Monday March 31, 2014 (gathering #12)

Gorgeous day! Great turnout after work of people yearning to be outdoors! Everyone seemed happy to visit for a bit. The camp doors were open most of the night. Amazing what 2 days in a row of sunshine did for the lane! Susan Rine drove the Mercedes to the woods! Today was the first day 4 wheel drive was not a required admission ticket to help.

It was a great night for a walk in the woods! Just can't say enough times how nice it is to see the sun!! There was no precipitation of any kind today! Bob thought perhaps today would be "it", but the sap, for the most part, ran clear. A total of 22 gallons were hauled in from Sandhill Rd and Adam, Dale, Karen, Dan, Bob, Brad, Muff, Dean, Jenny, Kevin and Gerri collected 355 gallons. Chuck and Jack got a fire going. Susan drove the Mercedes

Folks were tired and hungry after gathering so Gerri ran to Clyde for Pizza (involved a wait on a train in and out) but the pizza was enjoyed neverless. While waiting for food, it was decided to make popcorn. Jack failed miserably round one but seemed to be enjoying it anyway!  Looked something like a culinary version of the olympic torch. Apparently there was some success round two but with less pop and circumstance than round one!

Chuck discussed with Dale the merits of Sandhill Rd. purchasing some equipment. This is an ongoing discussion they have taken to a new level. It would seem they feel they need Walle's brother Wille. Who is gonna tell Sue? (oops)


Bob & Chuck continue to banter. Chuck feels he could have gotten home to bed an hour earlier if they had skipped the burned popcorn.


Total sap today: 355 + 22 Sandhill
Total syrup today: 6.5 gallons
Total sap to date: 5745 + 261 Sandhill
Total syrup to date: 97.5 gallons

Sunday March 30, 2014 (gathering #11)

Today was a really pretty day, ....clearly one of the nicest of the year. The sun was out all day and the wind died down to create a rather peaceful feeling in the woods. A few brave souls survived yesterday only to return for more today! The Clarks times three, the Rines times three (and the Jack & Chuck show of course) gathered most of the woods with some help from neighbor Dave. There were a few buckets half full and most about 2 inches or so, but this added up to 390 gallons rather quickly (compared to yesterday where gathering felt like it took forever!). Today you could hear the taps dripping. Tomorrow looks promising as well.

Bob & Jack cut some brush away to make the walking easier to a few of the trees at the end of the south path this afternoon before we gathered. All of the young people in Bob's life will laugh at this one: yesterday (all buckets FULL) was the first time Bob himself ventured into the far northwest corner of the woods. He had a fit!! Gerri wishes you all could have seen it. He explained that it is a long way out there and you have to climb over limbs & it is a long way back to the main path!!! Imagine. (The joke is the youngins have been doing this repeatedly in deep snow without Bob appreciating the task. ) Soooo.....since we have Myers-Briggs proof Bob is a thinker, he had Dale pull Walle down the path closer to this mess so we didn't have to walk so far. Problem solved :)


We enjoyed sandwiches and visiting for a bit. It was nice to have the camp doors open for a change!

There are sure signs the end of the season is near. Buds are coming in the trees! Ants in buckets in a few places. Sap tastes different. Bob slept in this morning. Bob and Chuck were arguing tonight. (Summarized: Chuck feels unappreciated with no raise for 6 years, no medical benefits and feels that there was a conscious effort to kill him on Saturday. Bob assured him the administration hears all of his concerns and cares about none of them. Chuck reports he has other offers from neighboring camps. Bob offered to drive him over & can't wait to see what they do when they get Chuck. Chuck is tired of Bob yelling at him for firing at the wrong time. Bob proceeded to yell more.) Jack just laughs. Maybe Mark could babysit them tomorrow night?

Pastor Cathy had a lovely sermon regarding Mud this am. Bob thought Clarence would have liked it. (The nider at the right is our favorite mud). Chuck reported his eyes were bothering him (due to poor working conditions), maybe we will try some mud on them tomorrow!

Total sap today: 390 + 20 Sandhill
Total syrup today: 9  gallons
Total sap to date: 5,390 gallons +239  Sandhill
Total syrup to date: 91  gallons

Saturday March 29, 2014 (gathering #10)

1,275 gallons of sap today. We would like to thank our friends and family who skipped the gym today and worked out with us. The vast majority of buckets were full and a few overflowing.  There have been only 3 other days over 800 gallons in the last 4 years!

Bob checked buckets at 9 am and while he expected a lot was shocked at the overflow. He started gathering with Gary, then Gerri, Muff, Dean, Dale and Karen joined in before the end of the south path. We made it just past the soft maple swamp and had to back Walle out with a full tank. We resumed gathering while Chuck and Jack worked on boiling. We finished the south path and turned up and then back down the middle swath only to be full again! After dumping the second time, we headed through the north path where it was WINDY and COLD! Ted, Nancy and Adam  joined in thankfully as those buckets were also pretty full. Heading east again Walle went straight out into the wheat field (full a 3rd time )and up to dump. This was a little tricky as there was not enough room to unload it all so we lightened the load by about half filling the upper and lower tanks to the brim.

 

 

 

 

 Bob got the fork lift out to reload the camp with wood !

 

 Heading back out to the east path the gang had gathered everything and we picked up about 20 buckets and once again drove back via the wheat field. Adam realized that we had left about 4 buckets behind and he and Muff and Dean walked back to get them. What's 20 more gallon! It took approximately twice as long as usual to gather today and everyone was collectively pooped.

 Clark's brought donuts that were enjoyed along with a nice warm fire. The temp seemed to be dropping as we went, usually you get warmer! Probably doesn't help everybody was a little wet from wearing some sap today!

It snowed a little this evening. Chuck pointed out that Brad showed up about 8 hours LATE! He was off chicken judging in Columbustown today.If you are going to take a day off, he chose wisely!

We took the syrup to the house ,cleaned the outside of the buckets , took inventory and got them in the freezer. We are running low on "finish" buckets!

As of the 1015 pm posting of the blog, their are three tired guys still boiling and 7 inches in the upper tank and they are thinking of calling it quits for the day!The fire has been maintained since 0930 today!


Total sap today: 1215 gallons + 60 Sandhill
Total syrup today: 20 gallons (as of 10pm)
Total sap to date: 5000 gallons + 219 Sandhill **
Total syrup to date: 82 gallons

**Nearing the point of justifying their own evaporator Sue.

Saturday March 22, 2014 (gathering #9)

Fun and busy day. It was pretty cool but once everyone was in motion we warmed up and discussed that we might have dressed too warmly. We did nothing in the woods Friday but presume it was a good running day as Sandhill Rd. had 22 gallons Friday afternoon.

Jack is back! Good to have another pair of hands. We are confident he will enjoy the weather for the next few days, NOT!A little cooler than 75 degrees.

 

Gerri, Bob, Gary & Jack picked up just the middle swath around 2:45. This was enough to fill the evaporator and get a fire started. The Turner family, the  Brugnone family, Gary, Brad, Gerri, Kelsey, Evan, Adam, Vickie, Chad and Bob then did the whole woods. Some buckets were half full, others a couple of inches. The north side of the woods has some snow remaining and these buckets had an understandable lower yield.

Somebody has to work!





Focusing very hard on something...................

Serious  concentration!

We spent the early part of the day with friends & family in tribute to our friend John Beiler. Dale & Karen brought pizza from town and were greeted by a hungry crew! We enjoyed fabulous brownies from the Turners. We had subs (thx to vickie) and salad and smores later in the evening. Most lingered a bit tonight along with the complete Oney family (including Kaleb and Nathan and Bruce) enjoying  an evening of laughter with us. (Honestly not sure what was so funny, but laughing is good almost universally!) Kelsey toasted marshmallows with supervision from too many people. A rousing game of Uno was apparently enjoyed given the amount of noise in the camp. Sue visited for a bit.


The Oney Family Selfie: while Kelsey is making them smores, they were filling her phone with visions of the Oney family . Entertaining them is not hard.

Bob found a new rock. He swears he has never seen this rock before and it perplexes him! We discussed that it could be granite, an old culvert pipe or a petrified bucket. Bob finds none of this funny.

 

Brad worked on the lane removing some of the top layer of "goup" which did seem to help some. Chuck sorted and split a lot of wood tonight trying to find that magic combo for the hottest fire.

Thanks to everyone for your help on the largest run to date!


Total Sap Today: 470 gallons + 34 Sandhill
Total Syrup Today: 11 gallons
Total Sap To Date: 2885 + 159 Gallons Sandhill
Total Syrup To Date: 62 gallons

Thursday March 20, 2014 (gathering #8)

Weather today is cooler than one would think with a breeze at times. The sap appeared to be running really well as we finished collecting tonight. This was not a big run, but felt we should grab what was out there as they needed to boil off the remains of last evening. This was another busy weeknight.

Chuck picked up Brad after school and the two of them took the forklift to the woods and moved a new crate into the camp with smaller pieces of wood to use along with the larger planking. This seemed to resolve the fire issues of last night with much quicker boiling this eve (lack of rain helps too :).

 Dale, Karen, Gerri & Brad gathered the south and north path while Chuck stayed with the fire in the camp. Dan gathered the middle swath and helped us around the East end. There were only 175 gallons but the buckets were heard to be dripping so it will be interesting to see what there is tomorrow.There is still an impressive amount of snow on the north side of the woods and just outside the woods.  

Chuck manned the camp alone for the first half of the night as Bob was at the church with many neighbors helping to prepare sausage patties for the consignment sale this coming weekend.

Gerri jinxed herself by mentioning that nobody has gotten stuck the whole season. On a quick run home for syrup filters, she ended the streak. She eventually managed to get the truck out but there was an massive amount of mud on the truck and every nearby object.

Standoff. I am warm by the fire and my friend Chuck. Mom. I really don't want to go home.


This is what the end of each day lately looks like at the Rines. Lola knows to wait at the door if she sees somebody putting on Carharts. She immediately gets IN the truck when you say the word "woods". And she knows the command "get in the tub" and thank goodness patiently waits to be attended to. Baths are not up to the Parks girls' standards, but usually goal is usually to turn the chocolate lab back to a shade of yellow!

 

Interesting fact: dirty dog from the woods smells like a wet dog. Clean freshly bathed dog ALSO smells like a wet dog. Miss you at bath time Kelsey!

Total Sap today: 175 gallons + 11 Sandhill + 2 quarts Karen's tree that nobody is sure is a maple
Total Syrup today: 9 gallons
Total Sap to date: 2415 + 125 gallons Sandhill
Total Syrup to date: 51 gallons

Wednesday March 19, 2014 (gathering #7)

 

Lovely weather today with features of rain, sleet, thunder topped off by blustery winds. Conveniently also a day when many of us had other commitments outside of sap patrol!

Chuck discovered 32 gallons in the Sandhill run & phoned  Bob on his way home from school.  He was a little nervous about how much might be in the woods tonight and sent out the usual text and a couple of personal invitations to ensure he & Chuck were not lonely.

 Jenny & Kevin still answer their phone (they will learn) and came only to be drenched by the end of the south path. Adam joined in time to enjoy the sleet portion of the weather drama turning back toward the camp on the South path. Muff and friends Oscar and Rosie came to help as well.

Adam is mourning the loss of yesterday's snowman.

Brad & Gerri felt really bad leaving poor Adam with a lot of sap, and well,... Bob. However, we got over it. He obviously had a little time on his hands. Bob was critical of his use of the stump,  feeling that he is misrepresenting the size of his snow creation. Others felt the snowman seemed a little less deranged than yesterday's version. Wonder how many days we can keep making these? (photo contributed by wet field editor)

440 gallons were collected in all. The syrup is coming off very slowly. There has been a little trouble the last 2 nights keeping the firebox temperature under control. The heavier wood (from the barn floor) takes quite some time to heat up and is a little harder to maintain. The sugar content of the sap has also dropped off. They are thinking of calling it quits with 9 inches in the upper tank and a fair amount of sap in the lower tank as of 10 pm. Thinking they may run the sap into the lower, cooler tank for the night and deal with this issue tomorrow. Muff was busy cleaning up crock pots and the like.

The lane is beyond description. Despite what may be the best truck-pooling efforts ever, it just keeps getting deeper. We strategically placed a truck for Rob to come look at the logs Walle drug out in the morning. The new barn project appears to be coming along nicely. Between the mud, stuff from the former barn, the barn crew & equipment and the syrup crew traffic-it is a mess! Welcome home tomorrow Jack!

Total sap today: 440+ 32 Sandhill
Total syrup today: 5 gallons (or so)
Total sap to date: 2240 gallons & 114 sandhill
Total syrup to date: 39 gallons

Tuesday March 18, 2014 ( gathering # 6)

Attempting to blog directly from the camp at 8 pm tonight! A nice taste of spring with temp up to 54 today, however chilly breeze and heavier jackets were immediately sought out after gathering. It feels best sitting close to the evaporator!

Vickie and Chad brought chili and helped to gather  along with Brad, Dale, Karen, Bob, Kevin, Jenny and Adam (and Bruce Oney) Gerri showed up late, again. Karen brought pulled pork and Dorothy made applesauce. We had salad and good conversation.

 

Brad got the great job of scraping the mud out of the tracks!

Aunt Dorothy hitch-hiked her way to the camp, She must have borrowed footwear from Mark! Karen was sporting brand spanking new muck boots!

When the snow melted we remembered we have firewood!

Brad was very impressed with Adam's most recent snow sculpture. The expression on Mr. Snowman's face is indicative of how we all feel, happy but perhaps melting a little.

The totes in the camp are filled with heavy boards that need split. The old guys made the kid work for a bit. He was heavily supervised.






Thanks to the generosity of the Swartzlander girls and their barn, we have plenty of hot fire! We have laughed that we should have made a barn blog! The barn lowering project lives on in our hearts as a fond memory of hard work with great friends & family.  (There is the lingering aroma of wet raccoon poop in the trucks that may last forever.) Brad thinks he is being funny by filling his mother's boots with square nails as we write.

Thanks to everyone who helped tonight :)

Total sap today: 290 gallons and 17 Sandhill
Total syrup today:5 gallons
Total sap to date:   1800 Gallons and  82 gallons Sandhill Rd.
Total syrup to date: 34 Gallons

Saturday March 15, 2014 (gathering #5)

What a terrific day in the forest! We really had a lot of fun tonight! We didn't start gathering until 4pm. As though it isn't hard enough to decide when to gather factoring in wind, precipitation, amount of sap, availability of people, etc.......................enter march madness and the timing of the OSU basketball game into the equation!



Muff, Dean, Nancy, Ted, Cathy, Chad, Vickie, Gary, Bob, Gerri, Susan, Mark, Brad, Dale, Karen, Kelsey, and Chuck came to help gather. Bob and Chuck worked on getting the fire going while the rest of the gang tromped through a lot of mud and a little snow. A few buckets were 40% full. We gathered 320 gallons.



Lots of standing around near the end.

Some people are so easy to entertain!

Lola wonders why Dean is the only one who would play "throw the tree" with her.

This was the south path sap, decided to empy before venturing to the north.

Mark & Gerri are enjoying getting the bed of Chuck's truck muddy and reminiscing about Mark's inability to purchase appropriate, practical foot wear for the woods. Ongoing struggle for him. INFP problem? Maybe, we will have to THINK about it.

Food was great tonight. We had Baldosser excellent quality hot dogs thanks to a little late afternoon bartering with the neighbors. Vickie made Taco fixings which according to the guys were also great on hot dogs. The men folk experimented with quesadillas in the fire box. No wonder it takes so long to boil!


Brad learned that it is not a good idea to leave your hot dog unguarded around Susan or Lola. Brad wants to be clear, Susan was more of the problem than the dog. Unaware of his disappearing meal problems, his mother ate his orange too. Tough day Brad:)



The current yield is 46.9 gallons of sap to every 1 gallon of finished product. Everything about this year is a little strange. Bob taking off syrup and checking specific gravity.

 "So grandpa, are these people holding you against your will?"  We enjoyed a late night visit from Charlie, Julie & Brylee!

Decided to load Walle and take him home for a few maintenance issues. Nice full moon.

 

Total Sap today: 320 gallons + 17 Sandhill

Total Syrup today: 7 gallons

Total Sap to date:   1510 gallons + 65 Sandhill

Total Syrup to date: 29 gallons