Making Maple Syrup

My dad (Bumpa Tom) makes maple syrup every spring. He really enjoys it and wants to start making memories with Gage "down in the woods" helping him to make the syrup. Since the weather has been a little warmer these past few weeks, now is the best time to get the trees tapped as the sap runs when its warmer, and then when it freezes again.
On Saturday morning, Tim, Gage, and I headed out in the wood with Bumpa on the tractor and with the four-wheeler and trailer to get the buckets on the trees!

Loading up the trailer with buckets.

The highlight of Gage's day: Riding the tractor with his Bumpa

First, Grandpa Tom would drill a hole in the tree.

Then Tim would tap a metal spout into the hole,

and we'd hang a bucket from it, to collect the sap when it starts to run.Here's Gage being a great sport and having a fun time. And yes, my friends, those are daddy's hunting socks on Gage's arms/hands. They are quite "handy" (no pun intended) to place over the mittens in order to keep the mittens on and the fingers, hands, and arms nice and warm!


The snow is quite deep in places and other than the path that my dad scrapes with the tractor, it can get hard to walk ! It definitely is a great workout, but Gage had a tough time walking around.Again, this was his favorite position. Two seconds after I took this picture, he slid to the left and fell right off the 4-wheeler!

After the buckets start to fill with sap, my dad will take them back to his cabin where he has a sap/syrup stove set up. He then boils all of the sap and makes maple syrup! Hopefully, we can get out there again for the next phase of the process, otherwise I will document that next year!