Happy birthday to Bret today!! We made Bret a maple cake..he took the night off 😄..good thing...cake pretty much got devoured!
So, since we last posted.....Monday Bob boiled in the sap that was leftover from Sunday after taking to Cody to the airport at the crack of dawn!! It took him about 6 hours to finish the boil.. he laughed that we went from 49 helpers to Bob the last man standing in 48 hours !
He took the opportunity to descale the pans this morning before he boiled since there was no impending run today. He sent Gerri a picture of his efforts on a plate....Gerri, having a one track mind, thought it was chocolate.
Tuesday and Wednesday were windy overcast days with some limited sap flow...but we were just not feeling that the effort was worth it in terms of volume. No gathering!
Thursday Bob found actively running trees about 2 pm. He sent out a text to gather up about 200 gallons. He was off a bit as there was 410 gallons tonight...at least according to Bryan H. He seemed the most confident about his math lets put it that way.
Kelsey was quick to point out to her dad that he messed up tonight's sap run estimate. He seemed pretty oblivious.
The nidar, a sandy sediment in the syrup, is always a bit of an issue. This year it seems to plugging the filters more than typical. Bob has been taking the filters home and hand cleaning them every other boil or so. This has still not resolved the slow filtering issue.
Adam explained to Bryan the basics of taking syrup off....watch the thermometer....shut the gait, open valve..yell for Bob....
We had a good size crew,...Dale drove, Phil Shumway brought a band of 4 teenagers, Michael, Nancy, Adam, Gerri, Kelsey, Evan and Bryan H made a cameo appearance since basketball is over. Sorry Elizabeth..if it makes you feel better we yelled at him to go home. Brad arrived in time to clean up the scraps from dinner.
A salamandar made a rare appearance...found under a bucket by the Shumway kids.
Karen sent cookies, and we had cole slaw and ham and cheese sandwiches.
Dale looked half frozen tonight. The temp is cearly dropping. The forecast for tomorrow is rain turning to snow and very cold the following day so we may have another couple of days off from syrup making. The trees are actively running tonight...they made a very rhythmic cadence tonight if you stood still you could hear sap dripping into the empty buckets.
We appreciate everyone's help on this week night! Will update the pics in a bit!!
Total Sap Today: 410 gallons
Total Sap To Date: 3,740 gallons
Total Syrup Off Monday March 7th: 7.5 gallons
Total Syrup Off Today:
Total Syrup Off To Date: 79.5 gallons
No comments:
Post a Comment