theendlessmountains'blogger

Sweet Steam

TODAY I AM A MAPLE TREE TAPPER

Sweet steam fills my lungs as I scrape the laddle handled strainer cross the top of the frothy tray of hot maple sap. All that back breaking labor of tapping trees, running lines, cutting logs, hauling wood, chucking it into this valley where there are no roads, then stacking it up by the shack to feed the fire under these steaming trays: it must be a labor of love!

When we finally hear sap bubbling and boiling after its long journey down the tall trees on the hill side, running into buckets hanging from the maples, or flowing down through a web of blue tubes as gravity pulls toward the holding tank below, into a filter inside the shack, and down to the steaming trays of sweetness, it is love at first smell! Oh, yes, love at first smell!

My host, Steve, has invited old friends, neighbors, and even one of his students to join us this morning for a sugar shack breakfast. There is so much to learn about this process and about these people; they are gathered around heaps of breakfast food set out on a buffet table made of propped up logs beside a camp fire, where each person leads me down another path into even more facinating topics.

I could not get enough of the amazing chef who is actully a dairy farmer and whose wife is an herbalist, much less the a passionate animal rescue fanatic who is building a chord wood house and telling me about cutting bottles in half to wedge in as window. (I really want to visit him bcause he might take me on a mountain tour on horse back!) His lady friend is the Wellsboro Women's Choral director and has a cabin on Pine Creek in the bottom of the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania!

Then there is "Kenzie," a cheerful and hardworking forth grader whose grandfather owns this land. I call him Captain Bob, partly because there are so many "Bobs" around here I need to keep them all straight with titles. (I am not even counting all the "bobs" they boast about which are actually bob cats!) But more than that, I call him Capt' Bob because he sails! And sings! And makes lots of music on a homemade steel guitar! And invited me to a band jam coming up soon! Yeah! I think I will write a song just for that occasion.

SO WHAT DID I LEARN FROM
THE ENDLESS MOUNTAIN MAN TODAY?

There is an endless wealth of learning to be mined in these endless mountains . . . if you don't mined learning!

My advice to you?

"GO ENDLESS!"

As soon as possible!

Look for my Sugar Shack Breakfast slide show on PicasaWeb called "Sugar Shack Breakfast"

Or just come up for a visit and smell for yourself!
The syrup, Silly!
The syrup! ^~^

Today I Am The Endless Mountain Man's Blogger

My cell phone stopped working just past Williamsport, Pennsylvania as I drove from Philadelphia toward the center of the state, then up north to “canyon country.” Exiting PA 15 at a town called “Liberty,” nearly out of gas, I wondered if I would find my host without the use of my cell phone. The gas station attendant reassured me “Wellsboro is easy to find and so is Steve.” She claimed that being a 4^th grade teacher for many years means: “EVERYBODY knows Steve!”

Over the hills through Morris, past Stony Fork., then turning right, I recognized the gas lamps glowing down the center of the main street. Finding the donut shop open, I asked for a phone book. The girl at the counter offered to call Steve herself declaring, “Oh, yeah, EVERYBODY knows Steve!” In a matter of minutes he was unfolding his 6 foot 3 inch frame from what looked like a miniature car. After a warm greeting, I jumped into his car. It turned out to be a normal 4-wheel drive Subaru Outback dwarfed in the darkness by his bulky body. Whisking me off to a bowling alley, I was grateful to find that Krout’s Kitchen was at the other end, and, of course, Steve had taught the owner’s son. So when Steve told funny stories about their now full grown son, they had to top his, by telling about the day a mysterious stench filled the restaurant till someone discovered leather gloves left to smolder on the wood stove heating the bowling alley next door! Everybody in the restaurant was laughing. This felt like a big extended family teasing each other. Even the waitresses were once “his kids!”

Steve filled the night with stories of hunting and fishing and brothers who had moved a way, one a scientist preventing bio-terrorism, the other, a state policeman. With a bittersweet, melodious voice, he explained how he had chosen to stay behind, tending to the land, the grandparents, and “his kids.” I began to understand that “my kids” refers to the whole town! Everyone is related to someone who was once his student in elementary school, or the Park Service safety courses, or in Judo class! (Did I hear correctly that he got his black belt in Japan?!?) I think these mountains will be full of surprises!

So what did I learn on my first day with the Endless Mountain Man? Funny enough make the whole town laugh, patient enough to teach children to hunt and fish, this guy can make ANYONE feel safe!

My advice to you?

GO ENDLESS!

RuthAnn Purchase is a free lance writer and patron of the arts and the woods.

For more stories or to visit the Endless Mountains' Man contact RuthAnnPurchase@gmail.com