more tree tapping

Feb 23, 2008

Another fine day in the woods tapping trees. This time it was families and scout troops. It was fun, maybe not “whee I'm bungee jumping” fun, but more like “what a good day” fun. More of a half adult-half kids group, and there was one group of teenage boys. They might have been from a group home or something. They had some trouble tapping the tree, and I told the the brownies that came out earlier did it in about 2 minutes- it probably took them 4 or 5. Then we couldn't get the bucket on because the spile was in too far, so we tried to get it back out and it broke off. We just looked at each other. Umm.... gee... what do we do now? Well one of the long time sappers dug it out with his leatherman's tool. I wasn't the only one (although they gave me a really hard time about it) . The group broke four today. Spiles are just tubes made out of pot metal, so they are pretty cheap and apparently break when really cold (and tapped with w hammer). There were loads of photos taken, and the TV station came out, so maybe we'll be on the news. It finally got warm enough that the sap was running a bit today. Some of the trees we tapped in the morning had sapcicles by the last group at 4:30.

Today I soloed the same part I shadowed two days ago. I really like doing it myself without someone watching over me. I like presenting material my way, with my examples and my jokes. The other presenter does a great job, but she's her and I'm me.

So nothing else is new and exciting, Tomorrow is homework. The MIA instructor has posted( said he had the flu) and now that we are two weeks behind, he said not to get all excited about working ahead. Apparently some chapters will be dropped. I don't know what's going to happen. I was really looking forward to this class, but so far it's Earth Science 101- definitely not a 400 level class.

Peace.