It was our 10th wedding anniversary and we spent the day together at our favorite place doing something we both enjoyed. We spent about five hours at our farm boiling sap from the maple trees.  Keeping the fire fed was a constant job. We took turn adding wood to the fire.

It took a lot of heat before the sap really started boiling and a lot of wood to maintain the boil. It was around 10:00 a.m. when my husband got the fire going and filled the sap pan with about 10 gallons of sap.

It was around 3:30 when we brought this (almost syrup) home to finish cooking it on the stove.

We ended up with four 1 cup jars or 1 quart of delicious maple syrup. I see pancake or French toast breakfasts in our near future. 🙂 It took 40 quarts of sap to make 1 quart of syrup.

We could have done more today but we had planned to make a special dinner together. In the morning while he was getting things started at the farm, I baked our dessert. My husband had suggested devils food cake. It had vanilla frosting because that’s one of my favorite combinations. All I had to decorate it with were a couple of store bought tubes of frosting with tips that screwed on the ends of the tube. I have never been able to make a pretty cake using these, and I don’t even know why I keep trying.

I told him, even though the cake looked corny, it was filled with love.

After dinner we did something that we have never done before. We watched the DVD of our wedding. It took us back to that day. It was so much fun to be with family again, to see  everyone (10 years) younger, smiling, laughing, and hugging. My Mom (who passed away in 2011) wore a pink sweater the same color as my dress, I hugged her. Our eyes were teary as we spoke our vows; the promises we made, the promises we’ve kept. It was a simple day filled with so much love. We are so thankful that we have this treasure.

It was an incredibly blessed day and I can’t think of better way to have celebrated our marriage.

As we stepped into our second decade as husband and wife we have spent two more days making syrup on the farm. Even though the calendar says February, the temperatures in the, 50’s and 60’s, say “spring”.

The sun has been bright, the sky has had been a beautiful, deep blue, and we have been watching the pond level rise as the ice melts. The honey bees have been out.

On Sunday our Grandson, Jackson had his first visit to the farm. This was a happy day.

At this point we have produced just under 1 gallon of maple syrup, and we plan to continue collecting sap and making syrup this week as long as the sap flows clear.