by Sylvia Outlaw

Created on: February 01, 2010

Janie will soon be five years old. Today will be another new experience. Everyone, except Mom and the new baby brother, will be going back to the woods to put taps on the sugar maple trees. Dad, three older brothers, an older sister and Janie will take the Good John Deere and the big wagon because it was very far back to the woods. Everything is loaded and ready, the taps, the pails and the tools.

 Janie's thoughts are far away, for she is wondering how she will know which the right tree was. There are no leaves. If there were leaves she would know because Mom would often take Janie on nature hikes. Janie enjoyed learning about the trees, wild flowers, wild animals, birds and at night, the stars.

 Soon they arrived and Janie carried a small pail with some taps in the pail. She and her sister would go with Dad. The boys were old enough to go by their selves. Dad was smart, he knew which were the right trees, and he told Janie to look and feel the bark. When she found her first tree all by herself, Janie was so excited. They finished tapping the trees. Now the saws and axes would be used because they would take the trees that had fallen over and these would be used later for the fire to cook the maple sap. Janie watched as the first drop fell into the pail. She waited and waited, finally another drop fell. Was there some way she could get the sap to flow like water? Dad had built a fire a small fire away from the woods. They were going to have a lunch before they loaded the wood. The fire felt very good because it was still very cold. Janie helped Dad put the fire out after lunch. Now this was fun. She would scoop snow from the side of the lane where it had drifted during the long cold winter’s night. Then Dad showed her how to put carefully put the snow on the embers still so red and warm.

 After arriving half way back from the woods, at the top of the hill, the wood was unloaded. This is where the maple sap would be cooked, long and slow. Janie knew that would take as long as trying to get the sap to begin with. There had been placed by the woods many ten gallon milk cans. Every day the older boys would go back to the woods and empty all the pails into shiny metal milk cans. They had been washed and scrubbed for just this occasion.

 Janie waited for the big day anxiously. All the sap had been gathered and the fire started at the top of the hill. There had to be lots of embers for the big six feet by ten feet pan that was at least over

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