It is a mystery

More or less. 

It was me and my sib Z on the tapping today. Dad was working on fixing leaks in lines, he think a bear got mad at the lines because it would be hard for something else to puncture a line sitting five feet in the air in the exact spot top and bottom of the line, two big holes and three little holes in between. But also squirrels chewed on some and some taps didn't come out last year so he was on weird shit. 

Me and Z worked on main line four, alternating the tap lines as we got them done. Each tap line had between 10 and 25 trees on it going up the hill. I bundled up a lot because I figured I could always take layers off but I ended up needing the layers. The initial walk up the hill to the first set of line made me incredibly hot but after that, it's more stop and go so I cooled down a lot. You start at the main line and follow a tap line up to the first tree. The tap lines have a little offshoot for hooking into the tree set from last year. So I drill a hole in the tree, use a small wire to pull the bits of wood left out of the hole, put the tap onto the line connector and hammer it into the tree. Then walk to the next tree and do it again. You work all the way to the end of the line and then go find the actual next line and work back down it. Some of the lines are various lengths and so all the ends are now labeled with numbers so we don't miss a line.  

I took a video but the internet is so shit here that I can't upload it from my phone yet or I destroy the internet. So that will wait to be posted until monday



Despite the fact that it was 35 and sunny, I was chilled. I was wearing long johns, two hoodies, my coat and a hat and gloves. Part of the problem is that it's a south facing slope and also it is the woods. 

Did I say fuck a bunch when I kept slipping? yes.

It was actually really peaceful and nice. Birds singing, and I got through a bunch of podcast backlog. The main difficulty was the steepness of some of the parts of the hills.

Here's a picture of the slope taken in one of the flatter areas at eye level and with the phone level looking kinda up and across the hill. 



And the walk up there because you can't access it with a vehicle or tractor in the winter. Or. Dad did before but nearly sent the tractor and wagon of supplies into the creek below and it was not great. Also the only access is either to drive a vehicle through the creek or to walk over this Quality Bridge. 



I think there was 650 taps total and we got over 100 done in the morning and I think we got more than that done this afternoon but holy fuck are my legs getting sore already. And my legs are still cold although starting to warm up finally. We're back at it tomorrow again to hopefully finish it up. 

Oh yeah, I had about 20 pounds of tools on my hips with the tool belt: drill with battery pack, taps and wire, hammer and then the pouches themselves. Yay. My dad now has an incredible tool belt that runs like a harness over his shoulders and on his hips and it is so fricken cool.