Deer were leading our parade early Wednesday morning prior to Sargie leaving me off to walk back home.

March 18, 2021 - Thursday morning

26 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Sargie later went on to say that she saw at least forty to fifty deer on her way to pick up sister, Nancy, in Foster City. The two later traveled onto Escanaba for a few hours of shopping and sister time. They must have been successful as Sargie later brought home new rugs and curtains to match the latest colors in our dining room.

Yesterday was a whirlwind on Pentoga Road. After walking the four miles back home, I tried to get the water (sap) flowing from the highest feeder barrel to the evaporator. 

One problem. Though the hoses had been drained, ice had formed in the spigot and fittings, but was eventually melted using a heat gun.

There was another problem due to cold weather. Ice had frozen the top layer of sap that had to be removed.

There were the usual first time leaks, mostly connections that needed to be tightened. Dad always said that if something's going to break down or give a person trouble, it would happen during cold weather.

Dad was correct.

Water finally began flowing out of one storage barrel, into the float pan, and filling the evaporator. Pentoga Road's boiling season had officially started.

The day was a busy one as I alternated my attentions between filling the wood box and gathering sap from both the north and south woods. I don't think I sat down for more than a few minutes the entire day.

I'm unsure how much sap was collected. Seeming to always be running behind, I'd dump it into a collection barrel by the barn then immediately turn around to collect more. 

I did take a rare mid afternoon break to eat a sandwich and play a bit in the shop. The bottom half of the life-size bulldog I've been working on for the past two months was glued and is ready for sawing. Unfortunately, there was no time to play. It was back to the woods.

The thermometer on the evaporating pan began climbing. In the syrup world, 0 is set at the boiling point. The needle has to climb past 7 for the liquid to finally be syrup. At least some progress was made.

I doubt we'll draw off any syrup today. I'd rather make one big mess in the kitchen rather than several smaller ones while filtering and bottling as Sargie and I process the syrup. There's no clean-free way to do it and in the end, it's a sticky proposition.

I was working around yesterday when I heard the strangest noise coming up the road. 

A street cleaner? Way out here? God bless the county road crew and the man who was driving the cleaner. He even swerved into the opening of the drive to remove all of this past winter's sand and gravel.

Though the food was sparse and lousy for our St. Patrick's Day meal in Iron River, we enjoyed our time with Yooper Brother Mark and Sheri last night. The Shamrock Shake from McDonald's finally filled our tummies and made for a good ending to St. Pat's day. 

I'm going to skip this morning's walk, at least initially, and fire up the boiler. Sap should pour from the trees today and it'll be another day when Sargie and I are collecting and boiling.

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Wednesday's sunset on Pentoga Road