maple syrup , hmmmmm where's the pancakes?

Some Old pics but Goodies

    This was actually our Christmas tree one year when Iwas a kid . I remember carrying it inside in a washtub when it was about 4 ft. tall and i guess I was around 16 at the time. I remember because the darn thing was heavy, and then after christmas, I once again hauled it outside and then later planted it in the back yard and there it stood for 34 years when for some reason it died. I at the time had an excavator in here doing work around the house, digging a pond , tearing down the old barn , cleaning up dead and diseased trees in the yard , and I came to this tree and decided to save the log out of it after I removed the tree from the yard. 

    A short time after , Mothers day was coming up and I needed something for Mom for Mothers Day and decided I would carve her a welcome bear out of the old Christmas tree. That is what I did and believe it or not I actually had it ready for her on Mothers day. something unusual for me to meet a timeline like that. 

     There is nothing like re-gifting, when something represents a time of your past and is equally shared by the person receiving the gift as in this case.  In ways i did that with this tree and it still brings back memories of that Christmas years ago everytime I see it. Currently I have it leaning up by my carving shed as the base has rotted from being exposed . his feet and the rest of his body seems to be holding up well though and may last for years to come. 

      This is myself carving a bear at a sugar maple harvest festival in the salem area around 6 maybe 7 years ago about the same time of the year. I instructed a person attending how to use my camera and he kind of got into it and took a fairly good picture of me back then. I still have the indian in the background and it stands outside my greenhouse.it was interesting watching the maple syrup harvest and the owner boiling down the sap to make syrup. instead of buckets hanging on trees and collecting the sap they now use plastic lines and drain it directly to a holding tank eliminating the need to go from tree to tree. i will include a pic of the old style since i have included this pic.

this and the next pic was taken by myself in upstate New York on a visit up there in 2011

     Here you can see a closeup of the maple sugar sap being harvested, this will be collected and later reduced by boiling to make maple syrup as we know it.  it takes about 10 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup if my memory serves me well. sometimes it doesnt. they do the same thing at Malabar farms in the early spring and it is a state park in Ohio over by Mansfield. 

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