Spring must be on its way! How do I know? Why, from reading on multiple friends' blogs, and also in the local newspaper, about all of the field trips people are taking to local Maple Syrup Events. So, I am here to declare, that we are not taking a field trip to learn how maple syrup is made, or to do sappy crafts meant to resemble something a Native American would have carried sap in (I'm sorry, but just how is a white paper-crafted bucket anything like the birch bark containers the Indians used????? And really, what fun is it to string 40 colored beads and 1 white bead in a repeated pattern to make a "40 to 1" necklace?) Lest you think that we're party poopers, or anti-syrupy people, or something like that, we're not. In fact, we only use pure maple syrup. We don't even pay an arm and a leg for it. Why????? Because hey folks, the field trip is at our house! 
The sap's flowing like crazy, the wood pile is rapidly diminishing, but oh, the sweet scent of cooking syrup makes the world seem all right after all! This is my dad's project, but he of course requires the able assistance of neighbors, particularly the younger ones. His payment is the yummy whole-grain pancakes I make for him, among other things ;-)
Included in the fun on our outtings is:
- Butt sledding (when there was still snow!) down the ravine
- Actually helping to tap the trees and hang the collection buckets
- Photography of the gorgeous scenery where the tapped trees are
- Finding interesting ice patterns where the river has flooded and started to recede, and gotten frozen along the way.
- Learning that when the 5-gallon bucket of sap gets dropped on the slippery hill and spills, you've just lost 1 pint of maple syrup
- Late-night excursions to collect sap when the buckets are overflowing
- Late-night excursions to keep the fire burning
- Snuggling next to the fire
- Seeing the ISS fly overhead on a clear night
- Identifying planets and constellations on a clear night
- The annual "Breakfast by the Fire with Poppa" event
- Watching and listening as the ice in the river breaks up, and racing to the next vantage point to see & hear the ice pack pass by once again
Is it hard work? You betcha! Is it worth it? Totally! You should have seen us all twitching in anticipation of Opening Day this season ;-)
Oh, and ds5 is very excited, because TODAY they will jar the first batch of syrup, and HE gets to help!
3 comments:
well i'm pretty excited for you and i'm not even close enough to help. but if we were, we would be there!!
fwiw, this is a sure sign of spring to ME too, even if it's at your house :)
yum, yum, yum, yum, yum! Can you see the seething jealousy from here?
We got our small bowl of yummy tasty syrup a couple of weeks ago--it wasn't as easy to find trees here to tap! Someday...where we can venture out in a farm life...I would love to have fresh one throughout the year.
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