March 4th. Ironically it’s been two years since I wrote the blog post “Not Just Yet”. We have recently begun work to start the 2023 maple syrup season. About 111 taps have been set with buckets but there’s a lot left to go in! The evaporator and storage tank are mostly ready so we are in good shape. We will soon dig out our short plastic tubing runs for the harder to reach trees on the side hills.We call them “mini tubes”. I will follow up on them in a later post.
I always like to acknowledge milestones. Yesterday Zane celebrated a milestone when he successfully passed his road test. It took some time and practice but that is now behind us.It seems strange that he could have gotten it two years ago. But I never felt he was ready. I certainly wasn’t! He will be driving my old 2013 Ford Focus shortly. That will help during sugaring and cut down on my driving. Zane is a big help with the sugaring process. He’s very strong and capable at age 18. I took him ice fishing last week when he was on winter break. Fun times!It was hard to believe it had been almost two years since we had last gone!
I broke out the sap haul roads the other day before setting taps. There is much less snow then most years but there were plenty of downed limbs and trees to remove. I broke in the Northern loop trail on our neighbor Tom’s property where we set many of our taps these days. For two years we have ventured a short distance up into a section of his woods on the South side of his main access road. I have been wanting to cut an entire loop road through here but never took the time to get it done. There’s a nice group of easy gathering maples there that I wanted to add to our count. Wednesday I made the decision to carve out the trail and got it finished after several hours of chainsaw work. The loader was handy for moving larger logs and brush.
Thursday found us tapping the new Southern loop under warm but cloudy skies. Jen and her friend Gail came over to help me get 96 taps in place. This is Jennifer’s 4th syrup season and I wasn’t sure she would be coming at all given the circumstances of our lives. We all enjoyed the simple moments of task and toil. Some moments are best not overthought and I will leave things there. Everything went well and I was happy with our progress.
It’s hard to know just how this or any sugaring season will play out. Given the wild swings of weather this winter I have been a little anxious and uncertain. But one thing remained constant: we were going to make our best attempt to make it happen! When I arrived at the farm Monday the unbroken snow was like a place of ground zero. Many things still needed to happen despite the few things we had done to get ready. I find peace of mind in the motions of checking things off our lists. The old quote says that a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.
We got more snow last night but with the sap haul roads broken in today it should present no problem. Building a base of snow is beneficial to “holding” the season in place. Huge warm ups are bad and the nemesis of maple syrup producers. We like the cold nights and warm days in the 40’s. We are approaching a launch of sorts as the upcoming season inches forward. It inspires a certain mental image. I picture a NASA control room like in the movies. A line of system operators waiting to sound off prior to the countdown. I imagine myself being the leader in the imaginary control room of the sugarbush. It might sound like this: Tractor systems : go for launch. Evaporator systems : go for launch. Firewood and primary fuel systems: go for launch. Storage systems: go for launch. Getting the picture? The final countdown approaches but with some systems at “no go” status we aren’t at “T Minus 10”. But we are in motion and should reach our launch date. Weather is the key component. I estimate 7 days now.
So the snow has stopped and it’s time to get busy. These are the days of work that produce sweet results. The words will flow as the season advances and I will attempt to take you deep into a special place. It’s in the words of my former posts but time and circumstance bring new memories. New thoughts and new possibilities. So follow our progress as we launch into syrup season 2023!