Thursday March 14, 2013

The sun was a really nice site to see today after many cold gray days. The trees began to have a slow drip on Wednesday and picked up a little bit today. Chris, Kelsey, Gary, Muff, Dean, Bob, Dale & Karen gathered 370 gallons of sap tonight. It was decided not to boil today, Jack is cold. He has been busy canning syrup, a warm job at least. A new piece of farm equipment delivered today stole the show from the camp. There were as many estimates of total sap today as there were gatherers-so going with the one somebody wrote on the wall.

Total Sap: 3925.5

Friday March 15, 2013

 Nathan did a fair amount of trailer patrol Friday night.

 Never seems to be a shortage of MUD!

 Below right, Cody ran to the camp to get the lid as sap was sloshing out the top!

Someone returned unexpected from spring break today to get the old guys moving faster and earlier than usual. They started a fire about 3:15 which was a blessing as there was 505 gallons of sap tonight. A few of Muff's friends and the neighbor's stopped in to help in addition to Dean, Muff, Nathan, Kevin, Karen, Dale, Chris, Kelsey. & Mark.  Brad took the night off so his dad did the tractor driving. The soft maples are producing clear sap that has little taste at this point. Muff and Bob stopped and tipped a few up for a drink, the blogger wishes she would have thought quick enough to get a picture of them drinking out of the 5 gallon buckets or better yet, to have been a little closer to "help". The ants have arrived, always a bit of a worrisome sign.

We thank Pastor Cathy for the large quanity of leftover soup we had for dinner. We had fun trying to figure out how long it really takes to cook corn bread in the pie iron. From the appearance of the product, we still don't know. It really is good though. We enjoyed conversation about nothing in particular and Cody getting in trouble for forgetting the generator fuel, (it was a little romantic for awhile). Jack started his truck so the lights could shine in the window. Inventive. Reminds us how nice it is to NOT listen to the old generator any more! Thanks Parks family!
Kelsey drew the shortest straw of the evening and gave the dog her bath. Kelsey was VERY excited to find a new critter at the neighbors and had to tell us all about it, at length, Gerri was just excited it was NOT a skunk.

At 11:15 pm the fire was allowed to burn down and the project will be addressed again tomorrow!

Total Sap: 4431.0
Total Syrup:99 Gallons

Sunday March 10, 2013

64 degrees today, wow. A little windy at times. Pooped last night and left the entire bottom tank full so started the firebox by noon today. Brad and Gerri went to church and then to St. John's for carry out lunches. Gerri and Brad made a quick trip home for poultry chores, piano practice, homework and laundry ( and MORE buckets for finished syrup). Bob ran in and out of the camp today leaving Brad and Sue in charge of the temperature gauge , scary. Jack brought some more wood into the camp. Pam and Stan road the wagon and emptied buckets today, (grandaughters Tegan and Taylor walked the paths) with Kelsey, Chris, Muff, Dean, Kevin, Nathan, Ted, Nancy (sorry your back to the books Adam!), Muff, Dean, and Gary. Grandpa "New Boots" Bishop welcomed grandson Simon to the world today but still found time for a little exericse. (Grandma went to Arizona for a closer look!) There were approximately 530 gallons of sap today. Emptied  the trailor after each path.


Pam & Stan understand why we told them they have hold on tightly while brad plows through the paths.

We made pancakes on the griddle for supper. Susan made a MESS of Bob's tidy canning area and will never hear the end of it.

This was another LATE evening of boiling, Bob arriving home at 11 pm.


Total Sap: 3555.5 Gallons
Total Syrup: 88 Gallons

Saturday March 9, 2013

Picture perfect weather all day. 27 degrees this am coasting up to a balmy 53 this afternoon. The guys spent the morning using the buzz saw to replenish the wood boxes. Mr. Boilermaker started a fire around noon to work on the "leftover"sap from yesterday. We had sandwiches for lunch and did odds and ends since the weather was the best of year thus far. Took the time today to change filters etc. Several friends and neighbors stopped in for a visit today.

A hearty gang showed up to gather at 4:30 including the Oney Family (Caleb we miss you), Mr Boots and his spry wife, the ever dependable Clark family, Jerry, Chris, Dan (almost a regular -this is more fun than P90X huh?!), Karen, Muff, Brad drove tractor and Dale dumped buckets. Amazing how much drier it is today than yesterday! The temperature cools off quickly such that it is still advisable to wear carharts, but we all were a little red faced by the end today. We gathered in a different pattern tonight which totally screwed even the natives up. It is fun if you can just walk, but if you throw having to think in there, it really SAPS you out. We enjoyed pizza and the warm fire and fellowship for some time (thank you Papa Jimmies for being quick!)

We found 633.5 gallons of sap tonight. The buds are coming out rapidly on the soft maples so they are on the "watch" list to get the taps pulled, likely soon. Sandhill Rd made a contribution of 13.5 gallons. It seems there is an unusual amount of sap sitting in the camp this year.

We shut the fire down around 9:45pm tonight with A LOT of sap still in the side shed. 14 hours of fresh air was about all we could take and certainly more than Lola could stand. (She has quickly habituated to seeing the carharts go on and waiting by the truck to go to the woods!)


It has been pointed out to the blogger that the blog got pretty behind on posts. The blogger would like to point out to the boilermaker that STOPPING stoking the fire a little earlier would help in the future.

Total Sap: 3025.5 gallons
Total Syrup: 66 gallons (this is great!)-all "fancy grade" thus far
Conversion Ratio: 39.3:1 (includes sap still in camp)

Finally Friday (March 8, 2013)

We had a really fun evening in the woods. Everyone a little joyous about it being the end of the week!! Glad to have Jack back, he looks a little like a glazed donut from the time change. Lots of elves in the woods tonight along with a good amount of sap. The Rine's were joined by Dean, Nancy, Ted, Adam, Susan B. and Mr. Boots (2 days in a row!), Ryan, Kevin, Dale and Karen. Brad drove and Dale dumped buckets most of the way. 

 Kelsey attempting to use Ryan for kindling. Ryan too tired to put up much of a fight.(This is the only work Kelsey did tonight that we know of)

 

 Funny how there is less conversation as the evening goes on. Picture above, almost done.

 

 Gathered 505 gallons tonight. Sandhill Rd. forrest produced 22!

 Ryan catches on quickly and is still smiling near the end of gatherng!

(

Pretty scene with friends and neighbors scurrying to empty buckets while I do nothing but take pictures.)

The boilermaker's horse was lame tonight, so he showed up late and got a little cranky when we told him he had to show up early tomorrow! The taps were dripping at a good clip tonight, so if it cools down this eve tomorrow should be a great day.

We keep a sample of each 5 gallon bucket of syrup we take off of the evaporator. There has been little color variation and every bucket grades "fancy"-by industry standards this is the best, we like the darker stuff a little better! Unusual to have that many buckets in a row of that grade.

 

Running 41.5 gallons of sap to each gallon of syrup according to guy above.

We had lots of food tonight and made smores in the fire box for the first time. Fire box was allowed to burn down by 9:15pm or so. Yea!

Total sap: 2392 gallons
Total syrup: 50.5 gallons

Thursday March 7, 2013
An overcast day with a little wind and again a good run with 430 gallons collected. Bob made a fire and boiled enough to empty the top tank. Chris, Dan, Muff & 2 friends of hers, Dean, Adam, Ted, Dale, Karen, Gerri, Susan and yes Mr. New Boots Mark even showed up.Brad drove most of the way. Muff and Karen each made some food to share. This was by far the biggest crew and quickest gather yet (in about the nicest weather as well). Longest boil for Bob as our boilermaker back in sick bay. Lola got nice & muddy which we hope will help to deskunk one more layer off of her. Likely more sap tomorrow.

 Mr New Boots showed up on a night with perfect weather and food.

 Food & fun after exercise.

 Found the problem, watched pot never boils.

Hanging on for dear life. Not sure Brad is all that great of a driver.

Total sap: 1865 gallons

Total syrup:  40.5    gallons

Wednesday March 6, 2013


Another chilly day but warm enough for sap to run. We collected 330 gallons of sap in a pleasant walk through the woods (a real treat compared to last wednesday!) The Oney family (minus there child from down under), Dan and Chris helped out tonight. Jenny made a great pot of chili which we somewhat inhaled so we could get to church on time. The "on time" part didn't happen but we did get there-bob attended without shoes, but that is another story. Tonight was the first run through the woods with the new stone and it seemed to go well. Tomorrow could be a big day given that the taps were constantly dripping as we collected at 6pm. Finished in the light of day, another thing we always appreciate. Came home from church and had the dog take a direct hit from a black thing with a white stripe very near the back door of the house. Didn't appreciate this so much. Spoke with Denise regarding decontamination, confirmed this will be unpleasant for some time to come! Washed the dog and blogged and callin it a day! (Adam, believe it or not, the wet dog smell earlier, ....that was good).

Saturday March 2, 2013
So the blogger is tired, busy and behind. The top picture above is the sap wagon in the barn to keep it a little bit warmer until we can empty it. Saturday was a big day. Marc and Trevor spent most of the day moving #1 and #2 stone into some of the bottomless pits along the paths in the woods. This was a slow and tedious process. The hitch broke on the H so a good bit of the day was spent welding that back together. There was pretty almost white out like snow at times. We did not gather today as it was so cold and not much in buckets. Bob and Chuck started a fire mid afternoon and burned until around 9 pm. The sap seemed to move through the evaporator rather quickly. Cody discovered how to cook ribs in the coals and brad and kelsey made cornbread with the campfire irons that we covered with syrup (that was a big hit). Kelsey made a run to the house for more buckets for syrup! The fire felt exceptionally good at the end of this cold week. Bob was glad to see the tanks finally empty as the next cold snap is coming.

Total Sap: 1435 gallons
Total Syrup: 30 gallons