Wednesday March 19, 2014 (gathering #7)

 

Lovely weather today with features of rain, sleet, thunder topped off by blustery winds. Conveniently also a day when many of us had other commitments outside of sap patrol!

Chuck discovered 32 gallons in the Sandhill run & phoned  Bob on his way home from school.  He was a little nervous about how much might be in the woods tonight and sent out the usual text and a couple of personal invitations to ensure he & Chuck were not lonely.

 Jenny & Kevin still answer their phone (they will learn) and came only to be drenched by the end of the south path. Adam joined in time to enjoy the sleet portion of the weather drama turning back toward the camp on the South path. Muff and friends Oscar and Rosie came to help as well.

Adam is mourning the loss of yesterday's snowman.

Brad & Gerri felt really bad leaving poor Adam with a lot of sap, and well,... Bob. However, we got over it. He obviously had a little time on his hands. Bob was critical of his use of the stump,  feeling that he is misrepresenting the size of his snow creation. Others felt the snowman seemed a little less deranged than yesterday's version. Wonder how many days we can keep making these? (photo contributed by wet field editor)

440 gallons were collected in all. The syrup is coming off very slowly. There has been a little trouble the last 2 nights keeping the firebox temperature under control. The heavier wood (from the barn floor) takes quite some time to heat up and is a little harder to maintain. The sugar content of the sap has also dropped off. They are thinking of calling it quits with 9 inches in the upper tank and a fair amount of sap in the lower tank as of 10 pm. Thinking they may run the sap into the lower, cooler tank for the night and deal with this issue tomorrow. Muff was busy cleaning up crock pots and the like.

The lane is beyond description. Despite what may be the best truck-pooling efforts ever, it just keeps getting deeper. We strategically placed a truck for Rob to come look at the logs Walle drug out in the morning. The new barn project appears to be coming along nicely. Between the mud, stuff from the former barn, the barn crew & equipment and the syrup crew traffic-it is a mess! Welcome home tomorrow Jack!

Total sap today: 440+ 32 Sandhill
Total syrup today: 5 gallons (or so)
Total sap to date: 2240 gallons & 114 sandhill
Total syrup to date: 39 gallons