Mar 5

The day after a big sap run is usually presented with Bob boiling in a few hundred gallons of sap. Today was no different, however, what’s new is that Bob was asked to account for his day. Here’s what we’ve learned so far…

Start of shift

Bob headed to the woods around 10:30 this morning to begin his day boiling in the 1100 gallons of sap we collected yesterday. He was asked to take a few photos to commemorate the first boil of the season. When sharing these photos with Kelsey, he included a quote with the following photo. 

"Sorry Boss man... let's have a perfect day tomorrow" it looks like someone overflowed the top storage tank of sap. Zero days on the farm without incidents. 

Running low

Bob found himself boiling this morning with only 1 full cart of wood which will fuel the evaporator long enough to pull off about 12 gallons of syrup. He trekked into the wood storage trailer to begin cutting boards down to size for the evaporator. After about 45 minutes his chainsaw ran out of battery so he decided to make do with what he had cut so far. Bob is still developing his plan of action for cutting more wood before boiling tomorrow. 

Spring cleaning

While unsupervised, Bob threw away Adam’s cherished firing gloves. Adam swears these gloves are just now worn in after we threw away his other pair last year. We love a frugal guy but safety comes first. So in the fire they went. Please note the holes in these gloves from where the fire box has burned through the material.

One man show

Bob came to the woods prepared for boiling, but may have left the canning filters and equipment at home. Mid-boil he dashed home to gather those supplies and returned in time to pull off the first few gallons of syrup. There was a second trip to the homestead for 2.5 gallon food-grade jugs to store the finished product in. Rumor has it that Brad was also roped into making a run to Ace Hardware mid-day for a mull and chainsaw chains.

Moral support

Arriving in time to taste the fruits of Bob’s day-long labor was Kelsey, who thoroughly enjoyed the fresh maple syrup! The pair took a short walk into the woods to see if gathering was possible this evening. The trees were running and the wind was quiet, but by the time they returned to camp, the wind picked up significantly. With the safety of our friends in mind, Bob sent out a text announcing that the gathering would wait until tomorrow pending a good weather report. 

Although a second set of hands arrived at camp, the labor load was only improved marginally. At three separate times Bob or Kelsey yelled “Oh $&?* !” (Insert your favorite curse word) as they both were distracted and missed pulling the syrup off at 218. Whoever said four eyes were better than two was wrong. After several distracted attempts, the two managed to pull off 7 gallons of syrup. 

While boiling is not finished, Bob is signing off to attend Ash Wednesday services. We look forward to gathering tomorrow, it looks like it could be another substantial run!