The hazelnut flowers now have bright magenta protrusions popping out of the buds
And the pollen is starting to emerge too.
Category: Homesteading
Crocus Time
Crocus flowers are starting to sprout up around the yard — years ago, Anya and I planted crocus bulbs randomly throughout the front yard. Some have split into three or four plants already, and some are still single little flowers. We’ve even got some sprouting up elsewhere — maybe they’re spreading seeds too?
Reverse Osmosis Maple Sap Stats
We collected nine gallons of sap with SG of 1.009 = 2.3 Brix
We ran all of the sap through the reverse osmosis system at 60psi and had sap with SG 1.011 = 2.8 Brix
We ran the concentrated sap through the reverse osmosis system a second time, this time at 80psi and had sap with SG 1.022 = 5.6 Brix.
The “pure water” output SG was about 1.003 — we re-ran this through the RO as well.
At the end of the day, we have about 4 gallons of sap at 5.6% sugar, another gallon from the “pure water” run that’s a lower SG, and four gallons of water that’s removed.
Notes for the future:
- We want to see what a single pass at higher pressure does — is it multiple passes that farther concentrated the sap or the higher pressure?
- We took SG readings and converted to brix using an online converter. Next time, we should just take the readings in Brix 🙂
- We might need a different refractometer to get accurate readings near 1 … not sure how accurate our tool is at the low end of the range.
Maple Syrup Reverse Osmosis Build
We’ve got all the bits and pieces to assemble our maple reverse osmosis system — four 150 gallon per day filters, a pre-filter, pump, pressure gauge, and a valve to control how much pressure we allow to build up in the system. Plus some tubing and connectors, of course!
Proto-Ducks
The proto-ducks are in the incubator at March 13th — at 21:13. April 10th will be 28 days, so there should be tiny little ducklings.
Incubating Eggs
We’re about to start incubating eight duck eggs, so I wanted to record the temperature and humidity settings that I’ve found for the chicken, duck, and turkey eggs (well, future turkey eggs! We managed to get five male turkeys last year)
| DUCKS | |||
| Start | End | Temp | Humidity |
| 1 | 25 | 99.5 | 55-58% |
| 26 | 28 | 98.5 | 65% |
| 28 | hatching | 97 | 70-80% |
| CHICKENS | |||
| Start | End | Temp | Humidity |
| 1 | 18 | 99.5-100.5 | 45-55% |
| 19 | Hatching | 99.5 | 65-70% |
| TURKEYS | |||
| Start | End | Temp | Humidity |
| 1 | 24 | 99-100 | 50-60% |
| 25 | Hatching | 99 | 65-70% |
A Good Ducky Day
It was something like 72 degrees today — which made for a good ducky day. I’ve been breaking the ice on the pond, and it was finally warm enough for them to go swimming. I’d filled a tub with warm water a week or three ago so they got to splash and clean up, but this was the first time they’ve been able to swim around since everything froze over in January.
2022 Garden – Seeds in Dirt
The pepper seeds are in their little pots and (hopefully) will sprout in the next week or so. Anya put a few of her herb seeds into pots as well … but she’s got more seeds to start.
Next up, I want to get the broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, ground cherries, and tomatoes going.
2022 Garden – Seed Starting
We started soaking our first seeds for the garden this year — Anya has quite a few herbs getting ready to be started, and I have an assortment of peppers.
Starplates & Chicken Coop
We were finally able to get the starplates to build a 1V geodesic dome for the new chicken coop. Super excited — and we’re going to have a lot of construction going on this year. A greenhouse tunnel for extending the growing season, a chicken coop, a duck coop, a pig shelter, and hopefully a sheep shelter too.