This was one of our snow days ; )    

 The following pictures are of our sapping adventure!  It is great fun, but lots of work.

Everyone helps out in one way or the other. 

Greg is the fix-it man and generally cooks dinners.

Richie pulls sleds with full containers out of the ditch when they go over the bridge the wrong way.

Lavena and Tucker help make sap runs when they are here on the weekends. 

Everyone else praises the end product which keeps me encouraged.

This is what sap is like when it comes out of the trees.  Is has a slight sweetness, but thin like water.

Sap boils until it reaches 219 degrees F before it becomes syrup.   It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.  A tree will give differing amounts of sap in a day.  I have about 8 trees that will give one gallon of sap a day when the weather is just right.  The best flow happens when it is 20 degrees at night and 40-50 degrees during the day with sun and little wind.  

This is a wood fired stove that my dad made for us many years ago.  It has a chimney to draw the smoke away and the pan fits into the top so it is right over the fire.  Greg built a 5 ft X 5 ft X 8 ft high roof over the stove so it is protected from rain. 

The cover is because of all the little birds flying over head.  

This year we added a gas unit to help cook down the sap and it is  also helpful in finishing off  syrup

This is our new system this year.  I only have 4 trees hooked up with lines that drain into a 6 gallon gerry jug.  It is a trial and maybe we will put in a few more next year.  

We have 28 trees with this type of spile.  You can see the sap is ready to drip.  When it is running well it is one drip after the other.   

This has always been the first thing kids wanted to do.   When Jason, Becca and Lavena were small they would help and each season they would start off by getting a few drips right from the tree.  

The hauling is the hardest part of job.  I have 4-- 6 gallon jugs so when they are all full it becomes a challenge to move the sled.  Most of the trail is in a slight downward grade until you come to the last hill before our yard.  That is when it is very helpful to have young people around.   

So when help is offered I don't refuse.   We have made almost made 4 gallons of syrup.