Sappy and happy

The whole fam ventured back to Fullersburg Woods last Sunday to see (again, for Dad and Will) how they tap maple trees for syrup. The tour included lessons about how Native American and early American settlers swapped tips about how to acquire the sugary goodness. Will pretended to be a horse, pulling a barrel of sap down to the sugar shack.
It takes 30-40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, which helps explain why the real stuff is so pricey. This tree has a lot of work to do!
One of the wise park rangers shows us how water begins to boil off the sap, and the syrup takes on a darker color. The syrup in this mug has been on the fire for about a day.
We not only tried the sap, fresh from the tree (much like sugar water), we also dipped crackers in the syrup-in-progress. It was sweeter, but still not quite ready.
After the tour, Will lead us down the trail to a bridge, where he tossed a few stones into the river below while Ellie watched the ducks.
Splash!