red potatoes.  I planted them shallow and will put heavy mulch.  It worked well last year.   We'll see how our involuntary seed potatoes do.  They are left-overs from last year's harvest that have already begun to sprout.

Time to plant the peas

We found some organic seed from Burpees today at Walmart.  A quick internet search reveals a possible connection between Burpees and Monsanto--oh, well, I guess finding organic seed at Walmart was too good to be true.  Supposedly, the man who now runs Burpee, George Ball, Jr., is (was?) a Monsanto employee.  Hard to track down any information however--I typed in George Ball and Monsanto but nothing came up.  Anyway, all wonderings aside, we cleaned up the left-over stalks and stuff from last fall and put the peas in the garden.  The tiller, which sat out all winter, started after three pulls!  What a wonderful machine.  We are planning to reward it with a premium spot in the new garden shed. 

The Labels are on

Here are this year's labels.
We did the final boil in the house and ended up with exactly 2 gallons. The labels are on the jars and the jars are sitting on the island. I don't want to put them away yet--I like looking at them all sitting there. The syrup is great. It's dark this year, but I think it tastes better than light syrup.

Maple Syrup!

We finished boiling down the sap tonight and bottled up the maple syrup. Only thing left to do is make some labels! The weather is colder today--maybe even in the teens over night. We might get some more sap.

Half Moon Boil

Tonight we boiled down the first batch of maple syrup. It was a beautiful evening--warm and calm. It may be the only one this year--the trees are already budding out and the temperature isn't getting below freezing at night. We finished the outside boil just before midnight--85 gallons down to 5. We'll finish it off on the stove. We had some tea with maple syrup in it before we went to bed. It was quite wonderful.

Spring Equinox!

Today is the equinox. Tom Lukens came over and helped John prune the fruit trees. They have sticks in them now to help them grow in the right direction. John also thinned out the raspberry patch. John was talking to Tom about the ants in the raspberries and he said they usually feed on aphids. And then, when John mentioned the peonies planted next to the raspberries, Tom said that the peonies were the culprit--responsible for the aphids and so the ants. We will need to move the peonies.

Robins return

Today John saw a flock of robins in the field. The temperatures have been warm--up in the fifties-- and the fields are almost empty of snow.

Start of a new year on Pierce Hill!

Maple syrup time feels like the beginning of a new year. Today John and Brendan put in the maple syrup taps. The snow is deep and the weather is still cold--down in the teens at night.

Within the light that out of worldwide heights
Would stream with power toward the soul
May certainty of cosmic thinking
Arise to solve the soul's enigmas
And focusing its mighty rays
Awaken love in human hearts

View from the kitchen window a year later

View from the Kitchen Window

Thanksgiving 2007

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