Hump day! Evan said he saw temp around 53 in his truck coming home from work today. The warmest day of the season thus far!
Bob sent out a text at 525pm to start gathering at 530pm ?????? Anyway, folks found there way to the woods. Bob went out to gather for the first time tonight (driving) with Brad and Kelsey and they were soon joined by Evan, Melissa, Chris, Sarah and Gerri. About half way Bob walked back to the camp after realizing that there is a good reason he stays in the camp, he worked on stoking the fire.....thinking about what time he wanted to go to bed! We really did not anticipate there being quite this much sap today......420 gallons! The sap is terrific quality though...crystal clear and tastes great!
There was a discussion about how much ice is left in the bottom tank in the storage building and how much we would have to boil in yet before we can drop the remainder down and put this on ice. The guys ended up letting 10 inches or about 200 gallons drop down to put on ice. They have had some late nights and are not prepared to boil all of this in tonight! Rumor has it a couple of people may have fallen asleep at inappropriate times today...
We have created a system , while rather simple, it works. Each night we gather sap we write the date and amount of sap on the wall of the camp with a sharpee marker. It is a rule that the person driving Wally is to track the total...doesn't always happen! The plus on the right is what is brought in from outside this woods ....Adam and Katie make their rounds in the neighborhood bringing this extra sap each time (and in earlier years Chuck would bring some from Sandhill Rd)Bob was making some comparisons to the season of 2013, the longest season in recent times , when we tapped on the same day we did this year...Feb 22nd ......and gathered for the last time on April 3rd. IF there is sap to gather tomorrow, that will be the most consecutive days in our barnside book-keeping system. We gathered March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 in 2013. Tomorrow would be the 6th day in a row.
Splitting the wood into narrow strips seems to allow more air flow around the wood and makes a little hotter fire. 
Thus far Bob calculates that one of these carts full of wood makes about 10 gallons of syrup.
At 10pm the center path had bottoms of buckets covered and nothing running on the south path.
FYI: Bob has had a late night thought....somebody remember to put gas in Wally tomorrow...before heading into the woods :)
Total Sap Tonight: 420 gallons + 12
Total Sap To Date: 3530 + 104 (this # is finally correct)
Total Syrup Off Tonight:4.5 gallons
Total Syrup Off To Date: 67.5 gallons
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