Marathon, Day Seven

Weather: Today felt like a good day to plant the garden. Yesterday hit 55 degrees in the shade, today 66. A pseudo-frost occurred both last night and the night before, with the temp at the house dropping to 29, but the sap never stopped running and we think it was warmer higher up. In summary (summery), it’s just the wrong weather for our line of work.

How’s It Running? The hot sap

keeps chugging down the hill through the hot tubing lines. It should slow down every day now unless (until) there’s another freezing night.

Sap Sweetness: Below 2% now. Not surprising.

Boiling Status: Today is Day Seven of the marathon.

That Aroma: Gone. I knew how special Saturday afternoon and evening were, when the fragrance of the syrup, the radiance of some stones I saw in my neighbor’s field, and the chill of snow melt wafting off the brook burst my heart. The word ‘smell’ better describes the new aroma: the smell of hot caramel.

Funny, how unnatural it can be to just take it as it comes. Every day, when not focused on the next
syrup draw or the latest filter press pump adjustment, we speculate on the future, on what the weather will be, and on what the weather will do to sugar season. I suppose it’s the sport of sugarmakers everywhere. Some are optimists, some sound like pessimists but defend themselves as being realists.

Music to Boil By: Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’. Uproariously funny after 10 pm.