A Calling

This post is along the same lines as my first, from back in February of 2014, titled "Spring 2013: In the Beginning..."  Focused on introspection, what's going on inside, as opposed to the "how" of this or that.  Like all of us, consciously or not, I have been on something of a personal development journey, and the past 6 years or so, with Geri's huge impact on my life, the speed of development has increased dramatically, and we have been on the journey together.  <Now some might say, "what personal development?"  Ha!  Well, if that is you, I will just remind you that there is this blind spot we all have, called "what I don't know that I don't know."  And in this case you should thank God for that!>  As we have eliminated a lot of the noise from our lives, attracted the positive and eliminated the negative, systematically, and with intention, we have been able to feel and hear ourselves with increased sensitivity, it seems to me.  The most recent example of this for me, was Facebook.  It just had to stop, so for those of you wondering about my silence, there you have it.  The homestead Facebook page is still being maintained, but I have not been on my personal page in several weeks.  It has made a huge difference; I have a lot more stillness in my life.  That is not saying anything bad about Facebook, and there are certainly great aspects of the experience, which I miss, but for me it became just another addiction, and I invested more time and energy in it than I should have.  The point is, after eliminating a lot of modern day distractions, TV being the first several years ago, the resulting quiet is gorgeous.  In the space left behind is the work, and a state of more heightened awareness of ourselves is a key benefit of "doing the work," as Geri likes to say, on ourselves and our relationships.

Of course, there is no end to this progression, hopefully, there is always another of life's challenges to surmount, another rough edge on our personality to be removed, another "3rd rail" issue to be addressed in a relationship, and so on.  I would not have it any other way.  I take some comfort in understanding that this is in large part, how the wise became wise, the empathetic empathetic, the compassionate just that, and so on.  At least that is my belief.  There is a method to it all.  Painful as it might be on occasion.

Two years ago, traveling along this path resulted in our acquisition of the "Southwest Michigan Homestead;"  a name I have been trying to replace since before it even came about!  And almost since day one, the pull to the property has become stronger and stronger.  Now I have come to think of it as a "calling."  I am being called to live from the property.  Doing what I am not quite sure.  We will figure it out on the way.  The call is becoming practically irresistible.

To that end, I have been bouncing some homestead-related business ideas around with Geri, and a few others.  As a guy with his corporate stripes firmly in place, I started thinking of a "vision" for the business.  Describing its future in some way.  What will it look like?  What will it produce, or how will it serve customers?  I did not get far.  I thought not of a single bigger business, but more of a collection of related "boutique" businesses, and really I only had one or two of those in mind.  I would not be going into business for its own sake; there is no "calling" to a particular line of work, at least not that I have heard, yet.  Then it came to me that, well, the business is really more of a vehicle for a achieving a mission, or a "purpose," and that the cart should be put behind the horse, by developing the purpose of the business(es) first.  I tend to stitch together "new" ideas synthetically, which is to say, from other ideas; "The Purpose" is no exception.  Beginning with a variety of source materials that have rung true with me over the years.  The Purpose is really about who Geri and I want to be personally, as a members of the community, and in our "life's work."  This is what we are up to.  It is unquestionably "aspirational" in my case.

This is all clearly a work in progress.  We have some fairly firm, and I like to think good, ideas about how to make maple syrup our first boutique business.  The maple sugaring business is definitely part-time and seasonal at its current scale.  To support starting that business quickly with the 2016 harvest, we will need to begin laying the foundations now.  It is an exciting time, and a little scary to be sure.

-- John, 22 June 2015

p.s. I read quite a bit; perhaps what is below will be a new section of my posts

Books recently read in whole or in part:

 

Book being read:



Books on the pile:

 

It is Tapping Time, And That Means Spring!

Here we go, in southwest Michigan!  The 10-day forecast includes what appears to be an almost picture perfect start to the maple sugaring season.

10-day weather forecast for Kalamazoo, Michigan

Starting on Saturday, 7 March, you can see that the daily high and low temperatures will bracket the freezing point for six days in a row; that dynamic is what causes maple trees to develop a positive pressure when the temperature rises above freezing, pushing sap out of the tree.  I will plan to tap at least some of our trees on the morning of Saturday 7 March, and I would bet that they will start flowing that afternoon.

A call to the Kalamazoo Nature Center revealed that as part of previously scheduled public events, they have already tapped their maple trees.  Based on what I have seen the weather doing in recent weeks, we have not missed much, if any, of the season.

This year we are planning to scale up the operation, from 13 taps to 20 taps, still a small operation by most measurements.  For more information on the process you can read my previous posts on the subject:

Very Early Spring 2014 - Tapping the Sugar Maples!
Very Early Spring 2014 - Sugaring! Part II of Tapping the Sugar Maples!

For those of you in southwest Michigan, you might want to check out Dodd's Sugar Shack in Niles (no web presence), call Don at 269-683-3283; they have some new and used equipment available.  Or try Sugar Bush Supply Co. in Mason, MI, at 517-349-5185.  You can also find equipment on eBay, in fact I just found 10 used buckets with lids and spiles there, at a very good price.

There are all sorts of ways to get started inexpensively, using materials you might have around you, like wire, piping (PVC, PEX, copper, etc.), and empty milk jugs, for example.  The most commonly tapped maples are Sugar, Black, Red and Silver, according to Tap My Trees.  Get out there and have some fun on a small scale; you will not regret it!

Thanks for reading, and keep us posted on your progress!

-- John, 03 March 2015

Beekeeping: A Short, Cautionary Tale, From a Beginner

In recent weeks I have thought of the need to add a 5th box to the bee hive; I have been seeing many bees congregating at the hive entrance, and was worrying that they might have expanded to fill the available volume, and bee looking to swarm.  Since Nathan was around as an able assistant, having helped me to add the 3rd and 4th boxes back in June, the time to add the 5th box had come. After adding the 3rd and 4th boxes, I summarized the event in a blog post by stating, "The process of adding the boxes went more smoothly than I probably had any right to expect; it was executed without incident."  As it turns out, I indeed did not have any right to expect that it would go so smoothly.

Nathan and I assembled the necessary materials; the 5th hive box with top bars, a bee brush, the sugar-water spray, and a hive tool, suited up, and headed for the hive.  I took off the roof of the hive, leaving the quilt and 4 boxes sitting on the hive floor.  Nathan sprayed the bees at the entrance lightly with the sugar-water mixture.  I was worried about how heavy the hive would be.  When using a Langstroth hive, additional hive boxes are typically added above existing boxes, however with a Warré hive the new box(es) are added below the existing boxes.  Of course this requires that the existing boxes be lifted off of the floor to enable the addition of the new box(es).  And by now I expected those boxes to be full of comb and honey.  Keep in mind that honey is heavy, while water weighs 8.3 lbs. per gallon, honey weighs 12 lbs per gallon.  In the four existing boxes there could easily have been 80 to 100 lbs. of bees, comb, brood, and honey.  Of course the consequences of dropping the hive while attempting the move it, is not something I enjoy imagining.  Fortunately the hive did not seem to weigh more than 50 or 60 lbs., although my sense of the weight might have been off substantially, as I was more than a bit distracted.  No sooner had I lifted the hive off of the floor than the bees attacked with a vengeance.  With 50 or 60 lbs. of hive in my hands, I was unable to defend myself, or even to run for my life, so in short order I took four stings to the head and two to my right leg, but who's counting.  The bees were exceedingly unhappy with me, and would not let up in their defense of the colony.  Six of them made the ultimate sacrifice.  I went ahead, with great haste, and looked into box 4 to see if it was full of comb.  Box 4 was unexpectedly found to be empty of comb, so as quickly as prudence would allow, I replaced the hive on the floor, returning the colony to its original arrangement, without having added the 5th box.  After putting some distance between ourselves and the hive, Nathan and I discussed the need to put the roof back on the hive.  I thought it would be no problem, because with the quilt in place the hive is closed up, from the bees point of view.  I got within about 30 or 40 feet before they renewed their attack.  Discretion being the better part of valor, Nathan replaced the roof on the hive.

A reasonable person might ask, "well, dummy, how is it that you got stung with the bee suit on?"  And, that would be a great question.  The answer is that I did not properly don the bee suit, while Nathan did, and he escaped unscathed. In short, the top of my head was exposed, and there was another vulnerability in my preparations where the bee suit met my boots (see picture below).

I got lucky at the June install of boxes 3 and 4

The picture is from the June install of boxes 3 and 4, and it is exactly as I was also ill-prepared for the install of box 5.  If I had been wearing a hat, and if I had better secured my pant legs at my boots, I would not have been stung. Still, I was amazed at how quickly the bees found the gaps in my protection; it took only seconds, and very few of those.

By the time we got back the house Geri had two Benedryl capsules at the ready, and I took them immediately.  Then I asked her to get her tweezers, which she did, and she pulled four stingers out of my head, while Nathan pointed out where he had seen bees burrowing into my hair, and another two out of my right leg, just above my boot.  I do not know if pulling the stingers out is supposed to help, intuitively it seems like the right thing to do, but I do know that within a half hour I felt just fine.  Aside from a little itching, there has been no lasting discomfort.

All involved got a large dose of adrenalin for the day.  Which reminds me, we have stocked our medicine cabinet with two EpiPens to treat anaphylaxis if necessary (Epi is short for epinephrine, which is another word for adrenalin).  Obviously I am not allergic to bee stings, but we occasionally have guests who are, and it seems like a good idea for beekeepers to have EpiPens available.

Another lesson learned is that I need to find a mechanically advantaged method for lifting the hive off of the floor, it is simply too risky to be doing it by hand.  I could easily have panicked and dropped the hive boxes full of honey and bees.  I will be doing some research on how others are adding boxes to their Warré hives.  More generally speaking, it was yet another humbling reminder of how much I have to learn.

Did you know?  "...about 50 U.S. physicians report good results using <bee venom> to treat not only pain but arthritic conditions, multiple sclerosis, and other health woes."

Thank you for reading and commenting on the blog.  Your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.

 Please "follow" the blog by clicking on "g+ Follow," or by e-mail at  "Follow by Email."   Also, "Like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/swmichiganhomestead.

-- John, 11 August 2014

Late Spring Update from the Homestead, Part III, Beekeeping

The initial bee install took place the weekend of 5 April 2014, and I added a box to the hive the weekend of 12 April, as documented in the post, "Late Spring Update from the Homestead, Part I," dated 23 May 2014.  I checked on the bees regularly, and there was plenty of activity, with bees coming and going, and the bees were carrying in loads of pollen from their foraging activities.  The hive appeared to be very healthy.  I knew that I should be adding more boxes to the hive, and as the weeks went by I became more and more anxious that the colony might swarm because there was insufficient space in the hive for the growing colony.  Finally, adding the boxes rose to the top of my work list, and coincidentally Nathan was available to help me in the process.

Nathan (L) and I suiting up,

inactive hive box after step 1

just to my right in the back-

ground

Proving again that dogs in their late adolescence (i.e., me) can still learn new tricks, I broke out the bee suits.  Actually, this is not so much about not being stung, it is about being less anxious of being stung, allowing us to be calmer in the midst of the bees, and feeling less hurried as a result.  Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.  Another change made to the process of hive maintenance, was to use a spray bottle of sugar-water, instead of the smoker, for calming the bees.  The smoker did not seem to have the desired effect at the bee install, and worse yet, we spent too much time keeping the smoker smoking rather than making progress in the hive.  The smoker is just one more thing to worry about.  In a sauce pan I mixed up the sugar (regular table sugar) and water in a 1:1 ratio, 1-1/2 C. of sugar and 1-1/2 C. of water.  Over medium heat the mixture was warmed while being stirred periodically, until the sugar was completely dissolved into the water.

  I then poured the sugar-water into a new spray bottle purchased for the purpose, and then put the bottle in the refrigerator to bring its contents back to approximately room temperature.  We also prepared two hive boxes, which involved applying beeswax to 16 top bars, 8 for each box, and placing the top bars in the boxes.  Other equipment we took to the apiary included a hive tool and a bee brush, the former for separating the existing boxes from the floor, and the latter for gently moving the bees about without agitating them.  With our preparations in order, and bee suits on, we made our way down to the hive.

At step 3, calming the bees

with the sugar-water mist

At the hive, Nathan and I followed the step-by-step process below:

1) Remove roof, quilt and top bars from the inactive hive; we will use the hive box as a rest for the active hive boxes while placing the two new hive boxes on the floor of the active hive (unlike the Langstroth hive, new boxes are placed beneath existing boxes in a Warré hive)
2) Remove the roof from the active hive; this is no problem, because the quilt is still between us and the bees.  I simply remove it because it adds unnecessary weight to the lift that will need to be performed, and because it would make the assembly of two boxes (and the bees, comb, brood and honey within them), the quilt, and the roof, top-heavy and more difficult to handle.
3) Lightly spray sugar-water onto the bees at the entrance, emphasis on lightly.  Bees do not like to be wet.  They will be occupied by cleaning themselves of the sugar-water, or at least that's the theory behind the method!
4) Carefully remove the two boxes (plus quilt), as an assembly, from the floor, and set aside on the exposed box of the inactive hive

Step 4, setting aside the active hive boxes and
quilt; based on how far the bees had progressed
in building comb, I would say these boxes were
being added just-in-time

5) One at a time, place the two new boxes on the floor, using the bee brush and the sugar-water spray to calm the bees and move them out of the way as necessary
6) Reinstall the two active hive boxes and quilt on top of the two new hive boxes on the floor, again using the bee brush and the sugar-water spray to calm the bees and move them out of the way as necessary
7) Reinstall the roof on the hive; addition of hive boxes is then complete

The process of adding the boxes went more smoothly than I probably had any right to expect; it was executed without incident.

I had planned to buy another package of bees for the now-inactive hive, but the delivery date of the packages was delayed one week and that caused an unavoidable conflict for Geri and I.  Still, I will investigate to establish that we can still expect success if we install another package this late in the year.

Step 6, reinstalling the two active hive boxes

Thanks to our iPhoneographer, Susan, for making the raw photos that you see incorporated.  She noted pointedly that she was the only one of us without a bee suit!  Fortunately she maintained a safe distance, and was not injured in the making of this post.


Laying down cardboard for

vegetation suppression

Informed by what I have read, it seems best to keep the vegetation down in the apiary.  A reason is that when the bees return to the hive fully loaded with pollen, and if they miss the landing board, it can be difficult or impossible for them to "take off" again if they are in deep vegetation.  So, Nathan and I also took on suppressing the vegetation by laying down cardboard and then covering it with wood chips.  (We are doing the same in the garden, and it is amazing how much cardboard can be "re-purposed" in the fashion.)  This is certainly not a permanent solution; it will require ongoing maintenance.  At some point before winter I will also be installing a fence/windbreak to protect the hives from the cold winter winds.


Thank you for reading and commenting on the blog.  Your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.

Please "follow" the blog by clicking on "g+ Follow," or by e-mail at  "Follow by Email."   Also, "Like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/swmichiganhomestead.

-- John, 18 June 2014

Before and after weed suppression by cardboard sheet mulch and wood chips

Late Spring Update from the Homestead, Part I

It has been almost 8 weeks since I made a post, and I offer my humblest apologies; really, there has been little to write home about.  Well okay, perhaps, just maybe, that is a not entirely true statement.  Actually, the homestead has been a veritable hive of activity, in fact our life has been very busy over the past several weeks, and that level of activity seems likely to continue into mid-June.  And, it is wearing on me a bit that I have two blog posts to complete, "Warré Bee Hive Construction - Part II," and "Winter 2013/2014: Lessons in Hardening Homestead Electrical, Potable Water, and Heating Systems."  I will get to those eventually, promise.

Meanwhile, I will start where I left off, at the last post containing

homestead content, which was in late March, 26 March to be precise.  The weekend of 29 March offered the opportunity to evaporate yet more sap to the state of delicious maple syrup.  The yield was 16 cups of syrup.  While we stopped collecting sap on the 6th of April because temperatures were routinely staying above the freezing mark, and because sap had largely ceased flowing as a result, the business of evaporation continued through the weekend of April 12th; at that point there was no more snow to maintain the sap for extended periods of time without refrigeration.  In fact, we still have about 30 gallons of sap in the chest freezer awaiting processing.  We learned a great deal about maple sugaring this season, and I hope to be able to expand the operation significantly next year.  Our first season was great fun, and allowed us to connect with so many people while engaging in such a traditionally American endeavor; we will treasure the memories.

It is safe to say that we have hundreds of sugar maples on the property, though expanding from 13 taps to even 100 would require a much higher capacity and more sustainable evaporation process than that we have currently provided for.  Based on the production of our trees this year, 100 trees would deliver more than 2,000 gallons of sap, resulting in approximately 50 gallons (800 1-cup bottles) of syrup.  If I assume a 5 week season, 400 gallons of sap would need to be processed per week, or about 115 gallons every other day.  To put that in perspective, we collected, in total, approximately 250 to 300 gallons from 13 trees this year, processed in batches of about 25 gallons, each batch requiring a full day (sunrise to well beyond sunset) to be reduced to syrup.

The weekend of 5 April was fun-filled, to say the least.  First off of course, more maple sugaring was on tap (pun intended); I lit the burners early in anticipation of receiving a "come pick up your bees" phone call around midday.  Sure enough, the call came in.  Unfortunately I was on my own at the homestead that weekend, and picking up the bees entailed a four hour drive round-trip to Chicago and back, so I lowered the burn rate to ensure that the fires under the sap would not go out before my return, and so that I did not return to evaporators full of burnt maple sugar.

Greg Fischer installing package bees in
Langstroth hives.  Smoker on the ground
to his left.

I picked up the bees at a warehouse in Chicago operated by BevArt: Brewer & Winemaker Supply, and I also received some instruction from its owner, Greg Fischer, on how best to install the bees. Greg is the beekeeper at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL, and Geri and I took a four-session beekeeping course from him last year.  Greg manages about 100 hives in Chicagoland, and runs Wild Blossom Winery & Meadery, the only meadery in Illinois; their "meads are made from locally produced honey and are international gold medal winners."  You will notice in the pictures that Greg installed his bee packages in one "deep" Langstroth hive box.  Since I use Warré hives, which incorporate significantly smaller boxes, I asked how many boxes I should use, and Greg answered that I should also use one box.  The reasoning behind that recommendation is solid, and is basically that "hey, it's cold out, the bees have no comb and no honey stores, and they need to keep all of that space warm, so keep it as small as possible."  Having said that, if I have it to do over again, and I will, I would use two boxes.

Five packages, somewhere between 60,000
and 75,000 bees, in the back of the Jeep for
the 2-hour ride to the homestead.

So what happened?  I picked up the bees in five "packages," a package includes a can of food (sugar water), a queen in a cage, and three pounds of worker bees (approximately 12,000 to 15,000 bees)), and headed back to the homestead.  Aside from a few bees flying around inside the Jeep, I had no issues, and even those bees gave me no trouble.  On arrival, I moved the bees into the house, since they would not have survived the expected overnight low temperature without the shelter of the hive.  Peter Coombs and I had already prepared an area for the hives, which included a 2 ft by 2 ft paver on which to set the hive floor, and placed the hives on the pavers.  The front of the Warré hives face due East; rise and shine ladies.  The next day, Sunday, I enlisted the aid of Dennis and Tristin Goss to install the bees in the hives.  Throwing caution to the wind, as men will, and in the face of almost total ignorance, I decided that we should leave the brand new bee suits in their packages and "just do it!"  Thank you Nike.  Between Dennis, Tristin and I, we collected 9 bee stings for our efforts, and I think, permanently eliminated any bee-phobia we might have been victims of.  At the first hive I accidentally brushed the smoker (smoke used to calm the bees) against the prepared quart zip-lock of sugar water, holing it, and dousing the hive in sugar water.  Since there were not yet bees in the hive, I was able to clean it up fairly well, though I did not actually notice that I had melted a hole in the bag.  I thought the zip-lock had come open, so I closed it and laid the bag on top of the bars.  Forging ahead, I removed a few top bars to facilitate getting the bees into the box, and shook them from the package "into" the box.  Then, I removed the cork from the queen cage, and hung the cage from one of the top bars.  Finally, I put a "pollen patty" on the top bars, also as food for the bees.  It was not long before we knew we had a problem, as Dennis noticed the queen (there was a green dot painted on her back) outside the hive.  Not good.

We thought she made her way back into the hive, and so I put the "quilt" on top of the box, upside down to make room for the food bag and pollen patty, and then put the roof on the hive.  On to the next hive.  Installation into hive number two seemed to go more smoothly, in fact there were so many bees about that we thought perhaps the bees from the first hive had made their way over to the second.  And, crucially perhaps, I did not melt the bag of sugar water.  Finally, on to the third hive, which is of the "honey cow" type, and hand-made by Dennis.  We took the same approach, and again seemed to have trouble keeping the queen inside the hive; one time I picked her up from just outside the hive with the flat side of my Swiss Army knife blade, and put her back in the hive. Still, hive number three seemed to have gone more smoothly than hive one, which is not saying a whole lot necessarily.  At completion, we had some serious concern about hive one, and thought we had probably achieved success with hives two and three.

Upon checking the hives on 12 April, it was perfectly clear that the bees had abandoned hive one and the "honey cow" for whatever reason(s.)  I have to say that was very disappointing, not to mention expensive.  By the end of the day I figured I was batting .333, not bad, at least in baseball.  On the 13th I had planned to add a second box to the only active hive, hive two.  First, I planned to remove the roof because I wanted to remove the food (supposing it had become unnecessary), turn the quilt right-side up, and then planned to add the second box below the existing box.  I found most of the bees, including the queen, up in the quilt, and I found that the bees had built comb all around the queen cage that I had left hanging in the single hive box at the install.  I decided to not attempt removal of the queen cage, and to simply add the second box on top of the first; I assumed the bees would "move in" to the higher, top box.  I did remove the food bag, and left what remained of the patty in the hive as the bees can be expected to completely consume it.

As of this writing, all seems well with hive two.  I thought I had pretty well made a mess of things, though I suppose it is not any worse than the inside of a tree.  I plan to add a third box, under the first two boxes, on 31 May; hopefully the colony will not already have outgrown the space available and swarmed.

Next time, I will do several things differently, using the process below:

1) Use two hive boxes under the roof and quilt, instead of one
2) Put the bottom box on the floor, with the top bars installed
3) Cover the hive entrance
4) Instead of making slits in the zip-lock I would poke holes with a small nail or large needle; the slits I made this first time were too long, and allowed bees to enter the bag and drown
5) Place the food on the top of the bars in the bottom box (bag and patty)
6) Put the second box, with half (four) of the top bars installed, on top of the bottom box, effectively to use it as a funnel
7) Shake/dump a third of the bees or so, into the open-top second box, and onto the waiting pollen patty and food bag on the bottom box
8) Pull the cork on the queen cage and shake the queen into the top box; do not leave the cage in the hive
9) Dump the remainder of the bees into the top box
10) Install the the remaining four bars in the top box
11) Install the quilt, "right-side up" on the top box
12) Install the roof
13) Return next day and uncover the hive entrance

Since this post will grow to longer than I would like, I am going to split it into two parts, and end Part I here.  As always, your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.  Please "follow" the blog.

-- John, 23 May 2014

Very Early Spring 2014 - Sugaring! Part II of Tapping the Sugar Maples!

Geri and Nancy being sappy!

After two weeks of collecting more sap than we had anticipated, approximately 100 gallons from thirteen trees (7.7 gallons/tap), we desperately needed to process at least some of the sap to make room for more. The "rule of thumb" is 10 gallons of sap per tap, per season, if the tree is in a forest, so just two weeks into a four to six-week season we are well ahead of pace.  We managed to process approximately 21 gallons on a Saturday, and 27 gallons that Sunday and into Monday.  The weather has been below freezing since we started evaporating, so we have gained some ground on the trees ability to produce.  Our current capacity to store sap stands at 100 gallons more or less, and about half of that depends on having snow on the ground sufficient to maintain containerized sap at low enough temperatures to prevent fermentation and souring of the sap.

According to a 2003 survey of Wisconsin producers, the evaporation process that removes 42 gallons of water from every 43 gallons of sap, leaving 1 gallon of syrup (assuming 2% sugar concentration in the sap, see Figure 1),

Figure 1: Rule of 86

is typically powered by fuel oil (49%), wood (45%), natural gas (4%), or propane (2%). [1]  In terms of cost, wood from our own forest would have been the least expensive choice, in dollars, unfortunately I was not ready to use wood as a fuel.  The use of wood as a fuel requires some sort of wood-fired outdoor cook stove, which I had not put in place.  Geri had a couple of big propane burners of the type used for a seafood boil, or for cooking a turkey in oil, together with two big "stock pots," so we decided to use the propane burners in the evaporation process.  Saturday I set up shop on the west side of the garage, and decided to move shop on Sunday to the south side of the garage, more protected from the wind.  I set up originally on the west side because there is a concrete pad in front of the garage, providing a stable location for the evaporators; my worst nightmare was that having boiled off 42 gallons I would spill the precious one gallon of syrup onto the ground!  The wind on the west side though was problematic, and seemed to make the burners much less efficient.  So, on Sunday I laid down two or three layers of heavy cardboard south of the garage, and moved the burners to the new location.

Calculation of container volumes

On one burner we set a tall pot with a capacity of about 6.3 gallons, if about 2 inches of "freeboard" was left to ensure that we did not boil over. On the other burner we set a 24 in. (L) x 24 in. (W) x 8 in. (Depth) open pan evaporator, equipped with a 3/4 inch drain and ball valve; this container, also allowing for 2 inches of freeboard, has a capacity of approximately 15 gallons.  We poured sap into the tall pot and into the open pan evaporator through cheese cloth.  The plan was to start both burners at the same time, and then to transfer liquid from the tall pot to the open pan evaporator when the level in the tall pot was reduced to 2 or 3 in. from the original 14 in., and finally, when sap in the evaporator was reduced to a depth of about 1 inch (2.5 gallons), to transfer from the evaporator to a 16 qt./4 gal. stock pot, and move to the kitchen to finish the syrup under more controlled and comfortable conditions.

On Saturday, by the time all preparations had been made, the burners were lit at about 11 a.m.  It took about 40 minutes to bring the tall pot to a boil, the open pan evaporator a little longer.  As planned, we transferred liquid from the tall pot to the open pan evaporator, and at about 7 p.m., we transferred the remaining liquid, about 14 quarts, from the evaporator, by way of the ball valve, through a fine filter to a 16 quart stock pot, and then shut down the burners and moved the process into the kitchen.  In the house, we could not help but to occasionally hover over the pot, taking in the ever-intensifying aroma of maple, and of course taste-testing the syrup!  Also, we kept an eagle-eye on the thermometer, as we had targeted a temperature of 219 degrees F as indicating

Figure 2: Rule of 86 solved
for % Sugar in Sap

that the syrup state had been achieved.  Surprisingly, in the kitchen it took another 5 hours before the sap/syrup had reached a boiling point of 218 degrees F.  In an abundance of caution, to avoid somehow ruining the batch, we decided at midnight to filter once more and decant the syrup.  Our yield was 12 cups (3/4, or 0.75 gallon) of syrup from that first 21.3 gallons of sap; which would indicate that the sugar content of the sap was approximately 3.03% (see Figure 2).  This syrup tastes absolutely fantastic, and we thought that on our next batch we would see if we could evaporate a little longer to thicken the syrup.

I put boots on the ground much earlier on Sunday, and had the burner lit under the open pan evaporator at 7:10 am, and the burner lit under the tall pot by 7:25 am.  One change to the process for the second batch, was that after transferring the liquid from the tall pot at the same point in the process as on Saturday, the pot was refilled with another 6 gallons of sap; this additional 6 gallons was then reduced to 2-3 inches in the bottom of the pot and transferred to the open pan evaporator.  So on Sunday (and into Monday), we processed approximately 27 gallons of sap, versus the 21 gallons processed on Saturday.  A second change was that

at about 9 pm on Sunday, with approximately 8 quarts of liquid remaining, we chose to "pause" the process

Geri, Chuck and Nancy decanting the syrup at midnight
on Saturday.  Beautiful color and clarity...wait, am I
discussing a gem?  Indeed I am!

and get some sleep.  We turned off the burner, covered the pot, and put the pot on the front porch where it was cold enough to prevent fermentation.  On Monday Geri resumed the process, and ultimately bottled 13.5 cups of syrup, having halted the evaporation process at 220 deg F., which would indicate that the sugar content of the sap processed was approximately 3.7%.  Again, prior to decanting, she passed the syrup through the filter to remove the "sugar sand." [2]  The taste was, as now expected, intense and superb!

Sunday night, while we were processing the second batch, we tried some of our first batch of maple syrup over Geri's homemade apple pie a la mode.  Wow!  What a flavor combination, and the intensity of our maple syrup's flavor put store-bought substitutes to shame!

The intrepid sugarers, Chuck, Nancy, Geri, John and Dennis

My advice is, that if you have access to maple trees, take on the production of maple syrup!  It is somewhat labor and energy intensive, and it is also more than equally rewarding.  The process can be set up with a very low investment, using milk jugs and tubing from your local hardware store, your camp stove or outdoor range, appropriately sized pots and pans, some cheese cloth and felt for filtering, and a candy thermometer.  Go for it!

As always, your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.  Please "follow" the blog.

-- John, 26 March 2014

West side of the garage on Saturday.  Open pan evaporator on the left, cardboard wind break to the left of the pan and burner; tall pot on burner to right, surrounded again by cardboard wind break, under the watchful eyes of John and Chuck.  Tarp rigged up to prevent leaves, bugs and other detritus from falling into the evaporators.  It took a little more than two full 20 lb. propane canisters for each batch.

[1] "Maple Syrup Production," University of Wisconsin - Madison, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Web, Retrieved 25 March 2014 from http://www.uwex.edu/energy/maple.html

[2] Sugar sand, n.d. In Wikipedia. Retrieved 26 March 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_sand

Thoughts on the “permacultureVOICES Conference March 2014,” aka, PV1

Diego giving his inspirational message, "take on your
impossible," to open the conference

Right at the top, I must tip my hat to Diego Footer, the founder and organizer of the conference; he said that the preparation consumed a year of his life, and I can believe it. Diego has a full-time job, and together with his family, put permacultureVOICES together in his “spare” time; it must have required Herculean effort. I cannot recall a single significant glitch in the event organization, and with over 600 participants and a Who’s Who of permaculture in attendance, the success of the conference represents an amazing accomplishment. In his closing remarks, Geoff Lawton offered that in his 30 years in “this movement,” he has never attended a better conference. That is saying something. Diego has already indicated that there will be a PV2, so if you were not in attendance all is not lost!  http://www.permaculturevoices.com/

Flew into San Diego on Wednesday the 12th for the 13-16 March conference, then obtained a rental car and drove a little over an hour up I-15 to the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, where the conference was held. The conference agenda was four solid days, opening at 8 a.m. each morning, and closing no earlier than 8 p.m. each day. By Sunday night my brain was fully saturated. I am drafting this post after 2:00 a.m. on Monday, because there is too much going on in my mind to sleep.

Joel Salatin.  "The High Priest of the
Pasture." -- NY Times

The opening keynote address Thursday was made by Joel Salatin. The subject of his talk was his book, Fields of Farmers: Interning, Mentoring, Partnering, Germinating. He went on in a second presentation entitled “Stacking Fiefdoms,” on the same subject, later in the day Thursday. Though I had heard of Joel, I had not read any of his books, so I listened with an uncluttered mind. He was passionate in his presentation and had me and the entire audience laughing out loud on many occasions. Basically, he argued that in a thriving field, the average age of its practitioners is in the mid-30’s, while today in the United States the average age of a farmer is approaching 60. Ownership of some huge fraction of farms is expected to change hands within the next decade or so. Who will buy or operate these farms? Who are the farmers of the future? How do we get young people back on the farm? And Joel argues, we do need to get young people back on the farm; in his opinion to do so the farm must be able to generate at least two white collar salaries, otherwise it is not a business, and it is not sustainable. I fully subscribe to the proposition that two white collar salaries are necessary to sustaining the family business of farming. A key idea I picked up from Joel, and will likely leverage, is that of partnering with other entrepreneurs in a “community of complimentary enterprises” on the farm, as opposed to employing them, through the use of “memoranda of understanding.” Other key ideas: add value on the farm as opposed to competing in the business of commodities; and to keep investment low and use portable infrastructure, rather building the equity in information, management and customers. At the conference book store I bought his book, Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World, (Fields of Farmers had sold out quickly) and made my way through a third of it reading in the evenings, thoroughly enjoying myself all the while.

Jack Spirko, The Survival Podcast

Jack Spirko and his “Survival Podcast,”  www.thesurvivalpodcast.com, were my entry point into permaculture; I still await each new podcast in eager anticipation. It seemed that there were at least 20 TSP’ers in attendance, and Jack and his wife Dorothy also made themselves available to us in the late evenings, which had to have made for some very long days for them, and which was also greatly appreciated. Jack’s address, “Building a Profitable Permaculture Business,” built seamlessly and well on Joel’s earlier presentation. The subtitle of Jack’s podcast is, “helping you live a better life, if times get tough, or even if they don’t.” From my point of view he delivers on that promise, and I greatly enjoyed finally being able to meet and talk a bit with Jack.  His wife Dorothy was perfectly gracious, infinitely patient with the masses, and a joy to talk to.

Toby Hemenway opened up Friday’s festivities with his keynote titled, “Why Agriculture Can Never Be Sustainable.” You can see a YouTube video similar to the presentation at http://youtu.be/_y_MleU8iNQ. Hemenway wrote perhaps the most popular permaculture book of all time, Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, 2nd Edition. You can find more information at his website,

Toby Hemenway

www.patternliteracy.com. While I had watched the video before the conference, I have not read Hemenway’s book. Essentially he made an argument that no civilization has survived when having relied on large-scale production of row crops for its bulk calories, and that agriculture has devastated every ecosystem it has been in contact with in the past 10,000 years. He describes foraging (hunting-gathering), horticulture, and agriculture as alternatives, the latter being unsustainable, and arrives at horticulture and permaculture design science as a possible answer to the problem of sustaining the food supply. Along this line of thought, more than one presenter cited Jared Diamond’s book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, which is an excellent read; I might also recommend Fate of Empires, by Sir John Glubb. I have not come to the conclusion that agriculture is the sole cause of the failures of societies, though Diamond is thorough in his analysis of a number of possible causes, and most involve severe environmental degradation in combination with another factor or factors. My simple synopsis of Glubb’s work is that many empires have lasted seven generations more or less, and that the significantly longer life of an empire is unlikely; I will let you do the math as it relates to the United States.

Geoff Lawton (L) and me, John Newell

Geoff Lawton made four presentations: Reading the Landscape, The Permaculture Designers Manual in One Hour, Permaculture Earthworks, and the closing keynote, Permaculture and The Tipping Point & Closing, late Sunday evening.  I am a huge fan of Geoff, and I received my Permaculture Design Certificate at his first on-line PDC course in 2013. His videos are simply superb, and as a teacher he is without par. Of the presentations, I found the “earthworks” and “reading the landscape” presentations to be the most fun and informative. Geoff has his second online PDC open for registration beginning 29 March 2014; check at www.geofflawton.com for the latest free videos and information. After one of Geoff’s presentations I was able to get about 10 minutes of his time to discuss the Southwest Michigan Homestead, and for me that was a real high-light of the conference.

Allan Savory; this man is beyond humble, his mistakes earlier in life apparently having the effect of bringing that about. His talks (the keynote: “The role of lifestock in a new agriculture that can save city-based civilization,” and the keynote: “Why management needs to be holistic to avert tragedy beyond imagination”) were on “desertification” and “holistic management.” You can find him speaking on the subject of desertification at http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change. Allan has a large web footprint (pun intended),

Allan Savory

so if you search on his name and either of the topics I just

listed, you will have more video-graphic, photographic, and written information than you would probably care to manage. As is always the case, he has his detractors; I leave you to your own research on the subjects. Allan’s recommended reading included the books The Watchman's Rattle: A Radical New Theory of Collapse, and Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West.

Mark Shepard is a fellow Midwesterner, with his farm located in southwestern Wisconsin, roughly 30 minutes east and a little north of the Quad-Cities. He holds workshops on his farm, New Forest Farm, and wrote a beautiful book, Restoration Agriculture. Also, PJ Chmiel of Van-Kal Permaculture, http://www.vankalpermaculture.org/, has posted a very informative video of a presentation by Mark at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb_t-sVVzF0. And check out https://www.facebook.com/restorationagriculture‎, and Forest Agriculture Enterprises at http://www.forestag.com/. Mark has been on his farm, and practicing permaculture, for the better part of 30 years; he speaks passionately, and from a deep well of personal experience.

Soils…a deep subject, and Dr. Elaine Ingham has spent her professional life as a microbiologist studying soils, as opposed to “dirt.” Dr. Ingham gave the keynote address, “Soil: It’s All About Life.” You might say that among other things she is a “consultant to the permaculture stars,” stars like Greg Judy, who spoke of her during his presentation. You can find her online at http://elaineingham.com/, and find an “Introduction to Soil Microbiology” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtl09VZiSU. What she said rings true in me. Ever notice while you are on a round of antibiotics, prescribed to arrest whatever might be ailing you, that your guts have ceased to function properly? It stands to reason that proper digestive tract function, which relies heavily on beneficial microscopic critters, would break down when all bacteria in your body have been killed off; antibiotics do not distinguish between the good and bad in your body’s biology; the same goes for the soil as it turns out. It is as learned in an adult course of study I have more recently engaged in, “this is how the world looks when it’s working,” herbicides and pesticides result in dead soil, also known as “dirt;” why would we expect some other result? Dr. Ingham wrote the USDA's Soil Biology Primer, and also wrote books, including The Field Guide II for Compost Tea, and The Compost Tea Brewing Manual.

Other talks attended:
• Pat Foreman, and Oprah Hen-Free on chickens, and I bought two of her books, City Chicks: Keeping Micro-flocks of Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers, Bio-reyclers, and Local Food Producers, and Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil, Homestead (3rd) Edition; find Pat at http://www.gossamerfoundation.org/, and at http://www.chickensandyou.com/index.html.
• Greg Judy, on mob grazing, http://www.greenpasturesfarm.net/
• David Barmon, on urban lumber; see David’s Ted talk at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju8mMQXA2d4
• and Paul Grieve, www.primalpastures.com, told the inspiring story of the start-up of Primal Pastures, and I learned from him on the subject of marketing; see Paul’s 13 tips at http://primalpastures.com/pages/guerilla-marketing
Finally, I met Sarah Beth Aubrey, another fellow Midwesterner, during the book-signing event, and had a great discussion on the subject of her book, Find Grant Funding Now!: The Five-Step Prosperity Process for Entrepreneurs and Business (Wiley Nonprofit Authority). I bought the book, which is one of at least three that she has published. She also has a business, Prosperity Consulting, at http://prosperityconsultingsba.com/.

It was a great conference, and that is a significant

Jack Spirko (L), a truly prolific and
tireless podcaster at TSP

understatement. There were presentations I was unfortunately not able to attend, and presenters I was unable to meet, even after 12 hour days for 4 straight very full days. In addition to all of the great presentations, I was able to network with and learn from other permaculturists, including one Michigander, Jesse Tack, of Whole Culture Repair, LLC, (http://wholeculturerepair.wordpress.com/) and “Abundant Michigan,” a Ypsilanti permaculture group, found at http://abundantmichigan.wordpress.com/. I hope to stay in contact and exchange ideas and plans with many that I met, it is truly a fun and vibrant group of people. I do not know that I will be able to attend PV2, but I strongly encourage each of you to consider the possibility.

As always, your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts. Please "follow" the blog.

-- John, 18 March 2014.

Very Early Spring 2014 - Tapping the Sugar Maples!

Yes indeed, spring has sprung!  And not only because we set our clocks ahead, but more importantly because sap is flowing from our maple trees which is a more certain sign of spring!  We are very excited, especially since maple syrup will be one of the very first "products" of the homestead.  I am convinced that it will be well worth the work involved in its production.

Maple tree sap flows when daytime temperatures exceed freezing, 32 deg F, and nighttime temperatures dip below the freezing mark.  The temperatures above freezing create a "positive pressure" within the tree, forcing sap out of the tap, while temperatures below freezing create a "negative pressure" within the tree, causing more sap to be pulled up from the roots and into the sap wood. [1]  The optimum variation is said to be a high of 40 deg F and a low of 20 deg F; we tapped Sunday morning at about 9 a.m., after an overnight low of 17 deg F and leading to a daytime high of 42 deg F, and sap was flowing by noon the same day!

Sugar maple leaves and fruits (samara, also known as
"helicopters" when we were kids) 

In addition to the freeze-thaw cycle, maple trees are an obvious requirement for the production of maple syrup or sugar.  The two most productive types of maples are the appropriately named "sugar maple," and the black maple, followed by the red maple and the silver maple.  The sugar content of sugar and black maple sap is typically in the range of 2.0-5.0%. [2]  I identified seven sugar maples last summer using leaves and fruits (samara), and a further six this past Saturday; for the winter identification I relied heavily on Michigan Trees, Revised and Updated: A Guide to the Trees of the Great Lakes Region, and specifically on the presence of opposite twigs and visible (dried) male flowers. [3] In some cases I needed my binoculars to see the male flowers far up in the canopy.

Geri and I wanted to use traditional methods for collection of the maple sap.  I did not want unsightly plastic tubing running here and there, and worse yet vacuum pumps, which from my point of view make the trees look like seriously ill patients on life support.  We acknowledge that the view might look considerably different were we trying to maximize income from the trees.  For sugaring equipment I purchased two starter kits from Tap My Trees, which came with the guide "Maple Sugaring at Home," [4] by Joe McHale.  In hindsight I probably spent more than necessary, though I am also more than happy with the kits and the guide from Tap My Trees.  When we decided that we wanted to tap more than six trees, we bought additional used equipment from a local commercial "sugarer," Don Dodd of Dodd's Sugar Shack in Niles, MI, at a fraction of the price; of course that is knowing what I know now, not what I knew a few weeks ago when I bought the kits.  The general guidance I am following is to tap no tree less than 12 inches in diameter (approximately 38 inches around), tap on the south side of the tree to maximize exposure to the sun, and to tap below a larger branch or above a larger root formation.  Do avoid previous tap holes and other obvious injuries to the tree.  Also, tap the tree at a height that makes collecting the sap convenient, as production is not impacted by tapping higher or lower on the trunk.  The necessary equipment is a spile (also known as a tap, or a spout), a hook to hold the bucket, the bucket, and a bucket lid to prevent snow, rain and other contaminants from falling into the bucket.  The tools required are a 7/16 inch drill bit, a drill, and a hammer.  To tap the tree:

Using a cordless drill to place a tap hole in a Sugar maple;
the cordless drill was only just up to the task

1) Drill the tap hole 2 -3 inches deep into the sap wood, at a slight upward angle to allow the sap to flow downward from the spile into the bucket; the wood chips from the hole should be very lightly colored to white, representative of healthy sap wood
2) Clear the tap hole of wood chips
3) Hammer in the spile (with hook attached) gently but firmly, the spile needs only to support the weight of the bucket and too much force can split the bark
3) Hang the bucket from the hook
4) Attach the lid over the bucket
5) Be amazed at nature's abundance!

It does not get more beautiful than this; nature's abundance

Geri transferring sap from the 2-gallon aluminum collection
bucket to a 5-gallon food grade plastic bucket

Our trees started flowing within a few hours of tapping, quickly bringing on the next "problem," which is "what do I do with all of this sap?"  By early the morning after, just 18 hours after we had tapped the trees, we had collected a total of just over 6 gallons of sap from 12 trees!  Since it takes 43 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup (assuming the sap is 2% sugar), it takes large amounts of sap to make very modest amounts of syrup.  If the twelve trees continue to flow as they did the first 18 hours, they will generate 24 gallons of sap every three days.  Sap will "sour," making it unusable in the making of maple syrup, if it is allowed to ferment before processing.  To avoid warming and fermentation of the sap we are transferring the sap from the 2-gallon aluminum collection buckets on the tree, to 5-gallon food grade buckets, which we then store in shade on the north side of our garage, with snow piled up to the lid and completely around each bucket.  We may also freeze 5-gallon buckets of sap in a chest freezer to await processing.  We have several of the 5-gallon food grade plastic buckets, and if that is not enough, 32-gallon food grade plastic trash barrels with lids will be used, which we will surround with snow in the same manner as with the 5-gallon buckets if necessary.  Even so, we will taste each source of sap before adding its contents to the evaporator, as a small amount of soured sap can spoil a large amount of the precious syrup.

Sugar maple with spile, hook, bucket and lid installed for sap collection; stake is from summer identification of maples

We expect to process our first batch of sap into maple syrup within two weeks.  I will post our experience with the evaporation process, and hopefully the results of our taste tests!

Your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.  Please "follow" the blog.

-- John, 10 March 2014

[1] "Sap Flow," Cornell Sugar Maple Research & Extension Program, Web. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
[2] Maple syrup. n.d. In Wikipedia Retrieved 10 March 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_syrup
[3] Barnes, Burton V., and Warren H. Wagner, Jr. Michigan Trees, Revised and Updated: A Guide to the Trees of the Great Lakes Region. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2004. Print.
[4] McHale, Joe, Maple Sugaring at Home, U.S.A.:Reine Publishing Group, LLC, 2010. Print.