Mar 4

Today was by far the warmest and sunniest day of spring this year to date, glorious! Bob had a day long meeting in Tiffin so he rolled by the woods at 9:00 am to check buckets. He was quite surprised to find the buckets 25-50% full at this early hour!

Bob sent out the typical text to meet at 5:15 pm. He changed his mind about attending an evening meeting and decided to focus on getting sap into the camp. The plan was to gather all we could muster this evening as strong winds are expected here tomorrow.

A nice size crew showed up for the workout this evening, including Muff, Brad, Bob, Kelsey, Melissa, Gerri, Adam, Katie, Brynn, Henry, Jake, Jeremy, Jackie, Charlie, Julie, Knoxx and Brylee. A few nameless people still feel a little muscle tension from Sunday, so tonight was a great stretch. Gathering started at about 5:30 pm and by 7:30 pm we had 1100 gallons. Finishing in the dark is always a hoot. Everyone that left camp, earlier in the evening, returned. It will be fun to see how many buckets we missed in the light of day!

Most buckets were 60 to 90 percent full so today’s resistance training focused on biceps/triceps. We filled the gathering tank four times.

The first time emptying sap into our stainless tank always takes a bit longer than subsequent trips, however, Brad and Bob were gone, what seemed like, forever. If you were gathering with two buckets and you went to two trees, you were full and waiting on Walle to dump! We later learned that a squirrel put a walnut inside the valve of the pump, which fit perfectly into the intake without allowing the sap to flow through. This required Bob to dismantle the pump mid-dump. This slowed things up a bit until they discovered why the pump did not work.

Adam may have had the quote of the day, when on the last dozen buckets, a little out of breath, he told Gerri in a voice that sounded like a winded Morgan Freeman “this has gotta be some kinda record day!” He was also chairman of the positivity committee today, praising Brad for remembering to bring the lid for the sap tank (adding in a little zinger at the end “for a change”). The back story is that we often forget the lid until it is too late. This time Brad remembered to bring it, although he did not put it on until Knox, an unfortunate height, got a face full of sap.

We appreciate the help tonight and we apologize for how our helpers will be feeling in the morning! Brad said he was shocked that his case of rigor mortis was already starting this evening. Knoxx is reported to have made it only a mile before falling asleep on his way home. Bob is asleep at the time of this writing, in a room that is not his bedroom, so we will see how this turns out!

Tonight in short: No fire, good exercise, huge sap run, and fun fellowship. Brad shared a half bag of stale Doritos chips and 4 cutie oranges he found in his truck. Says he is off the food list moving forward and was pleased to host night one.

Thanks everyone!