Maple Syruping and other stuff

HI!

Seth and I have been collecting maple sap from the maple trees this last week so we can boil it down to make real maple syrup! I took some pics to help explain the process. The first time we came to the USA we were able to try some - it's really good...just ask my Dad. It has a nice smokey flavour to it. It is soooo much better than Golden Syrup.

So..first you have to drill a hole in the tree and then tap in these plug thingys. Then we attached a can or milk jugs to the thingys. The trees drip out a clear sap. Usually on a good day you can get about 1 US gallon (about 3.8 Litres) from each tree.

Then, each day you have to collect the sap in buckets and carry it upto the house. The sap runs best if it freezes at night and gets really warm during the day. It's not very sweet at this stage.

After collecting the sap, it needs to be boiled down so it can become syrup. It takes about 50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup so it takes a lot of boiling. As it get boiled more and more, it becomes sweeter as most of the moisture is evaporated and the sugar is left. You light a fire in the drum and it heats the pans with the syrup in them on the top. You just keep topping it up as the syrup evaporates

I'll have to let you know how it tastes once it's finished boiling.

Kiara is doing really good! The first few nights were rather a trial. The first night we put her in the bathroom and she scratched the door and whined all night. Then the second night we put her in her crate...and she whined all night... at least when she wasn't sleeping. I was getting up at least 3 times a night cause I was worried she needed to go out. Anyways..the third night...in a desperate need for sleep and after reading about countless others on the net with the same problem..we let her sleep in our bedroom floor. She did soooo much better. I guess she just needed people. She usually only needs to be taken out once and doesn't whine at all. She has her toys in there and usually creeps under the bed although im sure she's not gonna fit very long. So yea..we're able to get a full night's sleep.

We have only had a few accidents...cause I wasn't watching her like a hawk. She loves to chew everything including me, just like all puppies. She's a real people person and loves to cuddle and play with you. She loves to be outside, explore and go on walks.

She went to the vet the other day for a check up and her first shots. The vet said she is really really healthy and everything looks good. As a part of a puppy package we bought I got the clicker training book and some clickers and she seems to be doing really well with it...even after a few days....and she loves treats. She sits all the time by herself so I think it'll be pretty easy to teach her to sit on command. I just know that I want to train her now, while she's small enough to handle...cause we don't really want a full grown lab jumping on people. lol.

I took some more pics on her cause she's such a cutie!!

Chewing on one of her toys.

Chewing on her bottle. She LOVES it! She can chase it around the house for ages!!

Eating..see how her ears almost hang in her food lol.

With her stuffed dog...Ted. She loves him.

Sleeping in a strange position.

I found this cool looking potato so I thought i'd take a pic! Potato's always remind me of Deb and our cupcake doll gas masks! lol

Seth bought a bobcat the other day. It is so cool and I got to drive it and it's so easy to drive! It's a 2002 t200..that's about all i know about the make a model etc...lol. It has heat and air conditioning and heaps of other cool stuff. Here are some pics..

Have fun!! Bye

New Addition to the Family!!

Seth and I are now the proud owners of our very own gorgeous puppy!


Kiara (Kia) Lilly Frost is a purebread black labrador retriever. We named her Kiara because it means small and dark, but im sure she won't be small for long. She was born on 18 Jan 2007 and has 7 brothers and sisters who she is missing heaps right now. She is absolutely adorable!! We had about 2 1/2 hrs drive home and she was so good - she mostly slept. When we got home, after sniffing around and exploring she started to whine heaps and look around frantically. I think she's missing her buddies. She's sleeping right now...I wore her out playing.

Here are some pics of our beautiful girl.

Bye!!!

For Pete....& Adrian cause it's his 7th birthday today!

This one is basically the same as ours.

This is a diff dogopoly I found! It looks pretty awesome

Adventures!!

Hi Everybody!!

I Know, I know, I've been very very very bad in not blogging for so long but im hoping to make up for it now. Since I last blogged I've been on so many cool adventures and have done a ginormous amount of traveling.

Seth, his cousin and I went to Michigan for them to look at a machine. We drove through Chicago, though Indiana into Michigan. I slept the majority of the time. I was quite cozy in the back with heaps of blankets and pillows. We stopped and had an AWESOME breakfast at Denny's and then drove a few more hrs until we got to our destination. Then, after maybe an hour stop we started to travel home. I guess we travelled for about 24hrs straight. On the way home we went over one of the great lakes - it was cool. About an hr away from home it started to snow REALLY heavy. You could only see about 3metres in front of you and we were going about 15mph. Thankfully the snow lightened up enough to drive home.

Anyways, the next day, we woke up to about 10 inches of snow! It was so cool. Seth and I got to go ploughing again - more driving - lol. The snow was really heavy and hard to push so it took a little longer to plough. We got another 8 or so inches the next night too so we had ALOT of snow!! We got to do all the mobile phone towers and were done just before it snowed again! We got another 6 or so inches so we got to plough everything again. We spent about a week straight driving. lol. It's not too bad though. I only felt sick once from going back and forth back and forth.


Here are some pics of the snow

Pictures of me shoveling some snow.

Pretty snow

Me standing next to a huge snow bank.

Seth holding an imprint the snow made of his tyre.

Life is going great! The weather is slowly warming up so it seems like more of an Australian winter. The snow is all melting already. There is so much water and mud around! It's looks like everyone has their own personal lake in their backyard. I've been going with Seth these last few days to work which is fun. I get to hand him stuff : - ).

Anyways, I had better go, I'll try to blog more frequently.

You guys are awesome!!