Success!!

We did it. We survived another season. I think this one was more
difficult than last year after having some time to digest everything.
We have an awesome following of very loyal customers – thank you to
each and every one of you. You made it in spite of bad weather
conditions, muddy soup for parking and wet festival grounds.

Also, a huge thank you to our vendors who attended the festival. We
had several new faces this year and we enjoyed everyone. We have a
great group of people and you guys feel like a part of our family
every year.

Last but not least, a big thank you to all of our staff members.
Everyone worked SO HARD this year. It isn’t an easy job and everyone
was just wonderful.

The open house was a great success!! The weather was pretty nasty on
Friday. We got a ton of rain, resulting in flash flooding in the area.
We had a river running through our Sugarhouse at 11:30pm on Friday
evening. The little ditch that runs along the east end of the
Sugarhouse jumped the banks and ran right into the dining room area.

The rain on Friday continued into Saturday morning. Our crowds were
fairly small on Saturday, but we still had several brave customers
make it out to the farm. The sun came out in the afternoon and
everything finally started drying out. You could feel spring in the
air. The flowers started blooming, the grass started turning green,
and the birds were singing.

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous. We hit 70* with sunshine all day. We
had a decent crowd. Definitely much smaller than a regular festival,
but we still filled up two fields with parked cars and had a steady
stream of customers all day. Kids were playing in the creek and
everyone was greatly enjoying soaking up the sunshine. Mason ran
around all day with my mom. I think he wore her out!!

The warm weather is beautiful, but it means an end to our season. The
trees are getting ready to bud out and without freezing temperatures
at night, our sap collection is over for the year. We still have a
little bit more sap to boil, so we will probably have one more boil
this week. We will start pulling taps and cleaning our tubing system
this weekend. We will hopefully have 3-4 crews in the woods this
weekend and get everything finished and cleaned up for the season. As
much as I love the farm, I think all of us are a little burned out
right now. Late nights and working every weekend catches up to all of
us eventually.

After we get everything cleaned up and shut down for the year, we will
probably take a little break from working at the farm. We will
obviously still be up there at least once a week to mail orders,
bottle syrup, and mow grass all summer, but now it’s time for some
family time!!

Robert, Mason and I enjoy camping all summer. We have a 27’ travel
trailer and we love exploring campgrounds in the area. We ride bikes,
go hiking, swimming, and build bonfires. Mason is already asking when
we are going camping for the first time and we need to go shopping and
get him a new bike this year. He has already decided that it has to be
a BLUE bike. I am so excited about this summer. Mason is going to have
so much fun. I’m sure it is going to be impossible to keep him inside
or wearing shoes all summer!!

Jen shows her horse all summer. Her first show is next week in Aiken,
SC. Robert, Mason and I travel with her as much as possible to attend
her local shows. Most of the show grounds also have wonderful
campsites (our favorite is the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington,
Kentucky). She has big plans for this summer so send her good luck
vibes!!

I’ll still update everyone with our summer outings and business
updates. We will be having several more open house weekends this year
so check back for dates when they are announced. Now, go outside and
enjoy the beautiful weather!!