.: Maple Tapping Farm

Monday, March 14, 2011

Maple Tapping Farm

It's that time of year again. Maple tapping season. We have 2 maple trees in our backyard that Dave tapped (thanks to Justin for providing the spiles and for helping Dave!). He is just a little excited. We went to a Maple Tapping Farm with our friends the Bakers and Schullers. It was really cool. Fun facts:
*It takes 40 gallons of tree sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup
*pure maple syrup goes for almost $50 a gallon
*the best weather for gathering tree sap is when it is freezing at night and warm during the day (freeze-thaw cycle)
*this year the weather has been perfect--this farm produced more tree sap in 2 weeks than it did in the past 2 years
*The darker the maple syrup, the hardier the flavor
*In a single day they can collect more than 12,000 gallons of sap

Ok, I think that's enough about facts of the day for now.:)

ARRIVING AT THE MAPLE TAPPING FARM:

TOUR AND EXPLANATION OF THE TREES THAT ARE BEING TAPPED--MORE THAN 800 MAPLE TREES WERE TAPPED AT THAT TIME

THE BOILER ROOM

TREE SAP THAT HAS BEEN BOILED DOWN INTO A BUCKET OF MAPLE SYRUP

THE TAPPING ROOM--the trees are tapped, sap falls into buckets, the buckets are dumped into a machine that sends it through tubes to this huge tub

WE THEN HAD A PANCAKE BREAKFAST SERVED WITH FRESH MAPLE SYRUP

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NUMBER ONE SPEECH

"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

"There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that's first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don't ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.

"Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up - from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.

"Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization - an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win - to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don't think it is.

"It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That's why they are there - to compete. To know the rules and objectives when they get in the game. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules - but to win.

"And in truth, I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.

"I don't say these things because I believe in the 'brute' nature of man or that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour - his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear - is that moment when he has to work his heart out in a good cause and he's exhausted on the field of battle - victorious."

--Vince Lombardi

In the Faith of Christ

Monday, March 14, 2011