then you boil

Sweet. I collect ten gallons (forty quarts) of sap and boil it down to one quart. Now I can sip coffee, read a magazine, manage the pre-boil pot on the electric heater, and enjoy the earliest daffodil tips emerging along with the sap.

the sap flows

The sap drips out of the hole into the old bucket while the township guys walk down the road patching cracks and holes in the macadam so nothing flows into them.

then you collect the sap

You tap a spout into the hole and collect the free sap. I'm tapping five sugar maples this year, one we planted 23 years ago and the others on a neighbor's property. At home I use the traditional covered bucket from the Miller family farm. But, much as I don't like the tons of plastic dumped daily on the world, for the others the bag is easier and cute in its way. Pic by Joel.

drilling for sweet on Valentine's

Yesterday, Valentine's Day, I tapped the sugar maple tree, using a brace (a hand crank device to clamp in and turn the bit) and a 7/16 inch bit to make the 1 1/2 inch-deep hole. The spout goes into the hole and sap comes out when it's below freezing at night and warm during the day. I learned to do this from my father-in-law.

end of storm story

The moral? It takes four trucks, one chain saw, and one guy grabbing the wire to retire our emergency downed wire sign. Oh, and twenty minutes sans electricity, and then twenty minutes setting the clocks. Oh, bless the grid, the psalmist did not say, but I do, despite the witness of a passing buggy and the wire-free schoolhouse across the road.

ice brings line low

The ice brought down several boughs of our pine tree and our line with them. Improvised a danger sign for school children tempted to explore the damage. Despite the stretched line, we have electricity.