The boiler is being constructed and made ready for making syrup. Hopefully, I'll begin by the end of the week.

March 26, 2013 – Tuesday night

32 degrees/cloudy/calm

Pentoga Road

I’m writing tonight as I hope to be out the door at first light on Wednesday morning tapping trees. It’s time.

                       

Tuesday has been very busy. After my morning walk, I graded several assignments then went to town to purchase ten fifty-pound cement blocks. After looking at several commercial evaporators, I’ve decided my homemade stoves from years past have been too low. We’ll try this new (to me) design.

I stopped at the plant to see Yooper Brother Mark. He was busy doing whatever it is plant managers do.

While in town, I also purchased a gallon of muriatic acid with which to clean the four boiling pans. Old burned sugar has coated each and barring sanding or grinding it off, has been impossible to remove. I soaked the pans for a couple of hours in acid and most of the old residue has been removed. I’ll bring them inside tomorrow for a hard scrubbing with soap and hot water at the kitchen sink.

Water from melting snow was dripping off the maple shed and running back through so I pushed two feet of the white stuff off the roof.

That snow was on the roof. It's since been moved away from the shed.

The next chore was to attach the flue to the boiler. I drilled holes and riveted the old flue to the new elbow and set it in place. There’s a bit of metal work still to be done, but basically, it’s ready.

Jimmy and I riveted the new elbow onto the old stove pipe

As luck would have it, the battery on my Craftsman drill died last week. The other cordless drill I’ve had for so many years, a very inexpensive one purchased twelve years ago and used to build my cabin in the arctic, quit yesterday. Just when I need a decent drill to bore holes in the maple trees, both decided to quit.

The sun was out intermittently today and the temperatures above freezing. Though the sap wasn’t running, I wanted to tap trees. With both drills out of action, I dug out the old faithful, the bit and brace the boys and I used for years in Maine. Indeed, I did tap several trees today. It felt good to do it the old fashioned way, but I’m happy I purchased a new battery.

A new holding tank was added to my inventory of maple equipment this afternoon. A person was selling a new 275-gallon, brand new, food-grade, holding tank on Telephone Time. I called this afternoon and made arrangements to purchase it. In years past, when the sap is really running, I’ve had every plastic bag-lined garbage can filled, coolers, five gallon buckets, and any other container available.

The sun would shine on Tuesday then a few minutes later, snow would be falling. It was a crazy day in the weather department.

I want to build a stand alongside the boiling shed and let the sap gravity feed from the new tank into the boiling pans. For the first time, I won’t have to worry about sap storage this year.

I traveled to Iron Mountain this afternoon and managed to kill two birds with one stone. First, I signed my income taxes and they were electronically submitted, and second, I purchased a new 19.2 volt battery. It’s in the charger as I write.

I met Sargie after work and we had a date at one of the local Chinese buffets. We rode home together and I’ll return tomorrow morning to bring the Blazer home.

My goal for Wednesday is to tap seventy-five trees. Twenty-five are already tapped. My goal this year is to harvest sap from between one-hundred fifty to two-hundred trees. We’ll know what I’ll be doing for the next month.

It’s time to cut twine and slice bags so they can be placed and tied onto the spouts tomorrow. It’s going to be a busy day. A man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…