This is batch 3, which happens to be on my birthday, so I will call it the Birthday Batch. The sugar content is still high, down from 3.2 to 2.9 on the hydrometer. It is getting somewhat darker but still on the light side. I like the real dark stuff, personally. John is out in the shack today while I remain tethered to the floor and bed with my backache (muscle spasm). Bummer. And to top it off, the winds have picked up to around 20 mph and it is about to rain, no snow, no rain, or both. However, yesterday was a great run and we stored 74 gallons of sap which has to be boiled. He's got books to read and the fire to stoke. We chat over the 2 way radios quite often. I am getting some reading done and other internet searching. I will hobble over and give him a break for lunch and a nap. We should finish around 3-4 pm. Hopefully this next batch will be the same or greater. When the blog background changes from snow to flowers, you will know that our snow is gone!
Through the dirty basement window I saw a face that I am glad did not become our country's symbol, the wild turkey. It gobbled, danced and pecked at the window's reflection of itself. Quite funny to watch and hear. They have stayed out front during the completion of our sugaring this spring. We bottled about 8.5 gallons of amber colored syrup. A good year for us. The turkeys better head out soon before the season opens up!!
As we wrap up the sugaring season, other activities are taking shape. Two tom turkeys displayed to 4 hens this morning while we ate our breakfast. Rains washed most of the snow away and left lots of mud and torrents of runoff water in the field. Finishing Batch 7 on the stove today, we are getting back to normal. It looks like the temps are too warm for the run, but we still have enough left in the barrels, tanks and buckets to get another boil on wed. Then it's done for the year. Maybe 8-9 gallons..... 
