February 29, 2020
February 2020
Freezing night time temperatures and warm daytime temperatures signal the magic that is sugaring season. We tapped the sugar maples that surround our sugar house, and are busy collecting sap and boiling it down.
We set up a solar panel, battery bank and inverter for our electric fence at Hill-Stead. For the 15 years we have had sheep at Hill-Stead, we have had to swap out new batteries, daily, bringing the old batteries home to recharge. Not anymore!!! After a few minor tweaks, the system seems to be working well.
We are also in the process of setting up a livestream camera for lambing season. We have been trying to navigate the intracacies of bringing wifi to the barn at Hill-Stead. Convincing the cable company that it's a legitimate enterprise is our biggest hurdle at the moment. "you want to live stream sheep?". I'm sure they have had odder requests, but for the moment - they act stumped. We will get there, as we are nothing, if not persistent.
Early spring is the ideal time to cut and inoculate mushroom logs. This year we will inoculate 300 shiitake logs and will try our hand at oyster mushrooms, as well. It will be fun to see how the oysters work out, but we won't know for 6 months (to a year), as that is how long it takes for the mycelium to spread through out the log, and for the mushrooms to appear (or not!).
We also transplanted several hundred trees, mostly conifers, to create a hedge between us and future developments but also more mulberries and hazelnuts.