Sometimes, one just needs a layover day. Canoe campers will be familiar with the layover day. It is a non-travel day in the trip plan. It is a day that serves any number of purposes--a rest and relaxation day to recover from the rigors the preceding days of paddle and portage--a chance to string a line and dry out sleeping bags and tents packed either in the rain or simply endowed with several nights' heavy dew--fishing, swimming, or both--a more leisurely pace in making supper and performing other camp chores--repairing a piece of equipment--an afternoon nap--reading--catching up on one's trip log-- and yes, enjoying more than one day's allotment of trail mix. It may even become a travel day, if the crew is behind schedule and needs to make up time and distance. The layover day may be determined by the weather and taken when high winds prevent venturing forth. The crew may decide to travel in light rain on a scheduled layover day, thereby saving the layover day for when there is a break in the weather.

Today is my layover day. I spent the past two days making firewood for the 2014 maple syrup season. They were two long days. Monday I quit at 6:00PM; yesterday I quit at 5:00PM. Rather than push on, I decided that a layover day was called for. This morning I got the oil changed in the pick-up and made a periodically compulsory trip to Walmart for somethings which I simply can't live without. Since then the lawn has been mowed and the chainsaw sharpened. It is too bad there is not a Brewers' game this afternoon. I could have caught the end of it while napping in the recliner.

I have a daylong commitment tomorrow. I will be back making firewood on Friday and Saturday, weather permitting. The weather may have me considering another layover day this trip.

I have taken a few minutes to review my 2013 postings. It is accurate to say that I was preoccupied with the maple syrup season during March, April, and early May. It is not that I haven't been thinking about anything since the close of the syrup season; it is just that I haven't been successful in putting together a blog entry. Syrup making is really a year-a-round activity. This time of the year I am thinking of the need to replenish the woodpile. Rick and I walked the farm yesterday and discussed some ways to tackle this task. It is very wet in the woods, so vehicle access in most areas will be off limits for now. We leave enough marks on the natural environment; deep ruts don't have to be one of them at least with respect to our syrup making venture. The chain saw hasn't been sitting idle. I bucked up a couple of understoried balsams in the yard that had succumbed to the lack of sunlight and had given up their ghosts in tree terms. They are now stacked next to a friend's firepit where they will create ambiance for guests.

In January I enrolled in an e-course with UW-Superior titled "Healthcare in the Second Half of Life." The course addressed a number of topics applicable to the age 60 and older crowd and in many ways, applicable to anyone, who has anything to do with these same folks. My motivations for the course were self-interest and a continuing education requirement. The course was scheduled to end May 31st, but a few things have lingered on. It involved a lot more time than expected. A few of the topics were much more engaging than expected, in particular, the issue of healthcare planning within the context of chronic illness and life-threatening conditions. I learned how conflicted we are as a society on this issue and how the individual healthcare consumer is clearly outmatched by healthcare professionals and healthcare institutions as one attempts to exercise a degree of autonomy in the selection of treatment options when the best possible outcome is so limited and the risk of serious and detrimental consequences is so high. It appears that having one's documents in order, including powers of attorney of medical care, advance directives, living wills, or physician orders for life sustaining treatment (POLST), is not sufficient. One can expect that it will take considerable assertiveness on the part of the consumer patient with the added support of a strong willed advocate to insure that the desires laid out in such documents are followed.

The Medical Society of Wisconsin is piloting a program entitled Honoring Choices-Wisconsin, which encourages physicians and patients to have a discussion about the patient's individual preferences for end of life care and to make appropriate plans and arrangements. As this program is implemented, I am fully expecting a bit of an uproar. My hope is that all parties concerned can participate in a reasonable conversation and set aside hyperbole and volatile vocabulary. We need to find common ground rather than highlight and concretize differences.

For my part, I am also conflicted on where to make my own stand.  I know that I am not comfortable with a dictatorial overriding moral principle of survival at all costs--however one may compute those costs--personal, emotional, the capacity for independent and autonomous function, financial, and social. The past three years have also shown me that this issue needs to be resolved before implementation is imminent. It is not a task to be attempted coincidentally within the highly charged atmosphere of emergency medicine. I also know from experience that the longer a crisis or chronic condition lingers on, both patient and family simply want it to be over--one way or another. This too may not be the best rationale--in whole or in part--in support of a decision.

 

This is the last vestige of winter remaining in the yard. For the past two weeks, I have been raking around what originally was a large snowbank as it released its grip on the yard. The rain in this evening's forecast should hasten its final demise. There was an advantage to its lingering presence; I had an excuse for not completing the raking task in one go.

This past week, I marked another milestone in the changing of the seasons; the snowblower was put into its summer location following an oil change and the lawnmower was taken out of its winter location. The oil had been changed in the lawnmower before it was put away last fall. I am trusting that the precipitation  in the forecast will not come as snow and that the next piece of power yard equipment needed will be the lawnmower.

We shall see if the calender and the forecast are in sync. If not, it won't be the first time that I fell victim to unrealistic expectations based on faulty data.

The weather has taken a wintry turn since Tuesday. That afternoon with temperatures near 70 degrees, thoughts of washing the car and truck came to mind--washing the old fashioned way, that is, parked in the driveway with the hose on the outside faucet, cold water and only cold water all the way. It must be a rite of spring in car culture to perform this initial bath of the automobile in a highly stylized manner. I wonder if there is an approved clothing list and an equally approved selection of beverages and finger foods that must accompany this ritual activity in order to insure freedom from accidents and mechanical breakdowns during the following six months.

Having spent Tuesday morning performing clean up chores in the sugarhouse, I decided to postpone this rite of spring. It just seemed like too much work. I picked up the yard instead--another rite of spring--and only that part that was free of snow. Winter returned or, at least, turned around and came back in, as it appeared to be slipping out the door. With a total of 18 inches of snow and 30 degree temperatures, it is looking a lot like Christmas. Forget about spring rites and rituals, the winter chore of clearing the deck and driveway continues.

The task of pulling taps or spiles along with gathering up and washing bag holders, which will formally mark the end of the syrup season, has been postponed until next week. We are expecting more seasonal weather that can accompany these tasks. An outside activity like washing bagholders--not unlike car washing--is not something to be undertaken in freezing temperatures.

Addendum: Spell checking is an interesting exercise. The correct spelling is wintry and not wintery. Spile is correct, even though it is not in the database, so I reverted to Webster's New World Dictionary and then learned that spiling is synonymous with piling.

I just finished an 8-day stretch in the sugarbush gathering sap and/or running the evaporator on these days. The sap has not run to speak of since last Friday; daytime high temperatures have approached 60 degrees. It has not frozen for several nights. I am quite certain the season is over--over except for the clean-up. There are no freezing overnight low temperatures in the forecast, so I don't expect sap flows to be recharged. The red maple are in full bud. I suspect that the brother species will follow as soon as the snow pack is gone.

I plan to wait until later this week to pull spiles and gather up the bags and bagholders. There is still a lot of heavy wet snow in the woods. With a few more days of warm weather and possibly some rain, much of that snow may be gone so this part of the clean up will be less of a chore. We are not yet driving to the sugarbush, which means everything is still being packed or sledded in or out. That includes the water needed for clean-up.

Today we finished and bottled 23 gallons of syrup, which brings our season total to 68 and 1/4 gallons. That exceeds our previous season record total of 66 gallons. There is a need to footnote the record. The new record was achieved with 200 taps; the previous record was obtained with 175 taps.

Yes, the woodpile will also need to be replenished.

It is the 23rd of April, and this is the scene this morning in the sugarbush. Yes, the sap did run today. I spent an 11 hour day evaporating half of the sap collected yesterday. (I would have gotten an earlier start, but my driveway needed to be attended to due to last night's 8 inch snowfall.) I will be back at it tomorrow to finish the remaining sap and be ready to tackle today's and tomorrow's runs on Thursday. That is the plan.

Since my last syrup season update, the weather has posed the most significant challenge. In the past ten days, we have received three spring snowstorms, the latest gifted us with 18 inches of heavy wet snow. On top of that, it rained late yesterday. This morning the weatherman predicted 4 to 6 inches of snow to arrive this evening and overnight.

I find that shovelling out the entrances to the building, the bulk tanks, and the woodpile is one of the first chores to be tackled upon hiking out to the sugarhouse. Dealing with this much snow this late in April has to be a first in the 10 plus years that we have been involved in this venture. I am sure there have been years when the head of the field and the road into the sugarhouse were free of snow and dry enough that we were driving to the sugarhouse at this time. Being able to haul stuff out and in, rather than carrying stuff out and in, is greatly appreciated this far into the season, when all the tasks involved begin to wear on one.

I hiked out yesterday to check on things and to pack up the syrup that was finished and packed on Thursday. We finished 21 1/2 gallons of syrup on Thursday, which brings our yearly total to date to 45 1/4 gallons. There was some 24 to 30 inches of heavy wet snow in the woods. It is of a consistency that snowshoes don't provide much, if any advantage. I spent a couple of hours shovelling out and straightening up inside the sugarhouse, in preparation for the upcoming week.

There was some sap flow yesterday, but, as so typical this year, it was very inconsistent. Some trees had produced almost half a bag--approaching 2 gallons; others appeared to not have produced any at all since our last collection on Thursday, the 16th. We will be gathering sap later today. I am not looking forward to that chore and the effort that it will take because of the snow conditions. It will be better to tackle that task today rather than to wait until after tonight's additional snowfall. The forecast for the week would seem to support the notion that there will be syrup making for at least the next several days. I am looking forward to the warm temperatures and the absence of snow in the forecast for late in the week. I trust these conditions will make our getting around a whole lot easier. I am sure we won't be driving, but only walking a whole lot easier.