Sugar Beets

My newest experiment is complete.  I grew sugar beets for the first time and turned them into syrup. 
Did you know sugar beets are white?  I found that out--

This is my harvest.  Somewhere around 35 sugar beets.

Took the tops off of the beets and fed them to my buck.  Then washed up the beets and sliced them somewhat thin.
Put them in a pot with enough water to cover and boiled them until they were good and tender.

After straining out the beet pulp, I put the liquid in a pan and simmered it until it became thick and syrup-like.
The beets were quite sweet.  Here's the finished product from all of those beets.

Less than a pint of syrup.  It's sweet, but it has a bit of a beet flavor to it.  Not sure if I like it.  Anyone else know how to process beets?  Is there a way to get it to taste a bit better?
Well, there are the results of my latest experiment.  Now it's out to bring home hay bales.
From Glory Farm

Barn Update

Honey has been working on the barn diligently.  I help from time to time, but he's doing most of the work.  The slab is poured.

And the Great Minnesota Gateway Arch is underway.

We have our dumping flatbed underneath to work as our scaffolding.  I'm not sure how we're going to cap the ends yet.  I'm excited about having a clean barn!  Hoping I can keep it that way.
Last picture is of my brother.  I'm posting it for those college kids of mine who missed his annual visit.

Have  a good evening.  Lord bless.
From Glory Farm

One Day Vacation

We don't take many breaks here on the farm.  Yesterday, because we're part of a 4-H club, we took the whole day off and went to the "big" city to do some fun stuff.  Our 4-H club decided to spend some of the club money and go to Duluth.
First we went rock climbing-indoors...

Next we went down to Canal Park and had our picnic lunch. It was cloudy, gray and cold, with a wind coming off of the lake. Brrrr.  But the kids had fun.

The lighthouse in the background is at the end of the breakwall for the canal.  Lots of tourists and lots of seagulls.

Here's the lift bridge.  I think it's probably Duluth's most famous landmark.
Then we went out on the Vista Star, a sightseeing vessel that took us out into the lake and around the inner harbor.

A picture of Duluth from the boat.  The clock tower is the old Central High School.

This is just a picture of an ore dock.  It's where they load the taconite pellets that come down from the Iron Range by rail.
I was totally wiped when we finally got home. 
It's nice to do something out of the ordinary.  It's also nice to get back into your old routine.  One day's vacation is all I need for now.

Blacksmithing

I wanted to share some pictures of our blacksmithing demo done at our 4-H meeting.  This is my little friend, Nicki, doing the demo.  She was amazing.

This is a picture of us getting set up.

Here she's getting the fire good and hot.  Notice the little one with the purple jacket.  How happy is she???

She showed them how to shape the iron and make hooks of different kinds.  I learned a lot.  :)
I think she inspired some of the member to look into blacksmithing a bit more. 
Thanks Nicki.

Putting up the Barn

Well, last week we started on the barn.  We're putting up a small 24'x28' quonsett ( spelling?) building.This will house our goats and provide a nice, new stanchion for our milk cow.

This is a view of our delapitated, 75 year old barn. It needs some major repair and since everything here is a work in progress, not sure when we'll get to it.
So here's the framing for the floor of the new barn--

The cement truck came this afternoon and we poured the floor.  I'll post later as we make some progress.