Mar 7
Our sap runneth over!
Bob and Brad boiled for roughly 9-10 hours today and we still ended the day with 530 gallons that we do not have room to put in the tanks yet…wow!
Hands down this was the most gorgeous evening to gather sap ever. The snow falling when we started at 5:30 pm was fine, but by the time we finished gathering it was heavy, wet snow with huge flakes. It was hard to know how to dress tonight, 36 degrees, snowing, and no wind for the first time in a couple of days. The people enjoying our snow spa tonight were Adam, Katie (Brynn and Henry), Megan and Braxton, Melissa, Bret, Bob, Ayva, Gerri, Evan, Susan B., Heath, Kelsey, Nancy, Muff, Jackie, Jake, Jeremy, Michael, and Brad.
Tonight the camp was nice and toasty as Bob had a rolling boil in the evaporator by the time the helpers had arrived. Katie and Brynn hung out with Bob supervising and later Megan and Braxton showed up to aid the effort.
The wet snow made for a slippery walk tonight, no falls were witnessed but the footing was interesting. We filled Walle’s tank almost four times tonight, with it holding 325 gallons each time. The south path was about 75% collected by the time the tank was full, buckets were left full by the path while the gathering crew moved onward to the north path next.
Up at the camp, Brad and Susan B. unloaded the first tank of sap. This filled both of the two storage tanks we have in the camp (topped off). Brad notes later that this is when the panic set in. After dumping at camp, Brad drove down the south side of the woods to a short cut entry and picked up the rest of the buckets the crew left sitting. He then drove to the north path and was about 60% through this path when the tank was full, yet again.
Michael stayed behind to mark where the buckets needed to be picked up and then Bret drove. Kelsey was wandering in the woods at this point, taking photos of the snowy scene when Brad went sprinting past her headed for his truck. He was en route to another part of the farm to pick up water tanks for extra sap storage. He quickly returned with an additional 350 gallons of storage space.
The gathering crew continued with Bret at the helm to collect the east path. This was done primarily in the dark, for the second time this week. Walle was taken to camp once more to dump 220 gallons before returning to find the crew now on the center loop of the woods. This path donated 180 gallons of sap to the cause. Some of the buckets we emptied tonight were gathered less than 24 hours ago. The entire process seemed a bit slow, but we had to figure out what to do with each load. No buckets were overflowing but a few were quite full. Brad commented that he was thankful for a limited gathering yesterday as he had no interest in picking up any more sap today and no idea what we would do with it.
Susan B. and Bret took the brunt of dumping the buckets which were very full tonight! Brad and Bret shared some driving duties tonight. Michael gave Gerri iPhone lessons while waiting for Walle to return.
Jake was voted as the person least likely to be lost in the woods as you can hear him bantering pretty much all over, it was a helpful beacon at times. Brad wants to start writing down some of the crazy stuff Jake and Jeremy say. That is saying something if it amuses Brad.
The total sap run tonight was 1,030 gallons. Fun fact: as we gathered the Center and East paths you could still hear the sap dripping tonight. It was an unspoken agreement from the gatherers not to mention this to Bob. When asked if we were going to do this again in the morning he stated that he did not think so as he had to stay up all night to make room for more!! And he has no intention of pulling an all nighter.
We are thankful to Melissa tonight for making sandwiches with all the fixings, a fruit tray with dip, and chips (not stale ones from Brad’s truck!) and to Muff, Ayva, and Kelsey for frying some perch and walleye (Friday in Lent appropriate) that Evan supplied. Gathering is a lot more work when the walking is difficult and the buckets are full, so the feast was well received. The camp was warm tonight and everyone seemed a bit chatty. The fire box was poorly attended after Adam left, lots of chiefs and no Indian. Adam would not have been pleased (or surprised!). Intense exercise followed by overeating is probably the wrong order of business. Everyone should sleep well tonight. What a week…….
This writer apologizes for not helping more with sap tonight and is very pleased we have some video evidence of this lovely evening. We also appreciate the contributed pictures. It was almost too much to take in!!
Total Gallons of Syrup today: 22
Total Gallons of Syrup to date: 29
Total Gallons of Sap today: 1030
Total Gallons of Sap to date: 2735