Saturday March 10th

We did our best to melt the ice we collected on Thursday evening and let Cody have a chance to boil in some sap. The woods was frozen so there  was nothing to collect.

Cody was home so we had visits from  Scott and Shana, Dave and Justin. All the usuals were out as well. We had fun visiting with our full house tonight. The boiling went fast as frankly there was just not much. The woods is frozen, nothing running

We made fajitas on the griddle, we have not mastered it, but we are having fun learning!

No sap gathered tonight:none

Total sap to date: 2595 plus 149

Total Syrup off tonight:4.5 gallons

Total Syrup off to date: 39.5

Thursday March 8, 2018

Winter is back. Snowing and blowing. The high temp today was about 35 degrees. If that.

Gerri checked the buckets in mid afternoon. There was a glaze on everything for sure, perhaps a few mm thick.

As Cody is making the effort to fly home for the weekend, we thought it would be nice if he got to boil some sap at least once. The weather forecast looks mighty cold for that to happen in the next few days. SO.....we decided to get what we had and bring it into the camp.

Dale drove Wally. Well started to...Wally was frozen in place for a bit. Bob and Dale got it out by chipping away at the ice on the rollers and  a little help from the blow torch.

Meanwhile , there was very little sap in the south path due to the wind. Muff and Gerri walked on collecting slush. They made almost the whole loop before they got Wally moving.

Adam and Katie, our dear faithful friends, arrived to help with the rest of the woods, where most of the sap was at tonight. When we got done tonight, one of them, we don't recall which said "Well that was fun!" Two hours of fun later we had 150 gallons (plus 12) of slush. The process of separating ice and sap added some time and adventure to the process tonight. (We took it all back to the camp.)

 

It was really pretty in the woods tonight with the falling snow, warm in the middle of the woods and bitter cold on the outside. Muff commented she had so many clothes on she could hardly move.

What would an evening be without a crisis and tonight it was a frozen valve on the tank on Wally. When we got back to unload Dale discovered that. Bob got after it with the blow torch. Adam said there was quite a bit of slush in the bottom of the tank after we drained it.

Bob asked Katie and Gerri if they thought it would freeze into one big ice cube...Katie replied..."possible". Time will tell. We typically leave the ice in the bucket at the tree...but it looks like it could be a long time till we would need to get it and we could use some for preservative over night. We might wish we had one more piece of milking equipment. The agitator.


Giant maple sap slushie!

This is going be interesting to see what this looks like in the morning!

Rare event to see ice in the evaporator during the season!!

Total sap today: 150 gallons plus 12 gallons
Total ice today: 70 gallons!!!!! (new column haha)
Bob's text today said no fire, no food, just fun.

Total Sap to date: 2,595 plus 149

Total Syrup to date: 35 gallons 

Tuesday March 6, 2018

Today both started and ended with cold, almost sleet like rain. the middle was sunny, somewhat warm. We did not gather yesterday although there was a small run.


Dale, Karen, Muff, Bob, Brad and Chris got an early start and grabbed some of the woods at 430 today. Gerri straggled in to help finish the north and what was left of the east. Adam came from collecting his 28 gallons and arrived as everyone else was at the far corner of the woods. Bob started a fire before he went out to gather and they returned to camp to dump after the first path, so Adam had sap in the upper tank to work with so Bob had him stoke the fire while the rest finished the woods.


The temp dropped, the wind picked up and a light rain came through while we finished tonight. Kept an eye up as there were a few pieces of limbs as well as ice/snow falling off trees yet.




We enjoyed cheese sandwiches on the griddle tonight and vegetable soup . (Bob is very pleased with the griddle seasoning job Melissa..thanks!)




Brad ran home just for the evening tonight to help. The only excitement tonight was a really warm chimney. Bob went out to inspect the stack, came back in and told Adam to slow down on the wood for a bit. As soon as Bob was out of ear shot Brad told Adam to fire it hard so "we could have more exciting blog pics tonight".  And they wonder why they aren't left alone more?


The glow could be seen through the cracks at the base of the chimney on the inside of the camp. Gerri asked Brad, jokingly, if we should have Dan get more caulking and he replied "Forget the caulking, I was thinking maybe he should bring the pumper truck".  Tonight also seemed to be Katie bashing night. Gerri did not understand what the joke was, but the three guys were thoroughly amused with themselves.




As of 910 pm, when Brad headed back to Columbus, there was 7.5 inches in the upper tank. The weather forecast the next two days not looking very promising.

Total sap today: 370 plus 28 gallons

Total sap to date: 2,445 plus 137gallons

Total syrup off today: 6.5

Total syrup off to date: 35 plus

Sunday March 4, 2018


Since the last post, March came in like a big fat lion with a wet windy snow on March 1st that remains on the north side of all of the trees despite a couple of afternoons of warm sun. We have spent some of our down time talking with the neighbors ....all are having a somewhat strange syrup season. Not great runs, but not terrible either.


Saturday March 3rd, Brad picked up piles of scrap lumber all over the camp and stacked them. He and Bob got the first part of the protective covering over the big overhead door.

We decided there was not enough sap to wear out the help collecting on Saturday.


Sunday afternoon was bright and sunny! Still really cool car-hart weather. We decided to gather early at 2:30 with Adam, Nancy, Morgan, Melissa, Chris, Brad, Gerri and Bob. We found a disappointing 270 gallons of sap throughout the whole woods. BUT, it was crystal clear and tasted good leading us to believe the trees had "reset" a bit. The soft maples in the woods are essentially done. The woods remains a very, very wet place to tromp through. Lots of buckets laying down from wind today.


We boiled in the 270 above and 22 gallons that Katie and Adam brought.


We tried pancakes and sausage on the new griddle, worked out pretty good.


Tonight was 4-H, leaving Adam and Brad (and later Katie) to finish boiling. They seemed to encourage Bob to leave. His parting words to them were inspirational and motivational:  "DO NOT SCREW UP". Brad replied on behalf of them all "WE GOT THIS".

Bob took a video, ya know, just in case he never saw it again, on his way out!






Total sap today: 270 plus 22
Total sap to date: 2,075 plus 109


Total syrup off today: 4.5 gallons
Total Syrup off to date: 28.5 gallons

Tuesday Feb 27, 2018


Another really nice day but with very little sap run. It did not get much below 35 last night so things just dripping along instead of running along!


140 gallons collected tonight. Bob, Chris and Muff got started gathering with Dale driving, Karen walked and rode some.  Susan B. arrived to help and soon after Katie started on the north path.  Adam and Gerri came in time to see Wally dump. Adam brought 7 gallons from twp rd 178. This was Bob's first walk through the whole woods. He thinks we need 100 more buckets!!


We enjoyed leftover's and soup from Aunt Dorothy..thank you!  No chili and no Mark tonight.

Splitting little pieces of wood for "little sap"


The boiling sap smelled great tonight! Was a quick boil with this small run. Bob and Adam still working on "when" to quit firing.


Adam finally lost it tonight and yelled, loudly, back at Bob (after he barked orders at him) that "I don't know why I come over here". He nailed the impersonation of Chuck so well everybody laughed.

Luckily Karen went home prior to the grand finale for the evening ...a mouse rodeo. Katie was the spotter, Bob chased while encouraging Lola to participate while Adam held the spotlight. Katie reminded Bob his mouse target probably had a family. Bob returned to the camp to set traps after we quit tonight.

Total sap today: 140 + 7
Total syrup off today: 2 gallons
Total sap to date:1805 + 87 gallons twp rd 178
Total syrup to date:24

Monday February 26, 2018

Beautiful day. No sap.

Somebody came to camp tonight. Friendly, rather quiet and playful. Liked Dale. Disappeared as quickly as it arrived. No collar.

 Must be a lot of carpenter ants in this tree that make it such a woodpecker fan favorite!

Bob really enjoyed the pattern on this log!

What Bob did to entertain himself on a night with no sap. Can hardly wait until he directs somebody to turn the yellow valve off.

,

Sunday February 25, 2018


Rained a good bit of the night and windy most of the morning and early afternoon. The wind likely suppressed the flow of the sap today. The "felt like" temperature was about 10 degrees lower than the temp outside and it certainly FELT that way. Too cold to just wear a hooded sweatshirt and too hot for carhart coveralls.

Bob did another plumbing change creating a drop from the tank to the door so the tank and hose will completely empty each night.

Brad spent the morning at the camp working on stump removal. He really seemed to churn up the mud.

Bob finally got to go into the woods for the first time tonight! He enjoyed the walk through the south path. Muff, Brad, Mark, Adam and Gerri helped soon joined by Charlie and Brylee. Lots of walking and little sap tonight. The woods is really wet.

This picture was taken just north of the camp in a typical mud hole looking east, do not recall the water extending to the edge of the woods.

We collected 130 gallons tonight. Bob left the evaporator really full Friday night so he could start a fire and we burned in the all of what we collected tonight.

We tried out the new griddle....worked great. Trying to bring in some variety. Mark says "NO MORE CHILI FOR FEW DAYS" !! Since Brylee was visiting, she was enthused about having toasted marshmallows so we started with dessert!!

Sap count from the "official wall record"

Total Sap  Today: 130 plus 4 gallons (1665 season total)

Total Syrup Today: 1 gallon

Total Syrup To Date: 22 gallons