Not Winter

The week started off like just about every week since mid-November, cold. The tree taps in the woods were dry or plugged with frozen sap.

Tuesday morning was a sunny minus two degrees. We took advantage of the warmth by skiing for the last time of the season at Brule. The frozen trees did not give a drop of sap all day.

Taps in the woods remained dry through mid-week. The sky, not so much. What could have easily been rain, combined with the cold, resulted in the biggest single event snowfall this year.

The snow stopped short of Friday morning. Its conclusion was pretty.

On Saturday the last few spiles were joined to trees. The snow began to melt and the sap began to run. Huzzah!

Trees produced 3% sugar juice all weekend.

Collecting all those drips started on Saturday and will continue until the drips stop (May?).

The drips were then poured into the pan of the primary cooker and have been boiling toward syrup since Sunday morning.

The conditions of Knott Lane are better than they were mid-week (shown here.) Much of the ice has turned to slush and the snow to water. Boots are still required for walking the lane, not so much for warmth but rather to keep feet dry.

The lake ice was 27 inches thick on Sunday. The snow covering that ice is only about a slushy inch or two deep.

Winter 2014, age 18 weeks, passed away Saturday March 29, 2014 in the sugarbush just off the west shore of Lake Lucerne. The season was born on November 23, 2013 during the opening of gun deer season. Described by many as a brute, it lived in the mid-west and east coast area for most of its life. Winter is survived by a few gallons of propane, some deer, several cold and pale lake residents, some damn squirrels, a few plow-broken mailboxes, and rising lake levels.

-Nemo, collecting, boiling, filtering, canning and repeating

Not Winter

March 25th through 31th, 2014