Into the Woods
On Saturday, February 21st (happy birthday, Cody!), Bob, Kelsey, Adam, and Brad headed out to place buckets and take inventory of lid and bucket shortages. Bob and Kelsey were very confident we shouldn’t need to make any extra lids but alas, the team came up 50 ish lids short. In addition to this shortage, more buckets had to be ordered. Brad was adamant the woods was tapped “light” this year, Bob disagrees with this testament.
Tapping light means that we skip tapping trees that are big enough to be tapped but are still considered young trees. We do not tap any trees smaller than the diameter of the top of a 5 gallon bucket. This size generally means the tree is between 30 and 40 years old. This is considered a young tree and it would not be tapped regularly (each year) until it is bigger or older. Practicing this method of tapping allows us to preserve the trees in the woods and ensures we will continue to produce sap for the next 8 generations.
As usual, there were a few side adventures.
Bob spent an impressive amount of time grinding down a nail in an attempt to make a positive clamp work on a negative terminal on Walle. Bob did this proudly boasting that he is a rigger and his faller was an engineer. This did not bolster confidence or support from Kelsey who supervised his work. Meanwhile, Gerri and Sutton made a run to NAPA in Tiffin for a new battery for the generator.
After Bob’s MacGyver repairs were complete Brad loaded Walle up with the buckets and lids to head to the woods. Adam and Kelsey debated how the buckets should be stacked to maximize efficiency in the woods. It feels important to note that Adam’s method of stacking the buckets vertically would have proved more efficient than the horizontal stacking method Kelsey moved forward with. Brad demonstrated what can only be described as Olympic-level skill carrying towering stacks of buckets through the woods. He was later found resting his muscles after finishing roughly 380 buckets. Adam was present for the work but evaded being photographed.
Once the trek through the woods was complete Brad and Adam counted roughly 24 lids were missing and 28 trees were missing buckets and lids. These numbers were later questioned after 60 extra lids entered the woods and 40 extra buckets were placed…
Sunday, Bob made up more lids and washed a few of the old red buckets to round out the rest of the woods. Bob, Gerri, Piper the dog and Kelsey headed into the woods in the afternoon to finish placing the buckets and lids. At this time, Bob discovered the rye covercrop seed growing on the far east side of the woods.