Senior men's sap rises, too!

My friend from Pulmonary Rehab, Nancy Fulker, brought in some maple syrup her husband John made. It may very well be the best syrup I ever ate.

John is an amazing man. 80 years old, nearly, and still works full time at his law practice, and finds time to perform many community activities, write books, go duck hunting, work with conservation groups, and many other things that make me tired just thinking of them. This picture of John was stolen from one of his books. It is a few years old. Some recent ones are further down the blog.

One of John's activities that really interests me is his syrup making.
Making maple syrup has been an activity of early spring since the pre-columbian era in America. Native Americans would gash the trees, collect the sap, let it partially freeze to enrich the sap and then boil it down, sometimes by dropping heated stones into the sap. Maybe after the syrup was made, they licked the stones...I dunno. Ohio has a long history of making maple syrup, and is reportedly second only to Vermont in it's production.
Trees suitable for tapping include all of the maple family: sugar, silver and red maples as well as box elder. Sugar maple sap contains the highest concentration of sugar (2% or higher according to weather conditions and the health of the tree). Box Elder produces a weaker sap, but one which is especially delicious to drink as is, tasting like a slightly sweet spring water. Other species of trees which reportedly may be tapped include walnut, hickories, sycamore and sweet birch. Trees to be tapped should be at least 1 1/2 feet in diameter, have large healthy crowns, and be well exposed to the sun. These are a few pictures of John and some of the trees he tapped this year.


The flow of sap is highly dependant upon weather conditions. Flow does not begin until after a time of hard freeze, followed by several sunny days with temperatures in the 40s. The peak flow occurs early in the sugaring season when it freezes at night and is bright and sunny the next day with the temperature in the 40s. The flow will stop when daytime temperatures do not go above freezing, or when night temperatures do not go below freezing. The flow usually lasts roughly three to four weeks. While it flows, collect the sap daily, preferably in the late afternoon. If the trees are tapped too soon and flow does not begin, it is possible that the holes will seal over and subsequent flow is inhibited significantly. The holes may have to be redrilled in this case.
Drill the tapping hole about 3 feet from the ground and 1 1/2- 2" deep into the trunk, with a slight upward slope so the sap flows out of the hole. Position the hole on the sunniest side of the tree, avoiding tapping directly below a lower limb or trunk defect. (Northern exposure often will not flow at all early in the flow.) Use a drill with a 3/8ths inch bit to drill into the sunniest side of the tree trunk.
After the turnings are cleaned out of the hole, insert a spile into a hook eye with the hook towards the spout, and insert the assembly, lip down, into the hole, tap it in firmly and hang the bucket to the spile. In some cases, the bucket has a hole to receive the hook.

It takes 30-33 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. This year, in his spare time, John produced 300 gallons of sap. Amazing!
I'm not sure what steps are involved in making the syrup, but I know you have to boil it a bit. John used to do it all in the house,but my understanding is that he melted a coffee pot, or can opener or something, and had soot all over the kitchen, and was banished to the outside by Nancy.

Nancy is a real sweetie, though, and still allows him to fill the containers with syrup in the kitchen.
In 2007 the average retail price of a gallon of maple syrup was $33.20. This year, it fetches a minimum of $59.95. Usually more. If it wasn't so much work, I might try it myself. I will content myself with eating it.

My, How computers have changed.

I remember my first computer. I was as proud of that thing as if it were a Maserati, or something similar. It was an
386, 2 megs of ram 25mhz processor, no CD rom...and it was a great computer. I loved it.

I have been through a lot of computers since then, each of them improving a bit over the last one. Shortly after buying this first computer, I began to learn to work on them and to perform different tasks on them. Soon, I was building my own computers and others for other people. I began to work on other folk's computers....not for pay...but for enjoyment. I studied different manuals and books, and became somewhat of a geek for someone my age. You usually expect a geek to be somewhat younger, I think. I am getting close to 70, and haven't quit yet, although I have practically completely quit building computers, since I can now buy them darn near as cheap as I can build one. I particularly enjoy helping older folks with their computers, or in getting acquainted with computers. Often I acquire computers that I am able to repair and give to older folks that want to find something to do with themselves. It is quite rewarding. Not financially, but emotionally, or, if you will, even spiritually.

Yesterday, my latest computer was delivered from
I still have a difficult time believing I now own a computer with the improvements this one has over the first one. 8000 megs of ram, quad processors, and so many other bells and whistles that I'm not sure I will learn what to do with them all. I buy strictly HP now. I have had nothing but good luck with them, and I strongly recommend them to you if you need a computer. (I promise you, they didn't pay me to say that.)

Meegan's Art

My friend Meegan lives in the Tarheel state. That's North Carolina for the geographically challenged. Lovely lady, great sense of humor, warm, and caring. Meegan has had her share of difficult times, as we all have, but has found a way to keep herself cheerfully occupied.

A few years ago, she took up painting as a hobby. I was so impressed by her talent that I prevailed upon her to let me share a few of her paintings with the world. Or, at least the small part of it that stumbles upon my blog. Here is just a small part of her work.

My Bay of Pigs Memories

Recently, I stumbled across something pertaining to Cuba and how the people’s lives were changing for the better


The article caused me to have a flash of déjà vu.

One day in the summer of 1960, when I was 18 years old, (Damn….that’s nearly a half century ago) I was listening to radio station WNOR, in Norfolk, VA. During the news broadcast, the announcer mentioned that some people were in town recruiting for a group called the International Anti-Communist Brigade, whose purpose was to invade Cuba and kick Castro’s communist government to the curb and establish a democratic government.

Even though I was only 18, I had been on my own since I was 15, was already divorced and had been in and out of the Army, and was really not doing too much worthwhile with my life. This group sounded to me, street kid that I was, like an ideal thing for me to be doing. Kill a Commie for Mommy, and all that.

The news announcer didn’t give any way to get in touch with these people, so I called the radio station and talked to the announcer and was told that they didn’t have any information about getting in touch with the recruiters about joining the Brigade, but that they would try to get some information for me, and to call back.

The station ran a little piece about the Brigade and ridiculed them a bit….saying it seemed strange that they were recruiting, but that no one was able to get in touch with them. Next day, they had some names and a phone number for me.

I called the number, which was in South Norfolk, now known as Chesapeake, VA, and talked to a person named Bernard Barker, whom I found out later is a native born Cuban, in spite of his name, and a former member of the Cuban secret police under Batista, Castro’s predecessor. (Born in 1917, Barker was still alive in Miami Florida as of January 2009)

Barker talked to me a bit, and turned me over to Frank Fiorini, also known as Frank Sturgis. Sturgis, among other things in a multi-faceted career, was at one time in the mountains of Cuba with Castro before Castro won his revolution. As it turned out, both of these guys were working with the CIA at this time. (Another couple of interesting tidbits about these two guys later.)

The three of us met, along with a friend of mine who was also interested, and we were finally invited to go along with them and do our part to save Cuba from Castro and the “Red Menace.” We were to meet in front of the post office in Norfolk (Now a Federal Courthouse) and be transported to Florida, and from there to Peru for training.

My friend and I were there when we were supposed to be, but Sturgis and Barker never showed. I talked to Sturgis’ wife, Juanita Fiorini, who worked as a waitress at the Virginian Restaurant on Granby Street in downtown Norfolk, but she denied any knowledge of their whereabouts or activities. I never saw them again.



The landing, as is well known, was a spectacular failure. Castro not only survived the invasion but outlasted ten presidents despite every effort to force him from office—including at least six attempts at assassination.

To prepare for the invasion, the CIA trained the force in secret camps in Guatemala-not Peru, as I was told- for nearly six months. But long before the landing, it was widely known in the Cuban community in Florida (and, presumably, the information was also available to Castro agents) that such a landing was in the offing. Finally, the invasion failed because Kennedy refused to provide U.S. air support for the brigade. Castro's aircraft easily disposed of the exiles' tiny air force and proceeded to sink the invasion ships and cut down the men holding the Bay of Pigs beachhead.

This in spite of the fact that some of the Cuban militia was bussed….yep…bussed to the battlefield.




Only about 150 members of the 1,500-strong brigade managed to escape; the others were either killed in battle or captured by the Cuban armed forces. I remember seeing some of them on TV being landed in Florida in handcuffs and chains. I remember saying to myself…”Self…you are one lucky SOB!”



Twenty months later, in December 1962, Castro released the 1,179 Bay of Pigs prisoners in exchange for $53 million worth of medical supplies and other goods raised by private individuals and groups in the United States.



You remember Frank Sturgis, and Bernard Barker, that I mentioned above? Well…these two showed up again a few years later. They were two of the Watergate burglars!



During the time between the Bay of Pigs fiasco and Watergate, they were both suspected, and still are in many quarters, of being involved in the Kennedy assassination.

As far as the Kennedy thing goes, though, I like my daughter Jackie’s theory the best. She said: “I think Elvis did it.” The poor girl takes after her old man.

First Day of Fishing this Year

Went fishing today. Tried a lake and a pond but didn't catch anything worth keeping. Had the strangest feeling, though, that a big one was close by. Guess he wasn't hungry. Oh Well. Maybe I'll have better luck next time.

Our TV Travails

Recently, we decided we deserved a large screen HD TV. After checking all the sale papers, we decided on:


We arrived at Sears less than an hour after the sale started, only to learn from the sales person that they didn’t have the advertised TV and, in fact, had not had any. His excuse was that the sale’s newspaper ads were prepared far in advance and they had sold out before the sale began. He said that it was last year’s model and that they had actually sold out of the advertised TV that we wanted last year. Of course, he tried to switch us to another TV that was more expensive. We did not go for it. It seemed too much like the old bait and switch game to us. The whole experience kind of torqued Marsha’s jaws, so she wrote an email to someone at Sears. In return she got a sort of “screw you” email back. Not hard to understand why they are having financial difficulties if that is the way they treat their customers.

Next stop was:


They had a sale going on several brands. We decided on a Sharp 46 inch HDTV.


They had it on sale for a reduced price, plus they threw in a Sharp Blu-Ray DVD player. We figured that was a good deal. We also got free next day delivery. The TV and Blu-Ray player have a gazillion different wires and cords to hook up, so we felt it was worthwhile to get them to do it. It is all I can do to figure out how to plug in my computer, so…we sprung for the


to come out and do the hook up and installation.
The TV arrived …not the next day, but in two days….acceptable, since there was about 90 feet of snow on the ground. (More or less) In another couple of days, the Geek Squad showed up, in the person of a frazzled young fellow that was in sort of a hurry for some reason. He hooked up the TV and the dvd player, turned it on, and got an error message. He looked at the error message and switched the electrical plug to another outlet, got the same message, and told me the TV was defective. So…..he hooked up our old Sanyo 32 inch CRT TV again, with the Blu-Ray player and left. Unfortunately, he hooked it up wrong and the Blu-Ray player would not play any movies, and it took two remotes and a PHD degree to operate the TV.

In due course, another TV arrived. I had the other one repacked for them by the time they got here, and they carted it away.

In a couple of days, another Geek Squad guy arrived. This one was in one of the cute little Volkswagens we see on the TV advertisements. (The first guy was in a van.)


I was further impressed when I discovered that this guys name is Matt. I mean….we all know that Matts are known all over the country for being exceptionally knowledgeable, competent, and industrious, as well as being handsome, suave, and debonair. (See pic at top of page)

Matt took one look at the wiring the first guy had done and whipped out his telephone and took several pictures of it. (Yes, Grandma, they take pictures with telephones now.) I asked the reason for that, and he told me that he was the guy that trained all the Geek Squad people that came from the store we got our TV and DVD player from, and he was intending to ask this guy why our stuff was wired in such a poor manner.

To make a long, and probably boring, story shorter, Matt hooked the stuff up, showed me how to operate the remotes for both the TV and the Blu-Ray and departed into the sun riding his trusty VW. No problems since. I am inclined to believe that the first TV may not have been defective at all, but who knows? We are satisfied now.

WOO-HOO!!!! I'm going to be rich!

I am so lucky! I got this e-mail this morning. I am going to answer it as soon as I get my house and car and truck on the market so I can pay the miniscule charges that I am sure will be attached to this wonderful bonanza.

From Mrs Rebecca Williams
N�[38 Rue Des Martyrs Cocody
Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire

ATTN:
DEAREST ONE OF GOD
I am the above named person from Kuwait . I am married to Mr Benson Williams, who worked with Kuwait embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year 2004. We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days.

Before his death we were both born again Christian. Since his death I decided not to remarry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of $2. 5 Million (Two Million Five Hundred U.S. Dollars) in the bank here in Abidjan in suspense account.

Presently, the fund is still with the bank. Recently, my Doctor told me that i have serious sickness which is cancer problem. The one that disturbs me most is my stroke sickness. Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to a church or individual that will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct herein. I want a church that will use this fund for orphanages, widows, propagating the word of God and to endeavour that the house of God is maintained.

The Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that giveth. I took this decision because I don稚 have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are not Christians and I don稚 want my husband痴 efforts to be used by unbelievers. I don稚 want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly way. This is why I am taking this decision. I am not afraid of death hence i know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that the Lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace.

I don稚 need any telephone communication in this regard because of my health hence the presence of my husband痴 relatives is around me always I don't want them to know about this development. With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the bank here in Abidjan . I want you and the church to always pray for me because the Lord is my shepherd. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian. Whoever that wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and Truth. Please always be prayerful all through your life.

Contact me on the above e-mail address for more information痴, any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing another church or individual for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I Stated herein. Hoping to receive your
reply.
Remain blessed in the Lord.
Yours in Christ,
Mrs Rebecca Williams.

More Windows 7 stuff

Unfortunately, I had to remove Windows 7 from my desktop PC. I bought a new all in one printer from HP, and it wouldn't work on Windows 7. I got a message saying that HP did not have drivers for that OS. I called HP, and they wern't able to help me. I still have it on my laptop, though, and still like it a lot.

Yech! More snow.

Seems like Winter lasts as long as the other three seasons combined. At least it does to me. Particularly when it snows. I was just out in snow half way up to my knees...and I am tall, too....refilling the blasted bird feeders. I have gotten silly in my old age. So far we have at least eight inches of snow and it is coming down really hard. I expect a foot, if not more by the time it is finished. This is Marsha's car 5 minutes ago. More pictures when it quits snowing. I will see if I can figure out how to lighten it a bit. This camera baffles me.

(Thanks to my friend Falsie (www.washingtoncube.blogspot.com)for fixing the picture for me.)

Not a Messiah, Not a Saviour. Simply our new President.

Many people seem to think that our new president is either a Messiah or a Saviour.

I certainly hope they are not too disappointed when they find out he is neither.

I will be happy if he is able to accomplish a significant part of what he appears to have promised to do, and can get our economy to begin to get on the right track, and get us out of these futile wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Chief Justice may have his doubts...he stumbled over the oath when he was administering it to the new president.



Katie Couric said today that my wife's acquaintance, Joe Biden, was the president for a few minutes. Biden was sworn in as vice-president shortly before noon. President Bush's job ended, by law, at noon. President Obama was not sworn in until several minutes after noon. Seems to me that Biden may have been president for a few minutes. (Where is Alexander Haig when we need him)