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Saturday March 16, 2019

What a fun day!  Even though it still looks and feels like winter..there is a hint of spring in the air...the morning doves could be heard this am......and the moss is perking up. The weather is cool but reasonable. There was a hint of sun today and a light wind. Perhaps nicest in the mid morning. Awoke this am to everything a pretty white from rather unexpected overnight dusting of snow.

The beloved combine is fixed...thanks to Redline and Nationwide HAHA....so Bob picked that up this morning and returned it home. We scrambled to catch up on other chores this am as well.

Bob tried his hand at making some maple cream...made the taffy portion at 0900 and the cream portion at 2100! 

Not to be outdone by Cody and Amy who spent Wednesday evening on their version.

 Cody says they stirred by hand for 40 minutes...Bob befriended the kitchenaid mixer. 

Bob ran a phone pole yesterday for the time to gather today, as he really did not think it would matter much...picking up what has been there since 

Wednesday and likely not much running today. The afternoon votes won so we started about 1 pm. Brad gets the award for best hat.

Nobody wanted to drive today so Gerri crammed into the cockpit. There was a lot of snearing, giggling and pointing......all Gerri heard was these people volunteering to drive next time. Nancy and perhaps one small tree..NOT a maple Bob...were the only victims. 

Katie exaggerating the bumpy ride!

Karma can be both swift and cruel. Nancy had a good laugh as Adam got one boot stuck in a mudhole. 

About 20 minutes later, Gerri/Wally baptized her as she collected a bucket near the path and Gerri goosed Wally to be sure not to get stuck. Sorry Nancy. Polka dots are in for spring! 

This is the scene of the crime, Adam is blocking Nancy......

Katie rode and dumped buckets while Adam, Kelsey, Evan , Muff,  Brad and Chris hauled in the sap. 

The soft maples have kicked in, Adam found a couple with full buckets today. 270 gallons was a respectable haul today considering we started with about 200 gallons in the camp leftover from Wednesday night. 

After we gather the sap into the
325 gallon container...we take it to the camp, attempt to park it on an angle and then pump it out into a stainless milk tank. We sometimes empty the tank if there is more than say 100 gallons at the end of one path (there are three major paths) so as not to be driving to the far corner of the woods and potentially running out of space. If you are driving Wally and emptying the tank this takes about 5 minutes. If you are standing by the path with your full buckets and those of your 2 best friends waiting, it feels like it takes about an hour. 

Adam working, Bob watching. 








Kelsey and Muff made philly steak n cheese on the griddle with cole slaw for lunch...that was enjoyed by all. 

Adam and Brad split wood and bantered for a bit. Bob gave them a talkin to about shutting down the evaporator properly....Adam grinned,...Brad rolled his eyes...unsure who absorbed the information. Dogs seemed attentive. 

The syrup is slightly darker today as the sap has sat for the last 48 hours. Each bottle represents a 5 gallon bucket of syrup. They are kept and used to help blend for specific uses while canning. 

Karen and Dale came for a visit at the end of the evening. Drove home in the daylight....woohoo! 



Total Sap Today:270 + 8

Total Sap To Date:3,800 + 104 gallons

Total Syrup Today:13 gallons

Total Syrup To Date: 80.5 gallons

Wednesday March 13, 2019

Hump day! Evan said he saw temp around 53 in his truck coming home from work today. The warmest day of the season thus far!

Bob sent out a text at 525pm to start gathering at 530pm ?????? Anyway, folks found there way to the woods. Bob went out to gather for the first time tonight (driving) with Brad and Kelsey and they were soon joined by Evan, Melissa, Chris, Sarah and Gerri. About half way Bob walked back to the camp after realizing that there is a good reason he stays in the camp, he worked on stoking the fire.....thinking about what time he wanted to go to bed! We really did not  anticipate there being quite this much sap today......420 gallons! The sap is terrific quality though...crystal clear and tastes great!  



There was a discussion about how much ice is left in the bottom tank in the storage building and how much we would have to boil in yet before we can drop the remainder down and put this on ice. The guys ended up letting 10 inches or about 200 gallons drop down to put on ice. They have had some late nights and are not prepared to boil all of this in tonight!  Rumor has it a couple of people may have fallen asleep at inappropriate times today...

We have created a system , while rather simple, it works. Each night we gather sap we write the date and amount of sap on the wall of the camp with a sharpee marker. It is a rule that the person driving Wally is to track the total...doesn't always happen! The plus on the right is what is brought in from outside this woods  ....Adam and Katie make their rounds in the neighborhood bringing this extra sap each time (and in earlier years Chuck would bring some from Sandhill Rd)

 Bob was making some comparisons to the season of 2013, the longest season in recent times , when we tapped on the same day we did this year...Feb 22nd ......and gathered for the last time on April 3rd. IF there is sap to gather tomorrow, that will be the most consecutive days in our barnside book-keeping system. We gathered March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 in 2013.  Tomorrow would be the 6th day in a row.    



Splitting the wood into narrow strips seems to allow more air flow around the wood and makes a little hotter fire. 

Thus far Bob calculates that one of these carts full of wood makes about 10 gallons of syrup. 

Tonight was the first night of boiling with the "patio door" open....felt good to have no wind, warmer air and the syrup smelled great tonight! 


At 10pm the center path had bottoms of buckets covered and nothing running on the south path. 

FYI: Bob has had a late night thought....somebody remember to put gas in Wally tomorrow...before heading into the woods :)


Total Sap Tonight: 420 gallons + 12
Total Sap To Date: 3530 + 104 (this # is finally correct)
Total Syrup Off Tonight:4.5 gallons
Total Syrup Off To Date: 67.5 gallons

Tuesday March 12, 2019

Pixie dust must have fallen on the crew that gathered tonight as they seemed unnaturally HAPPY. 

Everyone of course was pleased about the sunshine and warmer weather and of course lack of wind!

The woods was welcoming even though the walk was a bit gooey in spots. New recruit Bryan H. had the award for most cat-like reflexes as he made Adam and Brad's day by managing to NOT fall in the mud defying gravity for a moment. Not once, but twice. 

Dale drove tonight and Karen dumped buckets, at least at the end of the gather with Evan. Muff, Brad, Bryan H. , Katie, Adam , Bret , Melissa and Kelsey rounded out the crew. Gerri arrived in time to grab a few on the east path.




Thank you Aunt Dorothy for the crock-pot of veggie soup which we licked dry! One wonderful thing about eating together in the camp is the eclectic supper table conversation. Tonights' topics included the stock market, the Brown's new recruit, the price of hay at the Shiloh Auction, how long the contagious stage of flu lasts, Cody's previously unreported toe injury, the price of a new car motor, selling bologna to non-meat eaters on a Friday in Lent, and who is going to spit shine Jack's truck before he gets home...just to name a few. And this was one of our shorter meals! 

Many more pics from today but too tired to figure out the IT issues we are experiencing (user failure). Maybe tomorrow. 

Bob's quote of the day: We will be at the camp tomorrow if there is sap.

Total Sap today: 380 + 11 gallons
Total Sap To Date: 2910 + 50 gallons
Total Syrup off Today: 9 gallons
Total Syrup off To Date: 63 gallons

Monday March 11, 2019

The thaw continues. Somewhat gentle temps and winds today helped the sap to flow a bit. 

Early day ...especially given the time change...Bob shuttled Cody to the airport by 0515  am for a 6 am flight. 


Kelsey checked buckets and relayed to Bob that there was enough to gather so he sent out the solicitation text for 5 pm. 


Kelsey, Dale, Karen, Muff, Evan got started...later joined by Brad...then Katie...then Adam. Dale drove tonight.

There was a phoned in eyewitness account by one amused reporter of two casualties this evening. Evan kissed the mud on the old north and Brad tripped over ..and I quote..."a twig"...and wore some of the sap he was carrying.  

Fun fact, the big trees have not yet began to run. Nobody checked tonight to see if they were running when they left the camp. Everybody is tired! More when we are awake.

Total Sap Today: 385 + 15 gallons
Total Sap To Date: 2530 + 39 gallons
Total Syrup Today: 9 gallons
Total Syrup To Date: 54 gallons

Sunday March 10, 2019

Time change day ....like or not...here it is! 

Also Seneca County Maple Festival  Day! Snavely's were great hosts on a windy, cold and damp day! Thanks! 

Bob and Cody headed to the woods about 8 am to check buckets and found about 450 gallons. The wind is really brisk today, but we have a new yardstick to measure against after the blustery day 2 weeks ago today. The floor of the woods continues to slowly melt and the sap run is picking up, but not perhaps the gusher we were expecting, maybe due to the wind. We decided that it would be reasonable to meet at 1 pm today to pick up the sap..should be safe to be in the woods at that time. So off to church, church council meeting thereafter and some of us visited the maple festival. 

Speaking for some of the crew, it was just hard to be warm today after being so wet yesterday! And truthfully some of yesterday's clothes remain wet!

Big crew arrived including Kelsey, Evan, Brad, Cody, Gerri, Bret, Melissa, Morgan, Rick , Donna, Cara and Conner Peterson, Chris,and Adam. Bob stayed at the camp and started a fire. The only issue encountered today was a downed tree that needed some limbs pulled to the side in order for Wally pass. 

The Parks girls times three visited long enough to accumulate some mud!

This is a picture of Brad bossing and Cody working!

Collecting went rather smoothly. We dumped Wally three times for a total of 500 gallons.  Susan R arrived a little late and hitch hiked back to the woods with Newt and Skyleigh. They also picked up Sarah R. on the way back. We gave Newt a very hard time that his chauffeuring was the only help he was all afternoon!!!  

Kinda did rock, paper, scissors for who had to drive (since Katie was absent) and Evan emerged victorious. Brad, Bret and Gerri had a good laugh that Evan takes a rather nascar approach to getting through the woods BUT in his defense was very careful watching youngins and puppy's and never stalled out. 

We visited for a bit in the camp. A lot of the wood needed split today and Adam, Brad and Cody spent a good deal of time doing that with the axes. Karen felt Chuck would not have approved of any of their techniques :) The yield was pretty good today, smelled nice. Katie came mid afternoon with Teddy in tow. Karen, Dale and Dorothy came around supper time and conveniently brought supper, a huge plus. thank you.

Adam, Cody and Bob shut the boiler down about 9:15pm.

Total Sap Today: 500 gallons + 15 gallons

Total Sap To Date: 2145 gallons + 24 gallons 

Total Syrup Today:10 gallons

Total Syrup To Date: 45 gallons

Saturday March 9, 2019

We had the whole variety of Ohio March weather today....awoke to sun and warm....midday overcast.....late afternoon brought drizzle and a little more wind....downright cold and windy with driving rain at times by dark. Today was a pretty big departure from the weather forecast however. 

Everyone had some activities this am so took until late morning for the guys to get to the woods. New eave spouts for the camp was the project focus of the day (because it is going to rain in about 5 hours haha). 









The  eaves took a bit to install and they put up some more batting boards. 

They started a campfire in the back in part for warmth and in part anticipating we would grill hot dogs. 

Piper sporting her light up harness for the first time tonight...did seem to help us to check on the location of the black dog as dusk settled in! 

The trees had a pretty minimal amount of sap today..........the ground is still quite frozen. We picked up a few logs that had frost/snow beneath them. There were a few buckets with ice, not many compared to what we expected.

Cody was happy to walk the woods today despite the weather, joined by Adam, Katie, Brad, Vivian, Kelsey, Evan, Gerri , Muff, Erin, Curt , Tinleigh and Chris. Bob and Lola stayed at the camp and got a fire going.

Later Dave of New Washington arrived and Sue of Sandhill Rd came for a visit. Always full of entertainment!

We seemed to eat a lot tonight! We used our outdoor fire ring, a gift from the Fruth family, for the first time this season...was a bit wet by the time we got to grilling. We had hot dogs and baked beans and veggies and Ted sent amazing soup. Katie made iced cookies that were enjoyed by all!




We enjoyed the fact that this was a short night. Especially since everybody a little damp and the wind made this evening a little chilly! Adam took a break from firing since Cody was home and on task.

Total Sap Today: 265 plus 9
Total Sap To Date: 1,645 + 9
Total Syrup Off Today: 6 gallons
Total Syrup To Date: 35 gallons