highlandcattle
03-10-2013, 09:42 AM
Well a beautiful day yesterday. Sunny and about 52 degrees after Fridays storm that dumped about 12" of heavy , wet snow. Ron had an emergency gall bladder surgery(things were really bad) and the hospital transferred him to a major medical center about 50 miles from here. So lessons learned: NEVER depend on anyone but yourself to get out of a mess! Thanks to my little Honda CR-V never had to worry about getting stuck even coming up our long lane to the farm, kept the woodstoves going by myself, no problems with the solar and wind system. Know that i'm not able to start the big backup generator by myself, so something will change there. The kitchen woodstove will get replaced witha propane fireplace, so I have backup heat, propane hot water if I can't use the woodstove. Yes, Ron and I managed to get him home Friday afternoon(he drove) and pumped sap all afternoon yesterday(I was able to start the gas powered pump by myself with his instruction) stacked firewood)slowly) and he's been boiling since 9 a.m. Slow and steady is the way to go for this year. Will be direct selling, so no bottling. So dissapointed in family(my family is too far away to do much but give moral support) and "friends"and our kids! Got to make things as easy as possible now that we're older and went through this.... good luck to all. P.S. not looking for sympathy, just a hard life lesson that we will all face at some time. I knew I was pretty tough, but not like this! 400 taps and the vac is pulling great, gushers coming down the lines!