We got about 24 inches of snow, it’s hard to tel l if it was more because it started drifting but it was so wet that it settled fast too. I was walking out to the sugar shack to see if the sap was running- it was- and realized I was walking on 2 feet of packed snow. I looked to my left and saw the ring to our firepitt was barely visible and it’s 2 foot tall.

The farm faired just fine. We have things set up to deal with it much better than in previous years. Matt and Cam went snowmobiling the day after the storm and again the next day too. I took the dogs for walk in the field on my snowshoes. If the dogs stay in the snowmobile tracks they were fine but step off it and they were. up to their belly in snow and hard to move much.

It was melting nicely but last night it snowed a few more inches and was really cold.

We had some sap run for a few days enough that we are boiling today and it’s going really well even with the cold outside. We’ll have a day off maybe then likley be cranking it all week since temps are going to climb but nights are stll cold. Hopefull the trees don’t bud the end of the week when it’s expected to be around 50. Once the trees bud the sap is no longer good for syrup. To put it simply it tastes nasty!

We are at 30 some gallons right now and hoping we can do another 20 this week and meet our highest amount from years ago.

I know many of you do a lot of food preserving and we do also. I’ve usually done more freezing than canning. I reserve canning for tomato sauce, pickles, dilly beans and apple sauce. I rarely have time to make jams or jellies and we don’t eat that much of it anyways. BUT Last fall I got my home processor license so I can now sell make and sell jams, jellies, some other canned items and do baked goods too.

Now to budget time to do it while juggling the other farm things. Not sure it will happen and if it does it will be small.

Back to preseving. I’ve tried pressure canning green beans and sweet corn before and we never liked the taste of thier one so now just freeze it all. I keep watching videos where people are using freeze driers but that seems a bit much, a little overboard. I wonder how. it tastes and do they really use the food afterwards. There is nothing like doing all that work only to find it not edible lataer on.

I tired my hand at freezing potaotes. Our winter storage is not ideal and this year we have had way more sprourting than usual. We lost about 20 p ounds of fingerlings to sprouting and we usually have no problem with them. They usually last the longest but not this year. So I frose some of the reds and russets to see how they turn out. So far they are tasty when used afterwards so I’ll be working on freezing some more so we can have our own potatoes longer into summer this year til the next harvest is ready usually in July.

Anyone pressure canned meat before? What did you do and how did you like it afterwards? It would be nice to have some ready to eat meals on the shelf at times. Let me know what your experience is.

I started some peppers and a few early things in the house a few weeks ago. Peppers take 1-3 weeks to germinate so I wanted to give them a headstart this. year. So far 2 weeks in most have come up but a few are either super slow or dud seeds. Some I have more seeds of and some I only had 10 seeds in a packet. Either. way I have over a dozen types of peppers so well covered there. I started an early cherry tomato for the high tunnel to see iif I can get earlier tomatoes this year. My tunnel is only 18 feet long so SMALL. I do have another in storage that has missing parts that Matt and Cam keep saying we’ll get out and put up. It’s one of those things none of us want to tackle but need to. Maybe this spring. I hope so.

I will fire up the green house in 2 weeks and get everything else started in there. Since I have lights and. heat pads in the house I may just start some things inside and move them out as they germinate.

I am really looking forward to some green grass again. It’s been a mild winter but a dragged out dismal brown looking one.

Farming is a tough thing and lately is been tougher. We’ve been okay, living very simply and finding that balance, that sweet spot between life, farming and living. We’ve worked ourselves really hard, often to the brink of burnout for way to many years. Hurting our bodies, our minds and the family. Now we are stepping back more and working less but working smarter so we can breath more. It’s meant we cut the farm back in areas where we had planned to grow it so big back when we moved in. It wasn’t as rewarding and it waa seriously the hardest work ever. Our bodies and minds were breaking. So we changed things a LOT. Now we plan carefully and keep ourselves as number 1 priority. We sure could raise a lot more for our customers but in the end, do we need to? Should we? It it valued enough that we have to do it. We’ve found we don’t have to meet others expectations. By doing this we’ve found other farmers are seeing it and making some changes themselves or at least thinking about it. I used to think we were a failure because I didn’t follow my plans to grow the farm so big that all 3 of us each would make a darn good living. I planned that we’d each make $40,000 in wages. That’s a serios wage from a small farm. I had it planned out and was headed that way. Until we just couldn’t keep it up. My hands were giving out was the most noticeable. How can I keep doing this when my hands and wrists woul become so damaged that I’d need serious surgery. So we toned this back, made adjustments and rewrote the plan.

In the end, well it’s not the end, it’s far from the end………. but how do I say it……… the decison we all made (all 3 of us) was that we would have the farm, raise food the way we wanted to raise it in the amount we wanted to produce, sell it how it worked out for us and not destory our bodies, minds and family for other people. This was started way before Covid turned the world upside down but it’s sure made it easier to put in place.

I hope you enjoy your job and your life and your family. Make your life what works for you and not beholden to what others want or expect you to do. It often means some tough changes but for us it’s been good.

If you are a farmer take care of yourself first. Yeah I know it’s easy to say and I certainly know how not to put myself first. It’s along road to try to get back.

Just because something doesn’t work for your farm does not mean you are a failure. It’s more smart business decisions. No farm is the same as another. It’s one thing that makes it a tough business. You are constantly working with change and it makes it tough. So if you need to change things, stop doing something or whatever. Just do it. It’s not failure. It’s really smart, it’s intelligent, it’s an educated adjustment. Talk to others. Share. your thoughts and share your story. It’s one of the ways we can all make this life we chose better. You are not alone. There are few farmers for a reason, because there are few of us that are up for the challenge and have the know how to feed people.