The Lucknow Sentinel, 1978-03-15, Page 1Close encounters of the first kinid?
An unidentified flying, object
was sighted in the Holyrood area
a week ago Thursday, March 2.
Charlene MacEwan, R. R. 1,
Holyrood, saw -a ' red flashing
.o;jet in the sky over her farm at
0.15 p.m. and thought at first it
t •
was an airplane attempting to
land in a nearby field,
The light flew north instead
and circled over Teeswater and
Lucknow and back over Holyrood.
Charlene phoned her neighbours
Deb Rhody and Mary Scot who
•
also watched the light and then
she phoned her husband, Doug,
who _was at the Lucknow arena
watching the Industrial hockey
league games. The Holyrood
hockey team accompanie,d Doug
to his farm and watched the
flashing light circle the area until
11.45 p.m. when the light flew
north until it was out of sight.
Charlene said Friday that she
could not determine the outline of
a space ship or airplane. The only
thing visable was the red flashing
light.
$10 A Year In Advance. $14. To U.S.A. and -Foreign
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 1978
Single Copy 25c
24 PAGES
The sap is rooning; it's s
The sap is running! Robinson
Maple Products at R. R. 2
Auburn, a half mile south of St
Augustine started boiling sap- to
make maple syrup on Tuesday
morning. •
The, sap started to trickle on
Sunday and- Monday but the run
did not start until sometime
through the night on Monday.
Tuesday morning they had en-
ough to start boiling.
• Bill and Susanne Robinson
have been preparing for the sap
run since January when they set
up their lines. A formaldehyde
pill is inserted in the hole where
the tree is tapped so that bacteria
will not grow •while the tree is
tapped before the sap begins
Once the lines are in place, Bill
checks the drop lines for air leaks.
A vacuum system is used to draw
the sap from the trees which
means the system does not
depend on gravity.
The Robinsons have their trees
tapped and their lines set up by
February 20 in case the sap runs
early like the past two years. It is
unusual to boil sap in February,
says Bill,.as they did two years
ago. Normally, the sap does not
run until the middle of March.
Last year the run was also early,
beginning on March. 2.
Using snowshoes , to walk
through the snow they. have 3,900 s,
taps using plastic spilesi leading
to drop lines which lead into
•
.t,
Z I, •
• • ° „4"
plastic pipelines. The system has
some five miles of hose leading to,
a 10,000 gallon holding tank
-outside their shed which houses
the oil and wood evaporators and
a propane finishing pan.
The sap is drawn from the trees
by a vacuum system opexated by
a vacuum pump in the sugar
shed. The system does not_ have
to depend on gravity to allow the
sap to flow to the holding- tank.
The sap leaves the tree through
the spile, and flows through the
drop line to the plastic hose which
leads to the holding tank where it
is. stored until it can be boiled
dowli ...The,. sap. can 9411,k remain in
the bolding tank for two dais- if
_the „teinp.erature is five or. six
• `, •
, ' • '
, • , , _
° •
rin
degrees above freezing or it will
spoil because the . bacteria in it
grows.
The sap is heated to 190
degrees in a wood evaporator.
The Robinsons have found that it
requires less energy to , boil it
downif the sap is heated f rst.
The sap thickens in the oil
evaporator after being b iIed
down in the wood evaporator, and
then when it is 66% sugar content
it goes to .the finishing pan.
Ten gallons of sap are required:
to make one gallon of syrup.
'Grade one syrup is light syiup for
table use and grade two is dark
cooking sytrup. because he wanted to 'make syrup
, ,
The/RohirlionS have a second . again This is the third winter that
bush about five. miles from the CONTINUED LON PAGE 8
. •
bush on the back of Bill's dad's
farm where they have the sugar
shed. The sap in the second bush
is stored in three holding tanks
and trucked by milk truck to the
sugar shed for evaporating.
Bill was raised in the area and
boiled sap with another farmer
from the age of eighteen. He went
to -,. Kitchener to work as an
eleNician and would come home
to boil,. ap during winter layoff.
l
Three y ars agcclhe -farmer died
a
and Bill id not boil that year. Tie
moved back to the area and set
up his „maple products.. business
on the: back of his father's farm
`t°'r.
1110;.%;::
.1: .
•
The sap run has started and Frank Pentland, R. R. 3 Goderich will tap about 300 trees
this spring. Half will be tapped using the pall method of former years and half with
plasttc drop linVs. He'checks pail on a tree outside his sugar shanty where he boils
down the sap to make syrup in a wood evaporator. Susanne Robinson, R. R. 2 Auburn;
checks a plastic spile and drop line for leaks because their lines of plastic hose operate
on a vacuum system, She and her husbandl.Bill, have about 3,900 taps and five miles
• of hose leading to a 10,000 gallon holding ,tank. Robinson Maple Products thade 1,000
gallons of syrup during the run last spring.
L