Saturday, February 25, 2023

Positively gorgeous day. Sun and less wind today.Awoke to a light dusting of snow. Said "snow " appeared as tiny little almost hail like spheres. This pic from the driveway in the shade at 1130 am. 

Sheep chores kept Evan and Kelsey busy this am...the sheep are out in some pasture. They are not happy as they want hay. Evan said they had to wait on new feeder to arrive. Guess they were not real understanding. Brad spread fertilizer this am while the ground was cold...far from frozen. Gerri tried to clean a layer off the kitchen countertop and dropped off recycling on her way to get chicken feed. Dan and Denise dropped off cookies. The morning seemed to fly by quickly.  Everyone showed up for sandwiches at 1pm at home, which was appreciated. 

Evan and Kelsey attempted to help Gerri with technology after lunch, ........ a new work computer, a new phone and a new dog GPS system is too much for a year much less a week. They probably lost a half hour of life they won't get back and did not accomplish much! Likely, you will see pictures of today, tomorrow! 

Mid afternoon rolled around quickly. Adam, Michael, Evan, Brad, Kelsey, Muff and Gerri gathered sap at a pretty good clip. Brad drove most of the way and Evan finished the last lap. The sap was a little erratic with some buckets much fuller than others. The run was a little better than we expected at 475 gallons. Adam commented he saw ants....usually a late season sign. There is some green popping up through the dry leaves and the moss is thriving. We laughed that you would not guess it was a February day until you stopped for a few minutes to wait on the tank...then you were reminded the breeze is still pretty crisp.! 

Lucky for us Dave arrived in time to have a toasty fire in the evaporator by our return. If you wondered who was firing the evaporator...the sound of terrible music emminating from the camp would narrow your guesses. (But we did enjoy the sugarwood farm tik tok Dave! )The fire felt good in the camp tonight!  He one upped Bob by also starting the fire ring out back...looking to eat sooner rather than later. That happened later anyway despite his good planning! 

Wanted to take a cool picture of Adam's reflection in a rare mud hole...Brad pretty much ruined that by driving through a little fast...see the wake!

 

Blue, the new dog on the farm, proudly participated tonight. He was somewhat desperate for a run (walk is not going to be in his vocabulary). The GPS unit on his collar says he ran 4.3 miles. He did manage to stay nearby most of the time and if we accomplished nothing else...we could see where he was on the screen.... so points for us. There is nothing quite like the serenity of the woods...and then a computerized voice in your pocket says "Blue is barking" ..that is a little startling if your not expecting it.  

Kelsey and Evan headed from the gathering sap project to the gathering sheep project. Dave asked them to also gather up some larger speakers so he could listen to the basketball playoffs!

Adam was elated to see yet another cart of ironwood (not what it was, just what it split like!) When Gerri left the camp...the guys seemed to have a grip on the job at hand.....haven't smelled scorched pans ......yet...... hot dogs and spirits may be helpful or harmful. To be a fly on that wall.....Tomorrow's post will likely include interviews of the survivors from Saturday night. Special attention to each of their perspectives. 

Total Sap Today: 475 gallons

Total Sap To Date: 1,335 gallons

Total Syrup Off Today: 9 gallons

Total Syrup Off To Date: 22 gallons

Nature already working on tomorrow: