It's maple syrup season and with it comes Pentoga Road's first drip of sap.

March 24, 2020 - Tuesday morning

20 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

I'm up early this morning, gearing up for our first day of gathering sap. With the temperature forecast to rise into the upper 40's, combined with the current reading of 20 degrees, there should be a hard flow today in the maple woods. 

The more the temperature swings from low nighttime readings to high ones during the day, the harder the flow.

Tapping trees and gathering the sap is only part of the work in our maple operation. Still making syrup the old fashioned way, I washed almost a hundred taps, the majority made during the Civil War era.

I went for my walk Monday morning and delighted in seeing the large wolf tracks going down the middle of the main street in Pentoga Village. 

Look how far apart those are. He was a big one.

Sargie and I needed to run a few errands before we headed to the woods. I was happy to see that the grocery shelves have plenty of toilet paper. 

It appears the local Yooper community has some common sense. Forgoing food and many staples, the rest of the country has decided its hoard du jour are lowly rolls of toilet paper. I've earned a certification in arctic survival along with search and rescue and have yet to discover the importance of hoarding rolls of toilet tissue. 

In talking with Andy, who is working in Australia, he said toilet paper is the hottest commodity down under. 

Oh well, what do I know? I'm just an old retired school teacher who hasn't yet learned that TP is the most important commodity to survive a viral holocaust.

Spring is in the air. I was running hither, thither, and yon, yesterday, gathering the last of the items needed to tap trees. Coming back from the greenhouse, a moment was taken to appreciate how the open water in the pond is increasing with each passing day.

It was time to drill holes, pound in the spiles (spouts), and attach the bags.

Sargie and I worked side by side and by day's end, had tapped eighty trees.

First comes drilling the hole

Pounding in the spout

Attaching the freezer bag with binder twine

Ah, sweet success!

 I began using freezer bags years ago when the sons and I, using borrowed spouts, first began tapping trees. Having little to no money, I thought it might be the least expensive method of harvesting the sap. It worked well. At the end of the season, I simply cut the bags free from the spout before disposing of them. Due to their one gallon size, it also means that when the sap is running hard, it must be collected twice a day.

Tapping eighty trees was enough for one day. Sargie and I retrieved the forty gallon barrels from the storage container, the buckets, lids, etc, and took them to the manual car wash last evening to be sprayed and cleaned.

My new evaporator will be arriving either today or tomorrow. I received a text from the man who makes them saying he's got an essential business permit to be on the roads during this time of statewide lockdown. That means Frank and Earl will let him through. 

I sure hope he hurries. The way the sap is running, I'll be out of storage capacity in a couple of days.

It's time to put on the hikers and stroll down to Pentoga Village and back. No doubt, we'll make our first sap collecting foray into the woods a bit later today.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...