Sap Is Flowing

Saturday was a great day with W and C. I have always wanted to see how maple syrup was made and we got the chance to find out.

Sugar maple sap starts to flow in southern Indiana by the latter part of February. The further north one goes, the later they tap the trees. We drove about thirty miles north to a farm that has a Maple Syrup Festival each year at this time.

Things I learned:
Off of a good sized tree they will collect several gallons in one day. They will put several tapes on a tree.



It takes about three gallons of sap to make one pint of syrup. They now use osmosis to help remove some of the water before boiling off the last. This is the house where the syrup is produced. Lots of steam.


The colder weather earlier in the year makes a better grade of syrup called A light amber. The A comes in three grades, also medium and dark amber. B grade is usually darker and used for cooking, but on tasting all three, we chose the B to buy and take home.

This is the final boiling tank and drawing off the finished product to be filtered and bottled.




We also go to see how they use to boil it off in the early pioneer days, mostly into sugar.


And how the Indians use to do it. First they hollowed out a large log and then put in heated rocks to boil it down.
When he took out some of the rocks and they cooled, you cold see the sugar starting to collect on the surface. He said that the Indians would scrape the sugar off the rocks. Sugar would also form around the edges. With a large log and several helping put in and remove stones it would have gone pretty fast.

There were several venders there and some music. We listened to a blue grass group who were pretty good.

Since they were also showing pioneer things besides the making of syrup. I thought this was interesting. It is a foot powered band saw. I was wishing that he would demonstrate it.




They also had some things that one could try.










We also had some maple syrup making weather. There was a cold north wind blowing, intermittent snow flurries with occasional peaks of the sun.

Enee Mennee Minee Moe

As you know we have been looking at houses. So far, the ones we have liked are on the Indiana side of the river. Now that may sound bad as W and C and the temple are on the Kentucky side of the river. However, the taxes are lower on this side and you get more for your buck on the IN side. Now that may sound good, but you have to drive across the Kennedy bridge which is very busy due to repair work on one of the other bridges. Now that may sound bad, but the other bridge is to be done the end of February. Now that may sound good, but as the traffic won't be as bad it still has heavy traffic and it is an example of what the future can hold. If we find a place on the KY side we wouldn't have to worry about the bridge. Now that sounds good, but the houses and taxes are more. From the looks of things we would still drive about the same distance to either W and C or to the temple. Oh, the joys of house hunting.

At any rate, this is the house that we have been most interested in. It is a great house but there is a draw back, it is about a foot ball field length from the outer belt loop. Now that is not all bad, as the bridge across the river joining it to the KY side is not there. Now that may sound good, but they do plan on building it. The earliest it would be done is in six to eight years. Now that may sound bad, but as B says, "We may not be alive then."

A real plus to the place is a twenty five by thirty foot garage out back. We can't put the truck in the attached garage as the truck is too long. (We are seeing lots of this.) However, it easily fits in the second garage and there is lots of room for B to fiddle with whatever. He is already drooling about that. There is also room to park the trailer at the side of the garage as we would like to keep it on site. That makes it easy to use when company comes. Since the house has three bedrooms up and two non-conforming (no windows) in the walk-out basement, we would have to have a very large group there. Here are some of the pictures of this place. I forgot to take any of the second garage.

I didn't get a picture looking the other direction toward the master bedroom, laundry room and door to the garage.



There is a pantry which they had loaded.

Master area.



Down stairs. It seems everyone here has a wet bar.

This is adjacent to the bar.


This is gas and works even if the power goes out, which we have found can happen frequently.

This is one of the two non-conforming bedrooms in the basement.


A large storage area.


With all this space, if we buy it y'all will have to come see us.

Ohio River

You may remember that last fall we went to the Falls of the Ohio and looked at the fossil beds that are exposed in that area. It is now very different than it was at that time. Here are some August and December pictures of that area.




The far left tree is where the people were standing.

Note the spill way in the above picture then and now. The down stream water is backed up, filling this area too.


These pictures were taken on the third. It stared raining again on the fourth, about twenty-four hours ago. We have gotten over two and a half inches since then and it is continuing to come down. The storms continue to go up the Ohio so who knows how much more it will rise.

One Sunny November Saturday

While we were eating Thanksgiving dinner with W and C, they told us that they had gone to the races last weekend at Churchill Downs. It only cost them $3.00 to get in. Since they didn't place any money on their choices, it was an economical way to spend an enjoyable afternoon. The coming week end is the final for the year. They were planning to attend and meet up with a fellow teacher from Sage in S. CA that W knows. When they asked if we wanted to come too we said sure.

It was in the sixties with sun shining and a bit of wind. Since this time of year isn't very busy we had seats anyplace that we wanted. We chose close to the rail and almost at the finish line. Of course we would go see the horses in the paddock to make our choices. What beautiful horses. The last two races of the day were two year olds, some who will be on the Derby circuit next year.

Here are some pictures that I took.

The winner out in front, almost at the finish line.
Coming around the first bend.

Note the far right horse, he is air born. Too bad I didn't get his nose too.

Just some spectators.

Potomac and the Billy Goat Trail

The weather was great and in the mid sixties. We were told that we should go on this hike as it was great for scenery. So we took off with walking sticks, a lunch, and preparation to do some scrambling.

After going down the canal bank, we took a side path that goes out on an island in the Potomac River. These are pictures of the water that is flowing on the opposite from the main course of the river.





Part of the Great Falls of the Potomac.




We then went to the trail and scrambled over boulders, slid down boulders, and threaded our way through boulders. We even crawled up this. It isn't as bad as it looks, some places were much harder.

These were taken while going along the river. There were times that we were on a path.




Coming back we walked along the C & O Canal towpath. These pictures were taken then. Part of the old canal is a lake.





There are a few locks and gates on the canal, all though they are not operable. You can see the remains of the gate keepers house.

This is a restored building that was a tavern and also a place for people to spend a night. You can see the width of the lock.


It was a nice day, a nice hike, and the scenery was great.