Some More Narcolepsy Thoughts

Friday's snow was cleared from the roads, but still on the trees- such a pretty on the way to the maple festival

As I said Monday, I've been feeling pretty good the last couple weeks.

I've moved up my bedtime to a more manageable time (though I still want to move it up a bit further) and I'm fairly consistently able to wake up at 6:30. It's been quite a while since I've been able to do that. I credit the frankincense for these improvements. I'm sleeping better and not feeling nearly as exhausted when I get up (though that is all relative...).

I have more energy and less mental fog during the day, which is super nice. This is mainly because of the TRS Advanced, but also the other supplements I take.

I'm exercising more regularly because I'm getting up earlier and because I have more energy.

But for all that, I've realized I'm still not as functional as I need to be.

I'm still having a hard time if I'm sitting still and not doing anything else. There's only two times that this usually happens: church and while driving the car.

Hauling Ocean out of the chapel in the middle of sacrament meeting will keep me awake, but he's getting better at sitting and not being so loud, so I don't have to take him out as often. The last couple weeks have made me realize I need to be that person who knits at church. Ok, crochets, because for the life of me I can't remember how to knit from one day to the next. Crocheting is slightly better. I could do cross-stitch, though that's too fiddly for church I think. It's crocheting or playing solitaire on my phone, and I'd rather not do that during sacrament meeting.

I'm ok driving for half an hour or so, but longer distances are harder. I'd hoped that everything I'm doing would help with this, but our 2.5 hour trip to the maple festival showed me I've still got work to do. I drove because Mr M was up late working (he has the rare opportunity to work over time right now, and we're taking advantage of it while we can). It was the longest I've driven since my diagnosis, and while it wasn't as bad as it has been, I still had to work to stay alert and not close my eyes.

We've been too busy for road trips lately, but as the weather warms, we'll be hitting the road more, and this summer I'll be driving the RV from Idaho to Virginia. Now is the time to figure out what I need to do so we can all stay safe.

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If there's one thing I've learned after nearly 20 years of dealing with autoimmune issues, it's that you never know when things will get better or worse. I spent the last half of 2018 progressively feeling worse, but over the last couple weeks have been feeling significantly better I've been able to get up and exercise first thing in the morning again. I haven't been able to do that since last spring. Summer we were busy with camps and trips, and then in August things got worse and it was downhill from there.

I started the keto diet at the beginning of December, but haven't managed to stay strictly keto. I have a long-standing self-medicating-with-chocolate habit that I've mostly kicked, but every once in a while it still rears its head, especially when I'm really stressed. On the plus side, I've realized that candy, even my previous favorites, just don't taste as good anymore. I've had the occasional bites of potatoes or rice, and they don't sit well and make me feel bloated almost immediately. At this point, candy is easier to stay away from than potatoes- those are my current nemesis, despite them not sitting well (I've dealt with food issues for so long that a mildly upset stomach is not enough by itself to keep me away from it).

Reactions like these do make it easier to stay low carb (and eventually make it back to ketosis), but it's a work in progress. I do have to remind myself "remember those just don't taste that good- the carbs aren't worth it". That said, I did eat maple candy when we went to the maple festival last Saturday. Partly to taste something I hadn't had before, but also partly to help me stay awake as I drove. Eating sugar while driving has long been my preferred method of staying alert while driving. No RedBulls or Monster drinks for me, thankyouverymuch. Give me peanut m&ms, peanut butter m&ms, or Jelly Belly jellybeans instead.

This week I've seen the effects of eating that sugar though. Between that and the time change, I haven't been doing as well this week. The EDS (extreme daytime sleepiness) has been raising its head again, even while working on the computer. This has reinforced just why I have to stay away from sugar.

On the docket now: find sugar free, low carb snacks I can eat while driving. and I think it's time to fill that prescription from my sleep doc and see if it helps.

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So why do I bother messing with food issues and supplements? Because I do feel better. My body has a much easier time digesting low carb/low starch foods, which I've known for years, but not had the willpower to stick to. Low carb is one of the few things you can do to treat PCOS, has been shown to help with narcolepsy, and is helping with my celiac and the fuzzy brain I've had for so long.

But for all that I'm feeling better, I know it's not permanent, as this week has shown. Something could change at any time and I could back slide 3, 4, or 5 steps. It could be something I eat, increased stress levels, or something I'm never able to pin down. When, not if, that happens, I'll pick myself back up, find what works then, and start making progress again.

Weekly Mileage #102 and the Maple Sugar Festival

Snow on Friday!

One of Sunshine's co-op classes this term was the puzzles used in escape rooms and how to design one of your own. Monday Mr M and I went to Sunshine's escape room, which wasn't super involved (we had 20 minutes, rather than an hour or whatever most escape rooms allow), but it was harder than we expected. Hidden objects, black light clues, lasers, codes...it was fun!

Monday afternoon we had to stay home and wait for a repair on our water pressure tank. We replaced the pressure tank a year and a half ago when our well pump went out, and the spigot started leaking a week or so ago. The tech said the spigots that came with the pressure tanks have been nothing but trouble and they've had to replace a lot of them. It was a quick and easy fix covered by the warranty (thankfully).

Tuesday morning I rode my bike and managed to break my computer screen as it slid off the deep window sill next to my bike. So frustrating. I called around, and it will be cheaper to repair the screen, replace the battery (it's been having problems for awhile now) and debug to improve the RAM (it's been running super slow and we can't expand the RAM on my computer), than to buy a brand new laptop with more RAM. As much as I wanted to take it in right away, I had to wait until I took the car in on Thursday to see how much it cost to fix some issues it was having. For now, my laptop is still useable, just a pain since screen visibility is reduced by 1/3 and there's horizontal lines through the remaining 2/3.

Wednesday morning I got up and went for a trail run! I've been wanting to do this for awhile now, but have never managed to for one reason or another. Last week I realized I could finally manage it, so I checked my schedule and the forecast and decided on Wednesday morning. I laid out all my clothes and stuff the night before so I wouldn't have any excuses, and then went for a run in 21* weather. Besides being really cold, it was a beautiful morning. Trail running is definitely harder than running on the road or the treadmill, but it felt good and I'll be doing it again.

Wednesday afternoon we went to nature group at a local park. The weather had warmed up a bit, but it was still cold. That didn't deter Ocean from ignoring me and playing in the stream anyway. After awhile he sat down and tried to take his shoes and socks off. I stopped him, and he played for a bit longer, but we were the first to leave when he decided he was done. That'll teach me to put hiking shoes on him instead of boots.

Thursday I took the CRV in for new brake pads, rotors, and calipers ($ouch) we thought/hoped it was just a cheap tire balance issue, but no such luck. We've had this car for more than 13 years and it's been a great, very reliable vehicle, but it's got almost 180k miles and it's starting to show its age 😥Hondas do have longevity, but they still develop issues as they age.

Since the house is reaching the age where everything starts dying (heating/air conditioning and well pump died a year and a half ago), or threatening to die (our water heater), here's another to add to the list that : our microwave died this week. This is a pain, but at least we can survive without it. For awhile, anyway.

Friday morning I did my long run on the treadmill. I'm up to 4 miles total and I ran 2.5 miles of that in .5 mile chunks. It's still feeling pretty good to run, though my left knee is a bit stiff. I've been using my foam roller after running, and it's definitely helping hold aches and pains at bay.

Ocean doesn't take regular naps anymore, but he really needs them, so he'll end up taking random naps once or twice a week when he can't fight the exhaustion anymore. On this occasion I was trying to snuggle him on my lap because I knew he needed a nap, but he didn't want to have anything to do with that. Instead, he dragged the blanket a few feet away and laid on the floor. After a minute or two, I realized he was being very quiet, and when I checked, he was fast asleep, surrounded by couch cushions since the boys do not believe in using couches as they're intended. Couches + cushions = fort building materials.

Saturday we drove to the mountains on the border of West Virginia for the annual Maple Festival. It's been on our calendar for the last few years, but we've never managed to make it. The timing wasn't optimal this year either, but we did it anyway. Sometimes that's just what you have to do. It was fun to see much larger outfits and see that they do things pretty close to how we do (though their boiling setups are much better). We also played in the snow (we got several inches the day before and the mountains got 8+ inches) and tasted some maple flavored goodies. Yummy, but I definitely ate way too much sugar.

If you look closely, you can see the tubing running between their trees.
They had a really nice slope for getting the natural suction going.

We had a busy week, but I've felt pretty good. I've got some thoughts on that that I'll share later in the week.

There were some vendors in one of the small towns that the festival is centered around, and this one caught our eye.
A foot-powered lathe! He let the boys try it out, and they thought it was super cool (check out River's smile).

Weekly Mileage
Tuesday- 10.0 miles biked
Wednesday- 1.45 mile trail run
Wednesday- .5 miles walked at nature group
Friday- 4.00 miles run on the treadmill (2.5 miles total run)
Saturday- .5 miles hiked at sugar camp
total- 16.45 miles

7 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

23.95 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
11.15 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
60.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
95.10 miles total

Weekly Mileage #98 and the Propane Burner

Monday's hike was cold but clear and sunny

We had some cold weather when the polar vortex went through, but we definitely didn't get the brunt of it. However, within a few days the weather had warmed up and it was in the mid-70s on Tuesday! By the weekend it was back below freezing at night and in the 30s and 40s during the day, but wow, such crazy weather.

Weekly Mileage #97 and the Second Wood Badge Ticket Item

still haven't found those beavers, but they're definitely active right now

I've started going for a hike on Mondays after dropping the boys at preschool and Sunshine at co-op. I've got enough time to do about 2 miles and then run some errands or spend some time on the laptop before picking everyone up. The weather has cooperated pretty well on Mondays, which hasn't been the case on Thursdays (our usual hiking day) lately. This week's problem? Frigid temps and wind. We weren't as cold as some parts of the country, but it was still very cold. Add in the wind, and I didn't want to take the kiddos out in that.

Weekly Mileage #96 and First Sap Boil

bucket full of partially frozen sap

Ocean had his ENT followup this week. His hearing has improved, though his right ear is still lagging behind his left ear. It's only been three weeks though, so he's doing well. His doctor is happy with his progress and he doesn't need to go back in for a checkup until July.

Weekly Mileage #95 and the Start of Sap Season

snowball!

We had a snow day on Monday, so we went sledding at a local park, but it wasn't great snow. It was melting into a slushy mess, so while we did some sledding, we weren't able to do the snowshoeing I'd hoped for.

the boys sledding down the hill

Ocean had more speech therapy appointments (he's going twice a week right now) and they're going well. We can hear a difference already, but a lot of that is because he can actually hear sounds clearly now. Because he can hear clearly, he can hear what the speech therapist is saying and is getting better at mimicking correct sounds. He's already losing the cute mispronunciations he's been using for so long. It's a good thing, but it's also a little sad. He's getting so big.

Sunshine and her tiny snowman

The sap is running. I tweaked the lines Tuesday after the sap started flowing. I had a long stretch that was unsupported, and once the sap started running it was just too heavy and it hung too low for the gravity vacuum to work. I knew this was a possibility, but I wanted to give it a try anyway. Getting rid of the unsupported section just means we have two collection points instead of one, so it's not that big a deal.

the bubbles indicate sap in the lines!

As of Sunday morning we've collected about 11 gallons of sap so far. I tried to boil the sap on Saturday, but all the wood was wet and covered in snow and it started raining. A sugar shack would really come in handy at times like this. I'll try again this afternoon.

first time I've been able to pack snow around a bucket of sap to help it stay cold- I don't need to put it in the freezer just yet

We got about an inch or so of snow Thursday evening, on top of what we got last weekend, which had started melting, but was still on the ground. The temps have been rising and Saturday's rain took care of more of the snow. Such a muddy mess. Our yard is just a mud pit now from all the rain we got last year plus the snow we've gotten this winter. We'll have to do some intensive re-seeding if it ever stops raining.

bucket full of sap, partially frozen

Friday night I realized that I've been more clear headed this week and more productive with my time. I've spent less time feeling fuzzy and unable to concentrate. I'm thinking this is due to the new supplement I started last Saturday. I upped the dose a smidge (you have to gradually increase till you reach the full dose) this Saturday, and I'm curious to see if I see any other improvements. It can take up to 6 months to see the full benefits, so I'm excited to be seeing results after less than a week.

foggy, snowy morning on Friday

Weekly Mileage
Tuesday- 1.00 miles walked
Thursday- 10.0 miles biked
total- 11.1 miles

3 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

8.40 foot miles towards #365milechallenge
20.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
28.40 miles total

Why I Decided to Use Tubing to Tap Our Trees

I was waffling earlier in the year, so why did I decide to use tubing to tap our trees after all? 'Cause it's not for the looks :)

1. Tubing + Gravity = A slight vacuum

That vacuum increases the amount of sap produced by each tree

2. The closed system of the tubing prevents rapid bacteria growth, which extends the length of the season versus tapping with a bucket and spile.

A longer tapping season means more sap collected.

view from the first black walnut on the line, there's two taps in this tree, so two drop lines lead into the mainline

3. Tubing can be left in place from year to year, which reduces the workload.

The taps and drops (tubing connecting the tap to the main line) have to be removed and replaced, but the rest can stay in place. I'll have to remove most, if not all, of the tubing since some of it's too close to the ground and little boys and squirrels would not be able to leave it alone. I'll mark the trees so I know where I placed the tubing, which will make putting it back a lot quicker.

It was less expensive than I anticipated, though I did skip the tool to quickly insert the drops into the mainline. It would have made my life so much easier and the process would have been faster, but I just couldn't justify the cost of the tool. Though I could re-sell it on eBay, so maybe I'll get it next year, since I won't need to buy more tubing.

At the end of the season, I'll compare the yield to previous years to see how much of a difference there is.

Weekly Mileage #94 and the First Snow of the Year

little bridge and stairs on the trail

This week we started getting back into our routine. I like flexibility, but having a routine makes it easier for me to find times to be functional and get stuff done. I'm figuring out how to work around the low points and to take advantage of the times I actually feel ok.

On Monday preschool and co-op started up again, signaling the start of getting back on schedule. I went for a solo hike after dropping everyone off, and explored some trails we haven't been on yet at the nature preserve.

Wednesday Ocean had his first speech therapy appointment. The therapist thinks he'll make rapid progress now that he's got his tubes in and is hearing so much better. And it turns out that she has narcolepsy too. In fact, this week I also found out that there's someone at church who has narcolepsy. Small world.

Sunshine had to go to the orthodontist to get a new retainer to fit over the teeth that are growing in weird. She still needs to get four more teeth pulled, but we have to pay for the <expensive> anesthesia up front, so that's on hold for a bit. This will be the third time pulling teeth, and I'm really hoping she can finally get braces after this round of teeth pulling.

Thursday I had a followup with my sleep specialist. She's impressed with how functional I am, and even double checked the MSLT (the daytime sleep study) results to confirm that I do indeed have narcolepsy. There's a lot of things I'm doing to be as functional as I am, so it's certainly not without effort. She did give me a script for another type of stimulant, since the first one gave me a migraine, but I'm waiting to fill it. I'm trying something else first, which I started on Saturday. I don't need to go back for awhile unless I decide to take the stimulant and it doesn't work and I need to try something different.

Friday Sunshine got to go to a youth fireside where Elder Christofferson and an area authority seventy spoke. Super cool opportunity for her.

I also started running the tubing for sap collection. Getting the elevation change correct proved as tricky as I thought it'd be. Our house sits at the top of a flattened hill, with the black walnuts down the slope a little on one side and the maples extending down the slope on the other side. Cresting the hill and keeping a negative slope meant I had to climb on a ladder for the walnuts and the tubing is running along the ground at the highest points. Not optimal, but hopefully it'll work.

Saturday I finished running the tubing, drilled the taps, and it should be ready to go. Earlier in the week the sap was running, but right now it's too cold. Setting up ahead of time, means it's ready whenever the sap is running. It started snowing in the afternoon as I was finishing tapping the trees, and it almost felt like I was in New England :) Now if only we had a real sugar bush, instead of 10 trees spread out across almost 2 acres of land....

The new supplement I wanted to try before taking more meds arrived. This one pulls toxins from the body and allows it to work more efficiently. It's primarily used by people with autism, PANDAS, POTS, etc, but some people with narcolepsy have had success with it, so I thought it was worth a try. I'm at a very low dose right now, but can already feel it doing something. Not loving the detox symptoms, but if it eventually helps me sleep better and function more during the day, I'll power through it. Six months is the average time to full results, but I should see results before then.

We received about 5" of snow Saturday into Sunday, and it started snowing again Sunday evening. Schools were canceled Sunday evening and Mr M has a delayed start. Since the snow hasn't melted, we're going to a local park today to go sledding and do some snowshoeing.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 2.10 mile solo hike
Tuesday- 10.00 miles biked
Thursday- 2.20 miles walked on the treadmill
Friday- 1.52 miles hiked while setting up tubing
Saturday- 1.58 miles hiked while setting up tubing
total- 17.40 miles

3 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

7.40 foot miles towards #365milechallenge
10.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
17.40 miles total

2018 Maple and Black Walnut Syrup

left two bottles are a mix of the first two batches, right bottle is the underdone third batch

I posted about our first round of sap boiling here, and we followed that up with a second round of sap boiling in the middle of February, and a third round on Monday of last week. Both times we invited friends from our homeschool group to come see the process, which was fun.

The third boil was actually delayed a week because I got strep throat, but we’d stored the sap in buckets in our big freezer, so the sap didn’t go bad before we were able to use it.

just getting the fire going- sap looks like water 

Temperatures have warmed up the last couple weeks or so, so I think our season is over. We found mold growing in the spiles and collection bags in the black walnuts (the buckets don’t trap moisture, so the maple spiles are fine), which is a good indication that you’re done. Once bacteria is introduced, it affects the sap and the tree starts the healing process, causing sap to stop flowing.

full boil in the roasting pan

The thing is, this week we’ve swung back to optimal tapping weather (below freezing at night, above freezing during the day), so we could collect more sap if the spile holes weren’t already healing over. This is where using tubing to collect sap would be helpful.

sap is turning yellow as it becomes concentrated (I top off with warm sap from the pot)

Apparently you can prolong your sap collection and increase the amount you collect if you use tubing and create a vacuum. The vacuum keeps bacteria out and also pulls more sap out of the tree than a spile will drip out.

getting closer- look at that amber color!

So even though I said I didn’t think I could justify the cost of the tubing and switching spiles, that may not be the case. It might be worth it if I’m able to have a longer season and collect more sap. I need to do some more research, but since we only have a few trees, I don’t think it will actually be that expensive, even with our trees being spread out around our 1.75 acre lot.

Each year we do things a bit different, but we made more changes this year than in the past.

This year I invested in better filters and built a filter stand. The filters were definitely worth the money. They work so much better than the coffee filters I’ve used since we first started, and are reusable, unlike the coffee filters.

the filters come in one size (8 qt), which is way bigger than I need, and awkward to use,
so I quickly built a wood stand to hold the filter over  the pot

I tried to invest in an hydrometer to measure the sugar content and doneness of the syrup, but purchased the wrong type of hydrometer. So I tried the thermometer method of checking for doneness, but I was only able to do that on the last batch since the first two batches were done without a thermometer once I discovered it was broken when I pulled it out of the drawer to use it the first time. Oops.

The outer filter is made of felt, the inner ones are thinner (not sure what they're made of); and you layer them inside each other. When they clog, you remove the innermost filter, pouring any remaining syrup into the next filter. This process was very efficient at removing pectin and ash.

Freezing sap in buckets made it easier to boil when I had time and the weather was cooperating (ie, not raining).  I had to move things around in the big freezer, but being able to fit two 5 gallon buckets really made the whole process a lot easier this year.

the stand is just big enough to be lowered around the pot

Boiling outside is much more efficient than boiling inside. Using the flat roasting pan with the larger surface area speeds up the process. The pot and pan got disgustingly dirty from the wood fire, but my cabinets and drywall didn’t get damaged from all the moisture that would have been in the air if I’d been inside, so the trade-off is worth it. Having sap that’s already defrosted also speeds things up. The times I had to melt the frozen sap over the fire slowed things down a bit.

clean and clear syrup

It always rained before we boiled (great timing on my part), which meant our firewood was nice and wet. I put a bunch of wood in the shed to dry for the last boil, and that worked better, but still wasn’t completely satisfactory, since it was still a bit damp. On the other hand, it’s nice to finally be making a dent in our woodpile that rarely gets used.

Next year we’ll be making more changes, which should help us establish a format we can continue using until we move in a few years.

Finally purchase a proper hydrometer.

Purchase and install tubes for collecting the sap, with the spiles that work with the tubing, and a small barrel of some sort to collect all the sap at the bottom of the run. Sunshine thinks she’ll get to drive the lawn tractor down the driveway to collect the sap in the trailer that we don’t yet have. Personally, I don’t think she weighs enough to drive the lawn tractor :) We’ll see how that actually plays out…

Maybe get a second roasting pan or a buffet pan to speed up the boiling process even more. I’m not sure there’s really room over the fire pit for two pans and the warming pot, but it’s worth looking into.

We’ll cover the woodpile so the wood stays dry and is ready to use, which is something we should have done years ago. We have several trees that are or will be chopped down in the coming months, so the pile will be growing, unless we can find someone to take it off our hands, so we need to get our wood pile under control.

And because I can’t finish this post without giving you some numbers:

We collected about 11.5 gallons of maple sap and about 14.5 gallons of black walnut sap, for a total of about 26 gallons of sap. After boiling down all that sap, we have about 2.5 quarts of maple-walnut syrup, which is right on target for a 40:1 ratio. However, our maples aren’t sugar maples, which means their sugar content is lower and more sap is needed to get 1 gallon of syrup. So I don’t think I boiled the sap quite long enough. This is where a hydrometer would take a lot of guesswork out of the process. I may do one final boil and see if I can't get the thermometer method to work better for me. 

Regardless of whether I do another boil or not, I'm very happy with how much sap we collected and with how much syrup we ended up with. Hopefully next winter the weather cooperates again and we're able to have a good long collection time with lots of sap.

my first post about syrup this year

2017 syrup 

2016 syrup

2015 syrup

First Maple Sap Boiling of the Year

Big syrup operations, even medium sized and smaller ones, boil their sap outside. The process of concentrating sap into syrup gives off lots of condensation, which can wreak havoc on drywall, wallpaper, painted surfaces, and other items found inside houses.

Despite this, we've boiled our sap inside the past three years because we just didn't have that much to boil down. A gallon or two here, another gallon or two there, it just wasn't worth the effort to do it outside.

This year, however, we've collected more sap than the past three years combined, and I didn't want to boil that much sap inside. So I set things up on our fire pit and boiled the sap outside.

For this first batch (which I did at the beginning of February), I started with about 16 gallons of sap (about 12 gallons of black walnut and about 4 of maple, which I co-mingled). After 8 hours over the wood fire I had about a gallon and a half of concentrated sap, which I took inside to finish on the stove. I actually ended up leaving it in the frig for a few days before combining it with my next batch of sap that needed finishing.

just getting the fire started and the sap warming

The stock pot is for warming the sap and is used to fill the roasting pan, which is much more efficient at boiling the sap because of its wider surface area. As the sap in the roasting pan boils down, I add more sap from the stock pot. It's not the most efficient way to do it (bigger operations have large flat pans with valves for adding sap and drawing off almost-syrup for finishing), but it's much quicker than doing it in stockpots on the stove inside.

The weather has been quite rainy lately, so I ended up storing 5 gallon buckets of sap in the freezer in the basement until we had a day dry enough to get outside. I think at one point I had two 5 gallon buckets in the freezer, and a  2 gallon bucket and a 2 gallon stock pot in the fridge. At that point there was no more room to store sap, so I decided it was time to boil, regardless of whether the weather was optimal and the wood still wet.

A sugar shack to shelter under would be nice, but isn't exactly a good use of money, given how little we produce. In more northern regions, maple syrup producers are able to store their sap outside or in a snowbank until they're ready to boil, but that's just not an option for us, hence using the fridge and freezer to store our sap.

full boil in the roasting pan

Using the fire pit isn't optimal- too much ash floats up and into the pans. A closed system where the wood is added from the side and the pans rest in a snug fitting opening in the top would be better. But as I mentioned earlier, we're only planning on living here a couple more years, so I just don't think it's worth the investment of time, money, and effort to find or make a better system. Filtering the sap a couple times removes the ash and leaves clean syrup, so the fire pit isn't a terrible alternative.

I finally bought an hydrometer (which measures sugar content), but it turned out to be for brewing, which is a cold process, and it wasn't calibrated for the much hotter process of making maple syrup. So I had to return it and look for a different one. That's what I get for picking the cheapest one I could find. Oops. In the meantime, I'll be back to guessing about when the syrup is done. Though according to the maple syrup facebook group I'm a part of, 7 or 7.5 degrees above the boiling point of water is the point at which syrup is done. The exact temperature fluctuates based on your elevation, but can also fluctuate based on the weather that day, so the best way to do this is to boil a pot of water while finishing your syrup, so you know what the correct temperature is right then.

I hadn't taken one of the buckets out of the freezer early enough, so I ended up melting it down in the roasting pan. A slower process that involved ladling sap from the roasting pan into the stock pot, but it worked.

I was talking about making maple syrup with an acquaintance, and she asked if I'd ever had hickory syrup. I'd never heard of it, so I did a little research. Hickory syrup is not actually made from the sap of hickory trees, but instead, it's made from boiling the bark and adding sugar. So interesting. We have a few hickory trees, so this fall while we're collecting black walnuts and hickory nuts we'll also be looking for hickory bark to collect so we can give hickory syrup a try.

Weekly Mileage #48 + First Sap of the Season

Last week I almost didn't log any miles. 

Monday I was feeling pretty awful, and ready to go to the doctor to get my lungs checked out. Tuesday morning I woke up feeling a lot better, so I didn't end up going to the doctor. As the week progressed I continued to feel better, though I have some lingering crud in my lungs that is a bit problematic and I still get tired more easily than I'd like. As my energy levels improved, I wanted to get outside for a walk, but anytime I spent time outside, the cold aggravated my lungs and I'd start coughing.

Despite that, I did manage to get out and tap our maples and walnuts finally (I should have done so several weeks ago), and logged .58 miles in the process.

Did you know there's Facebook groups for just about anything you can think of? I recently joined one for maple sugaring and all the tappers using tubing have me seriously thinking of switching. We're not planning on staying here long term though, so I don't know that we'd get a good return on our investment. The distribution of our maples and black walnuts isn't optimal for running sap lines (too far apart and on slopes in different directions), but it would cut down on some of the bucket hauling, which Sunshine would really appreciate, since it's her job to collect the sap :)

This winter is proving much more conducive to the sap flowing than last year, and we've already collected more than we did in 2015 or 2017, and I have no doubt we'll easily pass 2016's haul. We collected about ~ 5.5 gallons in 2017, ~ 10.5 gallons in 2016, and ~ 6 gallons in 2015.

I actually had planned to take the kids on a hike Thursday, but Ocean puked all over himself in the car. We were driving by a park right as he did so, so I pulled into the parking lot and let Sunshine and River play on the playground while I got Ocean cleaned up. We played at the park for a bit while the car aired out, then headed home so I could finish cleaning everything up. None of us were feeling very motivated to go for a hike after being around the smell of vomit (ick!). He's fine and didn't have any problems later, so I think he was just car sick.

Sunday morning we got some more snow, though it wasn't much. As the day went on, the snow turned to sleet, and then to rain. In some areas there was enough rain to melt all the snow, though that wasn't the case at our house. We ended up with a slushy, icy mess at the end of the day that then froze overnight and coated everything in ice. But it started melting as soon as the sun came out, so I suspect it won't hang around too much longer.

This week I'm planning on spending some time on the treadmill and bike and seeing how my legs are feeling. Hopefully it won't be too depressing an experience. I know I've lost a lot of endurance while being so sick. If my lungs cooperate and the weather isn't too cold, we might even manage a short hike finally.

Weekly Mileage

Wed: .58 miles walked

     total: .58 miles

0 hikes towards #52hikechallenge

22.61 foot miles towards #365milechallenge

25.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge