Ivy showed Daddy and Uncle Luke how to fish this past weekend

March 15, 2021 - Monday morning

15 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

We all have heroes whom we admire, those who are bigger than life and help to shape what we become in the future. It appears that's what Luke has become to his youngest niece, Ivy. 

Andy and Ivy traveled over five hours to visit Luke and family this weekend in southern Maine. From the looks of the pictures, under "Cuncle Luke's" watchful eye, Ivy had great luck ice fishing. (Ivy's always called him Cuncle Luke. Somehow, it fits.)

Andy and Ivy

I see pictures like those above and it makes me proud. Andy never hesitates to take Ivy with him, no matter where he goes. Whether it's shopping, hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, or four wheeling, Ivy's included. What many don't know is, my youngest son is equally content to play Barbi's with his daughter or bake cupcakes.

As for Luke, all of the grandbabies LOVE their Uncle Luke. I mean, what's there not to love? He's 230 pounds of big kid whom they believe that when trouble calls, runs into a phone booth and exits the other side as the Captain of the South Portland, Maine, Fire Department. The boy has received multiple commendations and has saved many lives during his long career.

Darn straight. Cuncle Luke's a super hero, not only to his nieces and nephews, but his dad as well.

Ivy and "Cuncle Luke"

Back on Pentoga Road, I noticed while looking at the sap bags during Sunday morning's walk that many were full to overflowing. 

After a quick breakfast, Sargie and I headed to the woods.

We have a system of collecting sap that works for us. Taking multiple five gallon buckets, we collect until one or two are full. I then carry each to either the four wheeler or snowmobile.

Sargie continues to collect while I take the sap to the storage barrels, empty the buckets, and return to the woods.

Depending on the snow conditions, we use the snowmobile and four wheeler, equally.

Collecting close to a 80 gallons of sap on Sunday, we needed more storage. Two plastic barrels were stacked, one inside the other, and try as I may, I couldn't pull them apart.

I finally hooked a tow strap to the Blazer and to one barrel. The other tow strap was fastened to the other barrel that was hooked to the four wheeler. Slowly pulling away, the barrels came apart.

My big accomplishment Sunday was to repurpose an old pond pump to transfer sap from a bottom barrel to the one above that feeds the float pan on the evaporator. 

Retrieving the pump from the green house, it sat in a mixture of white vinegar and water for quite some time before being disassembled and thoroughly scrubbed. We don't want any two year old goldfish residue mixed in with our maple syrup.

The Pentoga Road auto feed system is extremely simple in nature, but strangely enough, it works. Sap is filtered and poured into the bottom barrel. From there, it's pumped into the top barrel where gravity takes over and flows through a hose to the attached float box on the evaporator. Similar to a float in a toilet tank, sap is allowed to enter the evaporator when needed. 

Sargie and I collected another thirty gallons of sap late Sunday afternoon. With just over a hundred gallons in storage and what should be collected today, we have enough to fire up the evaporator and begin making syrup. 

With last night's cold temperatures bottoming out in the low to mid teens and the forecast high for today well into the 40's, the sap should pour from the taps this afternoon.

We'll be ready.

Hauling another five gallons in from the woods

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...