In late February, I tapped six trees back in the woods. We had about a day and a half of good sap running weather, and then it changed to the type of weather where the sap just doesn't really run: rain, wind, temperatures below freezing. We had rain and strong winds. We had ice. We had cold. We had a bunch of snow.
So I didn't bother going out to check my sap buckets for over a week. Then we had two decent days in a row with more favorable weather to come and I knew I needed to get to the woods and see how things were going. However, we'd gotten a whole bunch of snow in the night, so I had to wait for DH to clear the driveway (he needed both the tractor and the 4-wheeler for this) before I could use one of them to potentially transport 5 gallon buckets of sap back to the house.
It ended up being after lunch when we went to the woods. DH thought it was too muddy to take the tractor (because, you know, got to keep it in 2WD to avoid that front wheel popping off), and I don't particularly like driving through the woods --narrow and twisty--with the wood hauler trailer attached to the 4-wheeler. We'd need that trailer to carry the full sap buckets, so DH did the driving, and I did the riding behind him.
All went well on the first trip to the woods. I'd underestimated how much sap would be waiting, and had only brought back two empty buckets to swap out, so we had to make a second trip after grabbing more buckets. The second trip started out okay, although I thought the 4-wheeler exhaust smelled a tad funny. But in the middle of the field --DH was driving through the field rather than taking the long way around the edges--the 4-wheeler stalled. And sank a bit in the quickly softening ground under the snow from the night before; the sun had come out full force and was melting things rather rapidly.
The 4-wheeler started again, but stalled without doing more than spinning it's tires in the mud. And then it wouldn't restart. Umm, what? That's not good. We'd taken the 4-wheeler and trailer in order to avoid potential problems the tractor would have in the 4 inches of snow on top of mud. Now we'd have to take the tractor into the field in order to tow the dead 4-wheeler out.
DH walked back to his shop and brought out the tractor. We hooked it to the 4-wheeler, and DH started to pull. The tractor tires spun in the mud. So DH put it in 4WD and tried again. And the right front tire fell off. You can probably imagine the tremendous mood that put DH in; he was already not too happy about the 4-wheeler's sudden death.
I volunteered to walk back to the shop this time, and retrieved the tools we needed for reattaching that wheel.
It's a bit of a walk from the shop to the point in the field the tractor and 4-wheeler were.
zoomed in from same spot as previous picture
Oh happy happy joy joy. I gave DH the tools, and he quickly put the tractor wheel back on. We tried again, this time moving the 4-wheeler a bit. But then, DH went to turn to avoid an even wetter area in the field, and that darn wheel came off again. He was so not overjoyed. I went to help him with the tire, and one of my boots got sucked off in the mud. Now I'm trying to not step in the snow or the mud with my stocking foot, not fall over, not lose my other boot, and pull my sucked off boot out of the mud so I could put it back on. If you ever lost a boot in the mud as a kid, you can totally relate.
I did manage to free my boot and put it back on without getting a wet or muddy sock. We managed to get the wheel back on, and actually get the 4-wheeler towed (me sitting on it steering) back to the shop without getting the tractor stuck or having the wheel pop off a third time.
almost there
Once the tractor and 4-wheeler (with trailer still attached) were safely stowed back in the shop, I walked out to the woods with the empty extra buckets. I felt a tad bit guilty about how that last hour and a half had gone in the mud with the machinery; if I'd brought more than two empty buckets the first time a return trip wouldn't have been necessary. In the woods, I filled a third bucket with sap from the remaining two unchecked taps, and began trudging through the snowy field back to the house.
Part of the way there, DH came out to meet me (at which point I had set down the 40-pound bucket of sap and was trying to catch my breath). He took the bucket and carried it the rest of the way.
I stood in the field for another minute or two, until my heart didn't feel like it was jumping out of my chest anymore, and I could breathe fairly normally. Man, being 51 sure is different than being 41 was. Not that fond of this whole getting old thing.
Before setting off through the rest of the field, I looked around at all the lovely snow that hadn't been walked or driven through yet. And, despite my age, I threw myself down into it. I might be old, but I could still enjoy a good snow angel!
After all that hassle of bringing in the sap, the processing of it into syrup was easy and uneventful. It took over 12 hours of boiling to reach the finished product, but what a beautiful batch of syrup it made.
What's the matter with the 4-wheeler? We're still not sure. Discussing it over dinner that night, we think it's something to do with either the fuel pump or the relay to the pump. DH checked all the fuses and tested the relay with his volt meter the next day while I was finishing off the boiling of the sap, and all seemed normal there. So most likely the fuel pump failed. And of course the fuel pump is in a very hard to reach location up under the 4-wheeler. Which means having to remove lots of other components in order to take off and replace the fuel pump. Which means I won't be hauling sap with the 4-wheeler for a while.
Hope this mud dries up fast . .
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