February 12, 2017

SUNDAY

So much for a day of rest. Wow. Wow. Wow. 

As a fun aftermath of yesterday, the most FAQ last evening and this am ...."where is the Aleve?" Today's community bonding moment involved recognition that everyone, perhaps except Brad, was feeling the aftermath of Saturday's outing.

Sunday actually started a little on the slow side as we regrouped at the breakfast table. Gerri stayed behind to homestead a bit while everyone else met Muff at the woods and finished cleaning the tanks, evaporator and firing up the generator etc.

 Kelsey and Bob checked buckets before breakfast.







 
Nobody really said much, but it can presumed that getting Wally ready did not go smoothly as this seemed to take a lot of time and Evan and Brad's carharts looked like they rolled in something. 





 

About 1 pm a large contingent of faithfuls (Susan B., Katie, Adam, Nancy, Ted, Kevin, Jenny, Kaleb, Gary, Ben, Dale, Gerri & Brad) made a "quick" trip around a the middle of the woods for 180 or so gallons, just enough to quickly return to the camp so Bob could get started boiling. Buckets looked a little fuller than he expected this am and he was having visions of midnight dance through his head.
 
Gathering essentially went off without much of a hitch with the exception of having to cut out of the east path as the tank was full. 735 gallons were found with 20 collected off of the original short path we started on (about an hour later) for a total of 755 gallons. This is the 6th largest sap amount (at least in the last 6 years in which we have tracked it daily) to ever be collected. This is the earliest tap date since we have recorded them in 2001.  The next closest, in 2012, we tapped trees on Feb 13 and 14th. Bob says he never recalls ever before, and we have no record of in recent times, getting this much sap within 24 hours of tapping. 

Everyone ate, rested and visited  (we laughed that we went through about 60 bottles of water in 2 days haha!!.)

On the downside.....the sap is not terribly sweet. 2% sugar content in the sap yesterday and 1.5%  today. Bob is not crazy about the flavor. The first syrup came off at 4:30 pm this afternoon. Struggled to find a bucket to put it in.

As we have not tapped the soft maples the last couple of years, and tapped some new trees this year, we ran out of buckets. Bob has been to Lima once in the last week on a plastic run and may need to go again as we need more canning & for the newly tapped territory on Twp Rd 178. Adam took some straggler supplies home tonight to see how far he could get. Sandhill Rd is just behind...and they do not care....and they may not try to catch up.

Chuck returned to splitting wood and firing with typical complaints about the lead time of his notification of such activities. Our favorite canine neighbor Bruce Oney came for a visit.....Lola always enjoys this...but has not yet recovered from yesterday. Kevin wasted a couple of minutes of all of our lives explaining a hillbilly plan to fix the roof on the camp (which has now moved closer to the top of the priority list).

 Our best specimen yet for a lightening strike.

First Fire of the Season. 









Total Sap Today:755 gallons
Total Sap To Date: 755 gallons
Total Syrup Off Today: 13 gallons (as of 2240)
Total Syrup Off To Date: 13 gallons