The Christmas cards are ready to be mailed. Yes, I must admit there is one remaining on my desk, which needs a letter. I suspect we will receive a card or two from folks, who didn't make the final cut for my 2010 Christmas card list. I trust no one will know that, so no one will take offense. Even if they suspect that such is the case, I hope they don't take offense.

We received 4 or 5 inches of snow yesterday, which was far less than the 16 to 18 inches that were forecast. Checking the radar on-line during the day seemed to indicate that we were on the northern edge of the storm. Apparently the storm tracked a bit more southernly path across Wisconsin. With what we had already, yesterday's addition has made for a nice snow cover. Today was calm, clear, and sunny with temperatures in the low teens. It was a good day for cleaning up after the storm.

It was also a good day to try out a new recipe--oven baked oatmeal. Now that is a hardy breakfast that one can feel good about sitting down to after a hour and a half of serious snow shoveling and before heading out for another hour of shoveling for a friend and neighbor nursing a bad cold.

Recently, a friend asked if I had ever heard of oven baked oatmeal. This is a friend whom I meet regularly for breakfast at an area restaurant. Lately we have been choosing between the senior special and the oatmeal with raisins, brown sugar, and a side of whole wheat toast. It appears that in his recent travels, he found this item on a breakfast menu one morning, something he had previously never heard of, and yet found to be a breakfast well worth talking about. With a little surfing on the net, I found several recipes for oven baked oatmeal. It appears to be an Amish dish. The lady of the house is out of town for several days, so I took my new found freedom to experiment in the kitchen. If my efforts ended in a disaster, I could remove all evidence, unless, of course, I would have to complete some structural repairs. Aw! The sweet taste of success. When the kids are home for Christmas, they will be served oven bake oatmeal at least one morning for breakfast.

When I called my Mom and told her what I was up to, she chided me on not being economical in my use of the oven, that is, by baking only one thing at a time. I was suppose to mix up a second item to bake, since I had the oven going anyway. My rationale: The oven warmed the kitchen up nicely, so the furnace didn't have to run. I didn't try to explain my experimental stance, the potential for disaster, and the desire to exercise caution. You see, if there were two items in the oven and disaster struck, the resulting disaster would have been compounded. I might even be staying in a motel room, until the insurance adjuster was able to do his job, and the needed repairs had been completed. The joys of cooking are in direct proportion to the risks involved--a lot like stock car racing and downhill skiing.

Yesterday we achieved a goal for the year, that I had given up any hope of achieving. There is now a sixth rank in the sugarbush wood pile. At breakfast Friday morning, one of the partners in the syrup venture suggested we tackle some wood making on Saturday. His rationale was the need for an outside activity this time of the year. His outside farm chores have been completed for the year. The snow, that has accumulated to date, now rules out fieldwork for those who raise small fruits.

As small time syrup makers, we have a goal of six ranks of wood cut and split and stacked next to the sugarhouse come the fall of the year. Our experience has shown that this is a two-year supply. Being one year ahead means that the wood has time to season properly.

Yesterday we cut down a good-sized oak to allow better access to that part of the sugarbush and to reduce the competition with the nearby maples. We cut everything of reasonable size to length, split what was needed, filled the pick-up a couple of times, and completed that final rank.

There were light flurries during much of the day with attempts by the sun to break through with temperatures in the low 20's. I worked stripped to my flannel shirt and still managed to be wet through primarily from perspiration with some help from the snow. The two of us were in the woods by 9:30AM and had the task finished by 1:30PM, when we broke for lunch. We had packed chili with fixings with us, so we could have lunch in the sugarhouse before calling it a day. After lunch we did up the dishes and played one game of cribbage in order to remind ourselves of the need to maintain balance in our lives: hard work, good eating, and playfulness.

When I got home and was putting things away, I realized I had left a pair of wet gloves at the sugarhouse. Late this morning after church services and breakfast, I went back out to retrieve the gloves now frozen in two very unhandlike figures. I didn't drive out to the sugarhouse this morning. I parked at the farm house and walked the quarter mile trail through the woods and past the beeyard. It is convenient to drive out to the sugarhouse when the snow permits, but it makes for a very effective transition to walk that quarter mile.

I hadn't planned to do anything except pick up my gloves, but I found a couple of things to do, so that I hang out for awhile. We hadn't picked up all the brush yesterday, so I gathered that up into a pile, so we don't have to trip over it come spring. I cleaned the snow off the rank of wood that we are currently using in the cook stove and covered it with plastic so we will have wood free of snow to use during the winter.

I hope to visit the sugarbush a few times over the course of the next three months and before the start of the 2011 syrup season. It may only be to start a fire in the cook stove, to sit awhile, and to drink a cup of hot chocolate--time well spent in pursuit of balance.

As I wrap up the Saturday of the 2010 Labor Day weekend, I came to the conclusion that this is the first regular Saturday I have had since early June. Regular in the sense that I could spend the day doing what guys, who work a regular day job of five eight-hour days each week, do on summer weekends. Three of the last four weekends were spent working a side-job. The fourth was helping out at a friend's customer appreciation day. Before that there was double duty on household chores with my wife recovering from surgery.

Today was spent doing regular weekend guy stuff. First thing there was a trip to the transfer station with garbage and recyclables. (We don't have curbside garbage pickup. Most of the town does not have curb, gutters, and sidewalks. Does that explain the "do it yourself" set-up?) A few hours of yard work followed. In addition to the mowing and trimming, I weeded the rock retaining wall, raked up a pickup load of pine needles that have dropped recently, and filled a wheelbarrow with pine cones that either the wind or the red squirrels have brought down. The wind brings down the dry open ones; the red squirrel harvest the green closed ones with the seeds still in them. The pickup was emptied at the site the city provides for such yard waste. A wheelbarrow of sand was cleaned out of the culvert and the ditch. I suspect it is the same sand that the city crew spreads on icy streets in the winter. If I don't remove it and the culvert gets stopped up, rain water will be diverted down the driveway and into the yard. The birdbath got cleaned out and filled with fresh water. The potted flowers on the deck were watered and fertilized. I then moved to the garage to straighten it up. My extension cords and trouble lights have somehow outgrown the pegboard hooks that have held them for the past several years. I decided to make a couple of larger/longer hooks out of a broken broom handle to better accommodate those items. In that process, I found that I had to sharpen the drill bit I needed, so as I was cleaning up from that project, I sharpened the entire set of paddle bits that had become dull over the past year. One or the other certainly encountered something much harder than wood (read "nail") during that time as well. I have not acquired the skill needed to really put an edge on tools, but the paddle bits are one thing that I can take a file to and achieve reasonably effective results.

I ran out of time, before I could get to washing the truck, which is another of those regular weekend tasks, at least on my list. Even if I would have had the time, I wouldn't have tackled that task. There is road construction that I must drive through several times each work day. It is dusty or muddy; often rotating between those two conditions several times a day. The mud can be the result of rains or the crew watering the roadway down to reduce the dust. I have decided to tolerate a dirty vehicle until the road work is complete. We have had frequent rains during the past month so the truck gets washed au naturale on occasion.

Even though, I had a regular Saturday, I was not able to complete all of the regular Saturday tasks. That is okay. There are more regular Saturdays to come. Besides this is day one of a three-day-weekend.

By the way, the yard looks good. Yard work during the past two months was limited to mowing and trimming and, most often, hurriedly completed some evening after supper. There wasn't time for the little extras that put the finishing touches on the job.

It has been some six weeks moreorless since I made an entry here. A lot has taken place during that period of time. I was at a loss as to when it would be an appropriate time and circumstance to comment on those happenings.

In mid-June, my wife had a routine colonoscopy which found a malignancy which required surgery. Surgery took place on June 30th. There have been a couple of follow up visits with the surgeon, who has assured us all is going well. Earlier today we met with the oncologist, who did not recommend chemotherapy. The cancer was identified as a stage 2; chemotherapy has little to offer by way of improved outcome. The situation needs to be followed closely both in terms of a metastasis of this primary cancer and in terms of being alert to the possibility of another primary. The first is monitored by CT scans every six months; the latter is monitored by annual colonoscopies. Recovering from major surgery takes time. Before performing the surgery, I think the surgeon advised us to be prepared for a three month period of recovery.

During this time, an uncle, with whom I had developed a special relationship, passed away. He suffered a debilitating stroke 20 years ago at age 62. He was cared for at home by his wife, who also worked full time for several of those years. In May of this year, the decision was made to have Uncle enter a hospice program. He passed away approximately two months later. Several years ago, I started writing letters to this uncle a few time a year. He was not able to read them, so his wife would read them to him. Those, which I wrote using the computer, were saved to disk and numbered sequentially. The most recent letter dated June 8th was number 47. There were also hand written letters, which preceded the use of word processing and an occasional hand written one tucked in among those 47. The contents of the letters were not profound, just reports on what I was up to, some of which I am sure were repetitive. I will miss Uncle and our visits via the printed or written word.

What's next for this letter writer?

I'm trying to figure that out. I wrote a letter to my Aunt the evening I returned home from Uncle's funeral. I don't know if that will be the start of a new string.

Almost five years ago, shortly after the birth of our first grandson, I wrote Sam a letter and followed it up with a few more. When his cousin Noah joined the family, I posted him a letter. This past winter when Leo made it three grandsons, I managed another letter. I've toyed with the idea of writing a Grandpa Newsletter on an irregular/regular basis and sending it to the grandsons. Some of my willingness to start this blog may have been to go with contemporary technology and leave the snail mail for an older generation and a former time. But those things just don't seem to fit, so I am back to thinking that individual letters to each of the grandsons may be the fit that feels good to this grandpa. Word processing with the cut and paste tool will provide for some shortcuts.

I haven't implemented this revised plan as yet; recent events have put a damper on my discretionary activities. To say the least, I have been distracted. For the past month, I am not sure I have had a good night's sleep. There have been additional chores to keep the household in order. The summer homeowner project of replacing the windows in the house was completed in late June. We simply weren't in a position to postpone it. There was a side job for a good friend, that had a deadline. I have been rethinking my retirement plans; I was drafting a retirement letter to submit to my employer on July 1st with an effective date of January 1, 2011. I had made it no secret with my supervisor, co-workers, and clients that I planned to retire as of that date. I now have a letter in process stating that I will postpone my retirement for at least one year. I wanted to wait until we had met with the oncologist to learn of his recommendations for follow up care. Being without health insurance or with limited coverage for all or part of 2011 does not seem to be advised. The waiting periods for preexisting conditions and other circumstances make for substantial financial risks. Part of me says "So what?" "Take a chance." Another part says "Act responsibly." I think I would be more willing to take a chance if our retirement reserves had not floundered these past two years. This dilemma may well be the subject of another blog. There is not only insufficient time some days, but also insufficient enthusiasm and energy to do many of the things I feel I want to do or need to do. It seems there are always things to be figured out. Such as: how to be a grandpa, how to be a husband to a wife with a potentially catastrophic illness, and how to be an old man. This figuring, in itself, is hard work. Writing may just be part, an essential part, at least for me, to figuring it out. Go figure!

The last posting was quite brief, because my operating system was installing updates and then restarted my computer to finish the process. Rather than try to save the posting in the edit form or to interrupt the updating process, I simply finish the posting and let the computer have free rein. It appears that I now have sole control of the computer so that I can pick up where the last posting left off and take whatever time I need.

The lawn remains unshorn. There has not been a decent break in the weather for me to tackle the task. I admit there may have been times during the past four days when I wasn't terribly motivated to move on that job. This evening after supper, we had a quick shower followed by President Obama's oval office speech on the gulf coast oil spill. Those circumstances gave me two reasons to wait for another day. George, the local weatherman, had predicted a dry day tomorrow, which should provide an evening appropriate for mowing the lawn.

I spent a few hours this past weekend watching a couple of world cup soccer games: Nigeria vs Argentina and Britain vs. U.S. This happens, when one has friends who are fans, one gets invited along for the game. It is also helpful to have a knowledgeable person perform additional explanatory commentary for the greenhorn.

The replacement windows have arrived. The carpenter is scheduled to be on site Monday to start the job. I have a week of vacation scheduled to be available. One more reason to hope for a break in the weather. This past weekend I pulled off all of the inside trim. I thought I might clean it up and refinish it. Now that it is off, I am not so sure: lots of nail holes, holes from curtain rods and shades, and paint from the failure to tape the woodwork or to cut-in carefully.

This was one of those days and I won't reflect on the rarity of such a day, when the weatherman was right. The forecast called for a 60% chance of rain starting mid-morning. It started mid-morning and continued through the early evening. There is more rain in the forecast for tomorrow. That's okay. The only thing it will stop me from doing is mow the lawn. It's Friday night; the work week is done; the last thing I feel like doing is planning an activity for tomorrow that seems a lot like work. A good night's rest or a dose of obsessive-compulsiveness may have me thinking differently in the morning.

The syrup crew got together this weekend to do the final clean up and make some firewood. Since one of the three--and the youngest--is convalescing from open heart surgery, this weekend was a two man effort.

At the end of the syrup season, we flood the evaporator pans with sap and allow it to sour. It apparently turns slightly acidic which dissolves the scale that accumulates on the pans during the season. It is so much better than trying to scrub the pans with stainless steel compatible pads or to invest in extra strength vinegar, or a chemical wash. Once the pans were empty and off the evaporator, we took a power washer to them and did the final touch-up with pads and hand work. The smaller pan (the syrup pan) was removed a few weeks ago because of a small leak. During the season, we found we had a crack near one of the fittings. It was near the outlet of that pan, which is the place that the syrup is drawn off. As a result there was enough sugar content to caramelize and burn when it came into contact with the frame supporting the pan. The leak essentially sealed itself. The leak redeveloped when the sap soured and dissolved the "patch.". The sugar house is not visited on a daily basis during the off season, so it was several days, maybe a week or more, before the leak was discovered. Yes, there was mess to clean up. As part of the clean up task yesterday, the floor got a good scrubbing. We have made arrangements to have the leak repaired by a welder, so we are not expecting a repeat of this aspect of the 2010 season in 2011. The unit is eight years old, so one had to expect some routing maintenance and repair. At least that is what we tell ourselves.

Today I cut down one of the larger trees (16" diameter) in the sugar bush that had died. There wasn't a single leaf on the tree. Last year, it was only partially leafed out. We marked so we didn't tap it this year. I think this the fourth tree we've lost in the eight years we have been syruping. The wind took the top out of a smaller tree (6 or 8" diameter). Another smaller tree just seemed to up and die. Before we tapped the first year, a tapping size tree was removed, when it didn't leaf out. Other than the wind, I have no explanation for these deaths. That particular tree may have been compromised, since the heart wood at the site of the break was stained blue-green--a fungus?.

I am always anxious, when felling trees of any size. Today's task went very well. No hanging widow makers fell. I was able to drop the tree right where I planned. The new chainsaw, that had been a Christmas present worked like a new saw. I make my cuts, set the wedges, tapped on the wedges a few times, and got out of the way. I suppose I could have used a pushpole like my Dad used to do. I had a pushpole readily available, just in case the wedges failed me. The fifth of six ranks of the woodpile is now complete. The goal is to complete that sixth rank in the next month. I like to have the woodpile complete with six ranks as we head into the fall. With considerable variation based on the success of the individual syrup season, this has proven to be a two years supply of fuel for the evaporator. Wood seasoned for almost two years seemed to make for the hottest fire and an efficient operation.

I split everything that needed to be split with a maul, and, with a tree that size, there is lots of splitting to do. I had forgotten to put the splitting wedges in the truck so there are four rounds, that were set to the side, that need to be split. Splitting proved to be the most physically demanding part of the job. I could feel the efforts of that effort in my shoulders even as we broke for lunch. There are feeling good now, but I expect they may wake me during the night or tomorrow morning they will remind me of the demands I made of them today. Tomorrow is Sunday, the one day each week that, I forgo my morning exercise routine. I think I have earned tomorrow as a day of rest at least for this week.

Th kids should be pleased to hear that I wore the chainsaw chaps and helmet for all the chainsaw work today. The helmet has the best hearing protection, that I have ever used. I seemed to be getting used to the chaps, so no new snags or tears.

We are on the road this weekend--off to the state capitol to celebrate the second birthday of a grandson. The birthday was actually May 1st, so we will be celebrating two weeks late. When the person of the hour is two years old, the adults can probably get away with bending reality. We will have to remember to not discuss this observation in the presence of the child, less a childhood memory be put in place, which will only rear its ugly head ten years into the future and at a terrible price for all involved. Something like--whose convenience were you thinking of?

As it often turns out, my earlier prediction didn't come true. I didn't mow the lawn during the week, so the "no mowing lawn in April" record remains intact. But I can now enter a May 1st mowing date in the books--record or not. With two very modest rains during the week and some windy weather, the yard needed to be tidied up, so I raked that part under the pine trees to gather up the needles and cones that had separated life from limb in recent weeks. From the appearance of both needles and cones, this is clearly a two-step process. Their lives had ceased sometime ago, but only now they have gotten around to separating from the limbs of their birth.

Since the raking effort involved under yesterday's conditions is so much easier than the first raking of the season, I was either inclined to reflect on a potential deeper meaning of the activity or I was simply distracted. As one approaching retirement, I wonder if there is a parallel two-step process for the human species. The message may well be to stay connected, even if one has lost his/her earlier color or his/her seed has already been dispersed. The challenge is to hang on for dear life during the the thunderstorms that pass through from time to time.


The balance of the yard got mowed. It has heavier soil and is less susceptible to drought. It has good color and now a more youthful or, at least, a tidier appearance. One may not always be able to become more youthful, but one can always tidy up.

Every so often I do one of those things that not only remind me how old I am, but convince me that I am getting even older and that getting older involves a price of sorts. Helping a friend reroof his house is my most current example. The lesson came through in spite of the advance planning to do the "old guy stuff" and to serve as a support role with this project. There was a son, a son-in-law, a grandson, and two college friends of the grandson, so there was plenty of youth on the crew.

Yesterday after my day job, I worked until dark and only then did the crew take time for supper. This morning we went back at it and broke for a late lunch, when the rain came. We were fortunate, by that time, the ridge cap was in place; only trimming the gable ends remain.

Last evening, the homeowner and I cleaned up the tear off that the crew had simply dumped on the ground. That task involved lots of bending; I moreorless felt like a quadruped after three hours. Today I did additional clean up, cut the ridge cap, and was an on-call go-for. For old time sake, I did carry one bundle of shingles up the ladder; it was a lot harder than I remember or it is clearly no longer as easy as I remember. I was bushed by the time we finished our 3:00PM lunch, and I had packed up my tools and headed home. I will check back in tomorrow; hopefully the remaining crew members will have the gable ends trimmed. I can take care of whatever clean up remains and pack up my wheelbarrow and two extension ladders.

The weather cooperated nicely. There were a few sprinkles early this morning as a warning. We decided to work through to the end before breaking for lunch, which proved to be in synch with the weather and whoever decides that. The rain is most welcome. We have been in a very dry period for the past four to six weeks. I also washed my truck this past Thursday; that may have helped also. Scheduling a roofing job and washing one's truck within a 72-hour period may be an effective appeal for rain.

When I got home and had packed away the tools from the roofing job, I decided it was time to take the snowblower out of the garage and store it in the shed until this November. I haven't used it for at least six weeks or more, so I think I'm safe with this decision. The snowshovel and the snowscoop are on their hooks beneath the deck, so my back-ups are readily available in case of a late season snowfall. The lawnmower has now moved from the shed to the spot in garage most recently occupied by the snowblower. With this rain, I may be mowing the lawn before the end of the week. I don't keep records on this sort of thing, but I would bet I have never mowed the lawn during the month of April in the 26 plus years, I have lived in this area.

I came home from the job site with a black and blue thumbnail on my right hand and I am right handed. Also, I did not drive a single nail during the two day project. So how does that happen, one might ask, especially for one who spent very little time up on the roof. I was helping the grandson reinstall some fascia and soffet material that had been removed. I was holding the aluminum fascia in place so that it could be nailed. I got nailed. Well, both the fascia and I got nailed. We laughed about it, even though it stung.

Oh yes, one other task remains, that is, to return the extras from the project to the lumberyard for credit. There are 17 bundles of shingles, one bundle of starter strips, one roll of felt, and drip edge to be returned. That task is scheduled for next Saturday.

I'm not particularly wedded to memoirs.

In addition to Nuala O'Faolain, two others were good reads this past winter: Seldom Disappointed by Tony Hillerman and Off to the Side by Jim Harrison.

This evening on Bill Moyers' Journal, Louise Erdrich was a guest. It was a great piece; I wanted the opportunity to ask several follow up questions. I wasn't afforded the opportunity. Is there a way to open television to two-way communication? Come to think of it. I sent Mika Brzezinski a very thoughtful--at least I thought so--email some time ago and never received a response. I figured at least a computer/software generated "Thank You" could be expected. Well, I guess that is what I get for expecting too much--disappointed. I should have heeded the advice of Tony's mother.

It appears that the first round of clean up for the 2010 syrup season is complete. Monday was a holiday for me, so I spent several hours during the day in the sugarbush. One of the partners, who drove up from the Cities earlier in the day, joined me after supper to work for a few hours. All three partners went at it Tuesday evening, after I spent the day at my day job. We pulled all the spiles, disassembled the bags/bag holders, washed the bag holders, the bulk tanks, and miscellaneous other equipment. Once clean, the items get stored inside the sugar house. A bucket gets placed over the stack/chimney of the evaporator to keep rain from ruining the arch. The doors on the cupola are secured to reduce the risk of wind damage.

It got late last evening, so I brought the spiles home and washed them tonight before I made myself a supper of leftovers. Don't feel bad about leftovers. Beef and bean guesadillas put together from the leftovers from a taco supper don't really seem like leftovers.

The last of the sap was left in the evaporator to sour. It apparently becomes slightly acidic and dissolves much of the mineral scale that builds up inside the pans during the season. In 4 or 6 weeks, we will disassemble the evaporator and clean the pans.

One other task remaining is to replenish the woodpile. I hope to have that task completed by July 1st. My goal is to have two year's supply of wood in the pile by that time each year, so it has at least 18 months to cure before it will be used in the evaporator. Properly seasoned wood makes for a hotter and more efficient fire, in my estimation. With a short season and less production this year, we used just a little more than half the wood we usually do in a season. Bringing the woodpile back up to goal wouldn't be as much work as last year, when we used more that usual.

The rains that were in the forecast during the past week did not materialize. Therefore, we didn't have to work around them. Conditions are very dry at this time, quite unusual for this time of the year also.

With rain in the forecast yesterday, I found the motivation to finish raking the yard. I even broke up the last of the snow bank at the bottom of the driveway so that I could rake under it and not just around it. The remnants of that snow bank, which I tossed around the yard, are gone this morning. I hauled one large load of rakings to the City compost site and called it a day. I didn't have it in me to load up that which remained. I tried to convince myself to just leave it in the back corner of the lot as an addition to the brush/needle/ leaf pile that has been there for years and refuses to decompose appreciably in what I think is a reasonable amount of time. I have come to respect pine needles as pretty sturdy bits and pieces of the natural world.

Even though I couldn't find the energy to finish the clean up yesterday, my moral compass or my tidiness meter remained intact. I found myself mildly troubled by the leftovers or "left-behinds" from yesterday's raking project. This morning early, even before coffee, I loaded up the stuff I pushed to the side yesterday along with a little extra off the old pile, for good measure, and took it to the compost site. Now that job is done; unless I re-evaluate that bit of my recent past and come to the conclusion I missed something.

By the way, the rain has now been pushed out another day--maybe later today. It was originally slated for yesterday evening--around suppertime.

As I finished up the outside work yesterday, the winter bird feeder was put away and replaced with the bird bath. My plan is to put up the finch feeder today; it needs a bit of repair. I have an idea how I might do that, but success may be fleeting.

I have been reading the memoirs of Naula O'Faolain in recent months, which I found totally by accident at the local library. I roam the stacks and look for books, which catch my eye--hardly a thoughtful approach to literature, but not a bad way to meet new people--even ladies, I might add. The first is titled Are You Somebody? and the second is Almost There. Naula is an Irish author, born in 1940 and died in 2008, which makes her a contemporary of mine. Her narrative of growing up in an Irish Catholic family and the lifelong impact of that childhood has given me a perspective from which I find myself reflecting on my own childhood and adolescent experience.

A passage from late in the second book seems so original and insightful; it suggests a function or benefit of writing, which I have never seen articulated before. It reads: "I never wrote for its own sake, I told him [John, her current companion]--I wrote so as simply to live, and then so as to live better, and not just to get better at managing life, but to be a better person." This passage can stand on its own, but it the context of the author's life, it holds a much richer and tragic connotation. These two books are difficult reads, but well worth the effort.

Yesterday appears to have marked the end of the 2010 maple syrup season. The small amount of sap we collected yesterday was clearly different than that collected just the day before.

We evaporated and finished everything we had on hand by mid-afternoon and ended the season with 21 gallons and 2 pints of syrup.

We will let things set for a few days to make sure our hunches are accurate and then complete the first round of clean-up.

Yesterday went well. I started the evaporator at 9:00AM and by 4:30PM had run through the 135 gallons of sap that had been collected on Monday. Joined by a partner and the son of a partner, we collected 60 gallons of sap, which will be put through the evaporator today.

Today's plan is to take care of the sap from yesterday, hopefully by noon, and then finish the syrup that is in the "finisher." The finisher is a propane fired unit which permits adequate control over the heat source so that we don't scorch the final product. The syrup is bottled and labeled, when it comes out of the finisher.

For syrup to reach the proper sugar concentration, it must be just short of precipitating out and burning. It is a lot like the old fashioned way of making popcorn balls; the need to get the mixture to the hard crack stage so that the popcorn balls are not sticky and yet not scorching the mixture. Maple syrup is approximately 66% sugar held in solution. By the way, the term "brix" is used rather than %. The term brix is apparently used only in reference to sugars dissolved in liquids.

The season may be over or simply taking a break. The temperature was near 60 degrees at 5:30AM this morning. I am quite certain that we can not expect any appreciable sap flow today. The forecast is calling for continued early summer-like temperatures and a few days of rain on the weekend. If that forecast holds true, those conditions will most certainly "wake up" the biological process in the maple trees that mark the end of the season.

This afternoon, I started the evaporator at 2:00PM. Rick joined me later. By 5:00PM we had run through the 45 gallons of sap that we had collected yesterday, and we were ready for today's collection of 135 gallons, which we will evaporate tomorrow. I will probably be working alone much of tomorrow. It is Rick's 64th birthday, and the family is planning a noon meal together to celebrate.

Last night the temperature dipped to the mid-20's, which accounts for today's flow. Today's high temperature was near 50 degrees. Tonight we are not expecting freezing temperatures. It is hard to estimate what the flow will be tomorrow. If I can recall past experiences correctly, I think one night of sufficiently cold temperatures can produce a sap flow for some 36 hours. That means tomorrow may hold promise of a good volume of sap to be collected at the end of the day. I'm hoping.

A forecast of warm temperatures (daytime highs near 60 and overnight lows around 40) with the added possibility of rain by the weekend may mean the end of the syrup season. Thus far, the sap quality has remained very good considering the conditions--weatherwise--that we are working under. The weather may not be a sap producer, but it makes for very enjoyable conditions to work outside in shirt sleeves with April 1st two days away. Will March go out like the proverbial lion or will twin lambs cover both ends of March 2010? I will keep you updated.

I have tried to find current information on the 2010 Wisconsin syrup season. Folks must not be posting current information; I only found one article from a Wausau newspaper early in March. I am curious what the production is like elsewhere in the State.

The syrup season is limping along trying to stay ahead of more spring-like conditions. I am not sure how much longer it will be able to stay out ahead of bud break and the associated changes spring brings to the maple trees and plant life, in general. The bit of rain that we received yesterday may hurry that process along.

We collected 80 gallons of sap yesterday. We will evaporate that later today as we hope for a decent run to be collected later this afternoon.

With yesterday's collection, we should have 10 gallons of syrup for the season. With the looks of things, this will be our lowest production in 8 years, and that includes the early years when we tapped 100 trees and not the current 175. I refuse to label it as "the worst year," because we grade our seasons on several criteria and not just syrup production. The three partners were together for a long weekend at the start of the season. The pace has been comfortable. I think we missed the early season snow pack and the snowshoeing and sledding, but without the snow pack, it is so much easier to move around in the woods. The woods are such a great place to be at this time of the year. Come to think of it; anytime is a good time to be in the woods and at the same time being a very real part of the woods, that is, interacting with its life cycle, such as making syrup, making firewood, or improving the sugar bush. It is not the same, at least for me, to simply pass through on a hike. Backpacking or canoe camping are intermediate activities; prolonged ventures require one to interact more intimately with that environment and do so on its terms.

As of last night, we have put almost 400 gallons of sap through the evaporator. My two partners will be finishing and bottling the syrup from that effort later today. At that time we will have an idea as to the grade and/or quality of this year's final product.

We are looking for a couple of cold nights with low temperatures near 20 degrees, which will hopefully rejuvenate the flow. The forecast is not particularly promising. We are old men; we have come to accept the reality that we don't often get what we want. On the other hand we have the resiliency to make due with what comes our way.

Good News!
The crew of three old friends finished tapping by 1:00PM yesterday and at 5:00PM we collected 200 gallons of sap. The evaporator will be started this morning.
The season is on.

We went into the sugarbush today on the date we set last fall for tapping. Unlike the seven previous years, this year there is essentially no snow in the woods. On all previous years, snowshoes were the order of the day for hiking in and tapping.

We placed 8 taps early in the day to check for a flow and, more importantly, to determine if the sap was still good for syrup making. There was a modest flow during the day, and we decided the sap was still good by sight and taste. We spent the last few hours of the day getting things in order to finish tapping--a total of 175 taps--tomorrow morning. The spiles have been boiled, and all the bag holders assembled. We will start mid morning tomorrow and go until we are done. With good fortune, we should have sap to evaporate Monday evening.

Cardinals, both male and female, continue to be seen at the feeder. These sightings never fail to thrill me and brighten my mood. Is it the bright color or simply the infrequency of such experiences? Maybe I should wear red. Or maintain a list of unusual activities to do on an unpredictable basis. Would that perk up my spirits or only the spirits of those around me?

Yesterday, the nuthatches, chick-a-dees, bluejays, and red squirrel were joined at the feeder by a male cardinal--the first that I have seen this winter. Maybe the grosbeaks will also return this year. There is also evidence of a rabbit in the yard, but it seems to be completely nocturnal.