Opening day for the camp is a always a little stressful and full of extra jobs...today was no exception! Blessed to have lots of help today! Grateful when mother nature creates your first sap run on a weekend :)
The day started early for everyone as almost everybody had a commitment/activity/work this am.
Gerri stayed home and got lunch around (and turned the crock pot on for dinner) and dropped that off at the farm on her way out for the afternoon.
Kelsey and Evan got started about 11 am with odds and ends for the day. Evan finished making up some lids and Kelsey, with Muff's help, worked on cleaning out the milk tanks used to hold sap and scrubbing the evaporator.
Brad, Evan and Kelsey took Wally to the house to rinse out the sap tank and bring water back to rinse out the entire camp system ....the boys say that Kelsey got stuck upside down in the sap tank ..and that this would not happen if she went to the gym a little more!
Anyway....Muff helped to clean up the camp this afternoon as well. Rob and Laura stopped in today (with their dogs who were happy to have an adventure!) and ended up working a good bit of the day as well.
Kelsey , Rob and Laura finished tapping the last few trees and putting lids out and then finishing up the scrub on the evaporator pan.
Evan, Brad, Adam and Katie formed the chainsaw/logging crew that cleared the downed trees.
Meeting back at the camp, the weight lifting job for the day belonged to Evan, Brad, Adam and Rob as they moved the pans into place. (We lift the back pan up out of the sand when not in use). Brett and Molly arrived and finished wrenching the pipes back together (loosened them up to clean! ) and caulked the fire box.
By 4:15 the gang above headed out to the woods to gather with the addition of Maddie B. , Erin, Curt and Tinleigh.......
and Bob remained at the camp waiting to hear if he would need to make a fire. Brad phoned back by the middle of the south path that this would be a run worthy of a fire.
They eventually collected 600 gallons of sap...pretty good for a day with little to no sunshine and ....even though the thermometer hit the 40's, ......felt really chilly.
Dale and Karen stopped in to see what was going on and perhaps see what Bob was up to..haha. The camp felt a bit damp tonight. We enjoyed supper and stayed rather close to the firebox tonight.
T and Gerri played their favorite "board" game....
Bob gave a brief inservice on the pumps and moving sap from one tank to the other....the only attendees at his lecture were Adam and Brad..hope they got it.
Bob got his carharts in a crinkle tonight as he could not find his preferred stainless ladle. He was certain that this had been taken home to be deep cleaned when the camp was tidied up...something he frowns upon. Kelsey found it, pretty much right where it should be...so the kids called him Jack the rest of night. Even Jack has to admit........ that is funny.
The conversation turned to the weather expected tomorrow ...very windy. Unsure how that will come into play...but at 9 pm the taps were dripping pretty steadily.
First syrup off for the year!
Sap Today: 600 gallons
Sap To Date: 600 gallons
Syrup Today: 5 gallons
Syrup To Date: 5 gallons
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