The sap is just starting to run (come on, Spring!) so today we headed over to Nana's to put taps in her maple trees. We had quite a crowd: Uncle Seth's family was there, the McKenneys stopped by, and we brought along our friend Amy and her two kids. There were eight kids under the age of twelve!
Kate was totally prepared with her plastic hammer and screwdriver.
Nana was the only one of us who had ever tapped a maple before, so she showed us how it was done. She decided to wear shorts to celebrate the occasion, and enjoy the nice warm day!
Addison, with her aunt Tory, especially liked walking through the mud puddles with her cool shades on. She is almost 16 months old!
We let the kids do most of the work. Here Chris is helping Alison drill a hole for one of the taps.
Lili, observing proper safety procedure by wearing protective glasses, waited patiently for her turn with the chisel. We had to chip some of the bark off of the older trees to get the tap in far enough.
Emily mostly wanted to splash in the puddles and poke at things with a big stick.
After installing the taps, we ran hoses into collection buckets. We were all slightly amazed to see the sap actually flowing through the hoses and filling the buckets! After we collect the sap, we will boil it down into syrup. It will take about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.
The kids took a popcorn break to keep their strength up. Tapping can be hard work!
After awhile everyone went inside to have tea, cookies, and Nana's delicious blackberry coffee cake. Brenda and Dwain took the opportunity to finish up the taps without "help" from the kids (below).
All in all we put twelve taps in five trees, and we're hoping to have our first batch of maple syrup within a few weeks. Yum!
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