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Birch Sap Harvesting

Thing 1 is taking botany this year for her science. She’s been wanting to try out tapping birch trees to harvest their sap for a while now. This past weekend she got her chance.

Our days are longer and warmer but our nights are still plenty cold. Perfect time to tap a birch. I bought some tree taps at the farm store last week and two new 2 gal buckets with lids. Once we got to the cabin she went out, drill and supplies in hand.

The “Slow drip” tree in the foreground.

She settled on two old trees, one next to the sauna, the other up by the smoker. Taps in place and smaller buckets hung catching the few drips that morning. As the day went on, the sauna tree seemed to be the better producer.

She went out and checked late afternoon and wow! Full bucket in the sauna tree! Holy smokes it works!

Overnight the temps fell and we froze up solid. The “slow drip” tree froze up but the sauna tree had overflowed it’s bucket!

Slow drip, froze solid.

We broke off those sapcicles and ate them. Nature’s “Otter pops”!

All in just over 24 hours she got two gallons of birch sap. Impressive for her first try!

Now begins the process of cooking down the sap for syrup. I’ll let you know how long that takes!

Sauna tree’s cup runneth over.

Time to go so she whittled some birch twigs to fit the drill holes to plug the trees. Covered that with duct tape of course. And thanked the trees for their donation to our diet.

‘Tis the season

Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice.

Old Proverb

We’ve been busy this summer working and doing everything else so our woodshed is looking pretty empty. For the last two Sundays we’ve been felling beetle kill at an elder friend’s house. Both to keep her safe and fill our heating needs. It’s a win-win.

Everyone helps, in some way or another. But of course it’s the biggest and strongest who do most of the work.

  • The wood stacker
  • The felling feller
  • The red dot in the brush pile is the little guy staying out of harm’s way.
Teamwork makes the dream work.

We’ve dropped 7 trees at her place, with a couple more to go. Those beetles have been busy. That has given us with a full cord and a half. 5 more cord to go. It takes a lot to heat this big old house when it gets cold.

The biggest helper trying to avoid the camera. He’s cute when he’s not making scary faces

#firewood #winteriscoming #alaskalife