1st TAP

Andrew was here last Saturday to take pictures for his school project. Andrew is from New Brunswick taking photo-journalism at Loyalist College in Bellville. Somehow he found our blog and wanted to do an article on living off grid so he was up to take some pictures. I think he was expecting living off grid to be much more rustic and full of sacrifices and hardships but he soon found that wasn't the case.

He spent a few hours inside taking pictures, asking questions and writing notes.

We then went outside so he could photograph my first attempt at tapping a maple tree.

So far it's fine, holding and directing sap to the bucket.

Can you see how deep the snow is in the bush? I'm down over my boot and still not on solid ground.

Same with Mary. The snow is at least three feet deep, probably more.

You can see the jug we are using to collect sap at each tree. These are four gallon plastic jugs used for holding cooking oil.

Mary and Andrew checking our first tap and watching the sap flow.

I think we will build the fire-pit today and tap the trees on Thursday. The weather forecast calls for ideal sap flowing conditions from Saturday right through to Monday April 7th. Hopefully we will get a week of consistent sap flow and have a productive first experience making our own maple syrup.