Hello! I thought I should get on the computer and let you know that I am still alive! :-). I don't usually go so long in between posting but it has been busy here lately. On Thursday morning we went out to Mom and Dad's to help with Maple Syruping. It was beautiful out in the woods. Above is one of the pictures I took. Unfortunately while out collecting sap I slipped and fell and landed on one of the buckets I was carrying. It rather knocked my breath away and I ended up with a rib that was really hurting. However I figured that life had better go on and so we finished gathering the sap (though I was being more careful).
This was another picture I took. I love the moss growing on the tree. We ate an early lunch with Mom and Dad and then went home for naps. I had a meeting to attend that afternoon to finalize our plans for the Republican fundraiser we were getting ready for.
After the meeting we went shopping. I ended up with some wonderful deals (though rather junk foody) at both Marketplace where I got 10 lbs. or Gala apples, two bunches of bananas, a margarine spread (for the Republican event, we like real butter!), 6 boxes of cereal and 2 boxes of granola bars for less than $20. I also got a bunch of stamps to collect for saving money on gas. At Walgreens my great deal was getting 3 toothbrushes, 3 tubes of toothpaste, 2 jars of softsoap, 2 packs of soap for around $10 and then I will get a $10 rebate. Yea!! That night my rib wasn't feeling any better, in fact it was worse and when I looked at it there was/is a dent that wasn't there before. When Ken looked at it he thought I really should go to the doctor. So on Friday morning I went to see the doctor. There I learned that I had a dislocated/ separated ribs but as with pretty much all rib problems there is nothing they can do about it unless you want some painkiller (which I try to avoid as much as possible). They didn't x-ray because she didn't think I was in enough pain for it to be fractured and she said rib x-rays are not very accurate. Anyway lesson learned: Don't waste your time going to doctors about rib pain.
On Friday afternoon I went and helped Ken at his booth in the Home, Sport and Travel Show. We gave out lots of Frisbees and asked people to fill out a little form so Ken could run an auto insurance quote for them. The deal was if he couldn't beat there current rate on Auto insurance he would pay for a free dinner for two at a local restaurant. (Ken has done this challenge for a couple of years with quite a bit of response. He has given out a few free dinners but for the most part he can always beat their current insurance rates. He has saved many people a lot of money.) At the show if they completed the form then we would give them a free gift of either a flashlight or a tote bag. It was a fun evening. We saw a lot of people we know. I really like the town we live in because it is small enough that where ever we go there are always people that we know. Ken was busy with the show pretty much all week , first getting ready for it and then working at it all weekend. We are glad that he is going to be around home now a little more.
On Saturday afternoon I went to help out at the Republican Soup Social. We were hold it as a fundraiser and also as a time to get together and here from speakers from the State House and Senate and from candidates that are hoping to go there. We tried something new this year asking people if they wanted to enter their favorite soup, bread or dessert and then we served small helpings of each and people could do a taste test. I had then made up ballots for each of the foods and after trying many the people had to vote on their favorite. It ended up being very fun. Some very delicious food was brought and everybody got as much as they wanted to eat and they all seemed to have fun voting. To the winners we gave a flag.On Thursday, Friday and Saturday we had some incredibly beautiful weather. It was in the 50's and sunny. On Saturday night the weather changed and snow started falling. So far we have gotten around 16 inches of snow. Just 7 miles east of here (at my parents) they got 2 feet of snow. We were able to make it to church fine on Sunday morning. And afterwards Keren decided to go with us for a quick walk through the Home, Sport and Travel Show and then spend the afternoon with us. When we came out of the Show at 1:30 it was a regular blizzard. We did make it safely home and then at 3:30 pm Mathew and Emily came over to discuss some ideas for church activities. Shortly thereafter it was decided that evening church services would be cancelled and the snow kept falling. It was decided that Keren would spend the night. Mathew and Emily did leave after supper but not before getting stuck in our lane.
Here they were working at getting unstuck.
This was a snowy scene in our yard.
Here is the view out our sliding door onto our deck.
Anyway, that is what has been going on with us. We are looking forward to getting back to normal a little more this week.
This is their collecting system. PVC taps in the tree and the tubing going down into little holes in the 5 gallon bucket lid. Growing up we used milk jugs but this system works a lot better. Dad was able to collect all the buckets for free from area 
This is the boiling down spot. Dad welded a large tank/pan to put the sap in (it takes around 30 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup). This pan will hold around 25 gallons. Underneath is a barrel wood stove which we make a fire in so that we can boil the sap down. At some point you need to strain it as well because sometimes things that you don't want in your pancakes will get in the sap.
