Just putting on a new batch of sap with smoke pouring from the flue on Monday morning. It's either that or I elected a new pope on Pentoga Road.

April 9, 2013 – Tuesday

35 degrees/cloudy/calm

Pentoga Road

We decided last night that since Sargie’s off today, we’d go to Green Bay. Why? Because we can.

I think many in the UP are beginning to suffer from the end of the winter “blah’s.” There have been no highs, no lows, just the same cloudy, drizzly, snowy, weather, day after day. Someone recently made the comment that he hasn’t smelled the dirt yet this spring. It still smells like winter… if snow and mud have an odor.

Monday was spent indoors, grading papers, and running outside in the pouring rain adding sap to the evaporator pans. Though I didn’t finish any syrup, there’s a couple of gallons in a bucket waiting to be completed.

And it rained… and rained… and rained some more. I don’t have my gauge in the ground yet, but I’d estimate we had half an inch or more. We now live in a giant mud puddle.

At one point, I was going outside to check the evaporator level and stepped on one of the pieces of wood I placed on the ground so it wouldn’t be so muddy. My foot slipped and down I went into the muck. Such was my day.

Deciding we’d go to Green Bay meant I would have to collect sap late yesterday afternoon. After three hours of hauling full buckets through the slush in the woods. There's plenty to boil beginning on Wednesday morning. It will have to wait until tomorrow. Today we play.

It took forever to collect all the sap. Five gallon bags equalled a full bucket.

Oops, it’s almost time to depart. I need to pour the travel cup full of coffee and warm the car up for Sargie. Sometimes, she’s delicate. A man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…

The chore of cleaning pans never ends. I do it outside so the kitchen doesn't get quite so messy.