Maple Syrup | Part 3

Once the syrup gets to a very dark colour, we start using the hydrometer to measure the thickness so that we can tell whether it's syrup yet or not. 

We all love smelling it, can you tell? :)

Adding syrup to the hydrometer 

Measuring . . .

It's almost syrup!! 

Checking some more

Oh yeah, forgot one very important detail. It is very sticky in the kitchen when we're finishing off the syrup :P

And this is our filter. It causes so much stress. . . :P

It can NOT move. It needs to be in the centre, 'cause if it's not, the syrup drips out the side of our coffee urn. That's why the chairs need to be balanced out, which is why we're stacking hymnbooks, my very thick English binder (all those essays and paragraphs. . . :P), a Webster dictionary, and a history book on the chairs.
The outside filter is extremely thick wool, so the syrup goes through rather slowly. The hotter the syrup is, the faster it goes through the filter. But the syrup gets cold very quickly, so then it just clogs up the filter and we have syrup stuck in the filter. So then we have to take out one of the thinner, inside filters to clear stuff up a bit.

Everything has to be done very quickly so that the syrup has less time to cool and so that the container doesn't overflow.

So now we've kinda figured out a system.

Mom pours,

I (most of the time) fill up the bottles,

and Tiger Lily screws on the rings and caps.

Let's just say that finishing off the syrup is a very, very stressful time. (keeping it real here ;P) It's all rushed to get everything done quickly without spilling a single precious drop :) But this year we've actually relaxed. . . a bit. Well, anyway, enough to let Dare Devil help with the filling up of the bottles. We wouldn't even have dreamed of letting this (dangerous) guy help out before. :P

And then to seal the bottles, we lay the 125mL, 500mL, and 1 L bottles on their sides, and the 125mL bottles upside down.

Tiger Lily taking separating the filters

This picture speaks for itself :P

No, that's not a ton of syrup stuck in the filter! 

It's actually niter, some icky sticky gooey stuff that is produced whenever
the syrup is boiled to a certain temperature. It won't harm you, but it's not good to eat.
Very sandy and gritty. 

Mom was nice and put it all neatly on a plate so that I could take a
picture of it. Anyone want a niter pancake? :P

Of course, after we're all done, some of us want to lick the remaining syrup from all the spoons and cups and things. I mean, who wouldn't? :P

Tiger Lily: May I have some syrup?
Mom: . . . . . . . . . . . . .   :D

She got her way in the end :)

The finished product!

This bottle below shows the actual colour of the syrup. It's way lighter than the bottles above!

And that's it! I hope you all enjoyed these posts! :)

Day #57 - #61

I'm rather behind in posting my photos for the day, so I'll just conglomerate all the posts for Sunday to today. So much easier than a bunch of separate posts :)

I hope you enjoy them!


Sunday, April 26

Yes, this is a Canada goose sitting on her nest. . . in a parking lot! :)

Monday, April 27: Late Night Studies

Tuesday, April 28: Tulip

I love the vivid orange of the flower. It's so beautiful! 

Wednesday, April 29: Smile!

In this one, Ironman had a nice big smile. . .

And in this one, Toblerone had the nice big smile, so I decided to do both
and make it equal :P

Thursday, April 30: Sea of Gold

Day #56 | Our Little Helper

Day #55 | Frozen Art

Decided to take a picture of Cinderella's Snow White's water colour painting that she had taped to her wall. 

Day #54 | Braces. . .

I finally got my braces on, along with Tiger Lily and Spiderman! To be honest, I really do not like them, but one way or another I'm going to have to start coping with them, especially since we'll be stuck with them for another 2 years or so. *sigh* 

I thought of taking a picture f all three of us with our braces on, but then decided against it. You'd see us smiling happily away, when really we were all moaning "Ow. . . my teeth hurt. . . ow. . . ow. . . stop taking pictures. . ." :P 

Please excuse the blurriness of the pictures. I have not quite mastered the art of taking pictures of oneself. :D 

Rachel Joy Scott, Her Story

Have you ever heard of Rachel Joy Scott? She was an amazing girl, who loved her Lord and remained faithful to Him, even when it endangered her life. To read more about her, you can go to Bethany's blog post: The Legacy of Rachel Scott.

Note: I do NOT own this picture. This comes from Google Images. 

Day #53 | HAIL!?!?

Day #52 | Chubby Cheeks. . . :)

Day #50| Ice

Main reason why I took this picture: Because this is how I feel right now. It is freezing here! :P

Day #49 | Flowers! :)

Beautiful delicate white flowers springing up in the forest, fresh green grass steadily growing all over the place, it's springtime at last! :)

Day #48 | Jumping on the Trampoline

Day #47 | Snow White

If you're wondering about Cinderella's new name, scroll down, or click here: Cinderella's Announcement

Cinderella's Announcement

Cinderella has an announcement to make! But I'll let her tell you all. Switching over to you, Cinderella! :) 

~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 I think that I shouldn't be Cinderella 'cause she DOES NOT HAVE BLACK HAIR, don't you think? 

My name (Now ) is Snow White. 

Day #46 | Oh no!

Yikes! Didn't take a picture today! Saying "I'll do it later" is a very bad thing, should not be indulged in. . .

Day #45 | Tree Buds