Boiling the Sap

This weekend we cooked a lot of maple sap - close to 100 gallons of sap, which will be turned into about two gallons of syrup after I get done processing it. This is a picture of the stove Adorable Hubby welded together, after we both got really tired of working over an open fire. After the syrup season is done, I'll move the little hoop house we have covering the stove over to the south side of the house, and use it to start my garden! But, I can't let myself get distracted by all those lovely seed catalogs - today day I am going to can some syrup! And write lessons for the on-line Art History classes I am teaching. And feed the ponies hay, and the little birdies millet and sunflower seeds, and the bees some strong sugar water. It's good to have lots to do - I would hate to be bored and lazy...