Sugaring Part II

So after hanging the buckets on Tuesday we were ready to boil sap on Friday.  Tommy and Grandpa went out to gather up the sap Friday morning.  I have no pictures of this as I was in the house in pain.  I had fallen down the stairs the night before and was pretty beat up, so I skipped sap retrieval.

According to Grandpa they had about 20 gallons of sap from the buckets we hung.  They dumped it into this big container on the tractor.

Grandpa then put it up in the air on the tractor and attached a hose to drain it into the boiler.

Once all the sap was in the boiler Grandpa got things going.  This process takes a LONG time.  Tommy had to gather wood and help stoke the fire many many times.

After the sap has been boiling for awhile you check to see how thick it is getting.  If it is "sheeting" you are on the right track.

After a while Grandpa tests to see if it's ready in this metal test tube thingy.  Once he is satisfied with that he then draws off some of the syrup from the boiler.

It's not done yet, now it needs to be filtered to get all the gross stuff out.  I don't know what equates to gross stuff but I'm guessing tree bark, bugs and the like.

The syrup hangs out in the filter thing and continues to heat.  After it's filtered it is ready for bottling and tasting.

Apparently syrup has a grade.  The best, highest grade syrup is very light in color.  The darker the syrup gets the lesser the quality and taste.  This thingy below helps decide what grade you have made.

Here is the syrup we made.  You tell me what quality you think it is.

Pretty dark.  Looks like Guinness to me.  We had missed the best sap time this year, so basically this was all just for show.  The syrup we brought back is not what we made.  Tommy doesn't know that, so don't spill the beans.  I'm sure if we had been a few weeks earlier our syrup would have been GRADE A vs. Grade X.

All that matters is that Tommy had fun and got to spend time with his grandparents.  I loved watching Tommy interact with them and the bonding between them was very special.  I'm sad that they all live so far away.  I know I'll remember this visit for a long time and I hope that Tommy does too.

Sugaring Part 1

It's been so warm in Vermont we didn't think we would be gathering sap and making syrup from start to finish.

We headed out with a few buckets and taps. Grandma kept telling me I was going to get cold. Apparently Capri pants and Mary Jane shoes aren't appropriate. Yeah. She was right. After getting a bunch of dirt in my shoes I went back for long pants and more appropriate footwear. Style doesn't count when tapping trees.

The sap was running so we got more buckets, etc. and got Tommy behind the wheel of the tractor (with Grandpa's guidance) and headed down the road.

We had to pull down some sap buckets that Grandpa had placed a week ago or so. Blech. They were filled with sap but it was frozen and also had some bugs and other floaty things so they got dumped out. I went to dump one and literally gagged as it was brown and disgusting and full of who knows what.

We retapped the trees and hung clean buckets and replaced the lids. By tomorrow or Thursday we should have enough for the next step of the process. Below are some pictures from today.

A fun time in New Hampshire

Spent fun time with Grammy and Grandpa Mike. Grandpa taught Tommy how to be a mind reader and Grammy spoiled Tommy rotten with all of his favorite foods. When he told her he likes fried broccoli (tempura) she made it for him. Then last night at eleven o'clock he was trolling around for a snack and said he wanted "tempura" lol

He got to spend Adam with Aunt Steph and Uncle Cam and said he can't wait to see them again in May when they visit Colorado. Their dog Baxter found someone to dominate and Cam and Steph spent the day pulling him off Tommy's leg. Tommy calls that "hugging". Ha ha!

Chrissy came on Monday and Tommy got to spend some fun time with her too they went bowling and to the arcade and lots of tickling.

This was a great trip and we are so lucky that his aunts took time from their busy lives to come visit us in NH it is so fun watching Tommy grow his relationships with them, I'm just sorry Adrian wasn't here to see it.

So we leave today for Vermont where Barbie meets the wilderness. I'm a city girl so traipsing through the mud gathering sap for syrup is going to be a challenge for me, but Tommy will love it

Here are a few pictures from Grammy's house:

Made it to New Hampshire

Nine hours door-to-door but we are here. We've got a zippy little car I'm calling the Green Machine. The engine sounds like a sewing machine. I didn't even know Ford still made the Fiesta, which is a good name for this bright green ride!

We've been to Dunkin' Donuts twice and I finally located the coveted Butternuts! They even had chocolate Butternut. I'm in heaven.

We are having birthday dinner for Grammy and Uncle Cam today. Tommy has big plans for a rousing game of UNO with Aunt Steph once she gets here

Then we see Chrissy tomorrow and Tuesday. Tommy is having fun with Grammy and Grandpa and is convinced he can read Grandpa's mind.

It's fun seeing Tommy with his East Coast family!

Women, join me and let's fight back for our rights!

There has been a lot of bull crap in the news lately.  First there was this photo:

A group of MEN testifying on Capitol Hill regarding Birth Control benefits.  Wrong on so many levels, the number one being that they can't focking get pregnant.  Since when do MEN qualify as experts and make decisions for US regarding our health?

This leads me to Sandra Fluke, who should be the hero of women across the country.  Contrary to what many believe, she did not go to Capitol Hill to state that she was having so much sex she should be paid for it.  If you have ANY doubt about what she said, please click here http://current.com/1mhv4kc for the transcript.

I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner, but I have a solution.  Since somehow a bunch of old, white men have been put in charge of making decisions for us it is time for us to strike back.  How you ask? 

STOP HAVING SEX WITH THE MAN IN YOUR LIFE!!! 

Honestly, if we can't get birth control covered by insurance or at least at a reasonable cost, this is the only solution.  Doesn't the right teach abstinence?  Let's everybody abstain!

The conservatives don't want to fund Planned Parenthood, another organization that provides health care services and screenings for women.  OK conservatives, no more sex for you, we are going to abstain!

All of my friends on the left are thinking, well MY man feels the same way as me, why should I hold back?  I'll tell you why.  Because if we ALL stop giving it up, men are going to get pissed.  They are going to get angry. 

Can you imagine what life would be like?   Men are going to go crazy, they can't live without sex, at least that's what they tell us.  Crime will increase, alcoholism will increase, drug use will increase, these men aren't going to know what to do with their blue balls.  They are going to go crazy, and then they are going to get smart.

They are going to help us be heard on Capitol Hill because they will be so incensed that they will write their congressMAN and their senators.  They will demand that women be given access to birth control, they will demand that Planned Parenthood be funded, they will demand that Roe V Wade be left alone, they will demand that women be once again treated like equals.  They will demand that women and women only be allowed to testify on Capitol Hill when it comes to our women's health care.

Until that happens the only people getting any will be the gay and lesbian community.  Can you imagine how incensed the right will be when the only happy, getting it on a regular basis, people are the *GASP* gays and lesbians?  That alone might light a fire under their feet.

Once our needs are met and women are once again treated respectfully, and given the right to speak on our own behalf, then HAVE AT IT!  Give your man whatever he wants.  Shower him with affection, thank him for speaking up for you and woman kind. 

So come on sister-friends, band together and get celibate!

I think meat is gross

I always have, ever since I was a kid.  I eat it sometimes, but not a lot.  Here are some of my issues:

Meat on a bone:  Possibly the grossest thing EVER.  All I can think about are tendons and cartilage.  Chicken wings?  No way in HELL.  Ribs?  Not in this lifetime.  T-bone steak?  Mmmmm, no.  I don't even eat turkey on Thanksgiving because carcass was involved.  Chicken is OK if it's white meat and I never have to see the bone it came off of.  To this day if my Dad fries a chicken, he'll make sure I have a piece that I like, and has even been known to cut meat off of the bone for me and I'm FORTY-TWO YEARS OLD.
Tommy loves to come home from school and tell me he had "chicken on da bone" for lunch.  It makes me gag, so he says it over and over.  The kid knows how to push my buttons.

Raw meat:  Probably a tie with meat on a bone in regard to the grossness factor.  I was a check out girl in a grocery store in college.  Whenever I would see someone with meat in their cart I would do a silent prayer that they wouldn't come through my line.  Especially if containers of liver were involved.  If I wasn't so lucky I would literally spray Windex on my hands afterward just in case some got on me. 

Once in awhile I'll cook something in the crock pot.  The meat has to be in a package that I can cut open and dump into the crock pot without getting any on me.  Just thinking about it makes me want to gag.  Possibly the worst raw meat is Bacon.  I love to eat it, but I don't want to touch it.  When I was growing up I mastered the art of cooking it in the microwave without having to touch it (it was my job to make it if we were having BLT's or breakfast for dinner).  Tongs were involved.  I still have tongs and that's how I cook it at home.  Adrian just shakes his head at me. 

It's not that I am morally opposed to eating meat, I just think it's slimy and gross.  However this Pink Slime stuff in the news has seriously taken my meat issues to the extreme.  You all know I love me some pink...in my clothing, shoes, purses, etc.  NOT in my food.  Practically the only beef I will eat is ground beef...but I'm seriously thinking about cutting that out of my diet.  Just the thought of these unknown "beef trimmings" is enough to send me to a padded room.  I saw that much of the meat at the local grocery store contains pink slime.  I think I'll be buying Organic ground beef from now on.  I know if my friend Russ is reading this he is shaking his head at me right now but I can't help it.

So please, if you invite me over for dinner and I skip the meat portion of the meal, don't be offended.  I'd rather focus on you and the delightful conversation instead of wondering what part of the cow I am consuming.

20 TWENTY 20

Finally hit the 20 pound mark.  I'm pretty proud of myself and it got me to thinking.  I look in the mirror and I see the loss in my face, and I feel it in my clothes, I am just having a hard time wrapping my brain around 20 pounds.

What is 20 pounds?  Well, I came up with a few ideas:

-4 bags of flour
-2 bags of potatos
-20 pounds of butter
-1 bag of dog food

When Tommy was born he weighed 5lb 3oz.  Basically I lost 4 newborn Tommys.  I can't believe I was carrying all of that around with me.  I'm pissed at myself for getting into that mess in the first place.  I've lost a big chunk of weight before, after I had Tommy, but somehow it all came back.  Being a mom to a baby and a toddler...I lost track of myself.  I'll tell you right now, that is NOT happening again!

So I'm moving on to lose another 20 (I hope).  Someone recently told me nothing tastes as good as skinny feels, and that is the truth!