Tree Tapping Weekend I
March 2nd through 4th   
Snow.  It covers the roads.  It blankets the lake. It gets really, really deep in the surrounding woods. This was tapping weekend!  The first step in maple syruping is to break trail to the sugarbush.  Easy. 
It took the two of us over an hour to hike several hundred feet uphill and back down.  It was around 20℉, we were sweaty.
The first steps saw snowshoes plunge into the white past our knees.  This was not gonna be easy.
The gas powered drill weighs more than an electric and it seems to get heavier as one carries it from tree to tree.  After 40 gasoline powered drill holes on Saturday, a much lighter 18V electric was pressed into service on Sunday morning.  It was much easier to drag around, but a full battery would only make about 10 holes and then die.  The gas powered drill was called back into service Sunday afternoon.
An ATV would have sunk up to the handlebars on the fresh packed trail, so sore arms and legs were called to haul sleds of buckets and spiles up to the trees.
By Sunday afternoon 120 holes were spiled and bucket-ed.  Breaking trail to the trees was almost as much fun as that first hike to the sugarbush.
The maples ran a bit on Saturday and not at all on Sunday.  The cookers were not needed and remained buried under several inches of white cold.
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Never did manage to get onto the lake, much less make a hole and check the ice.  Too much snow and not enough time.  The weather is forecast to get warmer.  That should lower the snow and get the trees running.  I'd guess that there will be a layer of water between the snow and the lake ice by next week.

-Nemo grabbed a cigar, reached for a lighter and fell asleep.