March Medley

March has been a roller coaster of a month, with warming and thawing clearing the driveways and roads , starting the sap run and then BAM! another big snowstorm followed by a week of way below average temperatures, getting down below 10 degrees for a week. Some of the temperature downs were echoed in other downs: Mark’s aunt Sylvia died down in Tucson, at the age of 91, then one of his partners lost her fiancé and one of Hilde’s friends lost her son in a motorcycle accident.

During the struggles with the weather, Mark and Hilde were a little restless early on in the month. Hilde’s suggestion one night that they “plan” the redoing of Jim’s bedroom meant that 13 hours later they were selecting a floor covering, returning to the house to move everything into John’s room, hallways and porch and then started tearing out the old dark paneling and ancient RED carpeting (this is the before picture). The rest of the month included putting up and mudding the sheetrock, priming, texture and top coats of paint and a start on the flooring. After a hitch in the floor matting, the process should be finished in a couple of weeks—an after picture then.

While the main part of the house cluttered with furniture or tools for the project, the lower level had its own clutter. With the cold weather not quite halting the sap flow, after the first cooking of syrup, the rest of the accumulating milk cans of sap froze solid and had to be wrestled into the basement to thaw. They took up a lot of room!

Meantime, the expeller fan on the furnace gave a dying scream and was replaced, but a couple days later—no heat! Since that night 4 degrees was forecast, Henkels hurried called the furnace man who replaced the gas valve, but still no heat until the discovery that the LP people had NOT done a “keep filled” run for 3 cold months. Contacting the right folks and getting LP late on a Saturday night is challenging! Mark had to go out with the tractor and drag away the sap cooker which had been frozen into place just where the tanker gains access to the tank.

With so much snow for the first part of the sap season, even the ATV couldn’t get through the drifts, so Mark and Hilde pulled and occasionally pushed a toboggan with sap pails in and out of the woods: highly aerobic exercise! They cooked two days in March and will do a final batch April 2 & 3rd.

Between sap gathering and cooking, painting and special meetings, Hilde got the urge to sew little items for Rhi, starting with a non-pink (denim) sunhat and adding a “camo pink’ crocheted hat, a romper, sundress and matching hat. But even better than making clothes is getting to hold grandchildren: the northern Henkels rendezvoused with John and Evie at Naomi Fritz’s home in Watertown to enjoy Kayme and Rhiannon, in Wisconsin for a conference. Rhi is thriving and getting so strong and energetic…and she watches people with cameras, too! It was great to have almost all the Fritz and Henkel family gathered, tho Loren and Jim were missed.

The end of the month was milder, but still snow on the ground and possibility of more for tomorrow. However a fat and sassy bluebird perched on the deck today, so spring has to be coming.