My spring request

Mother Nature is still playing tricks with us and there is no sap running for the last five days. We hope to be able to collect tomorrow and begin to boil again. Thanks to all of the great friends who have come to help so far!

So, what do we do when our main crop is not happening? Well, we got our soil in the trays and are waiting for our peppers to sprout some more. Then we also started our tomatoes, same way as we did the peppers in baggies. I cleaned up one of the hoophouses today. We are trying to get them to dry out enough for us to plant. The snow and rain ran down and seep in from underneath so it has been too wet to do anything in them yet.

Today we all worked on a project that I am very much looking forward to finishing...an outhouse for the syrup area. I hate having to walk all the way up to the house to go to the bathroom, tromping thru snow and mud. The guys got the base put together first, then we put up the front and back wall, connected the walls, put in a half floor, then installed a "seat" box, and then siding and a roof. Will and I decided to put pieces on the inside over the cracks between the boards to keep the draft out.

I found a coffee can for covering the toilet paper (keeps the mice from getting into it), and later on I plan to decorate the inside. I think Rich is looking for a Montgomery Ward magazine for it too. And thanks to Mike Herrara (hope I spelled that right!) for his help.

Mike and Will working on the roof panels

Almost finished!

We will have to wait until the ground gets hard again and then we will put the outhouse on a small trailer and take it down to the woods. I can't wait to decorate the inside! Maybe some fun chili pepper lights, streamers, paint on the walls, outhouse pictures, and more!