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"You can have it Almanzo," Father said. Almanzo could hardly believe his ears. Father gave him the heavy half-dollar.
"It's yours," said Father. You could buy a sucking pig with it, if you want to. You could raise it, and it would raise a litter of pigs, worth four, five dollars apiece. Or you can trade that half-dollar for lemonade, and drink it up. You do as you want, it's your money.

― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy
<circa 1866-1867, Almanzo was 10 years old>

There's another story in Farmer Boy that I should relate next week, which in my view goes to show how much we've devolved as a culture over the past 150 years.

But in this story, Father is teaching his son the difference between spending and investment. At age 10. As the books No More Mr. Nice Guy and Iron John say better than I ever could, since the Industrial Revolution we've come to miss more and more the presence of men in the lives of boys.

Changes happening at the website

Primal Woods

One of the decisions stemming from an earlier big decision to leave the social media giants, was to find a new home for our video content. All new videos will be on Vimeo, and over time the older videos will be uploaded to Vimeo as well. Links to our Vimeo channel were added to the bottom of this Newsletter, and at the top of the website as indicated. I also uploaded the "Pure Maple Syrup - The Why and How" video to Vimeo. It will be a slow process, as Google's tentacles are powerful and far-reaching. Step-by step. By popular demand I also moved the BLOG back to the main menu on the website. See the Red arrows in the picture above.

The snow keeps coming

Portable Sawmill Services I have to say that I'm a bit surprised; there are probably four or five early season jobs making their way down through the hopper. With the addition of Air and Kiln Drying services late last year, late April and May are going to be very busy months, cutting lumber and building out the Kiln Drying capacity. Meanwhile, the mill sits and accumulates more snow!

No end in sight to the sub-freezing temperatures

Pure Maple Syrup I wouldn't be surprised, based on the weather we're having, if the season extended a week or more into April. Last year we got a late start and saw a early finish, but for some reason I'm not thinking that's going to be the case this year. We've a lot more snow than last year, and colder temperatures. A guy can hope. This week the last of the 2020 Whiskey Barrel Aged Pure Maple Syrup was filtered and bottled. There's a bit more on the shelf now, but get it while it lasts, there won't be more until fall. I made a video of the process, significantly condensing the material from the five hours it took me to about 20 minutes. Still a bit long; my editing skills are certainly not what they should be. But, I consider this to be a "how-to" video rather than entertainment. Syrup geeks unite!

At a high level the process for making syrup is simple; evaporate water off of the sap until you reach 66-67% sugar, i.e. syrup. The devil is in the details.

Buy Pure Maple Syrup Now!

During this cold spell it's been pretty much every other day in the woods keeping up with the OWB demand. I've identified several more standing dead or deadfall for near future use.

Homesteading Did you know...according to the New York Times, the number of citizens in "farm occupations" in 1820 were 72% of the population? That means that per person in a farm occupation 1.4 people were fed. That's basically known as "subsistence farming." The number in 1850 was 64% or 1 to 1.56. In 1920 30.2%, or 1 to 3.3. The Industrial Revolution ran from 1750 to 1914, so that had something to do with it. But, WW I had a lot to do with it; nothing better than a World War to get men off the land and machinery onto it. According to the American Demographic History Chartbook: 1790 TO 2010, the number was 22.9% in 1940, 1 to 4.36; and 15.3%, or 1 to 6.54, in 1950. Thank you, WW II. By 1980 the farm population dropped to 2.5%, or 1 to 40, thank you Korean War and Vietnam. The last figure reported was in 2000, 1.1%, or 1 to 90.1. In 2010 the Census Bureau simple stopped measuring the number.

I read The Rise and Fall of Great Powers recently, basically a history of same over the course of the past 500 years. The author, Paul Kennedy, used five measurements of State power:

Military power, naturally
Economic power, to sustain the cost of the war effort, and to provide the necessary technologies for killing the other guys more efficiently than they kill us
Geopolitical
Internal cohesion, and last but not least,
Percent of the population engaged in farming, less being better in terms of State power

It's food for thought. Subsistence farming does not empower the State, and hence is a problem to be solved, which as a State we've done quite ably, for better or worse. For more on the impact of this depopulation of farms, read The Unsettling of America, by Wendell Berry. Speaking of the State, I weighed in with another opinion piece, a Blog post regarding the goingson in the political sphere; Dangerous Times. Regardless of which side you're on, if any, what's going on is not good.

In closing... The Goat pen and fencing project has been put off and put off, but it will be tackled this weekend. And I hope by Friday next to be able to report on a little Maple confection experiment Geri and I are planning to conduct.

All the best and warm regards,
John & Geri