I’ve made maple syrup but not to any great extent. If you do it in your house you can get the walls etc. pretty sticky if you do a lot. You need a sugar shack so you can do it there.
about the skunks- it would be good to have some hydrogen peroxide and baking soda on hand in case of spraying. If you mix it with a little dish soap it really makes an antidote for the smell but don’t try to bottle it for later because it can blow up.
I love black walnuts and have picked to nutmeat out of the HARD shells. The walnuts are also good for boiling traps in. I shared some of mine with a trapper. We don’t have the trees here. Its probably too cold but someone gave me some.
Ham radio is excellent for communication and can be used with solar panels. The trick is to use the right antenna setup. People from your club would surely be willing to help you with that.
Cinn Grammy- how are you coming along with your Morse code? I’ve been doing word training. I’m told that you will start getting syllables, then words instead of just letters and it can happen suddenly. I’m just starting to get the syllables. I was just too tired to do it for a while when I had to remove a LOT of snow, but finally its melting. Yesterday I went out and broke some ice up with a spud on the driveway. It was about four inches thick. Still can’t see out the front windows but banks are going down.