Maple Syrup Sap Bag Holder

 Big time winter storm hitting us right now so I guess there will be an extra post this week!
Here's how to make cheap maple syrup sap bag holders. I used 2 inch PVC pipe. I bought a ten foot length and cut each piece 5 7/8 inches long to get 20 pieces from the ten foot length of pipe after allowing for the saw cut. 1 1/2 inches from one end of each piece I cut two notches on opposite sides of the pipe. These notches are two saw blade widths wide and just through the wall of the pipe. I used a stop block to keep them  a consistent distance from the end of the piece but just eyeballed them for width. Next I flip the piece end for end and drilled a one inch hole about a inch from the other end of the pipe. All these measuremets are approximate and are not critical. I would have used a smaller drill for the hole but that was all I could find that was about right. You just want it big enough to go over your taps. Leave enough material above the hole to support the weight of the sap bag when it is full.

The bag is held on the holder with a zip tie pulled tight into the notches. You could use a twine I suppose but zip ties are fast and easy if you have them. Of course for these to work your tap has to have some sort of end that will catch the edge of the hole. We will use plastic line taps for these since they have a end that will hold the bag on. If my taps wouldn't work that way I would drill a second hole higher up to hang them from a nail. My finger is where your tap would be.

Here is another view of the notches. I started out with a single saw cut but it was to narrow for the bag and zip tie to pull into it and hold the bag on. Put a second notch on the opposite sides of the pipe.

Alpine Dairy Goats

Our Alpine does, Cupcake and Carmel, enjoying their supper. The keyhole feeder is the best design I've ever used for feeding goats. As long as they don't have horns it really works well to save feed. They have to lift their head to back out so they usually don't drag a mouth full of hay out with them. Both of these does were exposed to a very nice Alpine buck but only one got bred. I guess the other will be at the  local livestock auction soon. A dairy animal that does not get bred back is a pet. We have some pets but we can only afford to feed so many. We milked goats as a commercial dairy producer at one time and I think we will always have some goats. They are a great animal for anyone on a small acreage who wants their own dairy products. We presently milk a Jersey cow also because it is so much easier to make butter from cows milk. Goat milk, being naturally homogenized, needs to be ran through a cream separator first. It is one step we are happy to skip right now.

Usnea, Herbal Medicine

Yesterday i was out cutting firewood in the swamp. One positive side effect of that is that I am usually able to find some Usnea  growing on the upper branches of maples and tamaracks. It seems to like the growing conditions in the densest parts of the swamp. I don't pass up an opportunity to collect this powerful antibiotic. Usnea barbata is the species usually found in commercial preparations. While that species does not grow here there are plenty of other species in our area. I think the one in the pic is Usnea angulata all though that is based on merely looking at photos so is probably not even close! Usnea is a lichen and it contains usnic acid which has been shown to inhibit gram-positive bacteria such as those that cause strep and pneumonia. Gram-negitive bacteria such as E.coli and salmonella are not effected by usnea. I would be reluctant to use commercial preparations of this lichen unless I was very sure of the source of material. Usnea is known to concentrate airborne heavy metals in its tissue. I want to know any that I use was collected from areas without a lot of industrial air pollution.Usnea has a slightly sweet, very, very, bitter taste.It's active principles are best extracted in a tincture with a low concentration of alcohol [ 25-30%] since most of it's compounds are water soluble. The USDA plant data base list 86 species of Usnea in North America and it grows almost every where in the world so some species may grow near you.

This is a pic of some growing on the upper limbs of a red maple. The other is on a tamarack and I am not sure if they are the same species. They look a little different to me. Wisconsin has a dozen or so species but I don't much more than I've said here. It is one area I plan to study more as there are also edible species of lichens.

Wood Lot Management

We heat with wood and use it for cooking most of the year. In a typical year we use about 15 -18 face cords of wood. A face cord is 48 inches by 96 inches times the length of the pieces, in my case 16 inches. What species of tree the wood is from makes a huge difference of course, some woods being much better than others. Some such as oak or ash are much denser and so contain many more B.T.U.'s of heat. Woods such as balsam fir or aspen are not as dense and so give you less heat for the same size pile. This figures into my decision on whether or not to cut down a particular tree but it is only one consideration. The picture shows a yellow birch which makes very good firewood being dense and drying well after it is cut. My decision to cut this tree however was made based on the tree's health, which you will note, is not optimum. It was apparently damaged in the past and rot has set in. It was also crowding several nice young maples and is in a area I manage for maple syrup production. For these reasons this birch went to my firewood pile for next year. I try not to cut strong healthy trees for firewood as on 30 acres there are more than enough damaged or diseased trees to fill that need. I also take almost all of the tree including the branches down to about 1 inch in diameter. The remaining brush I put in piles and leave them as cover for woodland residents such as chipmunks and song birds.

 
Here is the wood from the yellow birch and a white ash I cut that day. The two trees provided about 3/4 of a face cord of fire wood, about 1/20 th of what I will need for next year.Today  I will look over some black ash that will probably be cut. Those grow in the swamp so I have to get them out now while we are still froze up.

Llama Jail

 Here is a pic of Sandy, our guard llama. He is in llama jail until it warms up enough that we can shear him. He has figured out that he can simply walk under the electric fence by lifting it up with his neck. His thick coat prevents him from getting the shock that would convince him to stay on his side of the fence. He does not stray very far but there is always the danger he will get on the road. What really upped his sentence was his pruning job on my new apple trees. I have an eight foot tall fence around the orchard to keep out deer but that didn't keep him out and he munched on most of my new trees. He is a excellent guard llama having chased a bear out of our sheep pasture several years ago so he will get another chance. Well, another month or two and he will get a hair cut and a parole from llama jail. Mean while he is becoming good friends with a calf in the next pen over.

Hand Hewn Beams

                                                                                                                                                                                                

     This is a method that I use to make hand hewn beams. The first step is to brace the log in a way that will prevent any movement during the process. I use a combination of pipe clamps and sand bags to hold the log. Once you have the log held securely use a level as in the first picture to mark both ends at the point that will give you the flat area you want. Now mark a line from end to end on each side to connect the level marks. I used a chalk line which makes that very simple. You can see the blue chalk line in the second picture. Next make a saw cut down to the line every 3-5 inches. If there is a knot I make several cuts close together at the knot.                                                                        

I used a chain saw but you could use any type of saw. A adze is the tool being used in the third picture. Notice the way I am holding my foot. This is done to prevent the very,very,sharp adze from finding your ankle! Make sure you are wearing heavy soled shoes for this job. I am not sure how to do this project without a adze. I found mine at a antique shop and payed a few dollars. You can find new ones but they are of course more expensive. Anyway, once you have the saw cuts down to the chalk line start chipping of the wood down to the line. How carefully you do this will determine how flat and smooth your beam will be. A wood that splits easily will work best, one with wild grain will be more difficult. Once you have the top done you simply turn it over and do the same thing on the other side keeping the sides parallel. If  you need a square timber the sides are traditionally flattened with a broad ax. I only do that if I absolutely have to have it square. For many uses, such as floor joist,you may only need one flat side.

Hunting Shed Antlers

If you live in an area that deer live in this is a good time of the year to get out in the woods and look for shed antlers. Deer such as the WhiteTail Deer, which is the local species, shed their antlers and grow new ones every year. The pic shows a couple of shed antlers and a drinking cup I made with a shed antler and a cow horn. Antlers can provide interesting material for various  projects such as tool and knife handles , drawer pulls, buttons, or whatever else your imagination comes up with.Hunting for shed antlers is a good excuse to go for a nice walk in the woods. Find a well traveled deer trail and follow it. Keep a sharp watch if you do find a shed antler as supposedly when the deer losses one antler  he tries to knock off the other so he is balanced. I've never found a second but I have talked to people who have. Any antlers us humans do not pick up soon get eaten by rodents for the mineral content. The big shed antler in the pic has the ends of several tines chewed on. The weather here is supposed to be nice tomorrow so I think a walk in the woods is call for!

Chicken of the Woods A.K.A. Sulfur Shelf

 Laetiporus sulphureus, Chicken of the woods as it is commonly known is a great mushroom. The name refers to the texture of the cooked mushroom which is very much like the texture of chicken breast meat. The sulfur part of it's Latin name refers to the bright yellow underside. It is a good mushroom for beginners since there are no poisonous mushrooms that look like it. It only grows on wood, never on soil. It is large, this clump went about 5 pounds but they occur in much larger bunches. These were actually past prime and at this stage only about an inch of the outer edge is edible, the inner portion being to tough. The smaller ones on the far end are a better size for eating.When picking any wild mushroom to eat you must be absolutely sure of correct identification and most should not be eaten raw. Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora is a very good book on mushrooms. While this is not the best eating wild mushroom you will find it is fairly palatable and it is easy to identify. As long they are not to old I would never pass them up.

Recycling photos

 Recycling some pics from a former blog I started but never really got into.
Epigaearepens L.,Trailing Arbutus is one of the first plants to bloom in our area in north central Wisconsin. This pic does not show it but the blossoms are often a pale pink and they have a beautiful scent. It is a trailing perenial with oval leathery leaves. The tubular five lobed flowers are in clusters. This member of the Heath family contains arbutin which is a urinary antiseptic but it hydrolyzes to hydroquinone which is toxic.

American Indians used leaf tea for kidney disorders as do some folk remedies. It is a plant I always look for as a sign of spring but I have never used it medicinally. For me this is the first true sign of spring.

  The third pic down is of Wild Ginger, Asarum canadense L., which we spent years trying to find and now see  all over. Very tasty and it has quite a zing. We like to add it to tea.

Center is a yellow violet, not sure which one as there are several native to this area. Top is Marsh-Marigold,or Cowslip, Caltha palustris L. which are edible when very young. I said edible but that doesn't necessarily  mean good. Boil them in several changes of water if you want to eat them. Not worth the bother in my opinion.

 

Canning Jars

 Yesterday we were on our way to a birthday party for one of our grandsons and had to stop and get a card.  While in the store we spotted these canning jars on sale for $5.00 per case. That is about half off from what they sell for around canning season. We promptly loaded 10 cases on our cart and were on our way. Before we had them in the car two different people remarked that we must do a lot of canning.  Well, yes we do, but 120 jars is NOT a lot of canning. Which brings me to the point of this post. How much do you need to can? If you want to eat a home canned item just once a day you will obviously need 365 jars.  Ok, but Ann is a great baker and makes apple pies,and peach pies, and cherry pies, and...well, you get the idea. Add another fifty jars for pie filling! Then of course there is apple sauce, and wild plum chutney, raspberry jam, salsa, and apple butter. Better add another 100. Wait , we can some of our home grown meat too. Add another 100. And.. we like to can some fingerling potatoes because they are quick to fry up if you are in a hurry. Then we learned about canning butter, add another 100. What are we up to, 715! I forgot to include the fact that we put our maple syrup in quart canning jars and that some of the veggies we dehydrate will be in canning jars. Did I mention jelly and marmalade and grape juice? Any way, it is easy to see that if you are going to try to preserve most of your own food you will need lots and lots of jars.

Sauerkraut

 Our cabbage crop was very poor this year so we had to buy cabbage to make sauerkraut. We had the cabbages in the root cellar for quite a while and didn't get our kraut made until December! We just opened up the crock today to see how it was doing. It is yummy! We use a recipe that Ann found in a book from Chelsea Green Publishing . The name of the book is Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning. The recipes are all from the gardeners and farmers of Terre Vivante which is a French organization promoting natural and organic methods, etc. I don't want to infringe on their copy right so you will have to find a recipe on your own.  I would highly recommend this book to anyone who lives off grid as it has been very useful in helping us find ways to preserve our food. These are traditional recipes from a time when fermentation was one of the few dependable methods of preserving the harvest. We have kept this sauerkraut in the crock in our root cellar with no additional processing. Of course the U.S.D.A. and F.D.A. say this should be canned in a hot water bath to be safe. I guess we are just reckless and wild. We eat it right out of the crock as is. Every one has to decide for them selves on that issue.

Non -Edible Mushrooms

I was looking through my photo files the other day and found several pics of interesting but non edible mushrooms. Unfortunately, all of them were taken at very high resolution so it is almost impossible to get them uploaded with my satellite hook up. This picture is of a earth star. There are a quite a few varieties and I don't know which this is but isn't it awesome! There were very many of these in the area. It was mid autumn because we found ginseng with berries on there too.  They were under big open hardwoods on gravely hillsides. I have found one other variety of earth star  but they were not nearly as large as these. Hope to get back to that area again this fall to look for them again.

 This one is probably the Horned Fairy Club. These have appeared in the same place now for several years only a little ways from our cabin. Though inedible they are totally cool. We always have lots of wax caps in our woods. Some are brilliant orange and another variety is scarlet. Over the years we have had lots of fun hunting mushrooms and I can hardly wait for the season to start. We pick for the table as well as some medicinal types. If you are interested in picking mushrooms I would definitely recommend going out with some one who has lots of experience. As every one knows there are some very poisonous mushrooms out there so do be very careful. No mater how deadly they are they can't hurt you if you are just looking so it can be a fun activity and completely safe too.

Spinning Wool

We don't own a television and haven't for several years. One side effect of this is having a lot more time to pursue your hobbies.  One of Ann's is spinning fiber. The top pic shows Ann carding the wool. Carding straightens the fibers in preparation for the actual spinning. It also helps remove some vegetative fiber  that may be in the wool as well as being used to blend different lots of wool uniformly. This is a drum carder which is faster than using hand carders. Hand carders are a sort of brush to do the same thing and are used  as a pair. Next is a pic of Ann spinning some wool. The spinning goes much faster than the carding. This spinning wheel is from a company in New Zealand, the Ashford company. Not sure what the full Company name is but they make a full line of very nice equipment. I'm not sure but I think the drum carder was from them also. Right now we don't have any sheep, three llamas doing fiber production duty for the moment. We had Shetland sheep before and will probably get them again soon. They were very hardy as well as easy to work with and their wool is very soft. Hard to beat wool socks for warmth and comfort.