Tuesday February 23, 2016
Day #7

Bob sent out a text that he thought there was likely enough to gather ....but he is still in the sick bay...so he just threw an offer out there to whomever would bite on a cold walk. Dale, Dean, Adam, Katie, Muff, Gerri and eventually Brad gave it a try. We moved through the woods at a pretty good clip, the south path yielded 140 gallons so Dean and Dale dumped Wallie and joined the rest on the north path. It was really chilly on the north side of the woods again, Gerri only saw one wind tipped bucket tonight thankfully. Half way through the north path we picked up speed as dark was clearly gonna beat us through the woods. We got a little workout tonight as there ended up being about 380 gallons. We drained it into the lower tank and called it a day.We did miss Chuck's warm fire, but all were happy to head home to warmer territory. 31 degrees when we quit.



Brad has been bugging his parents about purchasing a light for the top of Wallie, he has a specific model in mind. He was quick to point out that the leg we break in the dark is going to be far more expensive than the $30 dollar light he has recommended! Adam, Brad and Dale explored the light situation on Wallie's front, apparently we were not using all the lights we had....we will know next time. At one point Gerri realized Katie had not been seen or heard from in a few minutes.....Adam did not seem real concerned and Brad thought it was ok as long as we came back with a majority of the people who left the camp.Feelin the love. 

We stopped to pose for a picture in front of Wallie before putting things away. Between the 7 of us, we figured out the generator, the extra lights, what to do with the gathering buckets , recorded the sap on the wall etc. We made a pact NOT to tell Bob a few details of our evening trek. This provided us with a few good laughs. The water fairy brought new bottles tonight. Appreciated by all but Dean who is part camel. As we pulled out of the drive at 7:10 pm, Bob was texting to see WHAT we were doing so long. He woke up long enough to interrogate Brad about all the details of the evening....life is about choices...he could have washed the dog and missed the Q & A.  


Tomorrow sounds like an interesting weather day.Be exciting to see what happens! The sap was very actively running as we gathered tonight !

Thanks to our hardy helpers!!

Total sap today: 380 gallons
Total sap to date: 1260 gallons
Total syrup today: Zip
Total syrup to date: 14 gallons

 This is a picture of Bob toasting a bun with his torch earlier in the week.