Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Over the Edge

A. left our house at 7 p.m. last night to bring something up to Jodi's house to gather sap. Two hours later, he and Mr. Jason arrived back covered in mud after struggling mightily in the muddy farm lane to not get the lawn tractor they were using to get the sap out of the woods stuck. They had 200 gallons of sap.

Yeah. Two hundred gallons.

And then!  Despite the total darkness and howling winds, they started up the fire in the evaporator.

I think we can all agree they've crossed the line to Total Crazy.

A. has various courts and other work things today, so he left Mr. Jason out there last night boiling sap. I have no idea how long he did it. He stayed here last night, obviously, and is still asleep now, though I'm sure he'll be up shortly to continue a very long sap day.

Two hundred gallons. Jesus.

And speaking of sleep! Charlie slept through the night last night. And is still sleeping now.

Someone sound the trumpets.

He fell asleep at 6 p.m., showed no interest in nursing at 9 p.m. when I tried, and just . . . slept and slept and slept. I woke up at 4:45 a.m. convinced he would be awake anytime, but no. Still sleeping. Crazy. And holy SHIT, such a relief.

Not that I anticipate this is his new schedule or anything, but who cares? I slept seven whole hours last night! YEE HAW.

Oh, and my new stove is supposed to be delivered in a couple of hours. That means I need to pull out the old one and clean behind it, because God knows what's back there. It won't be anything good, I know that much.

And the beat goes on . . .

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maple syrup fever.......good year here for sap flow as well. Last year sucked. Beth
Woohoo on the babe sleeping all night.

Drew @ Willpower Is For Fat People said...

That's like 10 gallons of syrup on the way. Me is jealous.

Kristin @ Going Country said...

Drew: More like five gallons. The general ratio is 40 gallons of sap for every gallon of syrup.

edh said...

I'm beyond jealous; we've brought in 8 gallons in 2 days. That's 8 with no zero after it. And we only have Norway Maples, so the ratio is closer to 60:1. Yes that's a pint of syrup. Oh where will we store it all? Just hoping the flow starts up again here...

Lindsey at NW Backyard Veggies said...

I was seriously gonna write something quippy like: "Oh, so you're gonna get a gallon of maple syrup then?" Thinking I'd be all funny.
Then I read your comment to Drew, and I realized boiling sap is gonna be a lot of work for such a little output.
You guys are hardcore. I dig that about you. :-)