Tuesday Feb 27, 2024

Low attendance today at the camp. N=1. Bob. He started a fire around noon today and as of 950pm this evening is still at it. Brad , Bob, Adam, Dave worked later than usual last night. Boiled in as much of yesterday's run as possible. Bob left for the woods today with the crock pot from yesterday's leftover soup and has not been seen at home  since. Dale pointed out today that Bob's recent phone problems have made him harder to track on Life 360 ! 

He visited with soil and water today as well as some folks from church setting up for service next weekend. He said he fixed the gasket on the sap line today as well. It was leaking rather profusely last night. This was supposed to be a rainy day project, that day just has not come. Did not happen today either, despite a storm front moving past, no rain for us !

Bob did send a total "syrup off "text when requested. Some type of mathematical code. No idea whatsoever what this means. Seems too soon after yesterday to ask clarifying questions. Will fill that all in later! 

 Monday Feb 26, 2024

Gorgeous day today! Sadly, enough sun that it will likely make the buds pop a bit more than we would like. The ants and a few bees were noted to be out today enjoying the spring-like weather. (One worker reported tonight that being the kind soul that he is, Brad attempted to save a honey bee from a near drowning experience in a bucket of sap only to be stung. Kind of you to try :)

Since gathering last on the 22nd, the weather has turned a bit more chilly. Sat through early Sunday am was downright cold in the 20's. The sun peaked through to warm things up on Sunday afternoon, but that warmth generated wind gusts over 30 mph so we wisely decided to stay out of the woods. The trees did run on Sunday with an estimate of 300 gallons in the woods. The temperature dipped again during the night to provide a frosty white appearance to Monday morning. 

Bob had a sparkly Monday. (The fun really started on the weekend when he dropped and broke his phone and spent a good deal of the weekend trying to transfer data to a new phone which he also promptly dropped. It survives. ) He attended the dreaded tax appointment with the accountant in the morning. He joyfully helped unload a semi-load of products for his wife's farm project from about 1 to 4 pm. The semi arrived without the usual warning call 30 minutes prior (cutting his lunch break short). The driver entered the homestead with a  53-foot trailer and got stuck in the yard. This necessitated a not so short trip to the farm for some horsepower to assist said stuck truck. Had to use the jeep to fetch the tractor as his truck has a belt issue. Unloading itself went smoothly however the exit from the drive took almost as long as the stuck entrance. So he apologizes to all for the late text today.... but that is what he was up to!!

Everyone commented that we were a small but mighty crew tonight!! The Robinson family came to help Alex, Liz, Ezme, Burke and Mabel) and we appreciate their help! Wish we had more pictures but we were hustling as it became rather quickly apparent this was a good run. Melissa, Muff, Gerri, Brad, Adam, Kelsey, and Bob rounded out the work crew tonight. Bob drove Walle for the south path and then headed up to get a fire started. 

Dave arrived midway, like Superman swooping in to help.We laughed that this was like putting in a player with fresh legs in the 4th quarter of a ballgame, glad to see him!!  He was quickly assigned the driving job but at this point, it was almost dark.  

 Melissa was in charge of morale tonight and Adam noted that her bucket was certainly half full! Bob sent Gerri a text message she did not see until she arrived at the camp. He wanted a roll of paper towels. Melissa chimed in, "hey I have one". Then he wanted a spatula, and she said "hey I have one". then he wanted olive oil and we all rolled when she actually went to look. Preparedness. Didn't have it but hysterical that she thought she might. 

We seriously had good-natured fun tonight but we also got all the gym workout we needed. Walked about as fast as we could for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Sent Walle to the camp 3 times chuck full. The south path filled the first tank. The north path almost fit into the second and the east filled the 3rd with the deck loaded with full buckets and a last trip up the center to pick up the remaining buckets. 

The trees that were pretty much in their prime had buckets 80-100% full. this makes for slow gathering. We got pretty good at running empty buckets ahead as Walle moved rather slowly through the woods tonight. 

The darkness set in already with most of the east path to go. 

We appreciate Aunt Susan's contribution to night gear lighting. (Bob is still worried about her QVC issues however). It did work well (thinking Kelsey wore that). Does not work well to get your picture taken head-on though! We are trainable, ...went from zero people with headlamps in the dark last week to almost 100 percent this week.

Gerri's new baby chicks died. The first half may have been mass murdered by barn cat Susan, crime unsolved, accused but not yet convicted. The second set simply perished quietly. All of them. So, the morbid conversation tonight was all of the known risk factors/implications for sudden chicken death. Dave shared that he once raised 100 birds and noticed that he was missing some when got down to like 35. (You can't make this stuff up.)

Brad discussed how Kelsey should be driving the farm truck to keep it from stalling out. Dave appeared to be pitching Bob on what equipment he needs to consider purchasing next. Adam worked super hard tonight and fired for some time after returning to the camp. Brad gave him a lot of grief tonight and Dave cheered Brad on. Ezme reminded us that there are only 3 months of school left! wow! 

Certainly, the high point of the evening was Dave reading what he wrote for the blog last Thursday. This oration was well received and of course, commented upon. Gerri appreciates the effort Dave. 

We made cheese sandwiches on the Blackstone tonight. Gerri and Melissa could not figure out how to put 3 slices of different cheese on the bread. Seemed like we left it all on the field tonight and struggled with assembly. Worked out. People ate. Nobody complained. 

Lots of sap in the camp yet at press time. Prayers and Ibuprofen are in order tonight.

Sap Tonight: 1, 110 gallons

Sap To Date: 2,685 gallons ( in 3 trips! ) 

Syrup Off Tonight:

Syrup Off To Date. 

 Thursday Feb. 22, 2024

Please Welcome Guest Blogger, ...Dave!

Contributing photographer, Evan.

Sugarwood Farms Blog

2/22/2024

The Day started much warmer than the previous. While the weather was nice that resulted in

not quite as big a run. James, New Kelsie (Kelsie Lott), Old Kelsey (Kelsey Turner), Evan, &  Brad were out to gather. Bob

started a fire to hopefully finish out yesterday's big run. Dave showed up just before Wall-e left.

Thankfully the North Path was only half gathered by the time he got into the woods.

Soon Adam joined gathering. He came prepared with a head lamp after the previous night's

escapades. It was soon evident that tonight's gather would not equal last nights. Brad gave

more advice on how to drive Wall-e. Dave had another solid night of driving. He hit zero trees

and got lost zero times. Couldn’t ask for a much more steady performance.

The whiteboard in the tank room was erased and updated. Old Kelsey asked Bob and Dave a

lot of math questions on the previous night’s totals. Dave’s advice was to make up numbers

until you got to 1000gal

Dinner was an exquisite Salsbury Steak with a side of green beans and potatoes. Quite the

upgrade from Brad’s hotdogs with chip dip.

Dave had forgotten to bring boots tonight to gather. Brad was kind enough to bring some yellow

LLBean Wellie Boots. It was quite a fashion show.

While they were gathering the fog had begun to set in. By the time everyone went home

visibility was maybe 100 feet. Made driving out of the woods thru the barnyard very difficult.

Everyone made it home safely.

Respectfully submitted, Dave

*****Please check this entry again in another day for a video you will not want to miss. Brad filmed. 

Sap ToDay: 575 gallons

Sap To Date: 1, 575 gallons

Syrup Off Today: 30 gallons

Syrup Off To Date: 30 gallons

 Wednesday Feb. 21, 2024

Syrup season is certainly here. Another erratic weather day! The day started out almost frozen with the thermometer a cool 24 degrees at sunrise. Then sunny and 61 at one point today and cold and windy tonight with rain on the way. 

Bob finished cleaning up in the camp today using the pressure washer to shine up the holding tanks. Brad arrived home from work early today and loaded the gathering tank and steps on Walle, a job all were thankful to find done tonight. 

A nice size crew came to help out tonight. (Thank you!) The sun was warm and the walk was dry and pleasant in the beginning. Many buckets were half to 3/4 full so this slowed things down a tad. Dave Green drove and was complimented on how nicely he did, never got lost even in the dark! 

Megan brought Braxton to the woods for his debut trip through the woods he seemed unimpressed overall but very good spirited! 

Bret and Melissa joined in as well. Muff, Adam, Michael, James, Kelsey, Bob, Gerri , Brad and Kelsey helped tonight. We started pretty promptly at 530pm. 

Mother nature was generous tonight, we dumped 325 gallons three times and carried the rest up by hand...Dave says we have exactly 1000 gallons. The night ended gathering in the dark. We obviously try to avoid this for safety reasons but even though we had a lot of good help tonight we had a lot of sap and the trips back to the camp added time as well. Michael commented that this was his first moonlight gathering. We have some head lamps but nobody quite organized enough for that yet tonight. Walle appears to have a headlight out so we will need to address that soon. Some have night vision that works better than others. Brad asked Gerri to take buckets "over to Muff"...??? no idea where she was in the dark woods! The nearly full moon was actually quite helpful tonight! 

The plan was to gather, eat a cookie and some veggies and call it a night. We would wait to boil tomorrow..... but Bob could not help himself and started a fire. (Adam would not be happy or surprised at the firing that took place after he left. Not productive.) We broke out our emergency stash of hot dogs on night one. No utensils were brought as cookies and veggies do not require them. Good thing Dave always carries a pair of pliers on him to turn hot dogs on the grill. Brad and James were disappointed he also was not packing ketchup. 

Kelsey worked in Columbus today and she remembered to stop in Oceola at our favorite Hatchery and pick up the new hen chicks. Gerri was not prepared for them tonight, thinking she would get them tomorrow. Kelsey Lott was elated to meet them. Our cat, Susan , would not leave them alone tonight! She will be sleeping in the garage tonight until we figure this out. 

Some new lambs came today, Kelsey is unsure how many we have now. Of course, one is working in the direction of lambing now that it is nearly bedtime.

We talked to Cody as a group tonight as today is his birthday. Happy Bday! Even here in the neighborhood, we haven't seen each other in a while. Kelsey returned tools to James that she borrowed. James gave Gerri back a plate that he has had for months..but that is Brad's fault. Bob is thinking the boots he is wearing might be Evan's.  

Total Sap Today: 1000 gallons

Total Sap To Date: 1000 gallons

Total syrup off today: zero

 Tuesday Feb. 20, 2024

A beautiful sunny day with a high about 52 degrees. Everyone off to their 9 to 5's today leaving Bob home alone. Last eve Bob, Gerri, Kelsey and Evan tapped the south path only and Brad drove Walle around ing dropping off lids on the north path. 

Kelsey wondering about tasting an icicle she found. Bob wanted to discuss what this might be. Gerri wanted both of them to get out of their ADD modes and walk faster! Not that we can't appreciate our surroundings, but, we were on foot, at the far end of the woods, without lamps or vehicles....near dark.  

Bob was seen earlier in the day checking out trees. He was checking out all the changes since his last walk in the woods...yesterday. 

Since the trees had buckets and lids beside them, Bob walked the north path and tapped that all by his lonesome! 

Kelsey joined in at suppertime and helped him finish the north part of the woods. Brad got more lids out and helped to finish the East path. Gerri joined in the last 30 taps. Brad drilled the last one at sunset at 6:33pm. All tapped. 476 taps. Sap running. 2-3 inches of sap in the buckets on the south path tonight. 

There was a family meeting in a cold camp with warm pasta. Bob says today was warm and wonderful until it wasn't. There is a fair amount of preparation to do yet to be ready to run. The newborn lambs have made a pact to only arrive in the middle of the night. It was 52 this afternoon and supposed to be 18 Friday night. Although this is classic syrup weather, still takes some planning to keep everything temperature appropriate, people included.  

Bob sent out the first warning text for the season tonight. We ran through various scenarios about how tomorrow might flow. Beauty sleep voted highest priority for the rest of today!

Brad would like to reassure Adam that we have located all the parts for Walle...the tank, rachet straps, steps and hardware...they are not yet assembled but Brad has seen them. Adam may be more inclined to attend opening day if he knows we are ready to play ball.

Bedtime update:

476 taps.

 3 inches of sap in the buckets on south path.

north and east dripping. 

2 lambs in labor..............

 Sunday Feb. 18, 2024

Happy 2024! The tangled picture of trees is representative of our current state of agricultural affairs, a bit tangled and confusing. 

Weather has been the El Nino warm we were promised and has brought very few days of hard freeze this winter. We have also experienced some really sunny days that are tempting buds of all kinds to work on the spring explosion. The sub-surface is pretty warm. 

There is always the usual tax preparation, church responsibilities, and the occasional vehicle that will not start to make the days speed by quickly.

Bob and Gerri walked the paths in the woods on Feb 8th and were pleasantly surprised to find that we did not need to do much cleanup in the paths before the season. The kerplunk game above has yet to be resolved, Bob waiting for more players prior to addressing that. The woods is rather freakishly dry. There are a few of the usual mud holes but nothing typical. 

Brad has worked plenty of off-farm jobs this winter and has passionately been working on making a new parking lot at our wonderful woods. Turns out he has not previously enjoyed pulling folks out of the mud in the dark. Who knew? The parking area is not yet aesthetically pleasing but has made strides in the right direction. 

The camp itself was a project to clean up on a new level. The back door blew open and what appears to be a small army of raccoons/squirrels or at least a few mentally deranged critters, TRASHED the inside of the camp. Bob is fairly certain he accidentally shut something inside adding to the chaos. Really should have taken some pictures of this but just wasn't sure we wanted to get that memory to stick. They ate a roll of paper towels, knocked things off of the side walls, and pushed things off of the rafters. etc.Thankfully no damage to the evaporator. Anyway, it has primarily been returned to its former preseason glory, baseline quaint again. 

The pan sparkled, a zillion man hours later. 

Peer pressure is ever present as most syrup operations have long tapped. We were holding out for this week's cold weather which turned out to be a strong couple of days rather than the forecasted week. 

Spring sprang rather early last year as well and we decided to go back to our old method of washing buckets just before starting the season so the last couple of weeks has been spent in the shop bleaching out buckets and letting them dry for transport. 

On the positive side, we have had some good news and fun this month! 

On Thursday, Feb 8th we welcomed Oliver Wilson Rine to our herd! He arrived politely on time and seems to be thriving! Cody and Amy report that Grandaughter Emma is adjusting :) he is a couple of syrup seasons away from carrying buckets! 

Kelsey and Evan, confident that there is not enough to do this month have lambs popping like popcorn on County Road 21. They have had some challenges this year with lambing which have involved both the vet and lost sleep. 

We enjoyed Mardi Gras Sunday at Lakewood congregational a great deal as our quiet before the storm. Bob also enjoyed a trip to the famous Breadsmith bake shop. The smell in there should be a candle! 

We are plodding along at a fast crawl. As of this moment, the buckets are in the woods next to what we believe to be maple trees. Gerri will catch the grief if they are not as she was in attendance yet unsupervised at each session of bucket distribution this weekend. Brad and Gerri spread out buckets on the south path on Friday night. 

There was a pretty snow Friday night. 

Saturday Kelsey and Gerri CARRIED 192 buckets and set them on the east path. Walle was used Friday night and in all fairness, Brad cleaned up the tracks pretty well ....but it did get in the low teens Friday eve and the tracks were frozen Saturday. 

While it started, it did not budge. Bob did get it loose on Sunday with some effort. He and Gerri did the north path bucket toss later in the day as it was too windy to go in the woods earlier in the day. The feel-like temperature this afternoon was 19 so it was a rather brisk walk! 

We chuckled today that nobody in our gang has had enough sleep recently for a variety of reasons. Ironically this seems to be extending to our extended family/friends.  We collectively are moving at a snail's pace in the right direction. See what Monday brings. 

 Tuesday March 21, 2023 

It really was a terrific Tuesday. The weather surely was different than last Saturday!! Tonight was still and sunny and warm with the thermometer nearing 60 degrees. This also of course means the end of the syrup season. 

A plan was devised to pull taps tonight along wtih collecting the last sap. Brad drove tonight and was lamenting that with all the hands we had available and the speed with which they were moving we should have brought the buckets and lids into the camp in the military trailer but the prep work for that was not accomplished so we did what we could. 

Tinleigh, Curt and Erin brought friends Bryan, Heather and Braden along to help. Adam, Nancy, Bryan H. , Melissa, Muff, Evan and Kelsey helped. Brett stayed in the camp and helped Bob get a couple of fires going. Bret also had to endure Bob and Brad's discussion about how to properly NOT stack buckets together. 

As usual Adam working and everybody watching.....note the sun setting in the background...we appreciated the extra hour of sunlight!

Not sure what Erin is telling Bob..but he is not buying it......once again Adam working...Bob was sure to point out to Erin that we were burning her former "goat home"...this is another stack of wood from the old barn at the fairgrounds. 

The only thing more fun than watching Adam work is critiquing what he is doing...Tinleigh gave him grief and he dished it back...

Brad supervised smore making...Nancy supervised Brad supervising....

Brad explained math and how sharks were responsible for the sinking of the Titanic to the kids while cooking with them. They may never graduate. 

Curt built a fire out back for hot dogs and we had macaroni salad and chicken salad and cherry dessert tonight. Pretty good for the last night when we are often down to PB and J (not that there is anything wrong with that! ) 

The usual hodgepodge of current events were reviewed. Bellevue is on spring break so the big kids and little kids were up after bedtime! 

We appreciate all the help tonight (and every night prior!) . Each of you are a great blessing to our family. It was a really nice evening for a walk in the woods and a sweet end to the season. We will not miss the late nights, trying to figure out tomorrow's wind speed by the hour, collecting eggs in the dark or extracting the mud from ...well everything. But we will miss the conversations and clearly the most leisurely meals of the year!

We have more pictures to share and a few more videos. Stay tuned. We also will attempt to go back and update the totals. The evaporator crew seems surprised that the typing crew did not magically know what happened after bedtime. 

Total Sap Today: 380 gallons

Total Sap To Date:  5150 gal

Total Syrup Today:  8.5 gal

Total Syrup To Date:  89.0 gal

Our most accurate record....13 times we did this collection business this year! This turned out to be 94% of last years sap.  Bob talked to masseyranch6 from New York on Tik Tok.  They are not impressed with the weather they have had either in making syrup.