Springtime on Pentoga Road

March 22, 2021 - Monday morning

50 degrees/cloudy/windy

Pentoga Road

Pleasant surprises come in many packages. One arrived yesterday in the form of maple syrup, that that was boiled down after drawing off twice from the evaporator.

I'd been somewhat disappointed in the quantity of syrup so far this season, but Sunday afternoon's boilings turned the corner. Coupled with the five gallons previously processed and that that's left in the evaporator, we'll have made our ten gallon goal with possibly a surplus.

After today's final processing and clean up, maple season will officially be over for 2021.

Sunday morning began with my usual walk. It was good to see Neighbor Matt out walking his pups. Matt's an educator in Milwaukee and along with his wife, own a camp at the edge of Pentoga overlooking the Brule River.

With this past week's warm temperatures, the snow is all but gone, even in downtown Pentoga Village.

I fired up the evaporator after arriving home. It's amazing how much water dead, supposedly dry, wood can hold. The ash that was burned yesterday has been dead for at least three years, yet once the fire became hot, sizzled for the first few minutes before igniting.

Boil? You don't know the meaning of the word. Determined to boil as much sap as possible, I kept the water roiling all day. At one point, I was in the woods looking towards the house and thought the wood shed had caught on fire. Thankfully, it was the smoke, initially dense due to the damp wood, coming from the flue.

Hambone was soon up and around. His favorite cereal is Crunchy Nuggets, a high fiber variety mostly eaten by adults. Grandma Sargie had bought a box of Cookie Crisp as a special treat. In the end, Hambone said he'd rather have the high fiber cereal so you can guess who ate the presweetened Cookie Crisp.

It's true. Older people really do revert into children as they progress in years. I can only hope and pray the reverse process halts before I get to the diaper stage.

Mel and Macrea arrived early in the afternoon. Grandma Sargie and Cheeks immediately found each other and spent much of the day glued together.

Of course, Pawpaw wasn't going to let his youngest granddaughter escape without receiving some special attention. I worked my Pawpaw magic and had her smiling and almost laughing before, just like that, she suddenly fell back asleep. 

Hambone was happy to show his daddy how to gather sap. With Macrea's help, we did our last collection of the season yesterday afternoon, a meager ten gallons. With the warm temperatures, the sap had quit flowing.

I used the snowmobile one last time in the south woods and found myself driving on leaves rather than snow. Seems the remaining vestiges of this past winter had disappeared during the day. Thankfully, Macrea had taken the four wheeler via the road and was able to haul back what sap we collected.

Sargie pulled out all the stops for last night's supper by making a huge batch of barbecued ribs. Those, along with fresh asparagus and mashed cauliflower, plus vanilla ice cream smothered in hot maple syrup, made for a fantastic supper and dessert.

The kids and pup left late Sunday evening for home. 

Mel has feeding Cheeks down to a science. One might say both are eating "cheek to Cheeks."

Today's going to be a busy one. With rain and chilly temperatures in the forecast for the entire week, I'm going to bring the taps in this morning while the last of the sap is boiling in the evaporator. I anticipate at least two, possibly three or more, boil offs to process what syrup is left.

Mechanic Dave called yesterday afternoon saying we need to pick up brake rotors, pads, everything brakes, plus three serpentine belts for the Kia. Guess I know where this past stimulus check will be spent.

OK, time to get this day started. After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...