Weekend Recap:

Friday:
The night before Iron Works at Meramac Springs in St. James is always a very busy time in our household. Dwayne was busy all day and several days before getting ready to make molasses. This requires several trips taking the cane and equipment to St. James. It was nice that Dwayne was laid off a few weeks ago so he could do this during the day instead of the evenings after he got home from work. Zach always spends the night with us so he can help Dwayne. He is a very good worker. When he was younger and came to the house, he always wanted to do "man's work". He has grown up to be alot of help. Ashlyne also spent the night and helped me get the jars and tags ready.
Saturday:
As usual, I don't get up very early so we didn't leave the house until a little after 10. The day started out cold and dreary. Luckily the weather cleared up and we had a nice day. There wasn't a very big crowd at Meremac Springs due to the weather. What started out years ago as Feeler Molasses is now Feeler Molasses, aka Elrod Boys. Dwayne, Chad, Todd and Dwayne's brother, David along with his sons, Dustin, Andy and Cody do the majority of the work. We use mules to power the press that squeezes the juice from the cane. Chad's mule, Pedro put on quite a show as he didn't want to be put in the harness. We also have help from family and friends, especially Jim Matlock, better know as Big Red. My helper was my nephew's wife, Billy Rowe. She was a great help in pouring up the molasses and my great neice, Lizzy helped with bagging. Liz also decorated each brown bag with colored pumkins. She kept busy all week coloring on the bags. Liz's friend, Jena also helped. Liz and I took Jena to Vienna to meet her cousin to go to the Jason Aldean Concert. We got back to St. James in time to go to the dinner the staff of The James Foundation gives in honor of the exibitors. We had fried chicken and mashed potatoes/gravy and an abundance of side dishes and pie for dessert. As always, it was very good. Along with Zach spending the night, I had Lizzy and my great nephew, Trevor Elrod. I thought they would be so worn out they would go to sleep pretty early. How wrong I was!!!!
Sunday:
Liz and I left the house around 10:30 so we had plenty of time to set things up before the gate opened. We have such a good time visiting with family and friends that show up and the people who come from miles around. April, Billy and I had a good team effort going in pouring up the molasses, bagging, etc. April's friend, Mike Holtmeyer got broke in as a rookie. We went kind of easy on him but look out next year! We had a long day and didn't leave the park until around 7 p.m. Ashlyne and Tess rode home with me. We stopped at Dominos Pizza on the way home. I was waayyyy too tired to try and cook.
Monday:
I took the day off to rest up some. Not too much rest as April and I went to Columbia shopping. We had a good day, ate entirely too much! We had a snack on the way to Columbia, sweetened pretzel sticks at the mall and then we went to I-Hop to eat before heading home. Needless to say, we did not eat supper.

I am so grateful for all of my family that helps with this old time venture of making molasses. We are carrying on the tradition my Dad started in 1978. His legacy of molasses making will continue down through the next generation. Todd has learned how to finish off a batch of molasses from Dwayne and Zach shows talent of helping and also learning the art of skimming the molasses as it cooks.