In the Woods

This past Monday, the kids had a day off of school. They cheerfully (or maybe not so cheerfully) tagged along with Dad and helped as he collected sap from our friend's woods. Twenty-six or twenty-seven trees were tapped this year. The sap is poured into larger buckets, carried through the woods, dumped into a tank in the back of our truck and then brought home to cook on the evaporator.  When the two or so gallon buckets on the trees or overflowing, like they were on Monday, that's a lot of trips through the woods.  The seventh-grader complained that his shoulder's hurt for the next two days -- but I think Dad did most of the sap hauling. 

With this crazy, warm weather, the sap is no longer flowing and could bring an end to a very short maple syrup season.  So glad that our livelihood doesn't depend on this.  Whatever happens, we will enjoy the syrup that we have and look forward to next year.