MarGar4ever

A good friend down the country lane let me see how she and her husband set up their Maple Tree taps. It takes 40 gallons of sap to get about a gallon of syrup through a slow cooking process.

My industrious neighbor (Sandy) collects sap from maple trees on her gorgeous farm up the road and makes a bit of syrup for friends and family (not neighbors). Anyway, she says about 40 gallons of sap yields a gallon of syrup. She spent all day cooking it over a continuously tended fire. That's a lot of work. I think I will drive up to the Amish village one day this week and see if they will sell me a gallon or two. It takes a lot of know-how and effort to collect and cook maple syrup. If you are lucky enough to know someone who sells this wonderful stuff? I'd order some if I were you.

Some of the vines growing on the oak tree were big enough to be trees themselves. I can imagine pioneers using the vines as ropes. They are very tough and hard to cut with the clippers I use. My husband uses a small chainsaw and with teamwork, the tree is cleared and the brush piled up for burning and/or firewood. All of those dead branches are oak and nice for a cozy cabin!

It is a real blessing to be able to get out into the fresh air and do some work with my husband and not worry about the world at large. It's just us and this tree.

One of the best parts of buying a piece of land which had not been farmed for many decades is reclaiming the land and clearing out from beneath a gorgeous tree like this one! It is a day well spent with my husband!