After Thanksgiving we went to my hometown of Aiken, SC to see kin and check out the old sights.

This is Barbara's brother and family in Aiken. Front row, left to right, is Arden and Bronwyn Bishop, children of Byron and Laurie Bishop on left of back row. Middle front row is Brandon Shaw, son of Terry Beal (back row right). Next is Ann wife of Jimmy Bishop on front right. Terry's husband Fred Beal stayed in Montana to keep the home fires burning! Right nice looking group!
Jimmy and Barbara were raised in Walterboro, SC. Jimmy and Ann moved to Aiken in the seventies. I left Aiken in 1959 when I went off to Clemson to get educated!

A closer shot of the fountain and the horse stature in the background. Aiken is a real horse town, it has been from almost its beginning.

This is the water fountain and the old post office at the end of the Main street in Aiken. My great grand Father on mother's side of the family actually picked the site for the post office. He lived in Orangeburg. So I was told!

This is the beautiful South Boundary, so named as it was the southern boundary of Aiken when the town was laid out in 1835. I am not sure when the Water Oaks were planted but they overlapped the street the first time I remember seeing them more than sixty years ago! I would guess that the tree covered street is more than a mile long. I had forgotten that one of our land's more lovely sights was in my home town.

Continuing the process. (read from the bottom up)

The last step in making the syrup is filling the jars. The final stop will be to eat the syrup on something, maybe a hot biscuit, yum, yum! This tradition has been going on in Barbara's family for generations. It use to be done out of need, it is now done more out of tradition!

Another gourd is used to check to see if the syrup really ready to take up. Note the ribbons that hang from the gourd.

Nearing the end of the cooking process the bubbles go all the way to the bottom of the pot and it looks like a big pot of cooking grits. The color also changes to a light brown color. It is almost time to cut the heat.

Once the impurities have been removed a ring is added to the top of the kettle to allow the pot to really roll. This helps boil off the water from the juice.

The kettle starts to really roll before the skimming is finished so a gourd with holes is used to cool the surface so that the fire can continue to keep bringing up the impurities from the bottom of the pot.

The juice is transferred to the kettle and the cooking starts. At first a lot of skimming is required to skim off the impurities that come to the top.

Thanksgiving 2007 "cane grinding" at Ehrhardt, SC

Today's grinding is done using a tractor rather than a a mule to power the cane mill. The juice from the sugar cane flows when you keep it feed. An old hand helps some of the younger ones learn to feed the mill. Note that some of the old hands help reload the bin at the mill from the trailer. Also note the dog on the tractor helping oversee the process!