Tuesday April 2, 2019

So Bob sent out a text on Sunday saying to plan on gathering on Monday April 1, guess that was an April's fools joke, ...honestly not sure what happened to that plan but that did not occur.

Today, Tuesday,  was a pretty day and warm, almost 60ish this afternoon. 

The sun was out a good bit of the day and a few of the trees had a nice sap run.There was still a snow cover on most of the grass this morning that melted slowly off over the course of the day.

Dale arrived to drive and Nancy, Melissa, Adam, Katie, Evan, Muff and Brad got started. Gerri arrived in time to start the north (early for her Nancy pointed out!) and they were later joined by Kelsey. We looked at the quality of the sap in the bucket and kept it or dumped it depending on the clarity...Brad always tastes the sap...but the rest of us used our noses and eyes in the hopes of not needing to live in the bathroom for the rest of the week.

We gathered 250 gallons and Adam brought about 30 gallons tonight..perhaps more than we thought.At 8 pm there was 11 inches in the upper storage tank...that is generally a good thing when you want to get bed on a "school" night.

The woods was muddy and difficult to walk tonight. Notice the jackets laying on the front of Wally by Dale's window, it was one of those nights when you were warm as long as you were moving, but quite cool out of the sun if you were not in high gear! Layers are always appropriate "woods attire". 

 We have decided however that the party is over and we pulled many of the taps while we walked tonight.

Discussion included confessions to Bob about what occurred here last Wednesday night when the 20 somethings were here alone. They were busy looking at the baseball game schedule tonight and talking about which games they would attend. Spring has sprung.





You can tell it is the end of the season due to the sharp deterioration in food quality and expectations. We had fried chicken tenders tonight with a side of licorice. And this seemed to satisfy everyone.






Each one of these sample bottles represents the contents of one storage unit of syrup (about 5 gallons), you can see how the quality changes as the season progresses. Generally, it darkens as the weather warms. The lighter syrup is more highly regarded and graded as the best. We do like the darker syrup however for cooking. 

The final gathering crew of 2019....Evan took the pic, Brad and Bob were uncooperative about attending the photo session. 

Total Sap Today: 250 plus 30 gallons

Total Sap To Date: 

Total Syrup Off Today:

TOtal Syrup Off To Date: