Sugar What?

Sugarbush! A stand of maple trees, which produces the most delicious sweet treat of all....natural indigenous sap. In this first photo, the C.E.O. and I are heading to cut some more wood for the fire to stoke the boiler (I love my ears scratched...but not as much as having my picture taken).

The sap starts to run when the temperatures warm up in the early spring. It is gathered in buckets fed from sap lines from the trees. The fire in the box below heats up the clear sap and begins the long process of boiling off the excess water in the sap.

Gentlemen, start your engines!

This boiling takes hours, and it's only necessary to check in occasionally to make sure there is enough wood in the stove bottom.

Maple Syrup, Maple Syrup,

On your pickles or on your turnips.

Not so good for polishing stirrups,

All the world loves maple syrup!

As the sap thickens, it becomes crucial you keep very close watch or the whole pan will burn (not a particularly happy sight, and much cursing and scrubbing is needed). As the liquid reaches the perfect consistency, it is drawn off and can be further reduced indoors and canned or bottled. As long as there is a good seal (glass canning jars preferred), the maple syrup will last indefinitely, however, there is a better chance of hell freezing over than having any millenial syrup.

This whole process of tapping trees, gathering wood, stoking the fire, preparring the syrup is not done only by the C.E.O. It is a total family commitment to producing something more than a sweet treat for a long tooth. The Sugarbush is on Grandpa's land and all of the siblings join to carry on what they experienced in their childhood, carry on tradition. It does take a fair amount of sap to produce one bottle of syrup....but with all the saps coming together a lot of work can get done.

Back on the Grid

Well, it has been a time of reflection here at Smiling Dog Farm. I could get all squishy about some things and angry about others, however facts are facts and the truth is all of us are healthy and safe no matter what sort of craziness goes on in the world around us. A cold, the flu, and a small remodeling project has kept the Entertainment Directors busy or cranky, so not much prose has been taken seriously. Now all of that rot is put behind us and now on to bigger and better blogs!

The winter has been terribly cold, and spring is fighting to begin. It was still below zero this morning, March 12th, and everyone is truly getting tired of all the wool, hats, boots, and various frozen body parts. Spring here is not your typical spring. It is more like a long drawn out toothache, with hints of hope. March teases you with a few days in the 40's-50's, birds singing, water running, then causes you to abandon all hope, ye who enter here. April is the cruelest month (T.S. really did have a handle on it), a bipolar extravaganza of rain, mud, wind, along with torturing souls that only want to get their hands dirty in the soil. You can see it, but you'll regret it. It's usually not until the end of May that spring arrives in Marquette, and you can start to plant all of those bulbs and starter plants you have dog earred and drooled over in multiple magazines over the winter.

But for now, the sun is warmer, the days are longer, and we really need to get off our butts and chase some squirrels. Woof Woof!

And not a creature was stirring.....

Except for me of course, Winter Solstice Poodle! The Red Queen & CEO built a great, huge(1o foot minimum) pile of sticks and culled trees over the summer and set it blazing on the 21st. Oh, I should mention that we are completely nuts (all of us) because it was close to zero degrees with winds up to 25mph and LAKE EFFECT SNOW. By the time the CEO had set the fire, over 13 inches of new snow had fallen this day.
I had some reservations the fire would take, however with the very dry timber accompanied by the wind the conflagration was spectacular at times. Pitch black dark outside, red sparks roiling across the snow,wind whipping the flames to a cresendo....ahhhh, the beauty of it all. Tie it all together with a little homemade mead (the Red Queen drank Pinot, the meads much to sweet for her), and a dinner of root vegetables w/ venison tenderloin, and my friends you have a perfect celebration to the unconquered sun. I will end this post with two of my favorite quotes about winter....

The cold was our pride, the snow was our beauty. It fell and fell, lacing day and night together in a milky haze, making everything quieter as it fell, so that winter seemed to partake of religion in a way no other season did, hushed, solemn.
~Patricia Hampl~

Turn down the noise. Reduce the speed. Be like somnolent bears, or those other animals that slow down and almost die in the cold season. Let it be the way it is. The magic is there in it's power.
~Henry Mitchell

And yes, the fire did burn through the night, waiting for the sun to return.

Ain't no Sunshine when You're gone

After making it through the first Alberta Clipper of the winter unscathed, it became apparent that the sun was going to have to shine vicariously through Bartzella here, showing her full true colours.

Bartzella...a beautiful true Intersectional Hybrid peony developed by Roger Anderson. We are lucky enough to have two of these beauties in out gardens here at the Smiling Dog. Intersectionals are a rare cross of herbaceous & tree peonies,displaying the best of both cultivars. Along with the beauty of the bloom there is a very mild hint of lemon fragrance....truely a stunner.

She's napping now, with her blanket of snow pulled tight around her, anticipating the warmth of the spring sun and many happy days ahead.

Alberta Clipper and Brother I don't mean ship

Poodle here. 3F this morning. Remember when I mentioned Lake Effect a few posts back...well I failed to mention that along with this 'effect' there is another weather phenomena referred to as the (dun dun dun, cue scream) Alberta Clipper. This is a small low pressure system that comes to us (no not via parcel post, or even Fed-Ex) by the way of Alberta Canada and moves really, really, really fast (hence clipper). The system moves from WNW to ESE and slides along a track separating cold air from the north from warm air to the south and is usually followed by a run of cold weather, and yes, sometimes more than not, lots of Lake effect.

Now...we all know how to dress warmly up here (notice fur coat), and aren't deterred much by the chill, however when you combine the cold with wind you end up with a factor known as wind chill. Even though our outdoor temperature is registering 12F as the Red Queen types for me, it actually feels like -6F with the wind. Charming huh?

That means my toes freeze, dog snot forms little balls on my nose and in general even if everyone is dressed warmly, we don't get to play outside for very long. This early winter is a little soon for a clipper....which means from past experience that the pattern may be set for a clipper year....and leads to (OK, really big scream here) Cabin Fever! A 'been in the house way too long' manifestation. Usually not a problem until February when the BIG CHILL usually happens. But, it's been very,very grey,along with very,very dark, and now very,very cold (did I say very?), and it looks like we may have trouble my friends. As long as the Red Queen keeps

her paws off Baudelaire and Poe, and the CEO (who is always good hearted and kind) makes her go out for oxygen now and again, we might be alright. Stay tuned.

Pagan Smagan, The Evolution of the Wreath

The Red Queen (yes, she does quite frequently say "OFF with their heads!") has finished her wreath of choice for the house. Not an easy task, considering the abundance of brush and other essential ornamentation growing around the farm. Usually the wreath is done later in the season with cast offs after making wreaths for everyone else, but being in the 'spirit' early on she decided to get the damn thing done before the mood passed.

The history of the wreath is rich, steeped in ancient practices from Persia (wealth & power), to Greece (champions), to Rome (saturn,soltice). Many Celts decorated the interiors of their homes with wreaths of hollyberrries and evergreens to celebrate the end of the long winter and the strength of life, which today would be a good thing ( I AM going to digress here...) because we are having 24 mph winds with considerable Lake Effect Snow. The color of he sky from now on will be grey, offset with other shades of grey, sort of a tone on tone symphony of grey. No wonder they went for the red berries.....

I should also mention our sun rises here this morning at 8:15AM and sets at 5:04PM(lat/46.55N long/87.40W)....not exactly a great vitamin D day....no wonder the pagans hauled life into their homes...Poodle being a Germanic dog, I can totally get this Winter Solstice, Birth of the Unconquered Sun diatribe....by the time we hit December 21st, many people in our area suffer a form of depression called Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD). The affected sit in front of light boxes to get their serotonin flowing....

So, Winter Solstice is only 20 days away.....Bonfire anyone? Burn On!

What's the BuZZZZZZZZ

Whew! It's been quite busy here at The Smiling Dog Perennial Farm. Snow has fallen, deer have been processed, and now it's time to harvest trees and assorted other accoutrement's for wreath designing. Most of the trees are Balsam, but we also cut Blue and White Spruce along with long needled White Pine.

The fellow in the photo is my CEO (Chief Entertainment Officer) and beloved husband of the Red Queen. They both have kept me pretty busy supervising and hunting for all types of novelties buried beneath the snow.

While harvesting trees we came upon a Bald Faced Hornet nest, snuggly secured in the top of a Balsam. These hornets are actually Dolichovespula maculata, really a wasp that belongs to the genus Vespa (no, not a scooter). The closest relative of the bald faced Hornet is called the Yellow Jacket. The male wasps are dead now(workers and drones) and only the queen survives the winter, hibernating behind tree bark or in a rotting log. The wasps are usually quite benign, unless of course you happen to bump or threaten their nest. They can sting multiple times and usually go for the face....best course of action...run like hell.