With an excellent maple syrup season finished, gardening getting underway, and things going along smoothly, time to catch up a little here.
If you are a facebook user, then you can see a daily photo post of what is happening on the farm by checking my posts there.
Russell B Hanson Facebook Posts
We had planned to put out most of our 400 buckets this year for maple syrup season, but with the early warm weather in February and March, we ended up with only 100. That was good as we had an excellent season making about 35 gallons of excellent quality syrup. An average year for 100 buckets would be 25 gallons.
This was the earliest ever (in my life) of the lake opening -- mid March. Before that we had some end of March and normal is mid April. Everything seemed to be ahead of schedule by several weeks including the end of maple season about the beginning of April.
This spring has been an attempt to do more cleaning on the farm, removing some of the old fences, repairing buildings, cleaning out and getting rid of some of the things only a working dairy farm would use.
Margo continues to improve, and is starting to walk around without a walker or cane. Her back surgeries got rid of much of the pain, but left her weak and with balance troubles, so she goes to physical therapy weekly. She is clear of cancer returning and gradually getting back to normal.
You can see a lot of photos on Facebook from maple syrup season.
We planted more apples, enlarged the gardens, and in general are still expanding our efforts on the farm. No cattle yet!
Comments and photographs from an old local historian and backwoodsman about life in the St. Croix River Valley
