Saturday February 27, 2021

Today was the day! It's sappening!!

The past few days have been as pleasant and warm as the previous two weeks have been bitter and cold. The sun feels great and has provided a mighty melt of the impressive snow pack.

Most big farm projects are preceeded by a lot of prep work and planning, this week was no exception. 

Bob worked on the lids that needed a little reinforment with his "plastic welding project". Gerri and Kelsey laughed that this looks like an expensive glue gun but it is still too soon to tell Bob that news. So far this seems to be working though!

We threw out quite a few lids and tubing sets last year during the cleanup process, such that we needed to make up some new sets. This has been one of those projects that everybody has worked a little at each day for the last week. It takes some finess to push the spiles onto the tubing! 

Thursday evening Brad, Evan and Adam worked on clearing fallen trees and limbs from the paths in the woods. Kelsey and Katie worked to clean up the camp, their analysis of the camp's condition was that it was muddy! The kids apparently worked pretty diligently as they accomplished a lot for one evening out! Adam contributed photographic evidence that the lights on Walle really ARE bright enough!!

Evan is awarded the first "QUOTE OF THE DAY" award for the year. Gerri asked him if he took pictures to share and he replied flatly "no, I was too busy being short of breath". 😂 The snow pack in the woods was still pretty deep and is now very heavy as well. This turns the walk into a painful march. 

Friday evening the same gang as above, with the addition of Katie's dog Teddie, put buckets out on the south path. This probably could have waited until morning but everyone is anxious to be out and this really did take a little stress off of Saturday!

We have another gig planned for this year. THE DOG HOUSE 🐶🏠. Gerri has fond memories of years of the Birch Family Dog House...(this was a wooden plaque that hung on the kitchen wall with a small wooden dog house and little wooden dogs with each family members name on them) Who was in it and why was always a fun conversation...and as we all need a little fun now...it is time to revive this gag. 

Our first person to be incarcerated in the doghouse (no surprise to many) is BOB. Friday night he dropped off the grid rather unexpectedly... for several hours... he called Brad and requested a return call...4 min later no answer..no return text...about 15 people tried. Called all the people he talks to regularly on trips home..no answer. In the end, he had a relatively plausable excuse (stopped at the neighbors and left phone to charge in car). We have employed new tracking on him so his does not worry others in the future!! 

Saturday started early with breakfast before sunrise and discussion of the fun following the grain markets. 

Bob finished printing his spreadsheets and headed off to the annual dreaded tax preparation appointment. Gerri did fascinating stuff like laundry, grocery and bank errands.

The kids finished putting buckets and lids out in the rest of the woods. Bob and Gerri arrived about 12:30pm with sandwiches for lunch. Bob held a 30-second tapping seminar and everyone headed into the woods to tap. Except Brad, he went home to nap. He worked night shift last night. Although still smiling, there was a unanimous vote that the nap was a good idea. 

Three men and a lotta mud! Loading a crate full of lids on Walle to disperse in the woods. 

This was a warm, pretty day with no wind. We were very blessed on this full moon day to avoid an accident. A large tree fell while we were in the woods. Cannot recall this happening on a still day in the past! Bob presumes it thawed just enough to finally fall, as it came up by the roots. Kelsey and Katie went to check this out closer and snapped a pic. It did land very close to a tree they had just tapped. The tree fell on the west side and you could feel and hear it on the east. We were out of sight of one another, tapping in teams, but a quick hollering exchange confirmed everybody was ok. 

Gerri walked to the camp and brought Walle back as we missed about a dozen buckets and lids on the far north side and she likely could not carry all of that. They finished up the final taps and ventured back to the camp. Gerri talked Adam into driving as the added trailer made this a bit tricky. 

We checked our intial buckets about 1:30 pm and they had around 2 inches them and were still dripping at 5:30 pm.

We tried out some new taps this year! These spials allow the sap to flow into the tubing from the tree, however the sap cannot back flow back into the tree. 

It was so odd today, snow 8 inches deep and comfortable in short sleeve t-shirts (for awhile anyway)! Bob got thirsty enough to try some sap , Adam later admitted he drank some too....both agreed disappointingly like water but more thirst quenching than typical. Gerri and the dogs ate snow! 

When the sun went down, it cooled off quickly. We worked on scrubbing the evaporator pans out before leaving for home.

There is a lot of work to do in the camp tonight before any boiling can occur. For now, Ibuprofen and rest for tonight!