It was back to the maple bush on Thursday

March 27, 2020 - Friday morning

31 degrees/fog/breezy

Pentoga Road

I have good news and bad news this morning. The good news? Well, my weight finally dropped below 220 pounds. Just another twenty to go.

The bad news? The darn evaporator didn't come in yesterday. Having gathered over a hundred gallons of sap on Thursday alone, if that evaporator doesn't hurry up and arrive, we might have to use the bathtub and kitchen sink. Only kidding, but it better get here soon.

We gathered three times yesterday to keep the bags from overflowing. Never thinking the sap would have run during the night, I found many were full and the first harvest came early, right after my walk Thursday morning.

Sargie and I made two more trips through the woods before nightfall, all producing gallons and gallons of sap.

Having over eighty-five taps, Sargie and I have developed a fairly efficient system. The tiring work isn't dumping the sap from the bag into the bucket, it's carrying the heavy water-filled buckets to the barn. We've found that if I ferry the buckets to the barrels via snowmobile, and keeping Sargie's bucket from becoming too heavy, we can get through the woods in fairly good shape.

I empty bags until Sargie tells me it's time to make a run.

As refined as our system has become, both of us are finding muscles we've not used in a while. This year's batch of syrup will be well earned!

At one point yesterday, the Tundra blew the hose from the engine block to the carburetor. It was a chore to wade back to the shop, gather the needed tools, wade back, and do an in-woods repair. I was reminded of the multiple trail-side repairs that were performed while traveling in the arctic. Other than a completely blown engine or a torn track, I carried enough parts and tools that I could make it to the closest village. 

With the snow melting and sunshine bright, I tried to get last Christmas's reindeer and sleigh from the solid ice in which the runners and legs have been entombed. 

I'm sure that anyone driving by has thought that we must be pretty lazy to keep our Christmas decorations out so long, but removing them without doing damage to the figurines was impossible. I used chisels, a rock hammer, and my handy-dandy Harbor Freight $12 heat gun, all to no avail.

Giving up, I finally put a thick layer of rock salt over the ice and as of last night, the sleigh had been freed. Rudolph remains frozen, but with another application of salt, we expect him to fly to his summer digs over the shop later today.

I also freed the old Ford 8N tractor from under a large branch that had fallen earlier this winter. The branch had become encased in ice and using a chain saw, I was able to finally remove it.

On a whim, I thought I'd try to start the old tractor. Since it utilizes a 6 volt electrical system, I wasn't optimistic.

Crawling on the seat, I pulled the choke and ignition knobs, said a silent prayer to Baby Jesus, and pushed the starter.

BOOM! My best mechanical friend in the world, the machine that was manufactured in the same month and year as I was born, fired to life!



It's hard to keep an old guy, mechanical or otherwise, down. Just as I'm doing with diet and exercise, I'll perform the pre summer maintenance on the tractor in the weeks to come so both of us will be ready for another summer of nonstop action.

While the chainsaw was out and running, I began cutting fallen trees away from the closest trails. All had come down in last November and December's snow storms.

 It's a mess and I'll be clearing trees, off and on, all summer.

We received our Trump 2020 flag yesterday and with Sargie's help, we mounted the pole on one of the maple trees so the flag could fly over the drive.



A side note here. If you don't like our beliefs, please don't write hateful comments. No one will see them and I won't read them. I may not agree with, but I do respect your right to your beliefs. I try to keep the blog nonpolitical, but we are who we are and proud to be that way. 

If the fact that Sargie and I are Conservative Christians who believe in God, family, and country first (a good Catholic married to a believing Protestant) bothers you, then don't read the blog. It was originally written for family and close friends anyway. If you read it regularly, then I regard you as a friend, regardless of your political preferences.

I may not agree with you, but I won't judge you. 

Please don't judge us.

Amen.

Today: Well, that darn evaporator better get here. According to the FED EX update I received a bit ago, it ought to arrive at any time. If it doesn't, you'd better go check your sink and bathtub. Sargie and I may be using it to store sap.

So, the tools are ready and I'll be assembling the evaporator between sap gathering expeditions.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

All done gathering for the day!