Potty Training Update

Ocean can't hike without collecting sticks along the way :)

It’s been obvious for a while now that Ocean wasn’t as ready to potty train as I originally thought. Some days he stays dry without any accidents, other days it’s one pair of wet underpants after another.

I think the main issue is that he starts to pee, and then runs for the potty. He’s not quite as aware of the situation as he needs to be just yet.

A bit frustrating, but now that we’ve realized what’s going on, it’s easier to be calm about it.

These days we give him the choice: underpants or a pull-up. Some days he chooses underpants, other days he chooses a pull-up. And more often than not, the pull-up stays dry for most of the day.

I usually put him in a pull-up at nap time, and always at bedtime so I'm not doing so much laundry. There were a couple weeks where I was doing so.much.laundry, and it just wasn't working.

Saturday when we were doing yard work he had a pull-up on, but several times he peed on the ground, all on his own (what is with little boys and their delight in peeing on the ground? River went through a phase where he would go outside to pee, then come back in the house.) So he's learning, it's just taking a bit longer than we'd prefer.

Weekly Mileage #53

Snow!

Last week, unlike the previous couple weeks, I didn’t log any official miles. That’s not to say I didn’t do any exercising, though.

Mr M wasn’t feeling well on Monday, so I had to take him to the doctor, which derailed that day’s exercise plans. He had a sore that got infected and the infection spread to his bloodstream, but after some antibiotics he’s feeling a lot better.

Wednesday we finally got some snow- about 5-6”, and I took advantage of Mr M being home (and feeling better) to get a lot of work done. I’ve been trying to buckle down and get some social media stuff set up for one of my businesses (I did the minimum needed last year, and it’s past time to take things to the next level).

River helped Mr M plow-first time we've plowed in 2 years.
We probably could have skipped it since it melted off pretty fast.

Thursday is our usual hiking day, but we were car-less while the CRV was getting some maintenance done, so we were stuck at home. I could have gotten on the treadmill or the bike, but I wanted to be ready to go as soon as the shop called, and that wouldn’t be the case if I was in the middle of a workout and all sweaty. So naturally, the car wasn’t done until 3.

I thought I could squeeze a hike in Friday morning after dropping Sunshine off at her co-op, but after running some errands the boys and I were done. They've been fighting low-grade bugs for a while now and they were being grumpier than usual that morning. We went home, ate some lunch, and the boys went down for naps while I plopped down in front of my laptop to get more work done.

Saturday I made up for the week of inactivity. The weather was great: cool, but not cold, and sunny. The snow had mostly melted by then, but the ground wasn’t super soggy.

I grabbed the loppers and garden saw and went to work de-junglifiying our driveway. The last time I did this was seven years ago, when we first bought the house, and it was way over-due. Saplings had sprung up close to the driveway and tree branches were overhanging the driveway, both of which meant large vehicles (like our RV) got scratched by the branches.

It didn’t take long to figure out just why we’ve ignored this task for so long. Even after pulling out the extension ladder I couldn’t get all the branches with the loppers or garden saw- they were too large in diameter and higher than I felt comfortable with. So Mr M was the lucky person to climb the ladder with the chainsaw. That’s what he gets for being more than a foot taller than me- his reach is so much longer.

We’ll miss the feeling of driving through a jungle in the summer (it’s especially strong at night), but we won’t miss the sound of branches scraping the RV as we go up or down the driveway.

pile of branches and small trees, ready to be chipped

While the chainsaw was out, Mr M cut down a pine tree that’s in the way of our future carport. It was tall, but the only branches were at the very top, so there wasn’t as great a chance of it getting hung up on other trees or damaging them. There’s just one tree left in the carport site, but we’ll have a tree company come and take that one down, since it’s very tall, dead, and has a lot of branches that will make a clean take down difficult.

 

we ran out of time while clearing up, so the pile of branches on the trailer needs to be added to the other pile of branches so they can all be chipped

I didn’t have my Garmin on, but I should have. I did lots of walking- first hauling branches and small trees to a pile by the chicken coop, where they’ll eventually be run through a wood chipper. Then more walking back and forth as I relocated lengths of the pine tree from our parking area to the other side of the driveway circle. Thankfully the trunk pieces were almost completely round and had no branches, so I was able to roll them across- no carrying heavy logs for me, thankyouverymuch.

pine logs moved over by the tree Mr M took down in the fall
once he cuts that one to length we'll need to rent a wood splitter

Sunshine helped haul branches roll logs and the boys each managed to roll a couple of the smaller trunk pieces.

Even though we didn’t track it, we all got a lot of exercise on Saturday and slept very well that night. Despite not tracking my mileage, I know I walked at least two miles. It's half a mile to check all the maple and black walnut spiles, and since I finally got around to pulling the spiles (maples were bone dry, but one of the black walnuts was dripping sap- we definitely need to do tubing next year to prolong our season), I did that circuit. Add all the walking back and forth I did, and it was at least two miles total, so that's what I'll record for the day.

Weekly Mileage
Friday- 2.00 miles walked
    total-2.00 miles

3 hikes towards #52hikechallenge

49.60 foot miles towards #365milechallenge

45.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

Things you find while hiking in the woods in March: a random Christmas ornament hanging on a holly tree by the trail.

The GlowForge of Awesomeness

Last Thursday I finally took delivery of my GlowForge. I ordered it about a year and a half ago, when it was in pre-production, but post-Kickstarter, so I was at the bottom of the delivery list.

Since it was delivered later in the day, I didn't have time to do much more than open the boxes and check for damage (a wise precaution, as the main box arrived with a sizable rip and two missing handle locks). Friday we were gone all day, so the boxes sat in our library, tantalizing me. Saturday morning I woke up and built a box to lock the GlowForge in when it's not in use. I could have done this earlier, but I wanted to wait until I knew it was on its way, and by the time I received the shipping email I didn't have time to build the box before the GlowForge arrived.

Why did I take the time to build a lock box before setting up the GlowForge? These little boys.

While cute and lots of fun, they are not very trustworthy around machinery and electronics. Or much of anything, really. The box is to protect them from the laser of the GlowForge, but also to protect the GlowForge from the boys.

Locked up tight- the cable runs through loops that are attached to the base of the desk, the box itself, and the wall. Fingers crossed that that's enough to keep the boys from tipping it over or opening it up.

The GlowForge is a laser cutter that can cut, engrave, etch, etc various materials. I originally bought it to etch/engrave leather, but since then I've found a number of wood projects I want to do as well.

When I was researching laser cutters a couple years ago, I almost bought one out of Australia, but the lower price couldn't compensate for the lack of instructional and technical help and the fact that it didn't look very intuitive to use.

I'm not very technically savvy; I have to work hard to figure out mechanical and electronic things (give me hand tools any day), so intuitive is important.

The GlowForge, on the other hand, looked much more intuitive and had a forum set up already. And the demonstration videos were pretty impressive, so I bit the bullet and paid the higher price.

in the box, ready for use

Setting up the GlowForge Saturday afternoon showed me I made the right decision. It was super easy to set up, even for someone like me who isn't technically savvy. After the setup process is complete, you can make three different projects to try out the capabilities and explore the creation process for each project.

The tutorials have you use Inkscape for the graphic design elements, but I'm used to Photoshop, so I did have to spend some time figuring out Inkscape. I tried it out a few years ago and ended up deleting it because I couldn't figure out how to use it, but this time I'm doing a lot better. Maybe because now I can see the similarities to Photoshop, which I've been using for awhile now, but hadn't used as much the first time I tried Inkscape.

So there's a bit of a learning curve in figuring out how to get the GlowForge to do what I want it to. I had some problems cutting out an image that I'd engraved, but I've got it figured out now (I think).

Here's what I've been working on:

first: the GlowForge ruler 

The first project on the GlowForge site.

the paper is masking that protects the wood, leather, acrylic, etc from scorching

second: square maple syrup tag 

Different from the second project on the site, but more in line with what I wanted to do. This is the one I had a hard time figuring out how to cut out.

third: round maple syrup tag

Similar to the third project on the site, which was a gift tag created in Inkscape. I imported an image I created in PicMonkey to Inkscape to add the final details. Once I get more familiar with Inkscape, I'll try to do more creating from start to finish in Inkscape.

The round maple syrup tag turned out the best, and I'll be making a couple more to attach to small jars of syrup that will be distributed to friends and neighbors.

I have more projects lined up, but have to find time to squeeze them in among everything else I'm already doing. I knew this was going to be an issue, but this is the type of creating that I've been missing while focusing on building my online businesses, so it's good to do some creating again.

Want your own GlowForge of Awesomeness?
I have a GlowForge Basic, which is currently out of stock, but they have some GlowForge Pro models in stock and ready to ship. Yes, they're pricey, but you can get a discount of $1500 if you use this link to order (I'll receive a commission as well, at no cost to you). This offer is only good until they sell out of their current stock, so if you've been waffling back and forth for awhile, now might be the time to jump in.

with the masking still on

masking off

Weekly Mileage #52

Sunshine found tiny little flowers that you can suck a drop of nectar out of

Like the week before, I rode my bike twice last week. I'm sticking with 5 miles each for a bit longer- I'm still feeling the lack of fitness. Thursday we stayed home all day, waiting for a very special delivery (more on that in my next post), that was, of course, delivered two hours after the stated delivery window.

starting our hike with a choo choo train, as one does

Friday Sunshine started a new session at her co-op, and she's taking classes all four periods this time (she's just done two classes in each of the last two sessions). But her second and third hour classes were canceled because the teachers were out of town (they'll be made up at the end of the session), so we had three and a half hours between the end of her first class and the beginning of her fourth class. I'd thought about going home and coming back, but that was more driving than I wanted to do. Instead, we went for a hike and had a picnic lunch.

checking out the frog pond- the tadpoles were very good at hiding, but we saw them when they moved

I restrained myself and allowed the kids to stop and explore as we hiked. I can be a bit too goal-oriented on our hikes, though I've been working on it. Really, we need to have hiking days and exploring days. Hiking days we do some exploring while hiking, while on exploring days we do some hiking while exploring.

cute kiddos!

Getting back to our hike, we checked out the frog ponds and saw some tadpoles, which I didn't think would happen. It's been cold lately, but maybe the warm weather before our current cold snap was enough for them to start growing. A visit to this park is never complete without a stop by the giant poplar trunk (which sadly is looking very worse for the wear).

After that we hit the trails and hiked about a mile and a half. The boys and I hiked this trail a few months ago, but this was Sunshine's first time. I keep forgetting how expansive the trail system is, so we don't come very often. The boys and I can start hiking here after we drop off Sunshine at her co-op, but then Sunshine misses out on both the exploring and the hiking, so I need to figure something out.

one final choo choo train on the way back to the car

After our hike we went to the Monticello visitor's center to use the bathroom (there's not one at the park), and then went down to the discovery room on the lower level to kill some more time. Everyone had fun, but the play food and fireplace occupied the boys for a lot longer than I thought it would. They kept making stew, dishing it out, eating it, and then making more. We ate a lot of stew :)

I didn't squeeze a run in on Saturday because I was too busy playing with what was delivered on Thursday. So much to do, so little time.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 5 miles on the bike
Wednesday- 5 miles on the bike
Friday- 1.50 miles hiked
    total-11.50 miles

3 hikes towards #52hikechallenge

47.60 foot miles towards #365milechallenge

45.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

Have you seen the tumblr Reasons my Toddler is Crying? A dad documented all the funny reasons his toddlers were crying, usually for reasons we view as silly, but they see as near life-and-death.

River and Sunshine didn't hit the terrible 2s until they were 3, making them the terrible 3s (tyrannical 3s?). Ocean is an over-achiever and at 2 and a half is solidly in the terrible 2s. The up side to waiting a year is that Sunshine and River were a bit more mature and therefor better able to handle what life throws at them.

Ocean, on the other hand, does not have that extra bit of maturity, and we can see it in his behavior and how he reacts to different situations. Mostly he over-reacts or has completely unreasonable (though frequently amusing) expectations. Thankfully he usually calms down if we leave him alone and give him a couple minutes to process the situation.

So here's some reasons my toddler is crying:

1. I opened the string cheese package and he wanted to do it (even though he can't)
2. The apple he pulled from the bag doesn't have a stem (really. it's happened multiple times)
3. I gave the red plate that he considers his to River (it was the end of the world on that one)
4. He wanted me to carry him, but I strapped him to my back instead of carrying him in my arms- see the sad face at the top of the post
5. Bobby (his blankie) is all wet and he wants a clean bobby (Bobby is wet because he chewed on it and slobbered all over it. I swear he's teething or something- that kiddo produces so much slobber.)

Weekly Mileage #51

our fearless leader will show us the way, with the help of that map he's intently reading

I actually have mileage to report this week!

On both Monday and Wednesday I did 5 miles on my bike. It's been almost two months since the last time (back in the middle of January), and I could feel that hiatus. Despite that, it felt really good to get back on my bike, and bike miles add up so much quicker than foot miles :)

checking out the river- nothing special today, but still fun to look around

Thursday the kids and I went on a hike at the local trails park. It wasn't a super long hike, but that was a good thing because the hills were killing me. Well, I had Ocean on my back while going up the hills, but it was very obvious that I have lost so much strength and fitness. I know this, and have seen the evidence at other times, but they're still painful reminders.

We explored this root ball from a fallen tree and discussed whether a fox lived in that hole behind Ocean
the kids said yes, I said no

Three workouts in one week is a good start towards rebuilding my fitness and strength, so now I need to make sure I keep it up from here on out.

Ocean caught some leaves with a stick, and when he showed them to me, he said they were marshmallows.
Guess he's craving some s'mores.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 5 miles on the bike
Wednesday- 5 miles on the bike
Thursday- 1.69 miles hiked
    total-11.69 miles

2 hikes towards #52hikechallenge

46.10 foot miles towards #365milechallenge

35.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

 Cute boy! Notice the placement of his hand- he's holding onto the handle of my bike.

He decided I needed help with my bike, so he stood on the bench next to me and held onto the handle. I think he was worried I'd fall over, though there's no chance of that with my bike trainer on the rear wheel and the wheel stand on the front.

The next time I was on my bike, he came down and joined me again, making sure I didn't fall over. Such a sweetie!

2018 Maple and Black Walnut Syrup

left two bottles are a mix of the first two batches, right bottle is the underdone third batch

I posted about our first round of sap boiling here, and we followed that up with a second round of sap boiling in the middle of February, and a third round on Monday of last week. Both times we invited friends from our homeschool group to come see the process, which was fun.

The third boil was actually delayed a week because I got strep throat, but we’d stored the sap in buckets in our big freezer, so the sap didn’t go bad before we were able to use it.

just getting the fire going- sap looks like water 

Temperatures have warmed up the last couple weeks or so, so I think our season is over. We found mold growing in the spiles and collection bags in the black walnuts (the buckets don’t trap moisture, so the maple spiles are fine), which is a good indication that you’re done. Once bacteria is introduced, it affects the sap and the tree starts the healing process, causing sap to stop flowing.

full boil in the roasting pan

The thing is, this week we’ve swung back to optimal tapping weather (below freezing at night, above freezing during the day), so we could collect more sap if the spile holes weren’t already healing over. This is where using tubing to collect sap would be helpful.

sap is turning yellow as it becomes concentrated (I top off with warm sap from the pot)

Apparently you can prolong your sap collection and increase the amount you collect if you use tubing and create a vacuum. The vacuum keeps bacteria out and also pulls more sap out of the tree than a spile will drip out.

getting closer- look at that amber color!

So even though I said I didn’t think I could justify the cost of the tubing and switching spiles, that may not be the case. It might be worth it if I’m able to have a longer season and collect more sap. I need to do some more research, but since we only have a few trees, I don’t think it will actually be that expensive, even with our trees being spread out around our 1.75 acre lot.

Each year we do things a bit different, but we made more changes this year than in the past.

This year I invested in better filters and built a filter stand. The filters were definitely worth the money. They work so much better than the coffee filters I’ve used since we first started, and are reusable, unlike the coffee filters.

the filters come in one size (8 qt), which is way bigger than I need, and awkward to use,
so I quickly built a wood stand to hold the filter over  the pot

I tried to invest in an hydrometer to measure the sugar content and doneness of the syrup, but purchased the wrong type of hydrometer. So I tried the thermometer method of checking for doneness, but I was only able to do that on the last batch since the first two batches were done without a thermometer once I discovered it was broken when I pulled it out of the drawer to use it the first time. Oops.

The outer filter is made of felt, the inner ones are thinner (not sure what they're made of); and you layer them inside each other. When they clog, you remove the innermost filter, pouring any remaining syrup into the next filter. This process was very efficient at removing pectin and ash.

Freezing sap in buckets made it easier to boil when I had time and the weather was cooperating (ie, not raining).  I had to move things around in the big freezer, but being able to fit two 5 gallon buckets really made the whole process a lot easier this year.

the stand is just big enough to be lowered around the pot

Boiling outside is much more efficient than boiling inside. Using the flat roasting pan with the larger surface area speeds up the process. The pot and pan got disgustingly dirty from the wood fire, but my cabinets and drywall didn’t get damaged from all the moisture that would have been in the air if I’d been inside, so the trade-off is worth it. Having sap that’s already defrosted also speeds things up. The times I had to melt the frozen sap over the fire slowed things down a bit.

clean and clear syrup

It always rained before we boiled (great timing on my part), which meant our firewood was nice and wet. I put a bunch of wood in the shed to dry for the last boil, and that worked better, but still wasn’t completely satisfactory, since it was still a bit damp. On the other hand, it’s nice to finally be making a dent in our woodpile that rarely gets used.

Next year we’ll be making more changes, which should help us establish a format we can continue using until we move in a few years.

Finally purchase a proper hydrometer.

Purchase and install tubes for collecting the sap, with the spiles that work with the tubing, and a small barrel of some sort to collect all the sap at the bottom of the run. Sunshine thinks she’ll get to drive the lawn tractor down the driveway to collect the sap in the trailer that we don’t yet have. Personally, I don’t think she weighs enough to drive the lawn tractor :) We’ll see how that actually plays out…

Maybe get a second roasting pan or a buffet pan to speed up the boiling process even more. I’m not sure there’s really room over the fire pit for two pans and the warming pot, but it’s worth looking into.

We’ll cover the woodpile so the wood stays dry and is ready to use, which is something we should have done years ago. We have several trees that are or will be chopped down in the coming months, so the pile will be growing, unless we can find someone to take it off our hands, so we need to get our wood pile under control.

And because I can’t finish this post without giving you some numbers:

We collected about 11.5 gallons of maple sap and about 14.5 gallons of black walnut sap, for a total of about 26 gallons of sap. After boiling down all that sap, we have about 2.5 quarts of maple-walnut syrup, which is right on target for a 40:1 ratio. However, our maples aren’t sugar maples, which means their sugar content is lower and more sap is needed to get 1 gallon of syrup. So I don’t think I boiled the sap quite long enough. This is where a hydrometer would take a lot of guesswork out of the process. I may do one final boil and see if I can't get the thermometer method to work better for me. 

Regardless of whether I do another boil or not, I'm very happy with how much sap we collected and with how much syrup we ended up with. Hopefully next winter the weather cooperates again and we're able to have a good long collection time with lots of sap.

my first post about syrup this year

2017 syrup 

2016 syrup

2015 syrup