Anyone can make very good maple syrup! The syrup-making process is surprisingly straightforward and not very complicated, the catch is that a person can ruin an entire day's worth of work in the final minutes if not paying close attention. Making maple sugar is the same way except that a batch can be ruined in the final seconds if not paying close attention. If ruined, not only is the sugar lost, but also the syrup and all the time it took to make that syrup was wasted as well. That is a real bummer. My system is very basic, and very low cost as a result. My only expenses were for filters and canning lids. I guess technically gas and oil for the chainsaw for cutting up the firewood that I used should be taken into consideration as well. I figure my costs this year added up to around $10. In photo, the covered pan in front was used to preheat a gallon of sap before adding it to the pots so as not to interfere with the boil.

Petra, here Grade B is darker and has a more intense flavor than Grade A. Some like it, some don't. Grandpa told me that the light (grade A) syrup was from the first sap of the season and that the dark (grade B) was from later in the season when there was less sugar in the sap and so it had to be boiled longer to become syrup. I love maple syrup, the real stuff. Right now I have a 64 ounce jug of grade B in the fridge. Yes, it will mold if kept in the cupboard unrefrigerated for too long. I never, ever eat the fake stuff, it's just too icky. My Grandkids love Mrs. Butterworth's though, and don't want the real maple. That's fine, it just leaves more for me, LOL. I like the local maple syrup and when I can't get it locally I order from Cook's Sugarbush, in southern Michigan. I think it's somewhere around Sherry's and I can get a 64 ounce jug for $26 plus shipping but it lasts me a long, long time. I love waffles and pancakes, and if I make a batch, I put some in the freezer so I can just grab a package and have them whenever I want them. Annie Here is a link that might be useful: Cook's Sugar bush

It was good to get a few things done - and still this wk yet. It'll be good to have a/c in the car, that'll help when it goes over 107 again. and the hair! yikes, it'd gotten soooo long and was always in my way. does the garden forum have much on desert planting? I'll have to take a look there. ML - I'll be doing xeriscape also. I took a class in it with my sister about 12 yrs ago. There are a good number of desert trees, bushes, plants to use. I need to start out with fast growing ones. probably desert willow (love those), Palo Brea, Eucalyptus and Jacaranda. the Jacaranda has beautiful purplish blooms - a former co-worker had one in his front yard and I loved it. It grew a LOT in just 2 yrs. I want another mesquite too but will probably plant that in the spring. I have to check the root growth on a few because of the conduit underground. I'll put out a few Oleanders - not my favorite, but colorful and drought hardy. a few more Bird of Paradise plants and bougainvillea. I want colorful! Several will be clumped but unfortunately a few will be loners (or I'll plant some flowering bush by them). I told dbf I wanted at least a spigot on each end of the mfg home. He did mention putting some irrigation pipes around too. If he'd do that in a few directions it'd help. 2 spigots would help a lot - I only have 1 out back now. probably only 1 tree will be difficult to water. most will be close to others I water. Want to put a tree on the westside of boy's pen also. I want an ironwood out front so I can see it from the kitchen and porch - that's slower growing tho. Organpipe cactus and prickly pear too! the prickly pear I can get cuttings from my sister. Somewhere around here is my desert plant book - I need to look for it! we do get water sometimes - usually during monsoon season. That's been rather iffy the past few yrs. We should have had rain by now. humidity is up, a lot of overcast days etc. got about 20 drops the other night. my steps were wet but you couldn't tell by the ground that even a drop hit it! sometimes we get lots of rain in the fall also. the first yr when I was putting in the conduit for electrical it rained so long and hard I came out in the rain to dig the trench. my then roommate/co-worker felt sorry for me so he came to help. it'd rained so much we gave up and headed back to town. I had to follow his van in my corolla to see how high water was to his tires - just to know if it was a dip I could make it thru. I thought we'd drown. the dogs' holes would become lakes out here! but I think total we get just 7-8 inches a yr. I do have 2 plastic barrels here - tho they will probably disintegrate when I touch them... will get something at the feed store to collect water. will have to see how it runs off of the 'new' roof. when I asked dbf why it didn't have gutters he looked at me like I was nuts. even with our little rain I think it should have something to direct the rain off of the roof. Someone just came out to get the dozer. both the dozer and water truck need worked on. they took the water truck a few nights ago. I'd never know they were back there if boy didn't raise a ruckus. He thinks those are our machines now. I did notice while out there that my head started hurting once in the humidity. ick.

I have been thinking alot about the BioMoms on this board who are not stepmoms. Us stepmoms have from time to time become aggravated with the comments that go off thread, the criticisms that don't have anything to do with anything, and the general feeling of stepmom bashing, remarriage bashing, stepfamily bashing, etc. I have been thinking about what an unreasonable jerk TOS's ex has been to their children, how very little financial support TOS receives, and the fact that the Ex's wife (I can't justify calling her a stepmom), who was a major player in the marital breakup, seems to be doing everything she can to create discord between father and children. I think under those circumstances, those of us that are BioMoms would be angry at the situation. Now, some of us BioMoms do have similar situations, but the biggest difference between most of us and TOS is that TOS had already spent close to half her life with this man, with a marriage of over 25 years and many children, when he decided to up and leave. That is a huge emotional devastation. Sure, when my first marriage broke up because of his infidelities, I knew all along what he was like, we'd been married for less than 6 years, I was 35 yo and still relatively attractive, and earned a comfortable salary on my own. It was much easier for me to move on from that because I hadn't invested half my life. And it is clear from some of what TOS has posted that, even though she was blindsided by the affair and divorce, she very much expected to be with this man for the rest of her life and still cares very deeply for him, as he has been such a huge part of her life. SMs should try to be more sensitive to the BioMoms who aren't also stepmoms. It would be easier, for sure, if the BioMoms didn't seem to want to bait us, but we should take into consideration where their comments are coming from before we jump all over them.