Sunday March 11, 2012 ? THE LAST DAY?

It was truly a 'beautiful day in the neighborhood". Warm, little wind and tons of sunshine. 392 gallons of rather yellow sap was collected by Bob, Dan, Dale, Karen, Kelsey, Chris, Dan, Lydia, Hannah, Muff, Cody and Gerri with Brad driving. (He was very glad the Wilson's were visiting and distracted grandpa Jack so he got to drive!) Charlie and Julie delivered the Sandhill Rd. sap. Susan R. arranged the camp while we collected. (Our boilermaker took the day off, nobody really recalls signing the paperwork for this vacation day, but we decided to let it pass this once.)

Muff and Kelsey dumping sap

We left groups of full buckets at spots around the path, Dan drew the short straw to hoist them up.

Dan hitched a ride on the wagon for a bit, this was prior to Brad braking unexpectedly and sending him airborne!

Ants are a sure sign of spring!

It is always fun to watch the wagon in the mud!



We decided to celebrate a little today as we finally had a decent run on a weekend and this may be the last "hooha" for the year. We devoured way more food than any of us needed and enjoyed having the camp doors open for a change. Susan B. seemed quite pleased that she finally got her "hot dog dinner" she has been missing out on for a couple of weeks! Mark is still on the injured list, but since he crawled out of the dugout we gave him a hotdog anyway. Aunt Dorothy attended the festivities for the afternoon and seemed to have a good time. Neighbor Ron showed up to visit with the guys at the end of the day. They were lucky enough to recieve ice cream from Jan delivered by Kelsey who worked a few hours this eve. It appears this may be the end of the road. Brad made 2 trips from the house to the camp with the trailer full of water and that was pushed in after the sap. As usual, wait and see!

Lot's of fun, but all good things must end!


Total Sap: 5,356 gallons!
Total syrup: 122.5 gallons!

Wednesday March 7, 2012

It was quite warm (about 64 degrees I believe) and very windy today. This morning the task was to clean up the camp a bit and scrub down the upper and lower tanks for sap storage. All the filters were changed. (Since we have moved a significant amount of sap in the last 21 days, the filters have needed to be changed and washed more often than typical.) We made a quick run around the east path with Jack driving and Bob, Gerri and Brad gathering. (Brad was not feeling his best today, but we took him out for a little fresh air this eve). We dumped this 170 gallons of sap and then moved to the south path. Dan showed up before the end of the south and Kelsey and Chris in time to help with the north and a second go at the east end. We found 607 gallons tonight! Sue found their buckets running over last eve. It was nearly dark when we finished. Gerri thought this was quite the workout today and sat in a chair and stared into space for a bit afterwords! A few trees are done and a few have darker sap.

Lola (the puppy) wins the award tonight for dirtiest she has ever been, the bath was, lets say, involved. Notice her feet. She is astoundingly cooperative when she is almost asleep though.

Total sap: 4964 gallons
Total syrup:  106.5

Tuesday March 6, 2012

This is a picture of Cody taken just as the snow started on Sunday-looks as though he is studying it, certainly haven't seen much of it this year!This was a much warmer sunnny day with a high in the low 50's. There was a pretty good run with 307 gallons collected tonight. Jack started off driving with just Bob and Curtis collecting and were later joined by Dale and Dan. (School committents keeping the rest of the natives busy tonight). It has been said, by more than one informant, that 4 of the 5 collectors were dressed appropriately for this event in short sleeves. The other came to the woods dressed for the north pole. (I wasn't there, but I can guess who was overdressed and the bottom layer was probably a pink shirt.)
As of 2200 hours there was 5 inches of sap left in the upper tank and 10 new gallons of syrup off. This syrup is perhaps slightly darker, but still light amber grade! It has become sort of a running joke that the woods has 100 times whatever amount of sap Chuck brings from the Sandhill Rd. forrest. Every little bit counts. It was a fast food supper kind of night at 8 pm! Jack, Bob and Bob are still boiling a little after 10pm. (Hey Lee, Bob and Cody took some swell pics for you on Sunday and we'll try to get them organized and posted/sent soon!).
Total sap: 4,357 gallons
Total syrup: 98.5 gallons

Monday March 5, 2012

This was the first snow day of the year for both the kids and Bob. It was also one of the first days with snow as we had a gorgeous heavy snow Sunday night and Monday am. There wasn't a whole lot of sap runnning until late afternoon as it was cold, but Curtis, Brad, Dale, Dan, Bob and yes JACK (he is home!) picked up 280 gallons of sap. No fire today. Sunday afternoon Cody, Bob and Jack walked the woods sitting up the overturned buckets and drilling a few taps a little deeper. Tomorrow is predicted to be warmer yet!

Total sap: 4,050 gallons
Total syrup:  88.5 gallons

Just reminding ourselves this is what snow looks like in the woods!