Sunday February 28, 2021

A very unseasonably warm day, but still cold and damp enough to be certain it is February in Ohio! What a difference a day can make in the snow pack! The north path is still 80% covered by 3-4 inches, the rest is gone! 

Evan made a trip to the woods while Kelsey made some breakfast. He reported back that there are 2-3 inches in a lot of buckets. Full steam ahead. This has a been a big weekend. Beginning to put out buckets and lids on Friday after work to having sap to boil Sunday afternoon is a lot for one weekend!  We appreciate everyone's help!!

Everyone spent the morning scrubbing out the tanks and the tubing and the evaporator pain. We took a lasagna break about 1230. While there were 5 or 6 people present we put the pans back in place since this takes some muscles.

The first day is always like putting a jigsaw puzzle together that you have done a hundred times...and still can't figure out. Lots of pieces. The missing pieces today were one bolt for Walle's stairs, the filters for the canner, the canner itself for a short time, the water to rinse the upper tank, the wrench to loosen the odd shaped bolt on the bowl, Bob's patience with the missing list..and on and on. Eventually we got our act together to start nearly as promised at 245 ish. 

We corralled Pastor Brian into spending the afternoon with us, bribed him with food. It worked. He was good help and hopefully does not hurt in too many places...although he is likely in better shape that the rest of us!

Walle has become a rather 4 season helper so cleaning out the bed, putting the tank back on and attatching the stairs is a bit of a chore as well!

Gathering was warm and fun as usual for the first day. It took a little over 2 hours to grab 650 gallons of chrystal clear sap. Walle made three trips to dump today. Dale drove while Brian, Brad, Muff, Gerri, Evan, Kelsey and Adam collected. Katie babysat Bob in the camp. Michael arrived with fresh legs about half way through which was really appreciated despite the grief he was given for being late. Newt made an appearance for a short time to visit as well. 

Clearly taken on the north side of the woods with the snow! This is the tree that fell Saturday. Look at the foot prints! 

This was the first day of 4-H so we gobbled down some sloppy joe's and took the muddy dogs home to the bathtub. 

Dale was very popular with the pets as he tried maple pork sticks for the first time! Shout out to Ryan Nottke for making those!

Brad, Adam and Bob finished up boiling at 10pm tonight. 

The above is a small chimney fire ....this occurred when Brad advised Bob that he put "enough" wood in the firebox. Bob said there was not room for another stick in there!

Total sap today: 650 gallons

Total syrup off today: 7.5 gallons

 Saturday February 27, 2021

Today was the day! It's sappening!!

The past few days have been as pleasant and warm as the previous two weeks have been bitter and cold. The sun feels great and has provided a mighty melt of the impressive snow pack.

Most big farm projects are preceeded by a lot of prep work and planning, this week was no exception. 

Bob worked on the lids that needed a little reinforment with his "plastic welding project". Gerri and Kelsey laughed that this looks like an expensive glue gun but it is still too soon to tell Bob that news. So far this seems to be working though!

We threw out quite a few lids and tubing sets last year during the cleanup process, such that we needed to make up some new sets. This has been one of those projects that everybody has worked a little at each day for the last week. It takes some finess to push the spiles onto the tubing! 

Thursday evening Brad, Evan and Adam worked on clearing fallen trees and limbs from the paths in the woods. Kelsey and Katie worked to clean up the camp, their analysis of the camp's condition was that it was muddy! The kids apparently worked pretty diligently as they accomplished a lot for one evening out! Adam contributed photographic evidence that the lights on Walle really ARE bright enough!!

Evan is awarded the first "QUOTE OF THE DAY" award for the year. Gerri asked him if he took pictures to share and he replied flatly "no, I was too busy being short of breath". 😂 The snow pack in the woods was still pretty deep and is now very heavy as well. This turns the walk into a painful march. 

Friday evening the same gang as above, with the addition of Katie's dog Teddie, put buckets out on the south path. This probably could have waited until morning but everyone is anxious to be out and this really did take a little stress off of Saturday!

We have another gig planned for this year. THE DOG HOUSE 🐶🏠. Gerri has fond memories of years of the Birch Family Dog House...(this was a wooden plaque that hung on the kitchen wall with a small wooden dog house and little wooden dogs with each family members name on them) Who was in it and why was always a fun conversation...and as we all need a little fun now...it is time to revive this gag. 

Our first person to be incarcerated in the doghouse (no surprise to many) is BOB. Friday night he dropped off the grid rather unexpectedly... for several hours... he called Brad and requested a return call...4 min later no answer..no return text...about 15 people tried. Called all the people he talks to regularly on trips home..no answer. In the end, he had a relatively plausable excuse (stopped at the neighbors and left phone to charge in car). We have employed new tracking on him so his does not worry others in the future!! 

Saturday started early with breakfast before sunrise and discussion of the fun following the grain markets. 

Bob finished printing his spreadsheets and headed off to the annual dreaded tax preparation appointment. Gerri did fascinating stuff like laundry, grocery and bank errands.

The kids finished putting buckets and lids out in the rest of the woods. Bob and Gerri arrived about 12:30pm with sandwiches for lunch. Bob held a 30-second tapping seminar and everyone headed into the woods to tap. Except Brad, he went home to nap. He worked night shift last night. Although still smiling, there was a unanimous vote that the nap was a good idea. 

Three men and a lotta mud! Loading a crate full of lids on Walle to disperse in the woods. 

This was a warm, pretty day with no wind. We were very blessed on this full moon day to avoid an accident. A large tree fell while we were in the woods. Cannot recall this happening on a still day in the past! Bob presumes it thawed just enough to finally fall, as it came up by the roots. Kelsey and Katie went to check this out closer and snapped a pic. It did land very close to a tree they had just tapped. The tree fell on the west side and you could feel and hear it on the east. We were out of sight of one another, tapping in teams, but a quick hollering exchange confirmed everybody was ok. 

Gerri walked to the camp and brought Walle back as we missed about a dozen buckets and lids on the far north side and she likely could not carry all of that. They finished up the final taps and ventured back to the camp. Gerri talked Adam into driving as the added trailer made this a bit tricky. 

We checked our intial buckets about 1:30 pm and they had around 2 inches them and were still dripping at 5:30 pm.

We tried out some new taps this year! These spials allow the sap to flow into the tubing from the tree, however the sap cannot back flow back into the tree. 

It was so odd today, snow 8 inches deep and comfortable in short sleeve t-shirts (for awhile anyway)! Bob got thirsty enough to try some sap , Adam later admitted he drank some too....both agreed disappointingly like water but more thirst quenching than typical. Gerri and the dogs ate snow! 

When the sun went down, it cooled off quickly. We worked on scrubbing the evaporator pans out before leaving for home.

There is a lot of work to do in the camp tonight before any boiling can occur. For now, Ibuprofen and rest for tonight!

 Tuesday February 16, 2021

We got a little snow that began Monday night the 15th and continued until mid day Tues the 16th. Ya know ya got the BIG snow when nobody in your family knows HOW MUCH snow really fell. We are gonna round it off to say a foot. Easily. (Toledo recorded 14.5 inches)

The wind made for rather treacherous driving conditions. Bob and Brad went to the home farm to bring the dump truck with blade and the backhoe to CR 34 on Monday evening. They returned about 3 hours later. The dump truck brakes would not build air pressure. Bob took the truck in the barn and worked for about 90 minutes on this problem. The barn with no windows. He reported that opening that door at 10 pm was one of the bigger surprises of his life! Heavy snow fall mixed with high winds had turned to near blizzard conditions later in the evening. Brad had been using the back hoe to clean up the barnyard and was nearly out of sight. 

They tag teamed the 3 mile trip back towards their warm beds. Brad drove off of the south side of CR 32 near the Albright cemetery..just not realizing where the road was .....but pretty clear where the ditch drop off was!  He managed to get himself out after some fancy maneuvers. 

Bob did the exact same thing in neighbor Leslie's front yard. Brad was able to pull him out. 

 Most of the world was shut down the night before so everyone slowly dug themselves out on Tuesday. Brad and Bob both really enjoy plowing snow. Brad is thinking he might make putting a door on the backhoe a priority for summer. The AC was a little much for him.

Everyone worked from home Tuesday needless to say. Evan stayed on CR 32 to work and feed the sheep in the early am. 

We had a 2 day break...and in came another few inches. We now have a nice snow pack in the woods (remember we had a nice pack prior to this week!!!) .....that should make for some good exercise and keep the roots cool for another week or so. 

The down time this week has focused on  getting extra lids and tubing ready for tapping and applying lights to WALLE. 

Everyone in our family has an off farm job. So collecting sap is a race on weeknights against the sun. Sunset is likely no different during syrup season....but it seems to sink to blackness in just moments.It is hard enough to walk without tripping in the snow and mud....add in the darkness and you are just pining for an ER visit. So after a couple of particularly late adventures the last few years.....the 20 somethings ordered new lights for Walle. Brad believes these have enough lumens to light up a football field and likely will not be appreciated as they will blind volunteers. Time will tell. More to come on that I am sure. 

Bob is learning to weld plastic in an effort to reinforce our plastic lids/tubing. Brad has had a lot of thoughts/rants on this use of time and money. None of them appropriate to share in our family blog. More to come on that I am sure. 😂 Martha the cat was Bob' s only helper.

Hey Marc Slingwine...your adorable snowman has a broken arm. You do house calls?

More after some MELT!!

 Sunday February 7, 2021 

Welcome to our family farms' 10th year of blogging our adventures! We are thankful to be able to share our maple production experiences and other random situations we find amusing. Life is not as "normal" as we had hoped at this juncture. We yearn to return to church, 4-H, work and leisure time as we knew it. Absolutely everything still takes a bit more energy!!  We especially await some outdoor time!

Sugarwood Farms has been blessed with phenominal syrup sales this winter and thus we have spent a lot of time bottling.

Jack and Marsha's house has literally been full to the brim with boxes and bottles etc etc. It may look dishelved, but it smells amazing!

Winter brings more projects than there is time to complete them. Putting a new soft top on the jeep was a priority prior to the sugar season. This was a highly satisfying tedious project where 5 people lost about 5 hours of life they won't get back..but it is done and very cozy in there now! Throw in the usual book keeping and taxes and poof the winter is gone! 

The early season begins with preparation projects that are always a bit chilly. 

This begins with the annual carhart debacle. Like toddlers, everyone in this family strips their carharts at the end of syrup season.... wherever they please. Gerri gathers them from the camp, tractors, barn, garage and laundry room to wash and hang up for the year. This unpleasant tasks involves about 30 tension filled minutes sorting through the basement wall rack of clean and dry carharts that folks fight over. In our defense, spending a great deal of time outdoors, our family owns more carharts per capita than most. However, Aunt Dorothy or Nana Mary might have to sew our names in them as there is always some arguement about who wore which pair. Purchasing different colors has not helped. Adding to the confusion, we start out with the insulated versions and move to the uninsulated. Cody and Amy leave some outfitting here. This should not be that difficult. In case you missed the memo....Carharts are HARD to find this year. Think ahead. 

The guys decided that project one needs to be parking space. (It is always a bit welcoming to invite volunteers when they can come and go and NOT get stuck in the lane or camp lot!) However this is involves cleanup first...so multiple stacks of boards we cut from felled trees that were not woodworking quality needed cut on the buzz saw. 

Getting our Marooka track machine (we have named Walle)  some winter maintenance was Brad's first task. Turns out our local Japanese machinery dealer did not have the filters we needed.(Sarcasm if you did not catch that.) Who would have guessed? Brad is seen here calling one of about a dozen places within reasonable driving distance to get filters ordered.

 He made a lot of new friends on the phone and in the end had NAPA in Clyde order them in ...and he waited impatiently a few days to get them. Walle got a few extra bonus days in the heated shop for this situation. 

The high today was about 9 degrees but the sun was out making this tolerable...as long as you stayed in motion! Brad started by scraping the snow off of the piles (in an attempt to keep our gloved hands dry).

Brad reluctantly decided that we would proceed with the wood cutting without Walle. So Brad, Bob, Adam, Evan and Kelsey (and Gerri for a couple of hours) spent the afternoon cutting wood into smaller pieces. These were stacked into totes and then loaded into reefer boxes for storage until needed in the camp to heat the evaporator. Bob estimates that a typical season uses about 15 of these totes so the 7 or 8 we put together today was great !

Brad and Bob attended a zoom church council meeting in the sugarcamp...a bit chilly! The rest of the crew persisted until the fork lift would not start again...you have to talk to nice to it in a language only Bob and Brad know.

So....while the rest of us waited we walked the East and South paths. The east is clear except this one large, dead tree that politely fell directly in the path on the north side of the east path. Adam predicts this will be an "easy pull" out. We will see how that works out. The south path has at least 3 significant trees perpendicular to the path that will need to be addressed when Walle is functional again. We did not venture to the north side of the woods yet. 

Just like 10 years ago, we have a nice snow pack in the woods and walking is more like marching. Checking the two paths we did was grueling enough for today.

We cut a little more after the meeting and went back to CR 34 for lunch. Brad is getting old. He says he cannot take coming in and getting warm and going back out again!! HAHAHA. 

The end of the day was not as warm or pleasant, but we got into a groove where we were at least very efficient. 

We ended up with the buzz tractor (farmall H), the grandpa's fork lift and the telehandler, 2 trucks and a jeep in the woods. Punch line, took a couple of cold trips to the barnyard to put things away! Kelsey later admitted her tractor ride to the barn was absolutely BRUTAL. 

The livestock division of the farm has kept us all busy in the last few weeks. Egg production has maintained nicely all winter! As a reward Gerri spent an hour making the hen house more comfortable..... only to find the barred rock rooster enjoying the frozen metal roof more than the heated area she worked hard to provide....the low IQ rooster was just left there after she blew off a little steam in his direction. He will find the small open door or become a frozen cupola on the roof. His choice.

Even the cats are enjoying the increased action in the shop these days. This is Martha....sleeping in her usual spot. We have no idea. 

Evan and Kelsey purchased a couple of small flocks of sheep over the summer.

 They are now popping out baby lambs like popcorn. This has also been a cold project!! 

Evan has made a lot of gates in the last two weeks!! The new siding for the sugar camp.... is now gates. 

The dogs are thrilled to get out for some adventure! They see the appearance of carharts as a beacon of light to end their winter hibernation. You never have to ask a second time if they want to go to the woods!!

God willing.... more adventures to come. Maybe when it warms up!