Tapping: The Prequel

Last week was warm at first. The snow melted during the day and re-froze into a un-fluffy mass overnight. All was well until stupid cold hit the area late in the week. With a little luck, those should be the last of the sub-zero mornings this season.

The first part of the week was not kind to the bottle rocket war forts.

By noon on Monday, the northern fort suffered partial collapse.

The fort of the AWOL fighter totally rubbled around the same time.

The southern fort fell apart in a similar fashion to the northern one.

While inspecting the battle field, many sticks were picked up before a cold night could freeze them into the lake.

The sun and above freezing temperatures cleaned up Potawatomi Trail to a late spring like condition.

West Shore Drive was in even better shape.

Knott Lane has its issues. It would sort of thaw during the day and refreeze at night. By the end of the week, about a third of the lane was clear. The remainder is covered with a hard, treacherous, and surprisingly thick coating of ice.

Some of the steeper driveways around the lake have built up enough ice to cause the unwary traveler to slip and become the latest to participate in an involuntary luge run.

The first sign that the thaw was going to have some trouble holding its gains was a few early morning snow showers. They did not produce much accumulation, but they did damage the warm.

Local squirrels were active/evil for both the warm and cold parts of last week.

Same, except for the evil, with the north end's turkeys.

The cold hit hard just before the weekend. Thaw induced lawn puddles were transformed into slabs of ice.

The sunsets before the cold were colorful.

After the cold, cloudless sunsets preceded more single digit or sub-zero (°F) morning air.

The ugly cold began to subside on Sunday. Activity in and around the sap shack increased.

Vents were opened, boiling pans placed, and wood was inventoried.

Out in the knottlane sugarbush

A few buckets and lids, 80 (about 20% to 25% of the planned total), were pre staged at the base of soon to be tapped maples.

You can get about 50 holes out of the new 5 amp hour batteries. With a charge time of under an hour, over 300 maples could have new spiles in a day. The issue with planning around these maximum numbers involves the use of portable defibrillators. We like to save the charge in these devices for the heavy collecting days in early April. The low/frozen snow (3 to 12+ inches) in the woods should make tapping a quick and mostly painless event this year. A snow event forecasted for this Wednesday may change that. The snow totals have been light this winter, but these things have a nasty was of averaging out. This bodes unwell for those tappers that enjoy flying around the trees in boots rather than trudging around in snowshoes. Late season snow without a good base tends to turn to ice during sap collecting season. The involuntary luge while carrying buckets of sap can be entertaining to watch, but participation is no fun.

-Nemo's headed out with a drill and several batteries.

Tapping: The Prequel

February 24th through March 2nd, 2025