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posted by Jonathan on 03/6/12

    Mom and I walked out of Wal-mart slower than usual. Not because of extra groceries, but for a very different reason. The winter was coming to an end resulting in drastically-fluctuating temperatures. This caused the sap of the Maple Trees to be pushed through the cambium, which when collected and boiled down produces syrup.

     Though we have collected sap for some years now, every year the process becomes more refined. But this year was drastically different. The sole reason was because of a home-school family we met through the Salem Farmers’ Market. This family went all out when it came to the maple syrup making. They tapped hundreds of trees and bought a commercial boiler to process the sap. They agreed to process our sap with their equipment if we could get enough sap to make it worth it. So the challenge was on, and this was the reason Mom and I were pushing 30 gallons of distilled water out of Wal-Mart. Not necessarily for the water, but for the jugs.

     In a couple of days we had a total of 60 taps in maple trees all over our our neighbors’ properties and a couple on our own. This was over four times what we had ever done before! How were we going to gather it all, bring it all back to the house, and take it to the Colemans?

     The answer came through a blessing, a willing younger brother. Together we were able to collect about 389 gallons of sap, bring it all back to the house, (with the help of a car) filter it into 30 gallon drums, they had loaned us, and take it over to the Colemans for boiling.

     It’s so exciting to see how each year expands beyond what we ever thought possible, especially this year. But so is the way of God’s work in our lives. He always has a goal set before us, though it takes much patience and a willingness to expand our borders. I have learned much more than just how to process lots of sap. And I hope this encourages you not only to do the challenging, but to do the impossible!

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posted by Jonathan on 07/30/11

When the pastor of the Reynoldsville Baptist Church asked for a overview video of the FEW Conference, we decided to put together a video to summarize the weekend. We hope you are encouraged as much as we were!

Untitled from Jonathan Staddon on Vimeo.

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posted by Jonathan on 10/13/10

Last month we had the privilege of hosting the Stelzl family. One of the days they were here it rained so we all took a trip to school–A one room school house that is. It was fascinating to see the differences between present day schools and old fashioned schools. Here are ten differences we observed . . .

1. Discipline.
2. Chalk slates vs paper.
3. Older helped younger.
4. Encouraged to read Christian books.
5. Wooden toys vs plastic.
6. Students expected to quote scripture.
7. Heated by a wood stove.
8. Dressed appropriately. 
9. Children brought their own lunch or sometimes went home for lunch. 10. Children walked / rode horses to school. 

We all enjoyed the field trip very much. This was only part of a very encouraging time with the Stelzls.

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posted by Jonathan on 05/12/10

Ring Ring! We all ran to the phone, eager to find out if it was the Bates family. And it was! They informed us that they were leaving…. Now we only had a little time left for final preparation. We all quickly got back to making beds preparing food. The hours flew by as we checked off our to-do list. They had been invited to West Virginia for Mothers Day, and we were privileged to be their hosts. Three of the Bateses were coming in from Illinois with James and Daniel, while the other 16 were coming from their home in Tennessee. Nineteen guests for three days! Could we do it? Of course we could. The Staddon Brigade swung into action and with God’s blessing and lots of cooperation it worked out wonderfully. 

James, Daniel, and the three oldest Bateses stopped at Hocking Hills State Park on their way home which gave us some time for family night with our Grandparents.

After supper and Rook our Grandparents had to leave. Just after saying good-bye and seeing them disappear out of our driveway we heard somebody honking; James and Daniel had arrived! After greeting them and showing them where they would stay we played a few games of chess before going to sleep for the night.

The rest of the week flew by as we played ping pong, hiked, went bird-watching, felled trees, rode bikes, played chess and many other exciting games. On Saturday we were invited to  attend the 40th anniversary celebration for the church that the Bates family’s pastor had started in Clarksburg. At the service the Bateses were such an encouragement as there whole family joyfully sang together. We were blessed and encouraged to have the Bates family visit. Their joy and dedication to the Lord shone through as they diligently took care of younger siblings and helped out in innumerable ways. Praise the Lord for such a Godly example.

More pictures from James coming soon!

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posted by Jonathan on 03/22/10

Because of such a long hard winter, the weather didn’t permit us to tap our Maple trees till March instead of February! On the other hand because of all the snow, more water was in the ground causing the trees to have more sap flow in them.

This year we tried an experiment tapping Red Maple and Sugar Maple to see if their was any difference in taste or looks. We wanted to tap twice as many Red Maple as Sugar Maples because we had heard that Red wasn’t as sugar-concentrated. Unfortunately, the store we ordered our spouts from was out of stock. Michael, David and I ended up putting twelve taps in Sugar Maples and eight taps in Red Maples on the 13th of March. Last year we left the taps in for about four weeks and harvested just under 100 gallons of sap. But this year we left them in for only one week and we harvested around 150 gallons of sap! Though two big sap producing Sugar Maple trees fell down last spring in a wind storm, we managed to find replacements.

When the harvesting time had ended we calculated that the Red Maple trees produced about 5 gallons per tree totaling 40 1/2 gallons of sap, boiling down at a rate of 80 to 1. The Sugar Maple averaged 9 1/3 gallons per tree totaling 112 gallons of sap, boiling down at a rate of 55 to 1. After 99 hours of boiling every drop of the150 gallons of sap it all came out to equal 3 gallons of pure maple syrup.

This process would have been impossible if it wasn’t for everybody’s help hauling sap to the house, taking shifts through one night (because of the overload of sap), and watching the sap boil so that I could take short breaks.

Proverbs 13:19a
“The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul”

4 Comments » | posted in Possessing the Land