Thursday, March 25, 2010

Maple Sugaring at Papa's Cabin



Our morning at Papa's Cabin began with Gus, Papa Ron and Great Grandpa explaining a bit about their land and how maple sugaring works. That metal stove thing is the boiler where they boil the sap into syrup. That black and white picture you see on the wall is a blown up version of a picture taken during harvest over a hundered years ago:




"STRELOW,PLESSEL & GUTZKOW CO. THRASHIN
For Christenson Brothers, Rock Creek, Minnesota Oct. 15, 1892"

Sitting in that black and white picture is my Great Grandpa Gus as a young boy (that would be our Gus's Great Great Grandpa Gus) and his dad, Peder Christenson.



Then the kids paired off and grabbed a bucket to go collect the sap





Papa Ron and little Mary supervised

Collecting all that sap can make your bucket very heavy

Some kids got drawn to the beauty of the creek
... even though you'll find no sap in there

Once all the bags of sap were emptied and brought back to the boiler, we got a good bonfire going

And Mikayla set up the table for lunch




The kids each roasted a hot dog or two, followed by roasting a marshmellow or two or three of four :-)




I think its safe to say we all had a wonderful day! I'll add the pictures of their walk down by the creek to the beaver dam and archery practice in another post


Click to play this Smilebox slideshow: Slide Show from Maple Sugaring Wednesday
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2 comments:

  1. Drat. I can't view the slideshow, but I bet you guys had lots of fun! Isn't hands on learning the best?

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  2. Uh-oh, been told by a few that the slide show is not working ... I'll add several of the pictures to the post shortly ... sorry about that

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