We took a long hike yesterday in the Varden conservation area.  There is an old cemetery on top of the mountain where some of Sam's great great grandparents are buried.  The old chimney is over 200 years old, and we are working with a group that is trying to raise money to restore it.  It was from the original cabin of the first settlers in the area (also distant relatives of Sam's).  It was a beautiful day for a hike, but the ticks were terrible. 

Our little tiny magnolia blossomed this year too!

 

Mom was here last week with me, and we had a wonderful time.  We went to Lancaster County for a couple of days, and I took her to see Beverly Lewis's play "The Confession" at the Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant/Theater.  She loved it, so I'm happy she got to go.  I told her it was her Mother's Day present.  We also did a lot of sight seeing and shopping.  Here's Mom at the duck pond!

 

And here's the beautiful weeping cherry outside the Inn where we stay!

 

 

 

 



Nasty thunderstorm last night with heavy wind and hail.  Some of the hail was pretty big - and it had already melted some before I got my camera out!  Not much damage here, just a few branches down, but a little ways from here they had a lot more severe damage.

First day over 60 degrees - yippee!

Finished flushing and blowing out all the pipeline - so we're just about done for the year now.  A little more cleaning to do in the sap house and then put everything away. 

Visitors from Vermont coming on Friday and dropping off Mom for a week's stay - can't wait until she gets here!

Pulled all our taps and buckets today.  We might have gotten a few more runs over the next couple of days, but we've made plenty of syrup and the fuel supply is getting low!  We are finding that this oil fired evaporator guzzles fuel like crazy, so may look into alternatives for another year.  We have a little more sap in the evaporator ready to "finish off" and we will be done except for flushing the lines and cleaning up the pans.  It's been fun, but I can't say I'm sad to see the end in sight!  Looks like we will have about 23 gallons.

Hope everyone had a nice Easter.  Wish we could have gotten home to Vermont, but the sugaring season just ran too late this year. 

The last few days have been sad ones for us.  Our sweet Amish friend, Lizzie, passed away on Thursday from cancer.  She left behind a wonderful husband and seven children.  We went to Lancaster County on Saturday for the funeral.  This was our first time at an Amish funeral, which was very different from our English world.  For anyone who isn't familiar with the Amish culture, they call everyone English if they are not Amish.

The funeral was 2 hours long and all in High German, so we understood very little; however, we were welcomed with open arms by the Amish community there - almost 400 people attending the service. The funeral was held in the family's home. 

One thing we found interesting was that as the buggies arrived each one had a number written on it in chalk and then the same number written on a tag that was attached to the bridle of the horse - so when the funeral was over it was easy to get the horses out of the field and match them to the correct buggy.  This numbering system also was the order in which the buggies proceeded to the cemetery.

The burial is very different from ours.  All the mourners at the cemetery stand by while the plain wood casket is lowered into the ground and the young men of the Amish community fill in the grave.  Then there was another 45 minute graveside service.

One thing happened at the cemetery that I found very upsetting.  Two tour busses came by and stopped just outside the cemetery fence so the passengers could gawk at the graveside service.  I can't think of anything more disrespectful, insensitive or offensive.  I wish I could remember the name of the bus comany - I would give them a piece of my mind.  They treat the Amish like a tourist attraction.

Lizzie - we will all miss you.

On a happier note, we collected 200 gallons of sap yesterday - the first run in over a week - so maybe the weather will finally start to cooperate!  Here's a couple of pictures I took while we were gathering.

Old Method vs. New Method !!

 

Hope there's something in there!

 

Well - there goes a drip anyway!

 

 

Another snow storm and now freezing rain on top of it - ugh.  No sap running and it looks more like January. Hurry up Spring!  These pictures are from a couple of years ago, but maybe they will remind us of what Spring looks like!