After a couple really busy week/weekends it was time for me to have a little fun kid time. Baylor Park had a maple syrup event going on last Saturday so I decided to bring the kids out for it. The weather was absolutely perfect! Finally, I nice spring day to do some snow melting!
They had a "syrup shack" setup where we could see the boilers they use to cook down the sap into syrup. It's a long process and just a 40 to 1 ratio of sap to finished syrup. Then we were told we could go out to the woods where they were tapping the sugar maple trees. I was told it was a 15 minute walk but with my kids it took closer to an hour!! The road was muddy and icy and the kids snacked the entire time and stopped numerous times to try and find animal hiding spots. But I just had to remind myself that the real reason we were out was to have a nature outing and just enjoy being outside. I think we accomplished that and kudos for my kids for walking the majority of the 1 mile hike just to get to the tapping location! Plus, I got a few fun pictures out of the deal too!
Here was a fun photo-op. Wish I would have taken Owen's little hat off for the picture - there was no way I was getting him to give up his fruit roll-up either!
After the last set of photos it wasn't too much farther until we got to the tapped trees!
Then the hike back..... My goal at that point was to make it back so the kids could have ice cream by noon, when the event ended. By this time it was really warming up and the kids were tired - oh, and snacking again. I felt like I was on an episode of The Amazing Race as I tried to hurry the kids along through the now sloppy dirt road. Once I attempted to carry Owen, who was refusing my assistance, and slipped and fell into a big muddy puddle. UGH! But luckily we met up with some of my dad's cousins who helped me out! She put Megan on piggy-back and I carried Owen and we made it back making good time!
Whew, what a workout!
Hi Karen, This is such a nice blog for your grandpa as years ago his grandpa and in other words your great great grandpa cooked a lot of syrup. They some times used an outside cooker and some years cooked it the house on the wood fired kitchen stove. This could be a great yearly outing as the children get older and they can get more from it year to year. Also your moms dad or your grandpa from moms side also cooked. What a great way to keep tradition on maple syruping tradition alive and stories you can share with Megan and Owen.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the nice pictures too.
Grandma