More Taps, More Orchards!

Aiden ready to head into the sugarbush, with taps around his neck and a thermos of hot water

Slowly but surely, we are getting Timber Hill ready for it's first year with sugaring lines.  I think we got the last of the tubing and taps set this past weekend- 250+ in total.  We're getting the hang of it, is all I can say, and I hope we still remember it all when spring rolls around and half the lines are on the ground thanks to deer, winter blowdown, ice or whatever else!  It will be a learning year, for sure.  Aiden was a good help on Saturday, holding the hot water thermos we use to dip the line ends in so they'll  be pliable enough to squeeze on fittings and taps.  Haley, not so much... but she'll get there eventually.  She did discover that the fairy house she built with Phoebe a few weekends ago was still intact, which pleased her very much.

Haley and Phoebe's fairy house

Mom's baskets on sale at Boyer Orchards in Monkton

  We also had time for some fall fun after stringing tubing and moving tanks around. We visited Boyer Orchards in Monkton to pick some beautiful Bosc and Bartlett pears, as well as two big bags of Honeycrisp apples.  Mom's baskets are on sale at Boyer's and were getting many compliments when we were there.  She's already sold a number of them.  In the evening, we had an outdoor fire to roast marshmallows and carved the first pumpkins of the season.  Even though they weren't really pumpkins, but overgrown zucchinis!

On Sunday we headed to Shelburne Orchards for their annual local food fest.  We arrived right as it was opening, which was a great thing, since we were able to sample some delicious foods (duck salad sandwich, Maple Wind steak & cheese, grilled chicken skewers, maple chai, apple cider kombucha, maple lemonade, and wood fired pizza) before there were any lines at all.  An hour later, it was madness in the food tents.  The kids had homemade popsicles from Adam's Berry Farm - raspberry mint and blueberry peach- for dessert while the adults had brownies on a stick smothered in dark chocolate and rolled in toffee- whoa.  

Aiden and Haley played on the hay bale playground for a good while, and Aiden had a ride on their sweeping rope swing that sends you way up into the tree canopy.  We went on a hay ride, and made our own rope out of twine too!  This is why we love Vermont.  It's so wholesome you can't even stand it sometimes!