Today I came up to the farm and put away all the buckets that were on the trailer from last night. I stacked them in stacks of 30, so next season we don't have to count each bucket that goes on the trailer. Later we had a coon in the barn, so I took care of it. Mom had gone back and collected the last of the lids and brought them up to the farm. I later stacked the crates of lids along the wall in the barn and organized some stuff. I then swept up all the hay and chaff on the ground and fed it to the cows. A friend came over and we headed back to the woods with the tractor and trailer. We finished gathering up all the buckets in the woods within an hour, and then we came back up to the farm with them. We unloaded them and stacked them on a skid in the barn by the lids. I came home and stoked the fire and then worked on some stuff inside for a bit. Dad came home and then mom did, and I helped unload groceries for her. Later my dad and I rode the mini bikes down the road to Oesch's sugar shack. Because we got to end our syrup season earlier this year, we are able to go around and see other peoples operations. Oesch's are related to me by my great great great grandpa Ferdinand's daughters. We talked for a while with Jeff, Fred, and Tom Oesch who were back there running the show. They grew up on a farm milking 60 cows with their dad, and now the farm has grown to have over 4,800 cows. Their syrup pan setup is 5 feet wide by 18 feet long and it has a forced air arch. They put out 900 taps this year which are all lines. Dad left after a while and came home to get some stuff done while I stayed a bit longer. I helped split up some small pieces of wood for their wood stove and then watched them fix the fire to keep it boiling. I left and came up to the farm where I began to fill a water tank. I threw down some square bales of hay and also threw down some straw into their pen. I fed them 3 bales of hay and then went in and spreaded out the straw. Dad came up to the farm with the sap wagon, and while he was back in the woods he worked on some ruts. He also added some hydraulic fluid to the tractor. After I got the tank full, I blew the hoses out and hung them up, and then I closed up the barn doors. I came home and put 17 pieces of wood on the fire for the night.
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