Category Archives: Musings

Sticky Situation

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We did it! We did it! We did it! Hooray! Now that I have Dora the Explorer’s theme song running through my head and yours, let me give you a little update on what exactly we did. If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that we have tapped a few of our maple trees to make maple syrup this spring. Well, our minimal research and best laid, however naive, plans, made me host a “boiling party” this past Sunday. I invited a few friends over to sit by the fire with us and see how the day went. I thought it would be relaxed and fun. Roast a few hot dogs, maybe, get at least half of our sap boiled up, and perhaps bottle a bit.

Photo by Sindre Fs on Pexels.com

As life would have it, our plans don’t always work out as we expect. First, our sap is frozen. Stored in the freezer to keep it fresh. That’s fine… but after an overnight thaw, we still had big chunks of ice. No worries, right? Gonna boil it down anyway. Big chunks of ice don’t fit in my shallow pans. Then it rained the night before. Which means our wood and fire spot was fairly damp. We did save some fuel indoors (because we did check the weather!) but the hubby still had a hard time getting the fire going. And he usually has no trouble starting fires. Wink Wink.

Now remember, we’ve never done this before. We have no idea what we are doing. Yet, we march forward… fire going. Pans boiling. Sap levels start going down. Things appear to be working. Let’s put another pan out and try the bar-b-que. Yeah, that will work. We won’t mention the propane bill. I have fed my guests hamburgers. They are gracious, long time friends whom we love. They don jackets and “check on the fire” and encourage the hubby. We drink coffee and complain about the cold.

Hours have past. So, let’s get to the crux of this story. We have “thickened” sap. Our research tells us we can “finish off” our syrup inside on the stove. Everyone tells you not to do the maple syrup inside because it makes everything sticky, but this “finishing off” part needs to be monitored. The temperature checks and precision is needed to get the sap to the syrup stage… so it is okay to do this part inside on the stove. Okay. Stock pot locked and loaded. Two inches of sap from an entire 12 litre bucket. Candy thermometer marked at 219 degrees F. And then we got distracted. Chit chatting outside. Thinking the other was watching the pot boil. Disaster. Our syrup was burnt sugar.

Disaster

Okay, okay. Let’s fix it. I break out the candy molds. Maple sugar candy… that’s a thing, right? The family says add water… we boiled again. Yes! Syrup! Bottle it in our cute maple syrup bottles… wait. What are the floatie things? Eww. Is it supposed to look like that? Google. Apparently, one must filter the sugar sand or niter that remains in sap-syrup. Coffee filters don’t work. I spilled some. The syrup is now thick and sticky…. and drips and drops are everywhere! On my elbows, on my counter, on the stove, in the sink, in pots, pans and bottles. Sticky rolled up coffee filters with sandy grit are piled and discarded. Spoons and taste testers are left on sticky counters. Our friends have abandoned us. This is why they tell you don’t do maple syrup inside. It becomes a sticky situation!!

After 6 or so hours and all that… we have two 250ml bottles of thick, clear, sweet maple syrup to enjoy! (And 9 or so more buckets in the freezer to do it all over again with!) Seriously though, we had fun. We learned through trial and error. We laughed, we panicked, we yelled a little, but in the end: We did it!

We did it!

And so we come to the life lesson of boiling day. So often, we get ourselves in sticky situations, don’t we? We plan an Instagram worthy party with good friends. We think it is all going to be fluffy and romantic. We underestimate the time needed to invest. We think we will get so much more accomplished than we do. We try. We learn through trial and error and mistakes — and Google? We yell a little. Things get burnt. We waste precious resources and get distracted when we should be focused. We end up with big messes that need to get filtered through the One who is in control of it all.

Psalm 40 shows us how to get out of that sticky situation and stand again on solid ground. The stability (with all the sweet benefits) of being in the hands of the one who has laid out “good plans” for us. God no longer wants our burnt offerings, as sugary as they may be to us. He wants honest, raw worship and obedience. He wants us to call out to Him in those times of trouble, so He can lift us out of the mess, and show others the Way. It’s tough work. Sometimes it’s messy and things don’t go as planned. Sometimes we have a lot of cleaning up to do. Often, we get given the chance to do it all over again — and learn from our mistakes, as we work towards “perfection”.

Keep following along. The Mitton crew has buckets full of more chances at perfection sitting in the freezer. And if you receive a cute bottle of syrup from Itsnotta Farm — ignore the floaties –and enjoy the sweetness! Just know it was painstakingly life lessoned and prepared for you with lots of love and time!

I Speak for the Trees

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Welcome back! In case you haven’t been following along, we are headstrong into our first attempt at maple syrup making here at Itsnotta Farm. One of the first things we needed to do when we decided to tap a few trees, was to figure out what trees to tap! Not all trees are syrup producers and not all producers are good ones. We knew we had a few maples, but not true sugar maples. So, we did what everyone does: we googled it. Which helped. A little. There are no leaves on the trees this time of year, so branch position, bark texture and subtle other clues are supposed to help. I’m sorry, but tree bark is tough to distinguish. Really. Rough? It’s all rough and buggy and torn up and wounded to me. Who knows? Just poke some holes in there… if stuff comes out, the sap is running.

And so began my muse: trees. A really broad scoping thought, I know. There are a whack load of thoughts about trees out there, but let’s just touch on it, shall we? We have just over an acre and a half of “forest” on our property. No real trails. Thick with bush and trees “au naturel”. Trees rot and fall and succumb to various viruses and afflictions. We have a big one near the chicken coop that needs to come down. We have a large surround of cedars which is quite nice coverage for the wind… the birds love them too. Not to mention the vast trail systems here in Ontario. Or the Crown Land and woods literally everywhere. Rain forests of central America? Let’s not even go there. Needless to say, we have a lot of trees in our world.

Photo: Matt Artz via Unsplash

We plant 600 million trees annually in Canada… and I don’t know if that includes all the private trees we throw in the ground or not. I plan to add a few fruit trees to our place — which I hope will add to the diversity. The birds will probably get to the fruit before I do. We were chit chatting about tree planting a few weeks ago… apparently it is not for the faint of heart. True planters hike through unkept wilderness fighting off heat, sweat, mosquitoes and other menacing buggies. Not to mention scrapes bumps and bruises from branches and brambles along the way. I’m sure there is mud too. Nope… not for me. A few holes in open field with my nursery raised apple tree and I have done my part, right?

Still, trees are pretty cool. They communicate not only to their surroundings, but to each other through chemical signals and can warp sound waves to change what we hear. Research suggests that being around trees is good for our mental and social well-being. A study conducted by the University of Illinois and the University of Hong Kong found that the denser the forest, the lower the stress. Research also suggests that nature experiences help us to feel kinder toward others. This is partly because they release chemicals called phytoncides. When we breathe them in, it can reduce blood pressure, lower anxiety levels, and increase pain threshold. I often tell the hubby I do love a good “soak” in the forest. Must be all the chemicals I breathe in. Or maybe it’s just the quiet.

“The Tree of Life”

It’s no wonder that the tree has been a symbol for life across so many genres of study. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. Seen it as a jewellery piece or art deco. Obviously branches and life giving oxygen are intertwined within the symbol. “I am the vine, you are the branches”. The biggest connection, and my original thought process for this post, was the Garden of Eden and the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Such a critical piece of our Christian heritage. I cannot imagine living in a perfect world — the perfect garden — with its abundance of fruit and colours and wildlife — and it all being lost because of selfish desires.

We have just tastes of it now — maple trees and sweet sap. Apple trees and rich fruit. Mighty oaks and cedars that tower and protect us from wind. The colours of fall leaves or the beauty of teak and mahogany. How marvelous is “the tree”. We take it for granted. We have so many. They are so common. We don’t see the forest for the trees. We must take the time.

Deeper still, we must think about why the Creator of the world chose a tree to symbolize life for us. Why was a tree the center of the Garden? Why was the Saviour crucified on “a tree”? Why do we brush them off as so common place that they aren’t appreciated? We burn them up and cut them down with abandon. I could go on. A tree hugger muse this week which could be expanded way beyond these short thoughts. Yet, I hope it sparks some deeper thinking and research for you. Or at least makes you look up at the trees (and beyond).

Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Pexels.com

If I Could Save Time in a Bottle

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When we first moved out here to rural Ontario, we struggled with getting up early for the school bus. We’re night hawks and that early morning pick up was tough. It continues to be tough, but we are getting used to it. However, once we were up so early… we seemed to have a lot more time. I noticed even after morning coffee and scrolling, I still set about my day with good measures of time. Be that as it may, I continue to struggle with all the things I want to see accomplished. The days are getting longer and there seems to be more daylight, but, man, there never seems to be enough time. I have been meaning to unpack the last few boxes hidden in the basement. I want to tackle some DIY projects. My seeds need to get in some soil in order to be ready for garden planting. Chicks are coming… have to organize bunnies and prep the coop. Even now that I am not working again, there still never seems to be enough time.

Bill Watterson quote from Mary Mott Writes

Now don’t go getting all “holier than thou” and tell me if I prioritized my time… or if I got off social media… or that I’d get done what is important to me… Perhaps all these things are true. I am also trying to be sensitive to my family who prioritizes people instead of tasks. I have to be social they say. Visit. Build relationships. Self care? How about personal hygiene? Housework? Did you know that the average person will spend almost 750 days doing dishes in their lifetime. Our dishwasher is currently dead. I am sure we are going to up that number. We have kids and creatures and gardens and a house; extended family. Church. Community. We live a fifteen minute drive from anything. If I could save time in a bottle… I’d be rich and have more time for … well … time for more.

Ecclesiastes tells us “there is a time for everything…” and we recognize that this is true, but, if you’re like me, you don’t quite understand the time-shift continuum, and often wonder how we fit everything in to our days without getting a bit funky smelling. I found a deep sentiment to explain it:

“When scripture declares that for everything there is a season, this means that the various circumstances we go through in life are not by incident, but orchestrated or allowed by God with great purpose and intentionality.”

biblestudytools.com

We often talk about “seasons” of life. Chunks of reality when it’s understandable that this or that will take up your time. Retirement. Parenthood. Adolescence. We recently took to tapping our forest for sap. Maple syrup making has a very distinct “season”. The conditions must be just right for the sap to flow. Then the process requires filtering, boiling, refining… all at certain temperatures. As with most things in life, to find the “sweet spot” requires time. I heard that perhaps maple syrup making is more of an “art” than “science”. What happens if you don’t measure temperature to exactly 219 degrees (or whatever…) What happens if we don’t collect when the weather is just right? How do we predict the weather accurately anyway? Our syrup won’t work out, I suspect. If it does, our yield won’t be as good. Nature is always a gamble. That’s why the internet is full of “tips and tricks” on homesteading.

We recently set out to try tapping.

Still, let’s go back to that quote. Only God can see our timelines. We can only see a little “blip” in our reality. We are but dust. We only see specific incidents. Google photos and Facebook remind us of “memories” from this day or that day. Compare it to now, “X” years later. Have we changed? Matured? How many friends have died or left or come in to your lives since then? Technology. Politics. War. The price of groceries. Our physical body and space. Change is constant. Time cannot be saved in a bottle.

God sees the bigger picture. He sees our life as a whole. He orchestrated it. As a whole. As a whole with great purpose and intentionality. If I could plan out my life exactly, or set my kids lives on a piece of cardstock, things would look oh so different. If my mother could have set my life on a piece of index card, I wonder what I would have looked like. God has done just that. He knew us before we were born. He has a plan. He also had a plan, and it was thought through and orchestrated brilliantly. He is working with the dips and divets and dives of nature, allowing for art versus science. Yet His yield is perfection.

His yield is Perfect.

Oh beloveds, is this encouraging to you? I hope it is. Perhaps you are in a season where you simply can’t see a way out. Perhaps you are struggling with not enough time. Perhaps there is too much time to fester in your own self doubts. Perhaps you desperately want to use your time wisely but it is just difficult. Society tells you do this, that, the other thing, and you can’t see the forest for the trees. You’re feeling the time crunch of a season in life. God’s got this. There is a time for everything under the sun. Our little speck of dust has meaning, purpose and intention in God’s agenda book. As for me, I gotta go collect some tree sap. Then maybe a nap, or shave my armpits. Maybe tackle the dishes. Be blessed, my beloveds.