February 24, 2019

VERY, VERY WINDY DAY! 

We laughed this afternoon that we made the decision to gather this am in the wind and that this was possibly the worst family decision since hiking in Yellowstone without bear spray! (It is almost always a bad idea to go into the woods on a windy day as dead limbs or even trees, fall with the shifting treetop canopy.) Having more luck than sense this turned out ok...(Brad would like to go on record as stating that he voted to stay inside this am)

Evan and Kelsey checked buckets at 0800 and thought there was more sap than there was late yesterday afternoon....so as the wind at that time was not too bad, Bob sent out a text to meet at 9 am. They saw a pair of owls on their morning walk today..we have heard but not seen them.

(Gerri told Adam about this while we were boiling this afternoon and he recanted that somebody found an owl pellet while tapping Friday evening...and while he was thrilled...was getting cold and noted that it was getting mighty dark as this little discovery was analyzed!) 

Somewhere between Bob's text and 9 am, the wind picked up tremendously. (The issue this am is that the wind will likely get worse today, likely freezing temps by nightfall that will remain for days..so we were afraid if we did not get the sap in now, we might night get it in at all...or til it had set for days. Sap sitting for a period of time does darken/diminish the quality of the syrup.)


We were not in the woods for more than 3 minutes when Kelsey started making time out signs (could not hear due to the noise of the wind and of course Wally). A falling tree got her full attention! (Frightening fact..... good size tree, not that far away, nobody saw or heard it but her!) At that point we regrouped and decided it was about as far back as forward on this path and the Cleveland family could be seen arriving X 4 so we marched on.



Brad loaded the chain saw before we left assuming this might be an adventure, he and Evan got the tree cleared, a large Ash near the soft maple grove that held us up only a couple of minutes. Wally was too full to go on without dumping from the South path alone so we phoned to Bob to help empty the tank as quickly as possible.

The middle of the woods was still creepy today, but better than the south by far. Watched a few limbs fall but nothing more than a shower of bark hit anyone. The tank was again pretty full and had to head back to the camp to dump while the rest worked ahead, most all of the buckets were 30-60% full so you could not walk too far without stopping. Curtis arrived in time to lift buckets into the tank with Brad...does not often take two people to do so but helped today! 

Was sleeting and snowing a bit as we finished. 735 gallons in about an hour and 45 minutes!! That is a pretty good clip for our operation. The temperature when we started was 51 and 36 when we finished and it felt like it! There are still some patches of ice in the woods. 


We enjoyed pancakes, sausage and bacon and eggs, and fruit for lunch. 

We all agree the syrup tastes much better today then yesterday! The camp smelled great today....the maple smell coupled with a grill full of bacon was a nice combo!

This turned out to be the biggest sap run since march 30, 2015 and we noted that this was more sap this weekend than all of last February! 

Pastor Nicole called to report the parsonage yard buckets were blown all over the place...she gave it her best go to replace them...was not thinking too positively about them staying put! Thanks for trying!

Thanks to all who helped today...we will figure out what your hazard pay will be !! Brad, Adam and Bob shut the boiler down about 10pm. A long day!

Sap Today: 735 plus 30 gallons
Sap To Date:1380 gallons
Syrup Today: 24 gallons
Syrup To Date: 29 gallons