Day #8

Well let's review, Jack & Chuck boiled & took off 6 gallons of syrup on Thursday the 3rd during the day, no run to collect. Friday was very windy & scant run as well. Total syrup: 33 gallons.

Saturday the 5th was the biggest run of the season & a very long day! A small army showed up to collect at 1pm (this "group texting" people thing is working out!--til people wise up anyway!) and it still took over two hours to gather but collected 832 gallons-to be clear 12 from the Sandhill Rd. forest-we expect them to have there own evaporator by next year. Anyway was a ton of fun, rained the entire time and most buckets were pretty full which made for olympic training as we walked through mud. (We will be curious to see who responds to the next text!) Almost filled the trailer on each path. Chuck got a fire going after the first dump to help shorten the day. Used up the entire wood supply in the camp. The syrup lightened up as you can see on the serial bottles (one of these for kept for each 5 gallon bucket of finished product).

Highlights include: Mark has not yet wised up & gotten real boots. Ang & Adam aren't smart enough to know most respectable college students don't spend spring break in wet carharts.Nickie showed up ill, what a trooper. Muff & Gerri have decided their arms aren't quite what they used to be (or the trailer has gotten taller!). Jenny did not fall in mud much to Brad's dismay who is living for the next time this happens! Bob took his wet shirt off & hung to dry near evap. He left zippered sweatshirt on beneath carhart bibs and was amazed to find the metal on the zipper heats up considerably when you stand next to the fire. Jenny & Gerri enjoyed the "fire dance" tremendously.

Big thank you to Mark, Susan, Jenny, Kevin, Nathan, Caleb, Ted, Angela, Adam & Nickie from the natives who would have been hours longer doing this alone! Chuck, Bob, Cody & Charlie finished boiling around midnight. Snowed a couple of inches since the sun went down. Thanks to Cathy for chili for supper. Experimented with sausage & venison in the fire pit. Jack canned off a little syrup in the evening at the house. Total sap: 2,656. Total Syrup:53 gallons. Notice all the little elves on the far side of the mud hole. The 2nd pictures show people who were not yet soaked & still happy. Sorry, Nickie couldn't resist your enthusiasm in pic #3.The 4th picture down shows the process of filtering the syrup just after taken off the evaporator.