Monday Feb. 13, 2017

A beautiful and sunny day today that was relatively still, (the wind cranked up last evening before we were done). Bob and Brad and Dale started gathering the newly named "short north " to get started. They had 130 gallons and returned to the camp to start a fire. Bob and Dale went onto the south path and Brad left for practice. Chuck reports that when he showed up the camp was raging with fire and nobody was there. He apparently saved the fort. Adam arrived by the middle of the south path, ........Dale voiced that he was never so glad to see Adam as he was tonight. They headed for the north path and Chuck called and said he was out of sap so Dale sped back with Wally . Bob reports that he and Adam quietly held up a couple of trees while waiting for Dale to return. He says they did not even speak. They then sloppily gathered the east path, Bob states that they left quite  a few buckets untouched, anything that seemed "too far to walk to" remained there. This is really 180 degree turn in philosophy from the one who has barked about leaving drops in the woods. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Adam got to use his special forehead "mining" light. Dale now thinks he needs one of those. They returned soaking wet in sweat to the sugarcamp and stripped off wet layers. Since Bob, Brad, Chuck, Adam and Dale were the only participants tonight , this is their story, but nobody really knows 

what happened out there.

Apparently they ate Briley's brownies complete with special hearts...thank you!!! and nearly  finished off the bottled water supply. Brad stopped on his way home from practice for hot dogs and lucky charms. Brad says the syrup taken off tonight was "best ever". 



You know you are tired when you can sleep with your nose in Bob's smelly boot!!

Plan for tomorrow is take bottle of Aleve to the camp.




Total Sap Today:  600 gallons
Total Sap To Date: 1355 gallons
Total Syrup Today: 8.5 gallons
Total Syrup To Date: 21.5 gallons

February 12, 2017

SUNDAY

So much for a day of rest. Wow. Wow. Wow. 

As a fun aftermath of yesterday, the most FAQ last evening and this am ...."where is the Aleve?" Today's community bonding moment involved recognition that everyone, perhaps except Brad, was feeling the aftermath of Saturday's outing.

Sunday actually started a little on the slow side as we regrouped at the breakfast table. Gerri stayed behind to homestead a bit while everyone else met Muff at the woods and finished cleaning the tanks, evaporator and firing up the generator etc.

 Kelsey and Bob checked buckets before breakfast.







 
Nobody really said much, but it can presumed that getting Wally ready did not go smoothly as this seemed to take a lot of time and Evan and Brad's carharts looked like they rolled in something. 





 

About 1 pm a large contingent of faithfuls (Susan B., Katie, Adam, Nancy, Ted, Kevin, Jenny, Kaleb, Gary, Ben, Dale, Gerri & Brad) made a "quick" trip around a the middle of the woods for 180 or so gallons, just enough to quickly return to the camp so Bob could get started boiling. Buckets looked a little fuller than he expected this am and he was having visions of midnight dance through his head.
 
Gathering essentially went off without much of a hitch with the exception of having to cut out of the east path as the tank was full. 735 gallons were found with 20 collected off of the original short path we started on (about an hour later) for a total of 755 gallons. This is the 6th largest sap amount (at least in the last 6 years in which we have tracked it daily) to ever be collected. This is the earliest tap date since we have recorded them in 2001.  The next closest, in 2012, we tapped trees on Feb 13 and 14th. Bob says he never recalls ever before, and we have no record of in recent times, getting this much sap within 24 hours of tapping. 

Everyone ate, rested and visited  (we laughed that we went through about 60 bottles of water in 2 days haha!!.)

On the downside.....the sap is not terribly sweet. 2% sugar content in the sap yesterday and 1.5%  today. Bob is not crazy about the flavor. The first syrup came off at 4:30 pm this afternoon. Struggled to find a bucket to put it in.

As we have not tapped the soft maples the last couple of years, and tapped some new trees this year, we ran out of buckets. Bob has been to Lima once in the last week on a plastic run and may need to go again as we need more canning & for the newly tapped territory on Twp Rd 178. Adam took some straggler supplies home tonight to see how far he could get. Sandhill Rd is just behind...and they do not care....and they may not try to catch up.

Chuck returned to splitting wood and firing with typical complaints about the lead time of his notification of such activities. Our favorite canine neighbor Bruce Oney came for a visit.....Lola always enjoys this...but has not yet recovered from yesterday. Kevin wasted a couple of minutes of all of our lives explaining a hillbilly plan to fix the roof on the camp (which has now moved closer to the top of the priority list).

 Our best specimen yet for a lightening strike.

First Fire of the Season. 









Total Sap Today:755 gallons
Total Sap To Date: 755 gallons
Total Syrup Off Today: 13 gallons (as of 2240)
Total Syrup Off To Date: 13 gallons


 

February 11, 2017

We had an early start in the woods this year! The weather made it a great day to set buckets out and start tapping trees. With the help of Brett, Morgan, Adam, Katie, Kevin, Jenny, Kaleb, Brad, Evan and Kelsey we were able to get all but 40 trees tapped! Bob said this was the fastest we have ever set buckets and had the woods ready to go. After several counts, we decided that we had nearly 425 taps out for the 2017 season. Roughly 75 new trees were tapped this year!

The trees were running as soon as holes were drilled and by the time everyone finished for the day, there was about 3 inches of sap in most buckets! This means we will be gathering tomorrow afternoon, but not likely enough to boil.
 We are excited to see what the weather will bring this season, as it has been an interesting winter so far. We hope to see everyone out again!

Tuesday March 8, 2016

Day #14


You can tell everyone is tired. Muff contributes: Not much sap, 320 gallons, ants. everybody scattered, didn't get pictures. finished before dark. Brad, Dean, Muff, Adam , Katie and Bob collected.  Brad got started  early alone, he panicked a little as he started a fire after school and was getting a little low on sap so he headed into the woods to grab some quick.

 

At 9 pm there are 9 inches in the upper tank, Bob is a little unsure what to do. Filters are plugged with syrup but sap won't last. Might be done. Maybe not. Syrup considerably darker!

 

Total Sap today: 320 gallons

Total Sap to date: 3,712 gallons

Total syrup off tonight:11 gallons (3 from late last night)

Total syrup off to date: 63 gallons

Monday March 7, 2016

Day #13

Warm and windy and misty today. Busy day for all. Brad, Muff, Dean and Bob and Mr. B got started on the south path. Gathering went off without a hitch as nearly as can be discerned. Chuck and Sue and Katie rounded out the crew at some point. There were 27 gallons from sandhill rd and 520 gallons from the woods tonight. The sap is 1% sugar and after 3 hours of boiling none has been taken off. As of 9 pm there are 13 inches in the upper tank, it does not smell quite right, Bob is wondering if it is worth the wood to cook it tonight. However, it clearly will not last until tomorrow. Will tomorrow be the end?

Total sap today: 520 gallons + 27 gallons sandhill rd
Total sap to date: 3.392 gallons
Total Syrup to date: 52 gallons

Sunday March 6, 2016

Day #12

The weatherman sadly missed the mark today as we were promised a few hours of sunshine and much warmer than what materialized,...... gray, overcast and 34 degree afternoon with light wind. The sap has run a little the last couple of days and Bob wanted to get that processed to take the pressure off of the week as the warm spell is to start tomorrow...murphy's law!





Ice in the evaporator to start the day!







Brad checked buckets after church and split some wood. Adam, Gerri, Bob (his first trip into the woods to gather in a LONG time!), Brad, Muff, Dean, Dave and Gary gathered at a pretty good clip. Mr. Birch, back for more, dumped buckets on Wallie again allowing us to keep moving. Almost all buckets had some degree of ice in them today, we tried to get the sap and leave the ice behind to help preserve the sap tomorrow when it is supposed to be 60 some degrees out.

The picture shows the typical piece of frozen sap in each bucket, with the hole where the sap has been dripping in!

 

 

Bob started a fire as we discovered the valve was frozen shut on wallie. He made a make shift funnel out of an old clorox bottle and poured hot sap into the hose and several of us pulled this up in order for the hot sap to flush back into the valve, this actually worked on the first try (thankfully). Lesson for the day, park on an incline to empty Wallie completely.

Tomorrow night is 4-H, FFA and church council meeting and the first 60 degree day of the winter, so not much going to be going on tomorrow! In anticipation of sap running like a fawcett, Bob gave Adam some tips on being home alone tomorrow, including a Wallie driving lesson. Adam was quick to point out that he did not HIT anything (as others have). Mr. B was returned in one piece and reported that Adam did a fine job driving :)

Apparently it is all about the confidence.


Mr B about froze his hands off, he had to stay close to the fire for a bit to get the feeling back. Dale is now in sick bay, likely with Bob's plague (that seems to be still plagueing him). We did not really enjoy the pictures of Ted and Nancy in sunny arizona at spring training. Chuck went to a wrestling meet so he had the day off.

In a surprise corporate move, Bob has promoted Nicholas P. to Vice President of marketing. He thinks he has a  culinary appreciation for syrup and the personality fitzpah to get the job done right. Shout out to DUCK...please ask him about his rise on the sugarwood ladder when you see him!


Two Bob's and a Brad...........................

Sophisticated book keeping system.

Total sap today: 240 gallons
Total sap to date:  2,845 gallons
Total syrup today: 4.5 gallons
Total syrup to date: 52 gallons

Monday February 29, 2016

Day #11

Leap Day! Brad came home from school to check the woods, he thought there might be 300 gallons so he figured we should go get it. Bob sent out a text that this would happen asap.

Chuck showed up early to clean out the fire pit, he filled an entire wheel barrow that Brad soon emptied. He said this extra duty kept him from gathering the Sandhill forrest. Bob and Brad headed north through the woods soon joined by Muff. Adam caught up a little later and finally Dale and Karen. They found 280 gallons. Finished before dark. 

Chuck had to leave to assist Sue with a wardrobe snafu and quickly returned. They lit a fire and quickly boiled in tonight's haul and home by 9:10pm. Brad was off with James celebrating their love of moving furniture.

We had Aunt Dorothy's soup and Baldosser hot dog's for dinner--sent Brad to steal those yesterday! Nothing says Christianity like sending your kid into your neighbor's home to steal food on the way to church.

Bob is beginning to recover from the respiratory plague, no naps all day today, ....however just beginning to fight with the SAND in the syrup. There is a fine grit in the syrup--you can't see or taste this---but it plugs up filters quickly. 10 gallons completely plugged 2 new filters. This makes the final filter process really slow. We left 4 gallons in the filters last night as we ran out of patience...good thing as it was still sitting there tonight. Bob reheated the syrup and tried again with new filters.

Brad claims that tonight he saw 4 bald eagles about 15 yards of the edge of the yard at the farm. No video of this although he reports he tried!

Thanks to our helpers tonight!

Total sap today: 280 gallons
Total sap to date: 2,555 gallons
Total syrup today: 9.5 gallons
Total syrup to date: 47.5 gallons