It's a Boy!

 We had another snow storm a week ago Thursday.  It wasn't as big as the previous week's snow, this one leaving us with 6-7 inches.  The old farmer's wife made snow ice cream, something I haven't had in years.  It was better than I remembered, and it was especially good with Dr. Pepper poured over it.  It was like one of those slushy drinks!

Mice tunnels in a shallow drift.

My alarm had already gone off and I was up when I heard my wife's cell phone ring a little before six.  I knew without waiting to hear, what that probably meant; D#1 was in labor and she needed a baby sitter!  I headed outside right away to start moving snow so that grandma could get out of the driveway.  By the time she was backing out of the garage, I had a path cleared to the road for her to head to T-town.  After they were all up, she brought the four girls back to the farm for a couple of days.  By noon we heard that a baby boy had made his entrance into the world.  We now have 8 granddaughters and four grandsons.  Congratulations to the parents!  The four girls were excited to have a little brother.

I made a sledding hill for them out of one of my snow piles. 

The week before delivery, D#1 brought me some maple sugaring tree taps and collection bags so that I could tap my walnut trees.  Yes, you can tap other trees besides maple!  The flavor will be different of course, but we thought we would try it.  

 I tapped three large walnut trees and the first week I collected about 8 gallons of sap.  I used an LP  turkey fryer to boil down the sap and then finished it on the kitchen stove.

It took most of the day to boil the 8 gallons down to the last gallon, and then while it was finishing on the stove, we decided to eat supper.  And we overcooked it!  It is now walnut jelly!

I may try to rescue it buy mixing it with more sap and reboiling.  I was disappointed.  The taste is sweet, but very unique.

And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,                        Exodus 15:25