Feb 29

We had low expectations as it rained throughout the night last night, was overcast and foggy all morning. Then it was warm this afternoon with a high in the mid 60's. The textbooks would say that there wouldn’t be any sap in the woods, yet there was a decent run of clear sap. We gathered a total of 338 gallons today. Gerri and 2 1/2 men started and did most of the south path (Curtis, Brad and young neighbor Cody- you can decide who the 1/2 is). Bob and Dan soon joined in and we made our way just before dark through the woods. Chris arrived at the end and helped Brad to move a new box of wood into the camp with the towmotor.

This was Cody's first voyage to the woods and he ran into some difficulty with getting stuck in the mud. The first time Dan attempted to pull him out, he was quickly aided by the puppy Lola. Not really. She got mud all over them both! (The huge dot of mud directly in the middle of Dan's forehead looked like he had returned from a rough Ash Wednesday service, but you keep these thoughts to yourself when you are less than half done!) The second rescue of Cody involved the age-old problem of picking up the kid and the boots remained in the mud! Cody mentioned (unprompted) that he might take a bath when he returned home!

The filters had to be washed today as the sediment had built up to the point they were not running very quickly. Curtis learned that predicting the amount of sap is an imprecise science as a lot changed in the mid-afternoon today! Ants and a few knats have arrived. Pastor Cathy made a wonderful hot casserole with cider and chocolate cake for dinner that was enjoyed rather late. The boiling was going rather slow tonight, 14 inches in the top tank at 8 pm and none off yet! Chuck was making fire and Bob was grading papers at press time. Today was the 10th day of gathering and boiling in the last 14 days. Kind of glad this day only comes once every 4 years!

Total Sap: 3,770 gallons

Total Syrup: 88.5 gallons