Wednesday Feb. 21, 2024

Syrup season is certainly here. Another erratic weather day! The day started out almost frozen with the thermometer a cool 24 degrees at sunrise. Then sunny and 61 at one point today and cold and windy tonight with rain on the way. 

Bob finished cleaning up in the camp today using the pressure washer to shine up the holding tanks. Brad arrived home from work early today and loaded the gathering tank and steps on Walle, a job all were thankful to find done tonight. 

A nice size crew came to help out tonight. (Thank you!) The sun was warm and the walk was dry and pleasant in the beginning. Many buckets were half to 3/4 full so this slowed things down a tad. Dave Green drove and was complimented on how nicely he did, never got lost even in the dark! 

Megan brought Braxton to the woods for his debut trip through the woods he seemed unimpressed overall but very good spirited! 

Bret and Melissa joined in as well. Muff, Adam, Michael, James, Kelsey, Bob, Gerri , Brad and Kelsey helped tonight. We started pretty promptly at 530pm. 

Mother nature was generous tonight, we dumped 325 gallons three times and carried the rest up by hand...Dave says we have exactly 1000 gallons. The night ended gathering in the dark. We obviously try to avoid this for safety reasons but even though we had a lot of good help tonight we had a lot of sap and the trips back to the camp added time as well. Michael commented that this was his first moonlight gathering. We have some head lamps but nobody quite organized enough for that yet tonight. Walle appears to have a headlight out so we will need to address that soon. Some have night vision that works better than others. Brad asked Gerri to take buckets "over to Muff"...??? no idea where she was in the dark woods! The nearly full moon was actually quite helpful tonight! 

The plan was to gather, eat a cookie and some veggies and call it a night. We would wait to boil tomorrow..... but Bob could not help himself and started a fire. (Adam would not be happy or surprised at the firing that took place after he left. Not productive.) We broke out our emergency stash of hot dogs on night one. No utensils were brought as cookies and veggies do not require them. Good thing Dave always carries a pair of pliers on him to turn hot dogs on the grill. Brad and James were disappointed he also was not packing ketchup. 

Kelsey worked in Columbus today and she remembered to stop in Oceola at our favorite Hatchery and pick up the new hen chicks. Gerri was not prepared for them tonight, thinking she would get them tomorrow. Kelsey Lott was elated to meet them. Our cat, Susan , would not leave them alone tonight! She will be sleeping in the garage tonight until we figure this out. 

Some new lambs came today, Kelsey is unsure how many we have now. Of course, one is working in the direction of lambing now that it is nearly bedtime.

We talked to Cody as a group tonight as today is his birthday. Happy Bday! Even here in the neighborhood, we haven't seen each other in a while. Kelsey returned tools to James that she borrowed. James gave Gerri back a plate that he has had for months..but that is Brad's fault. Bob is thinking the boots he is wearing might be Evan's.  

Total Sap Today: 1000 gallons

Total Sap To Date: 1000 gallons

Total syrup off today: zero