Thursday February 28, 2013

Ironically there is sap again today, but no place to put it! Muff made the first visit to the woods this afternoon and estimates about 300 gallons of sap is out there, but clearly no place to go with it. Our boilermaker friend has escaped from the infirmary in time to start the first fire of the year! Bob and Chuck spent a quiet evening in the camp trying to boil enough to empty ...something. The buckets sitting near the evaporator are also full of sap! The camp is sporting a new outdoor light that looks a lot like poultry heat lamp with a new fangled light bulb. Bob states this is to allow you to see which hole you would like to fall in (might say it ruins the surprise). See what tomorrow brings.!

Wednesday February 27, 2013
Really lousey weather day with surprising HUGE run. Brad, Bob and Gerri went to the woods expecting to check buckets and pick up 200 gallons of sap. We decided, given that the weather was so unpleasant and we didn't anticipate much, we would not to even send out a text. We changed our minds about 10 minutes into the south path when we quickly encountered multiple buckets running over! The picture below is the filter on top of the sap tank filled to within a half inch of the top. This luckily coincided with the end of the south path. Chris showed up in time to head out to the north path. We weren't able to make it back to the camp after the north path so took the short cut out into the field on the east side and Bob dumped the tank the second time while the rest of us collected the east path backwards. Ted came in time to do the East path primarily in the dark. Gerri considers it a  great accomplishment that she did not "face plant" once tonight. Fun physics fact, somehow, buckets get heavier as the night goes on. Finished around 8 pm with 825 gallons.

We particulary appreciate Chris and Ted for helping us this unpleasant evening. Brad said on the way home they are gonna need double time for this "wicked shift". (It was quite pretty at times this eve, with a soft snow, but little time spent smelling the roses and all the precipitation was wet no matter how you slice it!)  On a positive note we did not get stuck tonight, just a little jockeying around with the trailer. On a down side, the valve at the bottom of the upper tank is toast. Complicating this is the fact that there are 400 gallons of sap in this tank! Not sure how we are going to address this, but...unanimous vote that we were all cold, tired, wet and hungry and this problem can wait for another day.


Total Gallons of Sap: 1,085
Total Gallons of Syrup: A question for another day :)

Friday and Saturday Feb. 22 & 23

Well today, Monday the 25th of Feb., found a rather surprising warm sun without much wind which led to ...sap!! 260 unexpected gallons of it. Bob sent a text out rather late for some help which thankfully arrived in shifts. Bob did the first half of the south path alone, then was joined by Chris. Dale & Karen picked up Brad and met Gerri in time to do some of the north and northeast areas. Twp. Rd 178 had a nice representation this evening with the Oney family & Ted & Susan B (we think we saw her , but it was dark-not truly certain). They had most of the East path gathered to the lane by the time the tractor arrived. (We are all certain nobody saw "Mr I Bought New Boots so Quit Harrassing Me") Hmm?

 

We finished just as the sun was about gone and the moon (which is close to full tonight) took over. All was well until Bob drove through the rather deep track at the northwest corner of the camp. The angle of the tractor and trailer was impressive, Ted summarized it well by understating the problem "ooh, that doesn't look good". This involved a trip to the house for the David Brown tractor and a quick pull which worked on the first try. Bob remained very calm, Brad noticed how much quieter dad is when he is the one who burried the tractor! Once again Jenny arrived with a flashlight in tow that did come in handy unfortunately to hook up chains etc. Thanks to all the help and the many who were with us in cell phone spirit only. Our Boilermaker is "down for repairs". Hope he can get his 3000 mile oil and lube before the weather breaks. We miss him.

 

Total Sap: 260 gallons

Total Syrup: can wait for another day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taps were put in rather at leisure this year in reasonable weather. Cody and Kelsey were home to help and very nicely coincided with Brad and Bob's friday off of school (the roads were bad this morning-Yea!) Gerri & Brad helped Bob finish. The fresh air makes everyone tired! We took water back to the camp and scrubbed the evaporator up!

Also on Saturday Feb. 16th!

 

Well the troops were all home from school on this fine snowy Saturday afternoon, so we decided to tackle the job of putting buckets and lids out so we can tap quickly when the moment arrives. Something, likely chipmunks, wreaked major havock in the camp so Kelsey and Gerri spent a good bit of the day sweaping and sorting in the camp. It snowed on and off rather heavily today, a really pretty day in the woods overall. All of the buckets and lids we have are sitting by trees currently. Bob found a couple of boxes of lids and the tubing and plans to put some other sets together. Brad had some troublesome problems with the tractor for day #1. He had to get off twice for Cody to maneuver the tractor and wagon out of the mud! The dog did not make it home without falling asleep on Bob's lap so I guess she enjoyed the outing! Yes we have two posts for this day, consider it a great day!

Saturday Feb. 16th
Walking is energizing and warm. Standing is cold and only lasted long for a short picture!Chuck and Sue stopped in to survey the progress!

Huge snow flakes made the afternoon walk in the woods more fun!

It was a chilly day with a moderate wind and not smelling anything like camp weather yet. Bob, Kelsey, Chris, Cody, Brad, Gerri and Lola the wonder dog put buckets and lids around the woods. This is a big job done. It makes the big day go a lot faster when we tap and don't have to carry buckets along. We will have to get a few more lids ready as seemed to run out. Now sit and wait. (Yea like that will happen!)