Feeling homesteadish

I finished another 2 half pints of syrup the other day.  This is the first time that I've actually been able to keep accurate count of the number of gallons of sap I've cooked--always before it's been a best guess estimate.  So this time, I cooked 6 gallons of sap to yield about 2 cups of syrup.  Using that ratio, it would take around 48 gallons of sap to yield one gallon of syrup.  Not that we're going to make one gallon.  Nope.  I promised.  Only 2 3 quarts.

In other news, I've finally convinced myself that yes, I do want chickens, and yes, I'm willing to deal with all of the stuff that goes along with having chickens.  And by stuff, I mean more than chicken poop.  To that end, I've begun frequenting chicken keeping supply stores to get a feel for what kind of equipment I might want.  It was during one of those forays that I discovered that one can buy empty cardboard egg cartons at stores that sell chicken supplies.  The cost at my local store?  Forty-five cents each.  I bought a filled-up-with-eggs cardboard egg carton at my local discount grocery store for fifty-three cents the other day.  I just...um...I'm saving my egg cartons.

Now, just because I am willing to deal with all the stuff, including poop, that goes along with having chickens, does not mean that Hubby is.  His part is actually pretty simple (but time consuming), and mostly on the front end: building the coop.  But he doesn't have time to build the coop.  Next year, he tells me (or actually, I might have a coop in the fall, ready for chicks next spring).

One of my boys jokingly asked me if I was going to start keeping bees too, now that I've pulled the trigger on the chickens.  Little did he know that, yes, I've considered bee keeping, too, especially after I discovered that this exists:

It's a gravity-assisted-harvest bee hive.  Because harvesting is the hardest part, in my opinion.  Squee!

Guess I'd better start saving...