The Clean Up and Dump Truck

Oddly enough this weekend was Maple Weekend around NYS. For us, it was clean up weekend. This has been a very different year for maple syrup here. It was by far our worst year for production. The weather warmed up too quickly and the sap just was not in the buckets. Gary pulled the taps last weekend, making it the shortest season ever. The evaporator was only fired 4 times.
Just some of the taps drying on the back porch after being washed up for the season.
The front yard becomes the "washing" yard. In the center are the ice chunks that Laura dumped out before we could wash them.
Gary always seems to come home with these "great" finds. Look what he brought home today. Last fall he told me he found this dump truck and thought it would work great around the house. This weekend when Dad was visiting the two of them went and dragged it home.
The girls could not hold back their excitement.
Who needs a doll house when you can have a cab to a dump truck to play in????

New Squirt Hole

Look who has a new hole to squirt water through! Laura finally lost her top tooth. That tooth has just been hanging there. I thought we would have lost it on Friday when she came to me and her mouth was bleeding. I encouraged her to take it out, but it just wasn't ready yet. So.... while we were playing Monopoly Saturday night, it dropped right into her hands! Excitement! She quickly put it in a Ziploc for the tooth fairy. That tooth fairy came and took the tooth, leaving here with $1. Now we are just waiting for that wiggler next to it to come out.

Collection Day

Saturday was the first collection day for maple sap. The crew gathered in the afternoon and headed out to the woods.
When Gary was a kid he enjoyed driving the tractor. He still enjoys driving the tractor, but look at the new recruit he has. Kelly takes on the wheel.
Laura found a full bucket of sap. There were many buckets that looked like this.
The collection crew. Dominique, Laura, Matt and Joe.
Laura and Matt working on their teamwork to empty some of the full buckets.
This bucket did NOT make it into the tank.
Not good. I think he found a hole.
Case to the rescue! First time playing in the mud after it's paint job.
Wagon hooked.
Wagon NOT hooked.... In the effort of pulling the wagon out, it came unhooked with about 1,400 lbs of sap. We used the draw bar on the tractor to lift the weight of the wagon out of the mud to hook back on and pull out.

'Twas the Days Before Syrup

The buckets were hung by the maples with care, with visions the sap would soon be there!!
The tapping has begun. Sunday we tapped part of the woods after clearing out the trails once again from the snow storm.
This is the road going into the woods. It won't be long before the creek overflows the road in the thaw. Always good for crossing over the running water with a load of sap to haul up to the house.
Because of the fresh snow, we hooked the dogsled to the snowmobile to haul the taps around. Kelly held onto the bucket with Matt on the back.
And then there was the snow storm we experienced Thursday to Friday. It left us with about 14" of fresh, heavy, wet snow. No challenge for the Deere though. Gary cleared the driveway twice during the storm.
This was Thursday morning. The calm before the storm...