Welcome to April

And here we are in April already... What a lovely day we had to begin the month- Warmer than usual for this time of year, and warm sunshine. The crew has been taking advantage of the warmer weather to get some outside projects done. Some of which I'll tell you about in this post. We are grateful to be here together as a family, with a roof over our heads, food on our table, and work to keep us busy.

I (Emily) have been transitioning to teaching my music lessons online through video chat programs. Since schools are currently closed, I am currently working from home as well- teaching lessons from the comfort of our music room. It's been an adventure...  While I've been doing that, the rest of the family has continued on with pretty much their normal lives. Here is what the rest of the crew has been up working on recently.

Maple syrup:
It's been a great year so far. We've already canned about 35 gallons of syrup. Last night we collected 350 gallons of sap. We are boiling some of it down today, and will do another boil tomorrow (most likely).

The guys made another version of a stove in which to cook down the sap.

This one holds 2 pans so we can do twice as much at a time 

(It saves on wood too, for which Matt, who has been cutting most of the wood to power our stoves, is grateful.)

The sales shed:

After sitting untouched since last November when it snowed, the crew resumed work on this building, and in two days, they got the roof sheeted & shingled, and the door & windows installed. It's starting to look impressive!

Now to get the inside finished....

Matt, Silas, and their cousin, have been hard at work on the project which I shared a couple pictures of in my last post. It's coming along nicely, and will going to be quite impressive when it's done. However, Silas has informed me that I can't share any more pictures until it's finished- so you'll have to wait..... (oh the suspense.) ☺

Here are a couple other random pictures from around the farm.

A few chickens happy to be scratching in the garden while the rooster stands guard

Pictures I took last night of the creek that runs through one of our sugar bushes.

Snow is leaving, more and more bare ground is showing- our crocuses are up and a couple of them are blooming. - Spring is on it's way, but April isn't over yet and I'm expecting that we'll get some snow yet this month.   

Y'all take care- be safe and stay healthy.

💗

Feel free to reach out if we can encourage you any way during this challenging time. 

"I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." 

(Ps 18:1-2 A psalm of David)

God is still in control and is worthy of our trust and praise. Rest assured that none of today's circumstances are happening without His knowledge.