Cold Nights, Warm Days

The sap is running.

Saturday morning Heather and Wes took a traxter ride out to check the buckets. Not much was happening at the time, but it had been a cold night and the day was warming up nicely. That makes perfect sap running conditions! So a little later in the morning, Heather and I took a walk around, and sure enough, the sap was starting to drip, drip, drip.

Heather had to sample the sap in each bucket we checked. I don't like the taste of fresh sap. It tastes like lightly sweetened water. Heather, Wayne, and Cole love it. It used to make me nervous to have them drink so much sap straight from the tree - who knows what kind of  microscopic critters could be swimming around in there? But they've survived so far, and the more we keep hearing about the health of our "mocrobiome" the more I figure it might actually be the cure for all that ails us.

This gnarly old maple is a good old friend - not only providing sap, but it's always been a favorite for climbing. 

Wayne and Cole are hard to get pictures of, these days, if they're not on the basketball court. That's Wayne up ahead. When Cole saw me coming with my camera, he ducked into the woods.

Nature's popsicle - a frozen chunk of sap in the bucket.

In the shade of the woods there is still a little bit of ice and snow.

The fields are bare. I hope they stay that way.

At the end of the day, there is plenty of sap to boil down. 

Yes, heather is wearing pj pants in this photo. She got burdock all over her pants and then hastily changed into the first thing she could pull out of the dryer.

Patches surveys the final product without much interest.

From tree to table in less than 24 hours.