Sap Slowing Down

Cold temps have come again leaving the buckets very slowing filling. We get to take a break from our work.

The First Run

 

As the afternoon suns streams into the kitchen, we finished bottling our first run of syrup which is called the Fancy grade. So light and lovely, this is the pure gold of syrup. We have collected 71 gallons of sap so far. We left partially boiled sap in the evaporator until we have collected enough to boil again. Today is cooler after a below-freezing night which will start the flow again. We look forward to a good week of sugaring.This is the best batch of fancy we have ever had. We are finishing the syrup on the kitchen stove rather than in the sugar shack so that we can get a more precise moment of finish using temperature, not specific gravity. We should be able to do a much better job this year with this technique.

Bucket Run

A trip out to the trees produced another 15 gallons and the sap is flowing even though the day is cold, cloudy and windy. When is flows, it flows. Well, no, sometimes it will stop, but for now we will plan to boil on friday at this rate. More pics to come of the boiling operation.

 

Drip, Drip, Drip

Off I go to check the run on this most lovely spring day. This old den tree sugar maple gave rise to the ones that are giving us the sap now. This is the first tapping of these on a nice south facing slope. The snowmobile trail is nicely packed over 2 feet of snow. It's March 14.

Getting Ready for Sugaring

First things first, making the road to the sugar house. The snow was extremely heavy after the rain. Of course this will soon turn to mud, but that is our fifth season here, MUD. Every year we seem to put out more buckets. I even heard the word, "pipeline" in a conversion recently. The whole point of all this is to use metal and glass and not plastic for our little production. It just seems harder this year because of the snow I think. Some years we just walk right up to the trees. NO SNOW. That is the just the way life is, different every  year up here. Guess that is why we like it here, too.  The grand total will be 50 buckets this  year. That seems like a nice doable number. We select different trees each year, too, so as to not wear them out, and to use the trees that produce the most sap. Boundary trees are great ones, easy to get to. There are some way down in our woods that will be more of a challenge. But they could be good producers. We will find out, and post the news right here!

Will Spring ever come?

Off he goes

Winter will not leave.....

About 100 common redpolls have been feeding here all winter, and this morning, March 7, they were having a hard time in the snow, wind and cold. Out the front windows we could see the snow on the balcony. Out the back door, facing north, John faced a 2 ft drift on the way to put wood on the boiler and plug in the snowblower. The snowshoes we have are getting a workout this winter. Spring must be just around the corner as we did see our first turkey vulture on saturday, on the way down to Dave's. It's official when we see them, spring will coming soon.

Weather and Food

On our way to the party, we stopped at King Arthur in Norwich, VT. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/ to pick up the breakfast treats for sunday. I had pre-ordered croissants and brioche. My idea of brioche is a croissant in a circle with raisins, cinnamon and sugar on top. What we got was a loaf of croissant bread! And six of them to boot. Dave and Pam, having spent much time in France, suggested that French Toast would be good using the bread and, besides, that is what they do in France. So that is what we did this morning, when we awoke to our biggest winter storm yet,  on March 7.

Classic Kid Pictures Only

There are the pics that capture the precious moments of childhood wonder. Enjoy.

Pinkham Gathering in New Hampshire

The Pinkham Elders

With apologizes to those who do not appear, hail, hail, the gang was all there. Great Job Pam, Dave and Nicole, excellent meal. The mood was completely celebratory, from Ethan's birth day to the newest member, Lydia, as well as the recent Bdays of Melissa and David, did I miss anyone?