Saturday March 22, 2014 (gathering #9)

Fun and busy day. It was pretty cool but once everyone was in motion we warmed up and discussed that we might have dressed too warmly. We did nothing in the woods Friday but presume it was a good running day as Sandhill Rd. had 22 gallons Friday afternoon.

Jack is back! Good to have another pair of hands. We are confident he will enjoy the weather for the next few days, NOT!A little cooler than 75 degrees.

 

Gerri, Bob, Gary & Jack picked up just the middle swath around 2:45. This was enough to fill the evaporator and get a fire started. The Turner family, the  Brugnone family, Gary, Brad, Gerri, Kelsey, Evan, Adam, Vickie, Chad and Bob then did the whole woods. Some buckets were half full, others a couple of inches. The north side of the woods has some snow remaining and these buckets had an understandable lower yield.

Somebody has to work!





Focusing very hard on something...................

Serious  concentration!

We spent the early part of the day with friends & family in tribute to our friend John Beiler. Dale & Karen brought pizza from town and were greeted by a hungry crew! We enjoyed fabulous brownies from the Turners. We had subs (thx to vickie) and salad and smores later in the evening. Most lingered a bit tonight along with the complete Oney family (including Kaleb and Nathan and Bruce) enjoying  an evening of laughter with us. (Honestly not sure what was so funny, but laughing is good almost universally!) Kelsey toasted marshmallows with supervision from too many people. A rousing game of Uno was apparently enjoyed given the amount of noise in the camp. Sue visited for a bit.


The Oney Family Selfie: while Kelsey is making them smores, they were filling her phone with visions of the Oney family . Entertaining them is not hard.

Bob found a new rock. He swears he has never seen this rock before and it perplexes him! We discussed that it could be granite, an old culvert pipe or a petrified bucket. Bob finds none of this funny.

 

Brad worked on the lane removing some of the top layer of "goup" which did seem to help some. Chuck sorted and split a lot of wood tonight trying to find that magic combo for the hottest fire.

Thanks to everyone for your help on the largest run to date!


Total Sap Today: 470 gallons + 34 Sandhill
Total Syrup Today: 11 gallons
Total Sap To Date: 2885 + 159 Gallons Sandhill
Total Syrup To Date: 62 gallons