Drip Drip Drip

This is the "Where's Waldo" of Maple lots. Can you find all five buckets?

This morning I woke to rain. Not just a drizzle, but full on rain.

In other years, this might have made me sad, since rain in February generally makes for muck, slush and most often it eventually turns to ice, which is rarely fun.

Those details remain the same this year, but it also means that the temperatures are high enough to be above freezing, and if that's the case, the sap might just might start running!

Mid-morning I myself ran down the road to check the buckets. Lo and behold - we have sap!!

Not lots, mind you, but the buckets were decidedly not empty any more.

The word "run" when it comes to sap is really somewhat of a misnomer. A fast drip drip is really more like it. Even that adds up over time, and though we still don't have enough to fire up the evaporator, with all the trees together we got about 35 gallons today.

The forecast is for cool nights and days in the high thirties this week, even into the forties Friday, so things are looking good for getting enough to start boiling in the next few days.

Let that rain come - I'm happy to see you this year!
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In other local news, the Little Bug decided he loves me so much that he wanted to hug my neck off.
As you can see here, it looks like he succeeded.

He also decided Sunday morning that he was going to learn how to shovel snow. After careful, contemplative observation and with some pointed questions, he decided to give it a go. He was a very big help clearing the driveway!