Glory Acres Sapping

 We made the trip up to the Antigo region to see "Farmer Ryan and Farmer Andi" on March 23rd.  The Medos live on their Hobby Farm-Glory Acres, and we are always impressed every time we visit.  Some new additions this year were an outdoor woodfired pizza oven and a draft horse with a wagon.  It was one of those perfect days where the long winter was finally giving way to a warm spring day and the sunshine rejuvenated all of us.  To top it off we were surrounded by good friends and laughter!

Who needs lighter fluid when you have a propane blow torch!!!  Farmer Ryan is full of tricks!

Along with the thaw comes lots of mud!  It didn't take long for the kids to get covered in it, and they didn't mind a bit!

"Look at all these sap-suckers" as Farmer Ryan would say!  The kids loved running from tree to tree and sucking sap straight from the tap.

Fresh from the tap-literally!

Twins!  :)

Lucy getting a rid on Tony the draft horse.  A definite high light for her.  Later on she even got to ride him by herself and steer! 

Even Isaac took Tony for a spin.

The beautiful "sugar shack".

The wood-fired steam bath was busy boiling down the sap into syrup. 

Seth and Owen (9 year old twins) were in charge of driving the sap wagon with the other kids on board.  The adults tromped around the woods to empty the 150 sap bags into the collection vat.  We collected around 80-90 gallons on our trip through.

Next came the task of pumping the sap from the collection vat into the dispensing vat for the boiling process.

Charlie was thrilled to try a fresh spoonful of maple syrup.  "Yummmmmmm, that's tasty!"

These kids were still tuckered out from the day at the farm the following day at Grandma and Grandpa Hyland's house.

Charlie was gifted a dump truck from Glory Acres and it didn't leave his hands from Antigo to Point and then again from Point to La Crosse!

Upon arriving home, we started a 5 day dog-sitting stint with Pal.  Charlie and Lucy loved having a dog around and faithfully walked him every day. Pal was awesome with the kids and let Lucy walk him on leash and never pulled her once.