Sunday, February 18, 2024

 Sunday Feb. 18, 2024




Happy 2024! The tangled picture of trees is representative of our current state of agricultural affairs, a bit tangled and confusing. 

Weather has been the El Nino warm we were promised and has brought very few days of hard freeze this winter. We have also experienced some really sunny days that are tempting buds of all kinds to work on the spring explosion. The sub-surface is pretty warm. 


There is always the usual tax preparation, church responsibilities, and the occasional vehicle that will not start to make the days speed by quickly.

Bob and Gerri walked the paths in the woods on Feb 8th and were pleasantly surprised to find that we did not need to do much cleanup in the paths before the season. The kerplunk game above has yet to be resolved, Bob waiting for more players prior to addressing that. The woods is rather freakishly dry. There are a few of the usual mud holes but nothing typical. 

Brad has worked plenty of off-farm jobs this winter and has passionately been working on making a new parking lot at our wonderful woods. Turns out he has not previously enjoyed pulling folks out of the mud in the dark. Who knew? The parking area is not yet aesthetically pleasing but has made strides in the right direction. 

The camp itself was a project to clean up on a new level. The back door blew open and what appears to be a small army of raccoons/squirrels or at least a few mentally deranged critters, TRASHED the inside of the camp. Bob is fairly certain he accidentally shut something inside adding to the chaos. Really should have taken some pictures of this but just wasn't sure we wanted to get that memory to stick. They ate a roll of paper towels, knocked things off of the side walls, and pushed things off of the rafters. etc.Thankfully no damage to the evaporator. Anyway, it has primarily been returned to its former preseason glory, baseline quaint again. 


The pan sparkled, a zillion man hours later. 

Peer pressure is ever present as most syrup operations have long tapped. We were holding out for this week's cold weather which turned out to be a strong couple of days rather than the forecasted week. 

Spring sprang rather early last year as well and we decided to go back to our old method of washing buckets just before starting the season so the last couple of weeks has been spent in the shop bleaching out buckets and letting them dry for transport. 


On the positive side, we have had some good news and fun this month! 

On Thursday, Feb 8th we welcomed Oliver Wilson Rine to our herd! He arrived politely on time and seems to be thriving! Cody and Amy report that Grandaughter Emma is adjusting :) he is a couple of syrup seasons away from carrying buckets! 

Kelsey and Evan, confident that there is not enough to do this month have lambs popping like popcorn on County Road 21. They have had some challenges this year with lambing which have involved both the vet and lost sleep. 

We enjoyed Mardi Gras Sunday at Lakewood congregational a great deal as our quiet before the storm. Bob also enjoyed a trip to the famous Breadsmith bake shop. The smell in there should be a candle! 

We are plodding along at a fast crawl. As of this moment, the buckets are in the woods next to what we believe to be maple trees. Gerri will catch the grief if they are not as she was in attendance yet unsupervised at each session of bucket distribution this weekend. Brad and Gerri spread out buckets on the south path on Friday night. 


There was a pretty snow Friday night. 





Saturday Kelsey and Gerri CARRIED 192 buckets and set them on the east path. Walle was used Friday night and in all fairness, Brad cleaned up the tracks pretty well ....but it did get in the low teens Friday eve and the tracks were frozen Saturday. 





While it started, it did not budge. Bob did get it loose on Sunday with some effort. He and Gerri did the north path bucket toss later in the day as it was too windy to go in the woods earlier in the day. The feel-like temperature this afternoon was 19 so it was a rather brisk walk! 

We chuckled today that nobody in our gang has had enough sleep recently for a variety of reasons. Ironically this seems to be extending to our extended family/friends.  We collectively are moving at a snail's pace in the right direction. See what Monday brings. 

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