March was a roller coaster of weather, and April hasn’t been a whole lot different.
Unlike last year when it was overly warm and sugarbush came and went so quickly that we didn’t even have time to tap our trees, this year has teased us with warm/cold/bitter weather that even the birds are confused (we’ve have crows and ravens eating our suet… NEVER happened before! ).
Nearly four weeks after we tapped our trees, we are finally starting to see the sap flow.
It’s not a rushing torrent, but the buckets are sounding with the “tap… tap… tap” chorus that gets us all excited.
And no matter what the calendar may say, this is the real sign of Spring in the Northwoods.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature was paying a cruel joke on us yesterday when we decided to start boiling.
What started out as a very light snowfall quickly gave way to a no-holds-barred dumping.ย Thank goodness we had the covers over the buckets or else all the sap in them would have been worthless.
And thanks to the quick thinking and ingenuity of Rick, a quick shelter was raised over the boiling area to protect the 25 gallons that we had collected.
But the weather didn’t stop after we had a few inches of snow on the ground.ย Oh, no… when that eased up a torrent of sleet began to pound on us, gradually turning into a steady downpour of big, fat rain drops.ย It was the most miserable Sugarbush we had ever had.
Now all of this could have made for a very grumpy Sandy and Rick, but we didn’t let it dampen (pun intended) our spirits.
Because once you get started on a project like this, there is no stopping and you trudge forward with soaked clothes and shoes to keep that sap boiling.
And when it’s all said and done the reward is totally worth it.
2 Responses to “The Real Sign of Spring”
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Yay! Always a great reward ๐ Glad you guys finally got somewhere with Sugarbush!
Already collecting for this Saturday… 9 gallons today ๐