2023 - Our 13th harvest is complete. Where does one’s gratefulness end? It doesn’t. Always first and foremost we give God the glory. Then our family, friends, customers, businesses, the list goes on and on. We could never accomplish all of the work ourselves. We are only two people now that our kids are grown and on their own! We had multiple trials along the way this season. One of our oldest trees on our property came down on a main line and we had to clean it up. An exceptionally heavy snowfall in February made many trees bow down from the weight. Beautiful, so pure white, but it made tapping difficult. During the season we lost a lot of sap on the ground and also in one of the pump houses (broken lines) but we got it fixed. We were still able to boil in 175,000+ gallons of sap with 10500+ taps to make 3359 gallons of syrup. Mission accomplished! Before our first boil, Nathan fell off the sugar house roof. He was attempting to go up and open the cap on one of the stacks. He said it is amazing how many things go through your mind in 5 seconds while you are sliding down the roof! Thankfully he was fine after he landed. We came up with a plan B. The cap was opened, and we started boiling. We have a few new “tools” on the farm. One is a 1998 Mack truck that we call “Maple Mack.” It saved us a lot of time and money. Many times, we could gather sap from multiple properties all in one trip because it has a 5,000 gallon tank. Nathan drove it primarily while Sally rode shotgun. She can drive a manual transmission but 13 gears require practice and she should gain more confidence next season. There were days we had so much sap, the Mack would sit in the yard full as a “storage tank” until we had room in the 6500 and 3200 gallon tanks in the barn. Our biggest day of boiling, we filled eleven, 40 gallon barrels. Another new tool is our Polaris Northstar ATV with tracks. When you push snow drifts with the grill of the Silverado, it’s time to let the Polaris take over. It didn’t disappoint, the right tool for the job with that much snow! Michigan Maple Weekend came and so did the snowstorm! We had a few visitors and enjoyed some treats with them. After our season was over and the cleanup was done, we got to watch Evan and Jillian graduate from their colleges on the same weekend. They both graduated with honors and we are so proud of them! Jillian now lives in LaGrange, IN and works at a hospital as a Diagnostic Medial Sonographer (ultrasound tech) and Evan is looking forward to teaching high school math at Onekema Consolidated Schools in the fall. Nathan and Sally plan on working around the farm and going to craft shows to sell syrup this summer and fall. Nathan will work at the machine shop in town and also at the marina as needed. Sally is going on a mission trip in July to Costa Rica and then back to work at school in September. As the seasons change, we look forward to seeing you along the way. As always, thank you all for your continued support!

2024 - What a winter, ready or not, here we go! We tapped the trees and made syrup earlier than ever before. One of our leased locations required more “sap storage” in the pumphouse. We removed the 20’ storage container with a 1800 gallon tank and replaced it with a 40’ storage container with that same 1800 gallon tank PLUS a 3600 gallon tank. Overflow problem solved. The only problem we had was losing two vacuum pumps during the season at two locations. Sap continued to flow and after finding two pumps, one used and one new, we were back in business. Overall, we had 5100 taps, down from last year due to one of the leased properties being sold. We made a total of 2790 gallons of syrup. As always, our efforts wouldn’t be possible without God, good health and our helpers Kirk and Mike. Hats off to other producers that we buy sap from, Dale, Matt, Paul, AJ and Kyle. We appreciate all your work too! As our 14th syrup season came to a close, the taps were pulled, tanks and equipment had final washes, and the Maple Mack was parked, we took a small break before craft show season began. Sally went on a mission trip to Seward, AK in May. In June, our son Evan got married and we gained another daughter, Megan! It was a beautiful, early morning wedding on the shores of Lake Michigan in Ludington, MI. They reside in Manistee and are both secondary teachers at Onekema Consolidated Schools. In October 2025, our daughter Jill is getting married and we will gain another son, Bradly! They reside in Lagrange, IN where Bradly is an electrical engineer and Jill works at a hospital as an ultrasound tech. With God’s continued blessings, we look forward to all that lies ahead. He is our compass and we’re heading in the right direction after Him. One day at a time, all adding up to a wonderful life.