Maple Butter

When you make maple sugar don’t forget to make maple butter. To make make maple butter, you boil the syrup to 230 degreesÂ F. It will take a loooooooong time. When it gets there you cool to 75 degrees F. or under then you whip and you whip and you whip until you get tired. Then you give it to a sibling, and they whip and they whip and they whip and they whip until they get tiredÂ then they give it to someone else…

You do that until the butter looks like peanut butter then you spread it on bread (or don’t bother) and enjoy! 🙂

Syrup time!

Today we are boiling down sap again.

It is fun and it counts as school:

Math (6 gal +6 gal + 3 gal +3…)
Gym class (run check the sap… …run get wood…Â )
Science
History (read books like Little House in the Big Woods)
English (If Momma lets me blog about it)
Home Ec (learning to cook)
Speech (when we have people come over and see what we are doing)
Character (Patience!)

This time some of the sap froze and it looked neat!

We will boil all day so we will be outside all day :)Â Good sap looks like water (or water with ice in it). If it gets cloudy or yellowish, throw it out because it is going bad.

Momma and Daddy will finish boiling it inside later. When the “suap” (syrup/sap) gets “fish eyes” it is almost done!

They will let it settle overnight so the sugar sand settles to the bottom and we can strain it easier. Then they will pour it into sterilized jars to enjoy all year!

We got almost a gallon of syrup the first time we boiled this year! We are not sure if we will make more syrup or sugar this time. We need lots of both.

The MANnequin news

Amateur photographer gets photo of attempted murder!

DRÂ C.T Dummy was seriously injured when bungee jumping off Banister Cliff last night.

An amateur photographer who was coming to get photos of theÂ bungee jump meet saw it happen. She says; “I was practicing to get some good shots of my favorite jumper, Jumping Jack Nimble, when I noticed the scissors! I yelled for Policeman Boy Blue and he sounded the horn from there.”

Boy Blue says ; “I was trying to get the cows out of the cornfield when I heardÂ the photographer yell.Â I ran over and saw Mr C.T Dummy running away from the scene of the crime. I calledÂ for backup but we could not find him.”

The suspect was last seen on Banister Cliff last night. He is just under 5″ tall, bald and has crash test symbols all over him. If you see him notify authorizes immediately.

DR C.T Dummy will be ok but will be hospitalized for days.

Lipstick

“Do you like my lipstick?Â Or do you think it is too dark?”

Being Silly

Momma found this idea and decided she wanted to try it. I like the one where I am leaning on the huge sucker the best.

Sap Update

The reason we started collecting sap already, is because the temperature warms up at day time and freezes at night. Unfortunately, the temperature is staying low so we are not getting as much sap. Â Once buds get on the tree the sap tastes woodsy. The best kind of maple tree is Sugar Maple because it has the highest sugar content. So you do not need to boil as long to get syrup.

We have thirteen gallons of sap so far. We only have enough storage for fifteen gallons, so we are trying to collect some large 2-5 gallon food buckets (with lids) that we can have free.Â Milk jugs work, but the large buckets work better. If you know of a place to get some (or collect them for me) I would really appreciate it!
Thanks! 🙂

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Guest Speaker, Adrian

Adrian has hadÂ a loose tooth for a little while.Â This morning when I got up he was very exited that his tooth had fallen out! Here is his story on what happed.

Today, my lost tooth came out while I was eating a donut (bagel). I was eating the bagel. I felt a wet tooth, it was my loose tooth. It came out! It didn’t hurt.Â It bounced on to the table and then I picked it up. It was my tooth.

I went to the bathroom, opened the door a little bit where Daddy was shaving. I hold out my hand with my tooth on my hand showing Daddy. He was like, “what you doing with your hand out?” Then I showed Momma and then I showed Andrea and Audrey. I showed it to Megan but she did not understand what it was. So I showed her where my loose tooth was. She did not understand still. I showed my tooth first and Mark was wondering what it was. I showed him where my loose tooth was.

Then Momma took a picture of me holding my tooth and showing where my loose tooth was. I am going to put it under my pillow for the tooth fairy!

Guess what time it is?

We tapped our first tree at 4:20 today.Â Momma said we could probably have tapped it yesterday. We hope to make lots more then last yearÂ when we made more than a gallon of maple syrup and lots of sugar.

Hula Hoop Contest

When we were at the Kalahari,Â Daddy treated us to a restaurant called The Reserve.Â They had contests, like picture drawing. Everyone got a prize.

There was also a Limbo Contest.Â Megan would have been good at it if she wold not go on her hands.

There was a Hula Hoop Contest. Audrey and I tied, so we had to have a tie breaker. I won and Audrey got second place!Â The prize was a “game card” for the “noisy-obnoxious-why-do-they- have- it” arcade and a cows tail. We did bowling for the game. It was the only thing that was not noisy or obnoxious and it was the one thing we were allowed to do. It was fun.

Going to the Kalahari

Today, we are going to theÂ Kalahari. It isÂ not only a desert it is also a waterpark in Ohio. A few years ago we went there with the Omars. This time it is a unschoolers waterpark gathering.

At the waterpark there is a lot of fun rides like you could learn to Boogie Board. (On real water not carpet ). You could also do the Swahili Swirl as long as you did not do it with momma. There were other rides like the wave pool or lazy river but those were myÂ favorite.