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	March 17th through 23rd, 2025

Last week started off springy. The highs were near 50°F and the lows were near freezing. Lawns were emerging from the dwindling snow and the lake was showing the first signs of ice-out. That changed.

During the warmer times and the not so warm times, the fires in the cookers were boiling sap down to syrup.

In the sugarbush near the west shore of Lucerne, there were two strong runs from the maples last week. The footing was the best ever.

Many of the buckets were half full.

Collecting all those buckets took a few hours.

We ended up getting just over 300 gallons of sap.

On the last full day of winter, the highs were lower and the wind picked up. Then it snowed.

On the north end, after it stopped and settled, we ended up with 5 inches.

The north end's wild turkeys seemed to enjoy their fluffy new playground.

The cold that followed the snow "bearded" the taps.

The footing in the woods got worse, but the men were rallied to collect the pre-beard drippings.

About half of the drops were in puck form.

By the start of the weekend, it got warmer. The beards melted off and the maples ran hard.

Collecting started at 4:00 PM.

Collecting ended well after sunset. In addition to darkness, there was a little rain followed by some snow. We pulled 475 gallons back to the cookers after a short stop at the RO machine.

A few of the men found the strength to go back into the woods before midnight and finish gathering the field. This pushed the sap total for the day to 575 gallons not counting the 30 gallons left in collection buckets due to lack of jug space. Leaving behind the ice, we got 22.5 gallons of liquid from those buckets the next day.

By Saturday, lawns were again being uncovered and squirrels were plotting springtime evil.

Then it snowed again. This second storm of the week lasted longer and buried the yards, woods, and roads in a thick, heavy coat of white.

I like to end the weekly update with a picture of the lake from Sunday. This is Saturday's image. You could see a little of the shore in Sunday's picture. but mostly all you can make out is a pummeling of white from a seemingly incontinent sky. Since last summer, it has been noted that the lake level was falling. At least for a while, this should stop that trend.<br><br><br>-Nemo's out of breath at the halfway point.

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