by George Holcomb • Transcribed by Betty McClave • Edited by Alex Brooks
Tapping And Boiling Sap
Tuesday, February 25, 1845: Today I tapped sap or sugar maple trees. Towards night I took my two horse wagon and carried Mrs. Roba Traworthy to the Old Widow Hunter’s.
Wednesday: Today I chopped and drew wood from off the hill and fetched a few pails of sap.
Thursday: I tapped some more sap trees and chopped and drew a load of wood from the hill and I gathered a barrel of sap
Friday: I drew down a barrel of sap and wood and fetched some sap in pails. We boiled sap in potash in the cheese house. Tonight my son Geo P. returned home from Troy.
Saturday, March 1: Today we tapped more sap trees and gathered two barrels of sap.
Sunday: We gathered sap and gathered four barrels and we boiled sap, and on this evening Mr. Daniel Brady came and paid me five dollars, which pays me up for house rent to the first of April, and I furthermore gave him encouragement to rent my house the coming year that if he would secure me the rent and pay the whole rent all at one time and pay it by the first of September next he might have it for twenty dollars providing he would not infringe upon my possessions. He does agree to patch the roof if I find shingles and nails, and take the banking to the level of the bottom of the sill, and not to keep fowls. On this evening my son Geo P. took the two horse wagon and went to Hosea Brown and got his trunk that said Brown had fetched from Troy for him, and then he went to singing school with his two sisters at the Chapel, and tonight Geo P. was boiling sap all night.