Today was a busy day. My dad went back to the woods this morning to get everything ready to boil. I went back later and filled the arch full with wood, so we could light it on fire. We began boiling at 10:15 and I finished plumbing in tubing. I drove over to our neighbor's shack to borrow their sap hydrometer so we could check our sugar content. I stopped by the farm on the way home and fed my cows 3 bales of hay outside. I opened up the barn doors to let fresh air in, and then I swept up the main floor and fed them all the chaff. I came home and got some stuff together, and then Karen and Greg showed up. We headed back to the shack and we eventually got our charcoal grill going. We had burgers and cornbread with freshly made hot maple syrup later in the afternoon. I tested the sap we gathered a couple days ago, and it was about 1.8%; the sap in the tank outside was just a little lower. I did a lot of picking people up from the house and driving them back to the shack. After we ate, I gave a tour of the syrup process in action to some friends and then we began to gather a small loop with everyone that wanted to help. We gathered maybe 250 gallons of sap and brought it back to the shack. I pumped up almost all the sap from the bottom tank into the top tank and then I unloaded the sap wagon into the bottom tank. I drove quite a few people back up to the house and I checked on my cows again. I got back to the shack and I drained all the hoses and the pump. I closed up the bulk tanks and then put a tarp over the tractor so it doesn't get covered in rain or snow tomorrow. I helped fix the fire and we also have been getting closer to the last bit of wood. We have over 1,500 gallons to boil still, so that is why we are not gathering because if we gathered a ton of sap and then ran out of wood, we would have to dump it. I came home a little early tonight thinking I would get my stuff done, but when I went up to the farm to check on the cows for the night, I noticed they didn't have water. Well they did have water, almost a full tank, but they had decided to poop in it. I began to fill a new tank outside and while it filled I threw down a bunch of hay and straw. I bedded them and then dumped out all the bad water outside. I will have to pressure was this tank now to clean it up. After the tank finished, I blew the hoses out and hung them up. I got home and fixed the fire with 10 huge chunks of wood. I emptied the ash into the bucket and then came inside for the night. We made 12 3/4 gallons of syrup today and we have boiled over 10,000 gallons of sap now.
Missing my sugar shack time!
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