{"id":692,"date":"2018-03-11T13:18:23","date_gmt":"2018-03-11T17:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=692"},"modified":"2018-03-23T14:15:06","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T18:15:06","slug":"ah-march-and-the-sap-is-running-22-rifle-killed-the-venture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=692","title":{"rendered":"Ah! March and the sap is running. ’22 RIFLE KILLED THE VENTURE’"},"content":{"rendered":"
OUR MAPLE SYRUP MAKING DAYS:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March 2018<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There is \u00a0an old expression\u2026a sad \u00a0one\u2026\u201dMy days are in the yellow leaf.\u201d \u00a0This comes to mind always in the month of March because many years ago when the kids \u00a0were small and Marjorie and \u00a0I were naive\u00a0that month was maple syrup month. \u00a0A family enterprise.\u00a0 We tapped \u00a0the \u00a0trees in the maple bush at the back of the Saunders farm close to the fourth line road. By chance we purchased all the stuff we needed from a couple of farm sales\u202650 to 60 sap pails with\u00a0hooks on the side, a bucket full \u00a0of smiles, a hand drill, a big boiling pan, another smaller finishing pan.\u00a0 and, oddly, a dozen old milk cans. \u00a0 The system worked. \u00a0On \u00a0week ends and after school we would zip up to the sugar bush, slosh \u00a0the sap into the milk cans, \u00a0haul them by sleigh to the truck and drive back to the city where a huge pile of drift wood had been gathered from the shores \u00a0of Lake Ontario over the winter months.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

A picnic bench floated \u00a0in one day, smashed up a bit, and \u00a0one day while I was taking our the bolts a City Parks truck pulled up beside \u00a0me.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u201cWhat the hell are you doing?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGathering scrap wood for our maple syrup making.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat bench is City property.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot now, give me a hand some of these bolts are<\/div>\n
tight.\u201d \u00a0And they did. \u00a0Even helped me load other drift wood.<\/div>\n
\u201cSave us the work when the ground dries up.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We Lit the fire in the evenings \u00a0and sat there with the wood smoke filling our lungs and pores as the last bits of snow fell. \u00a0 On March mornings \u00a0the sun began to warm the ground and the maple sap coursed upwards in the \u00a0maple bush 40 miles away. \u00a0Synergy. \u00a0But It was \u00a0not an efficient operation.\u00a0 Foolish I suppose but so invigorating. \u00a0Others rushed to Florida on March break. \u00a0We did<\/div>\n
down sap into syrup. \u00a0Now I \u00a0ask you, what makes \u00a0more sense?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
When the wild \u00a0onions pushed through the leaf cover we knew the sap taking and syrup making was coming to an end. \u00a0Then we filled the \u00a0Crown sealers with the black syrup. \u00a0Black? Of course a lot of ash got in our syrup carried by the wood smoke. \u00a0No problem. \u00a0Gave a little body to the syrup although we did filter out the huge chunks.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Syrup making days ended for a variety of \u00a0reasons. \u00a0First was the son off a bitch who spent a day shooting the sap cans full of holes \u00a0with a 22 rifle just to watch the sap spurt out to the ground below. \u00a0Someone did not like our venture. \u00a0Maybe someone we knew.\u00a0 Jealousy is a powerful force. \u00a0 Another reason was the objection of a neighbour, maybe more than one neighbour, as the large clouds of smoke from the wet burning wood drifted directly into the neighbours back porch and kitchen. \u00a0\u201cKilling us, please stop;\u201d \u00a0he had a point.<\/div>\n
Then there was the issue of lead soldered sap pails. \u00a0Illegal soon after our sap days began.\u00a0 \u201cMust use aluminum or better \u00a0still plastic feeder \u00a0lines to a central tank. \u00a0Talk about killjoys.\u00a0 And finally the kids grew up. \u00a0What was worse? \u00a0The kids \u00a0growing up was \u00a0worse because sap making was \u00a0a family operation. \u00a0Something we could all do together.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Like all things \u00a0in life, sap making came to an end. \u00a0As I \u00a0said before \u201cSyrup making days were in the yellow leaf.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I found a quart of the syrup in the cellar the other day. \u00a0Black. \u00a0Think we\u2019ll keep it as \u00a0a souvenir\u2026a \u00a0reminder of good \u00a0times.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March \u00a02018<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OUR MAPLE SYRUP MAKING DAYS: alan skeoch March 2018 There is \u00a0an old expression\u2026a sad \u00a0one\u2026\u201dMy days are in the yellow leaf.\u201d \u00a0This comes to mind always in the month of March because many years ago when the kids \u00a0were small and Marjorie and \u00a0I were naive\u00a0that month was maple syrup month. \u00a0A family enterprise.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":796,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions\/796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}