April 5, 2018


Bob and Gerri went to Kansas for a visit over the Easter holiday (we had a great visit..loved it all except the weather). Thanks to Cody and Amy, David and Susan, Bruce and Sharon, Ed and Judy and Midland UCC for such a good time. We have a lot to be thankful for ....great family and friends.....and Kansas is still suffering from extreme drought and a wet land between here and there with much of Indiana and Illinois under water along route 70. Weather not conducive to much syrup making here at home while we were gone!

Bob and  Gerri walked part of the east path and decided to collect what little was left. This really wasn't worth phoning for help. We decided to put some of the buckets and lids in piles...don't anybody feel left out...there are plenty to go!  It is cold and damp today and somewhat windy. They found 60  gallons. Bob started a fire to finish off the season. Gerri drove wally to the house and Jack filled wally's tank up with water.  

The quality of sap in the evaporator was not great so they chased the sap with water pretty quickly.LONG, LONG season. Will post more season ending photos when more awake!



Total sap today: 60 gallons
Total sap to date: 3,985 gallons plus 193

Total syrup off today:2 gallons (plus some we through away:(
Total syrup off this year: 71 gallons

Monday March 26, 2018


A beautiful day outside with a high temperature of about 50 degrees!! The trees in general did not run much though, taps are getting old and scarred over. A couple of new taps were set Saturday and they are running actively. The woods is really dry..might be the last we can say that as rain is on the way tomorrow!


Dale, Karen, Bob, Muff and soon Adam started to gather. Jack put the tractor away and cleaned up around the camp. Katie (and Teddy) joined in soon after. Mark and Susan rounded out our Monday night crew. Bob reports that he was very calm tonight, although he says this probably should be confirmed by Katie.


They found a hundred gallons of sap. Jack started a fire a little later tonight as we were not sure what was out there. Group thought is that this is the last gather tonight. Thanks again to all who helped this evening. Thanks to Susan B who made chicken and dumplings for all!


Tomorrow is another day!! (our Scarlett O'Hara quote for the day!)


One of the most fun aspects of making syrup is the social opportunity it presents. We really enjoy visiting with everyone! Lola is no exception...she made a new friend...Teddy (Katie's dog). Can't believe the white dog went home fairly white!!

Total sap today: 100 gallons plus zero (Adam pulled taps)
Total sap to date:
Total syrup today: none
Total syrup off to date:

Saturday March 24, 2018

Brad, Evan, Bob and Jack worked on cutting some wood with the sawmill this cool afternoon.

Dry enough to take the forklift into the woods today!


Goal today was to finish processing the sap we left on Thursday (about 250 gallons). We added a bit with 140 gallons this afternoon. We think it likely ran some yesterday and a little today. At noon the clouds rolled in and with a little breeze and hi temp of 37, not much likely ran today.

Blessed once again with great help! Kelsey and Evan were here today as well as Brad, Adam and Katie. Nancy and Sue Ann came as well as Dale. And of course Bob and Jack, and Susan R.ventured out on another dry day!

Katie has gotten stronger haha!

 Adam, shooting for perfect attendance award, back again!

S

 Even the tank needs a bath!

Brad drew the short straw having to remove the mud from wally's tracks. Brad ended up breaking the handle on the hoe. Apparently this was a special hoe to Bob. Dale's face says it all about the weather.

The griddle is out of the camp today so we switched it up to the grill. pork loin was good guys!

Visited and had many fun conversations tonight about absolutely nothing. Ed and daughter came to visit tonight and get the camp tour. Enjoyed their company.

Large number of people relax and watch Adam and Jack work.

Total sap today: 140 + 3 gallons

Total sap to date:3,825 plus 193

Total syrup off today: 7.5gallons

Total syrup off to date: 69 gallons

T

 Thursday March 22, 2018


Cool today and a little breeze with a temp of about 38 degrees, but the sun was out and the sap did run some. Surprisingly, it also ran yesterday!

Jack went out and collected a few buckets on his own, with the truck no less. That is a sign that it is really dry in the woods right now.

Bob headed through the "short north path and was joined half way by Gary and Michelle.

Dale and Karen brought Frank back to inspect the operation and he of course ended up helping. Chris, Susan B, Adam, Katie and Gerri rounded out the crew. Similar amount of sap but made lighter work with more hands tonight and somewhat easy walking.

We found 340 gallons and 11 came from twp rd 178 and Chris brought 10 from the "weasner woods". Jack made some sap ice cubes so we can preserve some syrup to more convenient times to boil. We put Chris's sap outdoors to freeze a bit tonight to help with this as well.


Katie was a little disappointed that she and Susan disappeared from the group for about 20 min and there seemed to be nobody looking FOR them. Bob was quick to point out, that had they listened to his directions, they would not have been lost.

Waiting on Wally

Hot dogs and chicken salad were enjoyed by some. Nice night to sit and visit and watch Adam work....HAHA. Bob is rested enough that he is warning of next years "tapping training session". He has an a photo collection of all of the tapping transgressions of this year. He stopped short of fingerprinting but the interrogation (we have all known was coming) started tonight with Katie.

Best seat in the house!

Monday night got pretty late so we decided with the cool temp tonight to shut things down early. Home by 10pm!!

Total sap today: 340 plus 11 plus 10

Total sap to date: 3,685 gallons plus196 plus 10

 otal syrup off today: 2 gallons

Total syrup off to date: 61.5 gallons

Monday March 19, 2018

Workout in the woods. 465 gallons tonight!! Jack got a fire started while Dale drove and Bob, Gerri, Adam and Katie hauled the sap up to Wallie. Why do these things happen on Monday? 

 It was a pretty night in the woods. Took the better part of 2 hours to gather tonight. Nothing Aleve won't soothe away tomorrow. 

Pretty day. Looks were a little deceiving as the wind made it a little cooler than it appeared. It was downright cold on the north path. A few buckets here and there were almost 3/4 full. A few had almost nothing.

 The south path filled the tank to 140 gallons and the rest filled it exactly to the top!

Dale, complained about working conditions tonight. Had to not only drive but clean the windows too!

The guys placed a fishing bobber in the plastic tubing so they have some idea how much sap is left in the upper tank. This picture was taken about 9 pm....way too much sap for the hour.



Total sap today: 450 plus 15
Total sap to date: 3,345 gallons plus 185
Total syrup off today: 10 gallons
Total syrup off to date: 58.5 gallons

Sneak attack by Lola 

who had a big night, we think she walked almost the entire way with us tonight. Had to take the first bus home, front seat of the VW with her head on the driver's shoulder. In bed snoring before the car was unloaded! Bob left the woods at 1210 am. (Asleep at 1216) When Bob says "hey if you have any big stuff put it in now".....that does not mean please fill the evaporator to the top with big wood".

Sunday March 18th

This was a beautiful, sunny day. Made you believe spring might actually come. It was a really nice day to walk through the woods, gathering was very fun today and relaxed. Enough to be worthwhile and not enough to be stressed or pressed for time. (Poor Adam had a tree branch jump up and get him!) Brad had this happen to him yesterday,...and has a significant gash on his leg to prove it!

YESTERDAY:  Bob, Jack (he came home this week!), and Brad did something we almost never do...they redrilled the original taps, as they are both old taps and frozen, they just tweaked them a couple of mm further in. Bob said ice returned on a few.

It is still cold though, the afternoon started out trying to get Wally unfrozen....Brad put a good hour into that project. In this pic, Brad has a heater on one side and Evan is using the torch from the other to warm up the mud so the track would move. Bob was jiggling it back & forth.

We enjoyed visits from the Parks, Sue and Duck (our joke teller today!) and Julie & Charlie and kids all came for a visit. Dorothy, Karen and Dale  and Susan R made her first outing....she was pleased to find the mud has dried significantly.

Faithfuls Katie and Adam, Muff, Brad, Nancy, Kelsey, Evan and Gerri gathered today. They found 390 gallons of sap.....strangely spaced some trees had none, some were overflowing. The re-tap did seem to work. Pastors Nicole and Jonathon came for a visit and tour. The camp was comfortable for visiting tonight.

Kelsey and Muff used the griddle for season appropriate reubens which we think turned out great.


Bob would like to publically apologize to Katie, he reports he thanked Adam and NOT Katie and she called him out on it. Everyone else wants to know why he thanked Adam and not anybody else. Katie started trouble.


Sap today: 390 plus 21 gallons
Total sap to date: 2,985 plus 170
Syrup off today: 9 gallons
Syrup off to date:48.5

Saturday March 10th

We did our best to melt the ice we collected on Thursday evening and let Cody have a chance to boil in some sap. The woods was frozen so there  was nothing to collect.

Cody was home so we had visits from  Scott and Shana, Dave and Justin. All the usuals were out as well. We had fun visiting with our full house tonight. The boiling went fast as frankly there was just not much. The woods is frozen, nothing running

We made fajitas on the griddle, we have not mastered it, but we are having fun learning!

No sap gathered tonight:none

Total sap to date: 2595 plus 149

Total Syrup off tonight:4.5 gallons

Total Syrup off to date: 39.5

Thursday March 8, 2018

Winter is back. Snowing and blowing. The high temp today was about 35 degrees. If that.

Gerri checked the buckets in mid afternoon. There was a glaze on everything for sure, perhaps a few mm thick.

As Cody is making the effort to fly home for the weekend, we thought it would be nice if he got to boil some sap at least once. The weather forecast looks mighty cold for that to happen in the next few days. SO.....we decided to get what we had and bring it into the camp.

Dale drove Wally. Well started to...Wally was frozen in place for a bit. Bob and Dale got it out by chipping away at the ice on the rollers and  a little help from the blow torch.

Meanwhile , there was very little sap in the south path due to the wind. Muff and Gerri walked on collecting slush. They made almost the whole loop before they got Wally moving.

Adam and Katie, our dear faithful friends, arrived to help with the rest of the woods, where most of the sap was at tonight. When we got done tonight, one of them, we don't recall which said "Well that was fun!" Two hours of fun later we had 150 gallons (plus 12) of slush. The process of separating ice and sap added some time and adventure to the process tonight. (We took it all back to the camp.)

 

It was really pretty in the woods tonight with the falling snow, warm in the middle of the woods and bitter cold on the outside. Muff commented she had so many clothes on she could hardly move.

What would an evening be without a crisis and tonight it was a frozen valve on the tank on Wally. When we got back to unload Dale discovered that. Bob got after it with the blow torch. Adam said there was quite a bit of slush in the bottom of the tank after we drained it.

Bob asked Katie and Gerri if they thought it would freeze into one big ice cube...Katie replied..."possible". Time will tell. We typically leave the ice in the bucket at the tree...but it looks like it could be a long time till we would need to get it and we could use some for preservative over night. We might wish we had one more piece of milking equipment. The agitator.


Giant maple sap slushie!

This is going be interesting to see what this looks like in the morning!

Rare event to see ice in the evaporator during the season!!

Total sap today: 150 gallons plus 12 gallons
Total ice today: 70 gallons!!!!! (new column haha)
Bob's text today said no fire, no food, just fun.

Total Sap to date: 2,595 plus 149

Total Syrup to date: 35 gallons 

Tuesday March 6, 2018

Today both started and ended with cold, almost sleet like rain. the middle was sunny, somewhat warm. We did not gather yesterday although there was a small run.


Dale, Karen, Muff, Bob, Brad and Chris got an early start and grabbed some of the woods at 430 today. Gerri straggled in to help finish the north and what was left of the east. Adam came from collecting his 28 gallons and arrived as everyone else was at the far corner of the woods. Bob started a fire before he went out to gather and they returned to camp to dump after the first path, so Adam had sap in the upper tank to work with so Bob had him stoke the fire while the rest finished the woods.


The temp dropped, the wind picked up and a light rain came through while we finished tonight. Kept an eye up as there were a few pieces of limbs as well as ice/snow falling off trees yet.




We enjoyed cheese sandwiches on the griddle tonight and vegetable soup . (Bob is very pleased with the griddle seasoning job Melissa..thanks!)




Brad ran home just for the evening tonight to help. The only excitement tonight was a really warm chimney. Bob went out to inspect the stack, came back in and told Adam to slow down on the wood for a bit. As soon as Bob was out of ear shot Brad told Adam to fire it hard so "we could have more exciting blog pics tonight".  And they wonder why they aren't left alone more?


The glow could be seen through the cracks at the base of the chimney on the inside of the camp. Gerri asked Brad, jokingly, if we should have Dan get more caulking and he replied "Forget the caulking, I was thinking maybe he should bring the pumper truck".  Tonight also seemed to be Katie bashing night. Gerri did not understand what the joke was, but the three guys were thoroughly amused with themselves.




As of 910 pm, when Brad headed back to Columbus, there was 7.5 inches in the upper tank. The weather forecast the next two days not looking very promising.

Total sap today: 370 plus 28 gallons

Total sap to date: 2,445 plus 137gallons

Total syrup off today: 6.5

Total syrup off to date: 35 plus

Sunday March 4, 2018


Since the last post, March came in like a big fat lion with a wet windy snow on March 1st that remains on the north side of all of the trees despite a couple of afternoons of warm sun. We have spent some of our down time talking with the neighbors ....all are having a somewhat strange syrup season. Not great runs, but not terrible either.


Saturday March 3rd, Brad picked up piles of scrap lumber all over the camp and stacked them. He and Bob got the first part of the protective covering over the big overhead door.

We decided there was not enough sap to wear out the help collecting on Saturday.


Sunday afternoon was bright and sunny! Still really cool car-hart weather. We decided to gather early at 2:30 with Adam, Nancy, Morgan, Melissa, Chris, Brad, Gerri and Bob. We found a disappointing 270 gallons of sap throughout the whole woods. BUT, it was crystal clear and tasted good leading us to believe the trees had "reset" a bit. The soft maples in the woods are essentially done. The woods remains a very, very wet place to tromp through. Lots of buckets laying down from wind today.


We boiled in the 270 above and 22 gallons that Katie and Adam brought.


We tried pancakes and sausage on the new griddle, worked out pretty good.


Tonight was 4-H, leaving Adam and Brad (and later Katie) to finish boiling. They seemed to encourage Bob to leave. His parting words to them were inspirational and motivational:  "DO NOT SCREW UP". Brad replied on behalf of them all "WE GOT THIS".

Bob took a video, ya know, just in case he never saw it again, on his way out!






Total sap today: 270 plus 22
Total sap to date: 2,075 plus 109


Total syrup off today: 4.5 gallons
Total Syrup off to date: 28.5 gallons

Tuesday Feb 27, 2018


Another really nice day but with very little sap run. It did not get much below 35 last night so things just dripping along instead of running along!


140 gallons collected tonight. Bob, Chris and Muff got started gathering with Dale driving, Karen walked and rode some.  Susan B. arrived to help and soon after Katie started on the north path.  Adam and Gerri came in time to see Wally dump. Adam brought 7 gallons from twp rd 178. This was Bob's first walk through the whole woods. He thinks we need 100 more buckets!!


We enjoyed leftover's and soup from Aunt Dorothy..thank you!  No chili and no Mark tonight.

Splitting little pieces of wood for "little sap"


The boiling sap smelled great tonight! Was a quick boil with this small run. Bob and Adam still working on "when" to quit firing.


Adam finally lost it tonight and yelled, loudly, back at Bob (after he barked orders at him) that "I don't know why I come over here". He nailed the impersonation of Chuck so well everybody laughed.

Luckily Karen went home prior to the grand finale for the evening ...a mouse rodeo. Katie was the spotter, Bob chased while encouraging Lola to participate while Adam held the spotlight. Katie reminded Bob his mouse target probably had a family. Bob returned to the camp to set traps after we quit tonight.

Total sap today: 140 + 7
Total syrup off today: 2 gallons
Total sap to date:1805 + 87 gallons twp rd 178
Total syrup to date:24