Other than a few odds and ends, I think we're ready to begin tapping today

March 13, 2021 - Saturday morning

11 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Oh yeah. We're going to need a snorkel and mask later this afternoon if the sap flows as it should. With the current temperature of 11 degrees, coupled with a predicted high of 52... well, let the good times begin.

Hmm, maybe I ought to get some holes drilled, taps inserted, and bags attached first.

Saturday was one of the busiest days I've had in a long time. Preparation for tapping is something few consider when thinking of maple syrup production. People have the Norman Rockwell vision of gathering sap in a few pails before boiling it into maple syrup or candy.

There's just a bit more to it than that.

While waiting for Yooper Brother Mark to arrive for our usual Friday morning stroll, I began making one inch slits in the top side of a hundred-twenty, one gallon, Zip Lock freezer bags. The taps will be inserted before the bag is secured with baling twine.

Next came cutting 120, sixteen inch, lengths of baling twine before tying them in bundles of twenty.

It was time to head out the door and do some physical work.

First, the east wood shed needed to be emptied of almost half a trailer load of fire wood. Generally, both sides are bare by maple season, but this past winter has been exceptionally mild, well, except for those three weeks in February where the thermometer dipped well below -30 several nights in a row.

The old Blazer hadn't been started in quite sometime, but like the workhorse it has proven to be, the SUV roared to life and was used to move the utility trailer to in front of the west wood shed.

As anyone who knows me will attest, I love wood. I enjoy cutting it, smelling it, working it up, burning it, turning it, making goodies from it, but...

I don't like to handle the same piece more than once or twice. The wood moved on Friday marked the third time my hands had been on it. Once at the plant to load it, another to work it up and unload it into the shed, and yesterday, a third time to put it back in the trailer. By the time the wood is used to fire the evaporator, I'll have touched each piece four times.

Next came moving the evaporator from the portable garage. If the ground were dry, pushing it by hand would be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, it had to be rolled through several inches of thick, gooey, mud.

I tried several times to pull and push the thing. Giving up, I resorted to using a tow strap and the four wheeler.

The evaporator was in place. Next came the flue. I had a cap that would fit, but was made to be used with gas exhaust. It would work, but could quickly clog with the wood smoke. Rather than waste the cap, I opted to "remanufacture" it. 

The barrels and other paraphernalia were fetched from the storage container. The snow has melted in many areas, but not where I had to walk. Three trips were made before all the equipment was gathered.

The old Ford tractor chugged to life as I positioned it alongside the *sugar house*. (Note how in a few short paragraphs the three-sided structure went from being a wood shed to a sugar house? Nifty, eh. Just like the big boys.)

Speaking of big boys, I talked to son, Luke, yesterday who, with a friend, taps over 10,000 trees. He said the maple season has been lousy this year in Maine and they are down 160 gallons of syrup from last year at this time.

Our goal this year is to finish ten gallons.

With the final fastening of the hose that will bring the sap from the barrel atop the loader down to the float pan, (gravity feed) Pentoga Road's hardware used for maple season was pronounced assembled.

I have one modification to make later today. Last year, I climbed a ladder to fill the barrel sitting on the loader. 

A deep thought here... bear with me.

There's a small pond pump sitting in the old green house that should work nicely to transfer the sap high overhead. Stay tuned on that one. I think it should work and I hear that simply everyone on Pentoga Road is using a pond pump this year.

From the Brother Mississippi Garry News Department, the boy is sending out a finished order for 21 pens he turned on his lathe. I'm not kidding when I tell you the man's an artist. As I keep saying, I want to be like him someday when I grow up, but then, that's why he's the big brother.

Each casing is turned from various types of wood to an exact measurement before the pen parts are inserted.

Okay, time get this show on the road. It's going to be a busy one today, the busiest and most labor intensive day of the maple season as Sargie and I drill and tap over a hundred trees. The first collection of sap should begin late this afternoon and after that, it's a brand new ballgame.

There's a reason it's called mud season

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

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...