We got to go to a mountain neighbor of Tom and Berkeley's named Doug's house a few days ago. He taps sugar maples around his property as well and he invited us all over to see his little operation. It was bigger scale than we had done and we got to see his make shift evaporator which worked really well. He used an old stainless steel counter top placed upside down over a fired to get the water out of the sap and he creates about a gallon of syrup each time he fires it up. Yesterday started with me looking [View Full Entry]

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We have gotten a cold and rain snap here and work has been evolving. Just thought i would add some photos from what we have been up to the past little bit... We tore down the old outhouse that blocked a lot of sunlight from the garden and while taking it town we found where all the ladybugs had made their home. Really crazy and i felt sort of bad about taking their cozy space to the burn pile. im sure they will adapt and find a better home that doesn't house crap. And then the burn pile... When we got [View Full Entry]

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So Tom travels around the festival circuit and has a little food stand called the "sugar shack". Why? Cause he taps trees in Vermont, makes syrup from the sap, comes home and makes candy from the syrup, and then sells the delicious maple candy at the sugar shack. So he taught us to make candy and we have helped him out a few times. We also wanted to learn to tap trees and so Tom took us out one morning and after locating the maple's we put up tap buckets. We've gotten some sap from them and made about half a [View Full Entry]

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Been working on some random projects at Tom and Berkeley's. We have also gotten to explore the area a little bit and it is beautiful check out the photos if you want to see more of what i've been up to [View Full Entry]

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Tom and Berkeley left with Aila to go on a visit to West Virginia the morning after a storm rolled in. Travis and I got to take care of their home. Being alone in a cabin in the woods has been lovely. After so much time hopping from one place to another, staying with friends and family, it has been nice to have a place of our own. It has got me dreaming of how much i want a piece of land of my own. A place to come home to and a place to restore and build up. The weather [View Full Entry]

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We just arrived in West Jefferson, North Carolina, only a few miles from the AT and the Blue Ridge road. Tom picked us up after the superbowl (which we watched at a bar in Marion, VA at a great pub connected to the gas station we got dropped of at by our ride). We are staying in a cozy camper with Berkeley's art hanging all around us. Their daughter Aila is a cutie and the house is warm. I stepped outside this afternoon and could smell the wood fire smoke and saw snow begin to fall. Now we are in a [View Full Entry]

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Stayed with my mama and scott. They had just built a new bed and got a new mattress and linens - you wouldn't think allergies would be a problem. Well just ask Trav - coughing and sneezing every time we lay down to sleep. Got some work with Scott doing odd jobs like putting up walls in the basement, resealing a roof, painting a porch, ripping up floors and so forth. Matt and Marcella got married and the old gang got together. We met my friends for happy hours and Travis embroidered patches while i read my stack of library books. [View Full Entry]

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Met the family. Did the christmas thing. Met the friends. [View Full Entry]

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Went to visit old friends and relax after the excitement of Colorado [View Full Entry]

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I moved back to Colorado and Travis and I prepared for having the Tipi. We finished what he had been working on while i was away and leveled the land in the sand pit Trav had built out of old telephone beams. We also built a nice wood storage shed outside of where the Tipi door would be placed facing East. The Tipi arrived and we learned how to heat and ourselves and through trial and error we experimented with three heat sources. Waking up to silhouettes of the windmill and falling asleep to owls were among some of my favorite [View Full Entry]

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