IMH 75:2 180

"Chronicles of Upper Burnet" (1)

1881

Monday, March 7th.

We went to work, scalded the buckets, hauled them up to
the camp together with the other implements. Father started to
Kivett's to hunt some irons but found neither the irons nor the
man till he went to where Foster and Hand were at work at the
wood. Then he did'n't get the irons. He came back and tapped
trees till noon while we distributed our buckets. John Fowler(121)
my partner in the "camp" came over at noon we tapped trees
till we used all of our buckets, while Alvin fixed the boiling
place. We went over to Fowler's with the wagon by hitching his
horse and Hemp to it, got a load of dry wood, an old boiling­
pan, 16 more buckets and came back. John was obliged to go to
Jack Hinson's and went afoot across the hills. He got back
about supper-time, ate here, gassed awhile and went on home.
It was a sunshiny partly cloudy day, thawed gradually and the
sap ran gloriously. I was not feeling very well as the neuralgic
face pains afflicted me somewhat.

Teaching Notes: Tapping trees and boiling it down remains a Spring ritual in Indiana.
Parke County has an annual "Sugar Maple Festival" the last weekend in February and
the first weekend in March. The sap of he hard maple ( the sugar maple) begins running
when the temperatures at night are below freezing and the temperatures in the day time
are above freezing. it takes around 50 gallons of' sap aka sugar water to boil down to
one gallon of syrup..the aroma of a working sugar camp is indescribably good and a
harbinger of the coming Spring. My favorite camp near Rockville, belonged to Archie
Foxworthy. To sit around his woodfired boiler, listen to him recite his poetry and sip
on sassafras tea made with the sugar water...well, that was an unforgettable a precious
memory or Spring in Indiana.