Wednesday February 19, 2020


Gerri arrived last at the camp tonight...as usual..and stood outside for a moment to take in the smell of the boiling sap and the gales of laughter coming from inside. These people were clearly enjoying themselves!

The weather took a dip for the cooler side today and although there was perhaps a small run we had no plans to collect today...especially since there was no room to put it... anywhere!

Brad has his priorities straight and headed from his morning classes to the grocery to get everything he thought he would need to get through the afternoon alone. A picture of his survival cart:

He started a fire in the evaporator at 1230 and said it took him until almost 3pm to start taking syrup off. There is usually a lead time of at least an hour from fire start to having syrup ready to take off but today the air is damp and boiling is a bit slower than typical.

The tanks are as full as we have seen them..especially both of them. Here is a picture taken last night.





Dinner included Brad's hot dogs, some pizza , a salad and various side dishes enjoyed by Jenny, Kevin, Kelsey,Evan, Brad, Adam, Katie (and Teddy) and Gerri. 

During said dinner Brad says a choice word and runs into the storage barn as fast as we've seen him move in some time....Adam flatly said after him.."Hey Brad...top tank is full might want to shut the pump off." The sap waterfall , photographed by Brad's sister , had already began. Brad expressed some dismay that Kelsey took his picture and watched him as tools were getting wet .....instead of helping him. Since nobody could stop laughing and Brad was "sapping wet" his complaints didn't dampen the mood for too many seconds. He spent the next 2 hours attempting to dry his flannel shirt by the fire box without igniting it. 

Bob took the night off last night and returned with fresh enthusiasm. Or got tired of hearing about what happened last night and decided to address it. He planned a super fun activity for the evening. He ran off copies of the aerial photo of the woods and passed them out. He asked everyone to draw a picture of the paths and label them. His summation of this project is that it is clear to him how differently everyone visualizes "where they are in the woods" and how to get from one place to another efficiently. Which always matters to Bob, and matters to nobody else unless it is getting dark.

The group took this project pretty serious... Brad working off in a corner by himself where he could concentrate, Katie labeled hers carefully, Evan sought some help from technology..........

Below is a composite of the attempts. Melissa will be asked to do one upon return. They cackled for some time about how jagged her concept must seem. Easy to make fun of her as she was absent. Cody and Amy will have to mail their versions in!

We may frame these. Best group activity in awhile. Katie's version was fan favorite as she had new and creative names for the paths! ?
She also won the quote of the day..picking up Bob's map to get started she turned it at several angles  and asked "where is the camp?" Bob replied, "your in it!!"

The Woods According to Katie

Dave stopped in for a visit and is trying to understand our activity.

Bob actually suggested that we could set up the gps tracker and drive through the woods to get the
true path....he was reminded by all present...been there, done that driving in the dark through the woods yesterday and NOT gonna try it again!

Gerri asked at 930 how many inches left in the tank...this is the usual end of the night question wanting to know how many inches are in the upper tank yet to gravity feed into the evaporator..Adam answered "which tank?" Bad answer. It does not look like they will get all of the sap boiled in tonight.

WE HAVE A LATE ENTRY INTO THE DRAWING CONTEST!!!!..CODY SENDS HIS RENDITION (CHUCK WOULD BE PROUD OF THIS)

He missed the instructions about only using markers...but we appreciate the detailed efforts!



Sap Today : 22 gallons (Adam brought)
Sap To Date:1,552 gallons
Syrup off Today: 20 gallons
Syrup off To Date: 28.5 gallons plus