Final Sap Boil of 2017

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day as we boiled off the final ~60 gallons of sap. The weather should be up into the 70's for the next two days so it feels like quite a gift to still be boiling. Spring has solidly set in, leaving the red maples with large swollen buds. We know the sap will shut off if it already hasn't it's a season of remarkable change.

Boiling sap on such a wonderfully spring like day is a gift in comparison to the brutal single digits of the first boil of the season.

Nonetheless, the reminders are all around you of the firm grip winter had on us and the tremendous change that still needs to happen. A quick look around and you realize just how much of your driveway and road have been displaced by the snow plow and there is a great deal of raking and shoveling in our future.

We can count our blessings that we made it this far on the last of the sap wood and that we only needed a couple of chunks of the two dead pines we did drop yesterday.

I guess the most exciting part of yesterday was being left alone and in charge for a considerable amount of time while SP took Baby to a birthday party. Pickle came outside for a little bit and I asked her to snap a couple of pictures of me, since I am always the one behind the camera.

Luckily, SP came home in the knick of time because, of the 4 buckets of sap he left me with, I was down to the bottom of the 4th bucket. That was a little too close for comfort.

I had a moment of glee when I realized the snow had melted enough that we could see the top of the well cap. Even the chickens realized the retreat of the snow and resumed their dusting under the pine tree behind the house.

Sixty gallons to syrup came rather quickly, and this late season sap gave us some gorgeous colors left in the pan, with the spring afternoon sky reflected in the surface. 

 

As the afternoon progressed on, we were increasingly aware of the sounds of running water. We were surrounded by mini streams of snow melt. It was also time to go break out some water bars to save the road and driveway from being further washed away. Oh the joys of spring time!

WHERE THE SNOW MELTS OUT FROM UNDER THE WALL

TRYING TO FIND THE DRIVEWAY

HILL MEETS SEPTIC RUNOFF

THE TIME OF YEAR THE SWING SET IS OUT

DON'T EAT MY DRIVEWAY

DOWNHILL SIDE FROM HOUSE

Single Digit first sap boil

Saturday marked our first sap boil of the season and the temperature did not get above 9 degrees F. It was frigid to say the least!

Balaclavas were mandatory! The cold temperatures presented us with a bigger challenge. All the storage, which is more than we ever have had, was predominantly frozen, so we again had to use the Yankee ingenuity we have come to know and love. The sap had been freezing in the buckets, so some of the storage was garbage bags full of frozen sap, in the shape of a bucket!

We will remedy the situation over by the boiler after we set a few things up.

 In the mean time, we had a little fun. Now you see him....

Now you don't!  We need to work on improving the sound track - enough NPR already!

Who needs an XBox when you can play real life Mine Craft!?

Getting the bellows going. Thank heavens for large garbage day and re-purposing.

Time to warm up with some sap tea. Haven't heard of sap tea? Take a mug, put in a tea bag, and fill it with boiling hot sap straight off the evaporator!

The sap that wasn't frozen started freezing in the buckets!

Ingenious way to melt the frozen sap chunks.

We processed ~ 120 gallons of sap and yielded ~ 2.5 gallons of syrup.

Preparing for the first boil

With everything still frozen into the snow banks, preparing for a sap boil took a lot of SP's spare time. I have to say that he also put to use his mass stores of Yankee ingenuity!

And of course, no sooner did he get the toboggan's underneath the boiler, then a chicken decided to take a ride in his truck.

Just a few feet closer and we are ready to level it.

Need to cover it up in case of any critters or precipitation.

And make sure the wood is ready. Too bad we didn't cover that.

And we are ready to go.

75 gallons of sap

As of the Leap Year night, within a day of the first tap.

And so it begins... Syrup season is upon us!

This was actually a blended session - prep work at home and a failed start in Fryeburg.

You need to make sure you have the right drill bits :)