Sap Running Part 2

Well, the sap is really running now!  I think the ground has thawed enough and tonight we collected a little over 100 gallons of sap!  What a blessing!  It took us 2 1/2 hours working together, and we just finished now around 8:20 p.m.  The other night we collected about 60 or so gallons, so we have enough for making 4 gallons of finished syrup.  Remember that 40 to 1 ratio of sap to finished syrup?
     It's hard work, but things have been worse.  Here's a photo of me collecting sap in 2013 when the snow was up to my thigh.   That was a really hard year for collecting.

Look at the snow in 2013 while collecting sap!

At least this year there's no snow on the ground.  We will probably boil up sap on Wednesday.  Tomorrow we have a church meeting we would like to go to.   Making syrup is something that Harold and I do enjoy, though. for the following reasons:
1.  It's something that we can enjoy together as a couple.  So many couples have a hard time finding interests they can do as a couple and often just resort to watching a movie together.
2.  It is good exercise - all that lifting of heavy buckets, bending, walking through the woods, stooping, etc.  We tapped about 120 trees, spread out over 4 places on our 100 acres.
3.  It is a real blessing to make something that "comes from the farm", from our very own back yard!  We think real maple syrup is what God intended for folks to put on their pancakes and waffles - not that imitation stuff they sell at the supermarket.
4.  It is a source of a little extra income, and certainly a source of pride.
5.  We can "commune with nature".  As we walk around the property collecting sap, the geese and trumpeter swans fly overhead, going from one of our ponds to the other.   We can hear their wings swishing, and the swans make a grand trumpet sound.   I often wonder if their trumpet sounds will be like the trumpet sound of the "second coming of the Lord" and the Last Judgement.    Sometimes those swans are very loud with their trumpeting.  And they fly pretty low - right in front of us.   It's a wonderful sight!

Whatever syrup we make this year is already spoken for and sold, as family, friends, church members, and our own needs will be using up all that we make.  Everyone is just waiting for this year's syrup!  If it all tastes as good as the first 10 pints we just made, we will be in for a real blessing from the Lord!  Almost every bag this year looks like this:

Almost 2 gallons of sap right here.

Edited to add:  Forgot to mention that this year Harold is doing the maple syrup stuff with a pinched nerve in his back, a herniated disc in the neck region, a possible tumor in the mid spine and elbow, a couple of numb fingers, and a torn rotator cuff.   He is either a trooper, or crazy?  But, he says he "has a pill for every pain".  When a person has cancer like Harold does, every day is precious.   He just wants to enjoy life to the fullest as much as he can.   Not only are we making syrup together, we are making memories together.   He is such an inspiration to me and to others about how to live with cancer.  No sitting in a chair feeling sorry for himself.