Monday afternoon my husband texted me and said he had the next day off and hoped I could get it off too. Though it was incredibly last minute, I called my boss and he agreed that if I came to work in the morning to get a few things done then I could have the rest of the day off. That sounded like a great deal to me so I immediately accepted.
Tuesday morning I went to work and got caught up on all the important stuff, got a hair cut, and headed home. My husband was visiting with our neighbors, who farm the land around us and are some of the most wonderful people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, so I walked over to chat a while too.
They were in the process of boiling sap to make maple syrup. It's quite the long process and I truly appreciate all the time and energy poured into it. The sap gets collected into a big 350 gallon drum than pumped into a "washtub" where it then can drain into the evaporator in the appropriate amounts. The evaporator is fired by a wood stove underneath it that needs to continually be fed. It's a great, rewarding process, but one that requires a keen interest and a lot of patience.
My husband has taken a particular interest in how the whole process works so we like to spend time over there whenever we can. Tuesday evening we were able to go out and help collect the sap - which was awesome! If you love the outdoors and you love the natural exercise then you'd love collecting sap. I was surprised at how tired I actually was when we were all finished. There's just something about those buckets that beckons me to fill them to the top - even if it does make them a little too heavy for comfort.
So we are thoroughly enjoying our maple syrup and hope to experiment on new ways to use it. Some use it in their coffee and some use it place of sugar when baking. We plan on trying it all!
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