My New Coffee Station!

I haven't had a whole lot of time to write anything here of late... because I've been a busybusy bee, starting  up a new business and taking an online class, along with my regular Homeschoolin' Mom Duties. I'll have more to share about the new business venture soon, along with links to my shiny new website, once it's finished! I'm trying to get back into the groove of balancing work and family again, after taking some time off, so I've been feeling more than a little scatter-brained these last few weeks. 

Which brings me to the subject of this post: Coffee! Yes, coffee. Because I've had a lot on my plate, I've been needing a bit more coffee to keep myself going these days. But here's a funny story... it's been years since I've had a coffee maker. I've been making do with a french press (that I've really never gotten the hang of... ) or with Trader Joe's Cold Brew  or with a stop to Dunkin's or Starbucks (which is a little rough on the wallet) So earlier this week I broke down and just got myself a cheap coffee maker. And then, because this is how I roll, I ended up totally reorganizing my counters to make room for the coffee maker, which then led me to just make a little Pinterest-inspired "Coffee Station". I'd be lying if I didn't say that this was also inspired by my wishing to avoid dealing with the paper piles on my desk and backlog of emails in my inbox. But, whatever the inspiration, I have to say, I LOVE my new little coffee station! 

Here's a look... 

My "coffee station" is pretty small and bare-bones
compared to some, but it suits my needs perfectly. 

On a thrift-shop tray, I have canisters for tea, coffee and coffee
filters, a coffee scoop, spoons in a vintage pitcher, and a wee
cream and sugar set that belonged to my grandmother. 

Mmm... coffee!

2016 Sugaring Season Wrap Up (and... "How to Preserve Your Syrup")

This weekend we wrapped up a busy season of Maple Sugaring! Although our season was only about 4 weeks long, the weather conditions during those four weeks were absolutely perfect for maple sap flow... cold nights, warmer days. From our nine taps, we were gathering anywhere from 4 to 12 gallons per day! We had so much sap coming in, we actually ran out of places to store it. Sap must be kept cold, or it will spoil, so we had our spare fridge and freezer filled, as well as our chest freezer, and still couldn't find space for all that was coming in. We did a couple of mid-week boils, but still had to dump a few buckets that we had no room to store. We did five boils total, turning about 112 gallons of sap into over two gallons of syrup.

Last year, we only produced about 2 quarts of syrup, so there really wasn't a need to preserve it. A few pancake breakfasts with our big family, and it was all gone. But this year, we have enough that we'll be able use it through out the year! In order to keep it fresh, we canned our syrup in mason jars. I read a few different things about this... some say you can just pour the hot syrup into the sterile jars, and call it a day. But, I tend to be a bit paranoid about food poisoning (reasonable, yes?) so I chose to process my jars in a hot water bath, the same as one would with jam, pickles or apple butter.

Now that the last of our syrup is all canned up, it's time for my least favorite part of maple sugaring... the clean up. I'm currently working on cleaning all our equipment... the buckets, taps, tubing, etc... so we can store them away for next year. It's not really fun. But... the end of maple season means we're onward to our next adventures here on the Homestead. SPRING is about to begin, so we'll be starting our garden, tending our beehive and enjoying more time outdoors. So much to look forward to!

DIY Maple Syrup Evaporator

We're currently fully immersed in Maple Sugaring Season here at the Homestead. We tapped our trees about two and a half weeks ago, and the sap has been flowing like crazy! We've done three boils so far, and will be doing another this weekend. With more the twice the number of taps we had last year, we've ended up with more sap than we can keep up with!

Last year was our first year sugaring, and we definitely made a few mistakes along the way. But we've learned quite a bit from those mistakes, and came away with several ideas for improvements. The biggest change from last year is that we redesigned our homemade evaporator. Our set up last year was VERY primitive, as you can see in the photo below...

2015 evaporator

While this basically got the job done, it had several downsides. For one, it was open at both ends, so it didn't hold the heat well... it was really hard to keep the sap at a good rolling boil. Also, it was very smoky, and in the end the syrup definitely had a vaguely smoky taste. Not quite what we had in mind.

For this year's boil, we did a lot of research, and looked at a lot of different evaporator set ups. We ended up with this: 

2016 evaporator

This set up worked SO much better! The back is closed up with cinder blocks, and we added a chimney. We also set the pans directly on the cinder blocks, closer to the fire. This evaporator was so much more efficient than last year's that our sap boiled down in much less time. It was really easy to build... It only took us about 10 minutes to put together, using about $40 worth of materials from Home Depot (12 cinder blocks, vent pipe, and a few bricks that we already had) We were so happy with this, that we plan to use this same set up next year, as well.

Next post, I'll be sharing how I've preserved all the syrup we've made. Until then... stay warm, friends... Spring is just 16 days away!

It's Maple Sugaring Season!

The forecast for the coming weeks in our area of the country predicts temps in the upper 30's-40's during the day and 20's-low 30's at night... which means that Maple Sugaring Season has begun! These are the perfect weather conditions for the maple sap to flow... above-freezing temps during the day, with below-freezing temps at night.

This has been the week of Maple Sugaring Preparations for us... we cleaned and sterilized our equipment, bought a couple of new buckets and spiles, tapped the trees and started gathering up piles and piles of kindling and wood for our first boil (hopefully!) next weekend.

This is our second year of sugaring. Last year, we had four taps in two big maple trees. We ended up with about 35 gallons of sap, which boiled down to about 2 quarts of syrup (you can read all about last year's sugaring here) This year, we've stepped it up to nine taps in 7 trees! I can't wait to see how much sap we end up with.

All ready to tap!

drilling holes for the spiles

We use plastic spiles with plastic tubing that
 that goes into 5 gallon buckets for most of
our trees... it's a little cleaner and more efficient
than the old fashioned metal spiles and pails. 

However... a couple of the trees are on a big
slope, so we had a hard time keeping the plastic
buckets from tipping over. On those trees, we're
trying the old-fashioned buckets that hang
right up on the tree. I think they're quite charming.

Big ol' maple with two taps.

We've started collecting kindling, for when it's time to boil.

If all goes as planned, I'll be reporting back next week with how our first boil of the season went! Until then... stay warm... less than 6 weeks till the first day of Spring!

Room Reveal... New Bathroom!

 One of our big projects this winter has been to give our main bathroom a much-needed face lift. I've hated this bathroom since I bought this house nearly 9 years ago, but since it was mainly a cosmetic issue, it ended up pretty low on the priority list.

When I first moved in, the bathroom had 1960's aqua-blue tiles on the lower half of the walls, with hideous pink and blue sponge painting on the upper half of the walls. Really. Ugly. To make it tolerable while we waited to fully renovate, I painted over the tile and sponge painting, which was definitely an improvement. But in my desire to escape the onslaught of pink and blue, I went a little ~too~ neutral, so for 8 years we've lived with this very bland and boring bathroom. We definitely needed to do something with this space. Here are some "Before" pics...

Before. ~yawn~

Before, with the aqua tile painted beige

Before. Note the broken drawer in the vanity, and the sink that
is off-center from the mirror. This off-center sink drove
me MAD for almost 9 years. Seriously. Who does that!? 

This project was finally kick-started due to a plumbing problem we had in the fall, which required our plumber to cut a big hole in the wall. We figured since the demolition was already started, we might as well go all the way. 

So it begins... 

We pried all the old tiles off the walls, and pulled out the old vanity and mirror...

Next, we had a carpenter come in to install bead board, trim and baseboards. We thought about doing this ourselves, but worried it was beyond our skill set, so we decided it was best to call in a professional. We're very glad we did. Nothing in our old home is square, so we'd have probably made a mess of things.

Once the carpenter finished, we painted the walls green and the bead board and trim a creamy white. After years of boring beige, it was fun to get a little color in here.

After we put in new light fixtures and the plumber installed the new sink, we were ready for the final touches on our new bathroom!

(**Drumroll.... **)

Ta-da!

Shower curtain, from Target,
which inspired our color scheme. 

Found this fun reproduction antique TP holder
on Ebay... it says "London Paper Co"

Old ladder to hold towels, and a cute little
sign I found in a clearance bin. I think
"I will be Grateful for this day" is a great
message for us all to look at as we wash
up each morning and prepare for our day 

Shelves made from a stack of old crates to
hold necessities like wash cloths, Qtips,
cotton balls, epsom salts, etc.

The wood boxes under the sink hold
cleaning supplies, while the big jar
 holds assorted handmade soaps.

I'm really happy with how this room turned out. It suits our casual style, and feels like it "fits" much better in our 1890's house. Since we reused much of what was there already (tub, toilet and tile floor were all left as-is) we were able to get this done pretty cheap.

So here's something... this renovation is a milestone of sorts. It took nearly 9 years, but we've finally redone every room in the house... this bathroom was the last one. But now, some of the rooms we did early on are starting to look a bit ragged again... nothing too major, but definitely needing a little patching and repainting. When I bought my first house, someone told me that your home is never really "done"... there is always something else that comes up. They weren't kidding!

But all that can wait for the time being. We're taking a little breather on home projects, now that the bathroom is finished. We're enjoying a nice "snow day" today, and after the weekend we'll be getting ready for Maple Sugaring Season! I can't wait!

January Highlights, "Sneak Peaks" and Big Plans...

I remember writing up my New Year's Intentions post, on New Year's Eve, just so excited to see what January 1 would have in store for us. Well, turns out January had SO much in store, I was far too busy living my life to write about it! Here were some highlights:

1. We finished up a deeee-lightful Winter Break, and got back into our full roster of activities, classes, etc. Homeschooling four active kids between the ages of 11 and 17 is always an adventure ;)

2. We've been getting my middle boy ready for SCHOOL! Yup, after homeschooling for his whole life, he's decided he wants to try high school next year... so, we've been spending lots of time perusing literature, attending orientations, parent nights and info sessions and meeting with guidance counselors. Exciting stuff! I think this will be a positive experience for him.

"Sneak Peak" at my
new bathroom! Full
reveal coming soon!

3. We've been renovating the bathroom. It's nearly finished, and there will be a "Room Reveal" post coming soon, with Before and After pics!

Meanwhile... we've also been enjoying some other nice winter-time diversions, such as cookie-baking, winter walks, hot chocolate and lattes, reading, crafting, ice-skating... typical January-type stuff.

But now... it's FEBRUARY... which means it's time to start thinking ahead to What's Next. In our case, that means we're going to start preparing to tap the trees for Maple Sugaring, and we're going to start planning this year's garden and ordering seeds.

The First Day of SPRING is less than 7 weeks away!

New Year's Intentions, 2016

Well, well, well... somehow, 2015 has slipped right by, and a New Year is upon us! 2015 was a pretty great year for us! I can't wait to see what's in store for 2016.

Like many others, this is the time of year when I take a look at how my life is going, and take stock of things I'm struggling with, goals I want to accomplish, successes, failures, etc. I sit down each year and make a list of "Intentions" for the New Year. These are different than Resolutions, which seem a bit too "all or nothing" for me. You can see my past posts on Intentions by following the links here: New Years Intentions

In looking back at last year's list, I found I made GREAT progress on a couple of things, but zero progress on a couple more. That's life, I guess. But overall, my life definitely moved forward in wonderful, positive ways in 2015, so that is something I feel pretty good about. My health is much improved this year. I've been trying hard to work on patience and gratitude. And most notable: I've tried lots of things I've always wanted to do (like maple sugaring, beekeeping and soap making!) I'm hoping to continue moving forward, growing, improving, and enjoying life in 2016!

So... on to this year's list:

1. More Art. This was on last year's list, and... it really never happened. Life is busy, there was a lot going on, and once again, Art fell by the wayside. So... I'm going to try again this year! More Art!

2. Continue my journey toward good health. While I've made good progress on this one, I still have lots of room for improvement. So, I will continue to try to make caring for my body with good nutrition and exercise a priority in 2016.

3. Stick to a budget, and start saving something each month. This is ALWAYS a tough one, and I know we're not alone in this. I'm hoping that we'll be able to stick to our budget at least mostly, make it possible to start contributing to saving for the future, which is something we've not been so good at in the past.

4. Daily Journaling. This is something I've been wanting to do for a while, but just haven't been able to motivate myself. I was recently given the gift of one of those cool "daily prompt"-type journals from a good friend, which is just the kick I needed to get started. I'm going to start that book tomorrow, and plan to work on a "Gratitude Journal" as well.

5. Spend more time being a Fun Mom. I always wanted to be a Fun Mom, and when my kids were little, I think I was, at least most of the time. We were always off on adventures, doing fun things together. As they got older, life got in the way, and I feel like I got too wrapped up in daily survival to focus on having fun. This has gotten better since I quit my job in 2014, but now that they're (almost) all teenagers, I realize I've missed out on a lot. My youngest recently reminded me that we never play games anymore. He's right. We don't. That needs to change. Our oldest boy will be leaving the nest this summer, and my middle boy will be giving up homeschooling to attend High School next school year, so I really want to make the most of the rest of the time I have with them this year.

So that's it for my list of New Year's Intentions for this year. Now I'm going to go spend this New Year's Eve with my family... eating pizza, watching The Hudsucker Proxy and playing games until 2015 comes to a close.

May you all have a peaceful, joyous, love-filled, and very Happy New Year.