Sunday March 6, 2016

Day #12

The weatherman sadly missed the mark today as we were promised a few hours of sunshine and much warmer than what materialized,...... gray, overcast and 34 degree afternoon with light wind. The sap has run a little the last couple of days and Bob wanted to get that processed to take the pressure off of the week as the warm spell is to start tomorrow...murphy's law!





Ice in the evaporator to start the day!







Brad checked buckets after church and split some wood. Adam, Gerri, Bob (his first trip into the woods to gather in a LONG time!), Brad, Muff, Dean, Dave and Gary gathered at a pretty good clip. Mr. Birch, back for more, dumped buckets on Wallie again allowing us to keep moving. Almost all buckets had some degree of ice in them today, we tried to get the sap and leave the ice behind to help preserve the sap tomorrow when it is supposed to be 60 some degrees out.

The picture shows the typical piece of frozen sap in each bucket, with the hole where the sap has been dripping in!

 

 

Bob started a fire as we discovered the valve was frozen shut on wallie. He made a make shift funnel out of an old clorox bottle and poured hot sap into the hose and several of us pulled this up in order for the hot sap to flush back into the valve, this actually worked on the first try (thankfully). Lesson for the day, park on an incline to empty Wallie completely.

Tomorrow night is 4-H, FFA and church council meeting and the first 60 degree day of the winter, so not much going to be going on tomorrow! In anticipation of sap running like a fawcett, Bob gave Adam some tips on being home alone tomorrow, including a Wallie driving lesson. Adam was quick to point out that he did not HIT anything (as others have). Mr. B was returned in one piece and reported that Adam did a fine job driving :)

Apparently it is all about the confidence.


Mr B about froze his hands off, he had to stay close to the fire for a bit to get the feeling back. Dale is now in sick bay, likely with Bob's plague (that seems to be still plagueing him). We did not really enjoy the pictures of Ted and Nancy in sunny arizona at spring training. Chuck went to a wrestling meet so he had the day off.

In a surprise corporate move, Bob has promoted Nicholas P. to Vice President of marketing. He thinks he has a  culinary appreciation for syrup and the personality fitzpah to get the job done right. Shout out to DUCK...please ask him about his rise on the sugarwood ladder when you see him!


Two Bob's and a Brad...........................

Sophisticated book keeping system.

Total sap today: 240 gallons
Total sap to date:  2,845 gallons
Total syrup today: 4.5 gallons
Total syrup to date: 52 gallons