February, Round Two

WEATHER: Last Saturday night, February 26, it finally froze up after a week of continual sap flow. The cold carried on through Sunday night. On Monday the next thaw began and persisted until 7:00am Thursday when the temp plummeted from 32 to 18 in a couple of hours. Today, Friday, and the weekend are predicted to stay frozen.

So far this sugar season the weather is chunky: A chunk of ’round-the-clock thaw alternates with a chunk of ’round-the-clock freeze-up. In storybook sugaring weather it freezes by night and thaws by day. We had one such year: 1992.

HOW’S IT RUNNING? The run didn’t kick in until Monday at twilight but once begun it flowed relentlessly until 7:00am Thursday. In other words, the sap began to run at night and stopped at daybreak. Adapting to the sap whims sure keeps the mind from calcifying.

Would the tanks overflow? It was nip and tuck for many hours. We think they would have overflowed if it weren’t for someone neglecting to close a certain gate valve and thereby directing sap down the drain for two hours.