Mar 11

We are fortunate to have another beautiful spring day! Today was relatively quiet and restful compared to the rest of this crazy week. Bob and Cody started the day by cutting more wood while boiling in more sap from yesterday. Mid-day, Gerri and Cody walked the woods and consolidated a whopping 80 gallons of sap, bringing it to the edge of the path to make gathering easier. This was nice about 70% of the time, the last part of this excursion was rather exhausting. The two shared a laugh stating they felt like toddlers without their water bottles.

The woods was peaceful with no engines running, only a flock of starlings to break the spring serenity. Gerri woke Evan up early to help pick up sap later that afternoon. Gerri drove Walle around the woods and Evan jumped on and off picking up the random buckets that Gerri and Cody left earlier in the day. Kelsey spent some time in the camp giving her father some tips on his iPad. Emma took a 2-hour nap on the bench in the camp. After the gatherers returned to the camp, we had a lengthy discussion about raising chickens this year and we placed an order with our friends at Eagle Nest. We are hopeful to have chicken available in time for Memorial Day weekend.

Bob and Kelsey decided that now was the best time to bottle syrup while we had hot syrup directly from the evaporator. The pair headed to the farmhouse to filter and bottle 10 gallons for orders. There was a brief moment where Cody and Brad were trying to record the syrup sloughing off of the ladles and someone said “if we don’t stop f***ing around we’re going to burn the syrup”. Typical. After which Cody, Evan, and Brad finished boiling syrup before the family headed to grandma’s house for dinner! 

Thanks to Grobe Fruit Farm for the apples we enjoyed today!

Total Gallons of Syrup today: Unknown - Cody? Bob?

Total Gallons of Syrup to date: 74.5

Total Gallons of Sap today: 80

Total Gallons of Sap to date: 4,445