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.