Drove from SE MN three hours north to our NW Wisconsin cabin on the lake. Nephew and friends tapped the maples Saturday and put out 200 buckets. Margo sent me off to enjoy a few weeks away from helping with her cancer treatments as she is feeling fine and taking a month before starting radiation. If I get the cabin opened, cleaned, the water started and everything ready, she may join me for a week or two later in April. She has to work on getting her arm range of motion back after the surgery.
We built the cabin from trees we cut and sawed into lumber (we have a 100 year old sawmill on the farm) back in 1975. Down the hill a few hundred yards is the 30 acre lake with a creek running through. It is rustic, but rather fun to get to. Of course, I had the high speed internet turned on before I got up here--can't be too rustic;-)
This is a test of my physical condition. For the last 150 years my family has been making maple syrup in Wisconsin (and before that in NY, and CT). Last year I skipped the season as I had a brand new right knee as of March and couldn't do the carrying buckets and work (my nephew did it that year). This year I will be testing my wonderful new knee that had just got functional when I got MG and was mostly inactive for the summer and fall. MG seems to be fine; my knee quite functional, and so I am hopeful that I can have a normal season. Nephew Bryce and his friend Neil are the sparkplugs this year and I am the sage advisor!
When my cabin was broken into last month, the item that I missed most was my Roku box that turns my old clunker cabin TV into a smart TV. I stopped at Walmart on the way up and bought a D-Link replacement streaming video player ($48) because it has a youtube channel--Roku doesn't. Got is set up in a few minutes and it works fine--quite nice to have netflix, youtube, etc on an old tv.
If you want to see a maple tree dripping this afternoon check out my exciting video at
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4911892514871&set=vb.1224894731&type=2&theater
I will be blogging maple syrup season at the cabin.
I get this feeling that I am normal again--quite wonderful although I keep waiting for Myasthenia Gravis to return as I taper prednisone and it wears off and the bad antibodies return. I intend to enjoy it while I can. I think it is due to my special diet of potato chips, red meat with lots of fat, hot dogs, and of course drinking a pint of pure maple syrup each morning straight!
