fini

WEATHER: Finally it turned. We’ve had a stretch of sunny warm (60’s) days that drew everyone outdoors to see if the rhubarb was coming up yet, to notice a crocus blooming not in the garden where it should but under the apple tree, to pick up the pail of clothespins in one hand and a basket of laundry in the other and head for the clothesline, to listen to thuds and clanks emanating from the neighbors’ yards, to ride bicycles on Nebraska Valley Road, to sweep a winter’s worth of sand from the stone walkway, to picnic, to dump spoiled sap from buckets and knock out the cast iron taps.

Today it’s raining. The earth and I need it.

HOW’S IT RUNNING? Like Godot, the long-awaited sap surge finale never arrived. Unlike the characters in Waiting for Godot, we are no longer waiting, our time of doing nothing was finite, we’re moving on. Sugar season’s over.

BOILING STATUS: On Sunday we boiled the dregs and drabs of last week’s sap, finally making some – but hardly any – dark syrup.

SAP SWEETNESS: A weak 1.6%.

NITER STATUS: Almost none at all, as expected in late season.

WHAT’S NEXT? Visiting each tree to knock out the taps and rinse the line, sugarhouse cleanup, filling the woodshed. The RO is running its final rinse cycle as I write. The goal? To be done by late May.

NOTABLE MAPLES: Chief of Operations displays The Kingpin.

FIELD TRIP: The cemetery is behind the white church in Waterbury. You can enter it on a lane between the church and the ortho clinic (to the right of The Reservoir) or from Bridge St. The late Elise Braun introduced me to this tree several years ago. The cemetery is lovely, the tree magnifique. The photos don’t do it justice.  AC