Sunday March 24, 2019
Another beautiful day, great company and a leisurely walk through the woods. The trees are showing they are growing tired too. The conversations dwell around not how many days we can gather, but when will the end be. It is bitter sweet topic but if you've done this you know that is a mystery we have all been trying to figure out. Maybe it's a short season , maybe it goes on, maybe it rewards you with a double.(2013)
Brad started today at 1:30 with moving empty wood carts to be joined by Bob who was setting up the evaporator while waiting to discuss planting intentions for the next year with Brad C. Kelsey and Evan arrived to start a fire to cook pizza on open flame.
Brad had a discussion with a hunter that was trailing a wounded coyote thru the woods. Word was spread by radio to unload guns. (Hunters in the woods this time of year is not something that we can say we have experienced before. ) A couple of shots eventually were heard, long story, anyway added some excitement to gathering.
Gerri, Muff, Susan, Adam, Katie, Brad, Vivian came to gather joined in guest appearances by Cathy L. and Don C who dumped buckets.Glad to have their help and company today!
Dale and Karen showed up to help about the time the crew was finishing. ( I think Daylight saving time was last week????? Bob wrote that to be clear. ) Susan R. brought some maple butter back to try..it was good...we compared it to Bob's version.....
Thanks to Cathy for bringing some of the preserves..always fun to try new stuff!
Bob fell asleep. Some people, (Adam and Katie), thought it would be funny to yell that the temperature was 220,to wake Bob up.
3 minutes later it really was 220 and it was all hands on deck.
Then there was a report we only had 2 1/2 inches in the top tank. In a nutshell, this means we have too much fire and too little sap, the pan running dry is not something we want to experience. This was the fastest everyone has moved , especially at one time, in a LONG TIME.
Vivian, Katie and Gerri grabbed buckets and went to find any sap they could in the woods and the guys pulled some of the fire out of the pit.
The "quick gather ' crew was joined by Evan and Kelsey who emptied a lot of buckets to get about 5 gallons. Adam added that directly to the evaporator. Did not burn dry!!
This really has been a rather grueling stretch. Everybody is tired...including Teddy who did not make it home without falling asleep.
Dog spa treatment before bedtime.
Have more fun pics and stories from this weekend and no gumption left to share today! maybe later this week!
Total Sap Today: 220 gallons + 14
Total Sap To Date: 5,595 + 222 Gallons
Total Syrup Off Tonight: 4.0 gallons
Total Syrup Off To Date: 122.5 gallons
No comments:
Post a Comment