Monday I almost took Max for a run, but the temps are just too cold overnight. I spent some more trying to find the rest of my sap buckets. I found 4 or 5 of them last week, but I have a dozen, and I have no idea where the rest are. They’re not in the garden shed. They’re possibly in the shed up by the parking area, but I’d have to pull a lot of junk out of it to make sure- I’ll look on Tuesday.
Jeremy went to the VA Med Center for an eye appointment and took Sunshine with him so she could practice driving on the freeway and at night.
Tuesday was the usual music lessons, followed by grocery shopping, then more time looking for the silly sap buckets. I finally found them in the garden shed (which I’d already searched like three times), hiding behind the cabinet and microwave we took out of the RV. At least I found them. It was driving me crazy, not knowing where they were.
That evening at karate class we also did our graduation performance and ceremony and we are now blue belts!
After the boys were in bed I washed the sap buckets and spiles so they’d be ready to use.
Wednesday I managed to get up and moving. First, I tapped the trees with the boys. It was too cold for the sap to run right then, but it was the only time I had that day to tap them. Then I printed out my health forms to take to my doctor appointment and finally made my first board and pinned my first pin, which last week I said I’d do before my next accountability call.
Then I was off to my doctor appointment, where I got my health forms filled out, and got referrals for an ADHD evaluation, a podiatrist visit, and an endocrinology visit. On the way home I ran a couple errands, then hopped on my accountability call. It was a busy but productive day.
Thursday we collected sap and got a full to the top 5 gallon bucket of black walnut sap and half a 5 gallon bucket of maple sap. It was a wet, rainy day, so I pulled out the propane tank and turkey fryer setup to start boiling down the sap. There was too much to store and no dry wood to use.
Friday we drove around Green Springs National Historic District for Sunshine’s citizenship in the nation merit badge. Basically an area of cool old houses/farms, though most of the houses were set too far back from the road to get a good view of, and they aren’t open to the public as they are privately owned.
We collected another full 5 gallon bucket of walnut sap plus one third of a 5 gallon bucket of maple sap, but I ran out of propane before I got it all boiled down.
Saturday I took Sunshine to her Merit Badge University and Jeremy did a dump run and got more propane for me so I could boil the sap. There’s too much to store in the deep freeze- a good problem to have!
We collected 3/4 bucket walnut + 1/4 bucket maple. Saturday was colder than Thursday and Friday, so the sap was running a lot slower.
I’m really struggling to stay focused and motivated on my calling- how do I say ‘yes, let’s plan this meeting for this date’, when I don’t know if I’ll actually be there, especially the further out ones that I know I won’t be there for. I’ve pushed myself for so long in this calling and now that the end is near, it is super challenging to keep pushing myself, especially since I’m so tired- mentally, physically, etc.
Thankfully, the bishop called Saturday afternoon to say I was getting released Sunday. Yay!
Sunday I was released, but I held one last class presidency meeting after church while my replacement was getting set apart (at her request). Then I spent some time going over some things with her so she’d know what’s going on with activities, the YW, etc.
We didn’t collect any sap Sunday. It was too cold for the sap to run and there wasn’t enough in the buckets to bother. I did catch up on boiling down the almost 20 gallons of sap we’ve collected so far- should be about 1/2 gallon of syrup, going off a 40:1 ratio.
Weekly Mileage
| Wednesday | 0.0 miles | .5 hours | |
| total | 0.0 miles | .5 hours | |
2022 totals
| 4.0 outside hours |
| 5.04 miles |
