Sisyphus Acres

Trees are tapped, garden show was OK...

Well, washed the buckets, lids, and taps on Friday night.  Finished reading my book, it was a great read, it's a thinker, and I will for quite some time.  I highly recommend it.

We did go to the flower show yesterday, it was a lot smaller than I expected ~ I suppose a consequence of going to the Bston show so many times.  The exhibits were very nice, theme was "gardens of the world", the Japanese tea garden was one of the best, although the scottish one was neat, the French garden was typically lovely.  The only disappointitng thing is that there weren't a lot of "fresh ideas", there weren't a lot of garden vendors or "wow" exhibits.  I like to go to the shows to get recharged, to find new ideas, new plants...inspiration...that's what the show lacked, inspiration.

Although I did manage to get some heirloom seeds from the garden s of Strawberry Banke ~ which I will try out.  Skirret seeds.  They were found in one of the old houses during restoration, so seed line goes back at least to the early 1800's ~ they's propagated lots of seeds that way and maintain beautiful heirloom gardens as they must have had there during that time.  Skirret is a perennial, similar to parsnip.  I will go the the Strawberry Banke website and get some more info ~ they told me they have extensive info on the herbs/flowers/veggies they grow.

We stopped for dinner and the Christmas Tree Shop on the way home, picked up a new tablecloth for Easter.  Pretty much crashed when we got home.

Today we slept in ~ missed church ~ time change snafu ~ even though I reset the clock, I did not set the alarm .  Putted around today, we went out noon-ish to tap the trees ~ and since we are only doing 5 trees, it took us a matter of 15 minutes.  I sure hope the birch sap runs and I can make the soda.  I love experimenting with things like this!

Hannah drilled the holes for the taps, my dad "tapped" the taps in, and I hung the buckets and tamped down the trail to the trees.  We should have a pretty easy time getting in and out, although I'm sure it won't be as easy as I think luggin full buckets of sap out of there...lol.

Finished crocheting my "clog socks" except for the heels, hope to lay them in tomorrow night.  My mom just finished a pair of knitted socks for Hannah, just has to stitch them up tomorrow ~ they are bright and wild!  I need to get back to making crocheted bath sets for Christmas gifts.

Well, I need to head off to bed, I'll visit again soon,

val

Love your garden ideas!

{ 11:51, 2007-Mar-11 } { Posted by Joymommy }

Hi there - just found your blog and am very inspired by your garden ideas! We're just buying and moving in a few days so I'm hoping to put in a garden this year (had one a couple of years ago before we moved and rented). Hoping to do well with that and possibly get some apple trees as well. Anyways, I didn't know you could tap birch trees for birch root beer! Wow! Good luck with that! Anyways, if only I had unlimited $ to put into all that stuff. We'll see what we can do this year! God bless!

Melanie

Little by little...and on the cheap...

{ 09:54, 2007-Mar-12 } { Posted by vgauthier }

Actually, I got the 5 buckets, lids and taps for $20 from a friend who was liquidating his stuff ~ the only other needs were bottles ($7 case) and caps ($1.25) and yeast. I have the pot to boil in and a 5 gallon bucket to "brew" in.

The garden additions we do little by little each year ~ this year most of our seeds are free, received at a gardening seminar we attended this past fall ~ we set aside about $100 for orchard additions ~ which will only need to last until next year ~ we should be done then, I believe.

It's a little at a time ~ and saving or swapping seeds will save bundles! We've done a little of both, and try to do more each year ~ we hope to supply our own seeds eventually (except for a few of the Biennial seeders). We've got a long way to go, but we're making the climb.

the most important part is to enjoy the journey.

I see God in the wonders of the garden, so that's where my passion comes from ~ so from wherever your passion comes from ~ use that to move forward, think creatively and wrangle seeds and plants out of everyone you know...lol... it'll work...I grab whatever I can from whoever, and I've gotten alot of plants and seeds that way.

val

Untitled Comment

{ 06:51, 2007-Mar-20 } { Posted by csstumper }

I like the story about knitted socks. My sweet lady knited me a bunch of pairs when I was still working, and had to be outside a lot in the winter. I still wear them in the house and she keeps repairing them as I wear holes in the toes and heels.