An Amish family moved down the road from my folks in 1992. I was in college at the time. Since then, three of their children have built houses in the neighborhood, and several other families have settled in the general area. So, I am acquainted with several Amish people, and know the local family quite well.

I'll also add the caveat that Amish people depend on English people (that is their name for all non-Amish Americans) for lots of things, including medical technology, roads, long distance transportation, and yes, our banks. I've heard that some Amish communities are self financed, that is, all borrowing is within the community. But, my sense is that most Amish communities, and at least the one closest to my home, borrow money from the bank just like you and I do. And, this recent credit crunch has also shown that some Amish over extend themselves just like the rest of us.

But, for the most part, Amish people are very self reliant. With the exception of their shoes, and male Sunday hats, pretty much everything they wear is made at home. A lot of what they eat is raised at home either in the barn, in the garden, or shot in the woods. Yes, you do see Amish shopping at the local grocery stores, but they aren't buying Doritos. A substantial part of their commerce is done within the community. They buy buggies, tarps, shoes, tools, building materials, cloth, and other necessities from Amish vendors. You do see them shopping at Wal Mart, but they're not buying a flat screen TV. My guess is that most Amish men who work away from home make somewhere in the 25K per year range, and manage, with their wives who make nothing away from the home, to care for, clothe and feed 6-12 children. They live cheap.

There is a "buy local" and "eat local" movement among some in our society. But, most of us don't live up to it. And, I'm certainly not suggesting that everyone make their own clothes, and grow and can 80% of what we eat, and, I really like my car, electricity and indoor plumbing. But, it seems that if more of us tried to be a bit more self-reliant, a bit closer to home on mores stuff, and a bit more neighborly, we'd be a bit better off.

DW texted me the other day to let me know that DR was on a station I don't normally listen to. I tuned in and listened a while. I hadn't listened to him in probably 5 years. It was nice to hear him again.

I got a text message from our renter yesterday. She asked about our asking price and taxes and insurance. No offer, and it doesn't matter until there is an offer, but it is a step.

We got our rent check yesterday. It must have crossed in the mail with the eviction notice. Part of me feels we jumped the gun and should have had a couple more days patience. Part of me says "Rent is due on the first of the month, dammit!"

My daughters have a couple of laying hens. We got them (I'm thinking) last August. Late summer anyway. When the weather is nice, we pasture them under an mobile coop that is open to the ground. I move the coop every second or third day to give them fresh pasture. The grass looks nearly destroyed by time the coop is moved. But, a few weeks later it comes back greener and thicker than the surrounding grass. Natural fertilizer! So yesterday I had the bright idea to place the coop over our not yet planted garden. In addition to fertilizing the garden, they're doing a nice tillage job with their scratching and pecking.

We're heading to my in-laws today to celebrate Easter. Whether you celebrate Easter, or Passover or nothing at all, I hope you have a pleasant weekend!

I'm guessing most of you have heard about the Mega Millions jack pot - $500 million. I don't play the lottery, so I'm not familiar with Mega Millions. I have no idea how many numbers you play out of how many numbers total, but I'm guessing there are a lot of numbers to choose from.

So this "historic" jack pot has been on the news a lot over the past couple of days. It was being discussed on the morning show I listen to on the way into work. I was listening to the segment where the financial guy comes on and updates world wide market activities. His quote on the Mega Millions jackpot - (okay so maybe I'm not quoting him verbatim, this is from memory, but it's close: "The lottery is the world's most punitive tax. Fortunately, it's only levied on those who aren't very good at math."

Sums up my opinion pretty well.

A couple people asked me to expand a bit on my maple syrup entry – so here we go.

My great-great-great grandparents settled what the family farm in 1882. The original farm was 80 acres, including 8 ½ acres of sugar maple. GGG Grandpa George produced syrup from about 30 trees – enough for family use, and a bit for trading for household goods. George’s three sons expanded the operation to include all 8 ½ acres. My grandfather farmed from the mid 40’s to the 80’s, expanded the farm to 200 acres, and continued maple production. My dad continued the maple operation, but all of the farm land is now rented out.

The current operation consists of about 350 trees, and 700 “taps”. A tap is the individual hole drilled into the tree. Some of the bigger trees are tapped three times, and the smaller trees are tapped once. The average tree is tapped twice. Each tree needs to be tapped new each season. The hole in the tree heals over, and cannot be used again. We start the season at the beginning of March. We’ve tapped as early as about Feb. 26, and as late as about Mar. 5. We have a gas powered drill, with a 7/16 bit. It takes 7-8 hours, with two people working to tap our woods.

Until 8 years ago, each of the taps had an individual bucket that needed to be collected by hand every day that the sap would run. Then we took a great step forward, and put in a plastic tubing system. Now, all but about 15 trees are on the tubing system. This saves a tremendous amount of labor. It has also increased yield by about 15-20%. Very little sap is now lost to spillage, or rain contamination.

The sap comes out of the tree at a sugar concentration of about 2-2.5%. The sap needs to be boiled down to a 67% sugar content. We have a specially manufactured maple evaporator that is fueled by wood. Others use fuel oil or propane. On average, it takes 40 gallons of raw sap to make 1 gallon of finished syrup. This amount varies throughout the season. At the beginning of the season, it takes about 35 gallons of sap to one gallon of syrup, and at the end of the season to ratio is closer to 50:1. A way to visualize that is that a 5 gallon bucket of sap will boil down to a pint of syrup.

Last season, we took another technological step forward, and purchased a reverse osmosis (RO) system. The RO removes about 40% of the water from the raw sap, before we begin the boiling process. The RO concentrate boils down much more quickly, and saves a lot of fuel.

A season may last anywhere from two to seven weeks. The end of the season is driven by weather. When the trees start to bud new leaves, the season is over.

This season was a short one, because of the unseasonably warm temperatures. An average year will yield 160-175 gallons of finished syrup. In 2011 we produced 230 gallons, and this year 120 gallons.
We sell some of the syrup to friends and neighbors who have purchased nearly every year. I mentioned in my previous blog about opening the woods to the community. DW has begun marketing on the internet. Mom and dad still travel to flea markets and community festivals. It’s our hope that by time DW and I take over completely that we will not need to sell at festivals and flea markets.

We gross anywhere between $7K and $10K, and expenses run at about $6K. So, not a lot of money. Plus, once you figure in our time, we work for peanuts. It’s a labor of love, really. A hobby that doesn’t cause us to go broke. We sold $2,500 of product this past weekend at the home school tour and community open house.

If I can figure out how to upload some pictures, I will.

My family produces maple syrup. I don't think I've ever blogged about that before, probably because we don't make very much money at it.

DW also home schools the kids. I don't think I've blogged about that either.

For the past four years, on the third Friday in March we open up our woods to local home school kids and offer an educational tour. I use the term local loosely because we usually have families from up to 80-100 miles away participating.

So, today is the day. We run two sessions, the AM session from 10 to noon, and the PM session from 2 to 4. We have 175 parents and kids scheduled for the morning and 45 scheduled for the afternoon. We'll have 5 stations this year, hosted by me, DW, my mom, my dad, and 9 yo DD1 will give it a shot by hosting her own station for the first time today. We've got about 107 gallons canned, and ready to be sold, and these home school families sure do buy the syrup.

Tomorrow we open up the woods to the community. Four years ago when we tried the open house for the first time, we had 700 people trudge through the woods. Each year since that number has dwindled, but we have a lot of fun with it. We'll see how successful we can be on St. Patty's day. We always serve pancakes with fresh maple syrup during the open house. My aunt makes Mickey Mouse pancakes for the kids. Tomorrow, she'll make 4 leaf clovers.

The open house usually leads to good sales too. Last year, the trees didn't run well until the second half of March, and we sold out of our entire inventory by time the weekend was over.

DW had the ideas for the home school tour and open house. Prior to that, my parents (and grand parents before) sold the syrup chiefly at local festivals and flea markets. We've found it to be much more efficient and effective to bring people to the woods and sell directly to them.

This is the 130th year that my family has produced syrup from the woods. I represent the 5th generation. We tap about 350 trees in 8 1/2 acres. Small potatoes compared to larger operations that tap thousands of trees, but it's a great family tradition.

...but I just need to mention ... about the NCAA tournament bracket... GO MICHIGAN STATE! I'm grad, and no fair weather fan. We're a #1 seed!

And the Big 10 as a whole has a really nice presence in the tournament.

I'll make this financial by mentioning that I don't plan to bet on any of the games. OK that works.

GO GREEN!

It snowed here last night. Actually, it's still snowing. The window guy was supposed to start today, but he cancelled. I'm not sure if he plows snow, and that was the primary reason for the cancellation. But given that they're basement windows, and the windows are at ground level, it seams reasonable to put the job off until Monday.

I've been hearing that quote or some related derivative a lot lately.

Congress passed this or that tax cut - because it's an election year.

Congress passed this or that spending bill - becuase it's an election year.

Let's be perfectly clear about one thing - every second year since the costitution was ratifoed has been an election year. Sure, it's a presidential election year only every fourth year. But, the entire house of representatives, 1/3 of the sentate, a bunch of state governors and state level representives/senators are up for re-election every other year.

I'm sick of hearing that our tax money is being wasted, or elected officials are too timid to make tough decisions because it's an election year, or next year will be an election year. It's a perennial election cycle.

In my state of Michigan, state level elected officials were term limited about 20 years ago. That seems to have made things worse. State representatives and senators seem to have the feeling that they are in the legislature for a limited amount of time anyway, so they do anything but make tough decisions to insure their re-election.

Throw the bums out! But not my guy, because he's good! (Sarcasm intended)

I listen to a lot of radio. In this political season, you hear a lot about tax rates for "wealthy" Americans. "Wealthy" Americans seems to be defined as couples who make more than 200K per year.

My pet peeve is that yearly income isn't the same as wealth. Wealth is your net worth. I'm sure there's a strong correlation between income and net worth, but they're NOT the same thing.

If one family's yearly income is 100K. And a family down the road makes 50K per year, and another family down the road makes 200K per year, which one is wealthiest? It's impossible to know. The wealthiest family is the one with the greatest net worth.

It may very well be that the 65 year old couple who earned 50K per year, and saved every penny that they could are wealthier than the 30 somethings that gross 200K per year, and spend nearly all of it.

My point has nothing to do with tax policy, and which household should pay a greater marginal rate. It's the mis-use of the term "wealth" when discussing marginal rates on the news.

We had a night out. We took the girls to see Harry Potter. My mom stayed home with the boys. The tickets cost $21 for the four of us (I live in a rural area, and ticket prices are cheaper). DW bought popcorn and drinks, not sure what she spent. Plus I got a 50 cent refill on the popcorn.

We rarely go out to the movies. It was fun, we all really enjoyed it, plus the break from the younger children.