Music to Boil By – 2026 Edition

WEATHER:

“So, TK, looking ahead, are there any freezing nights in the forecast?” He stands in the driveway with his back to the old maples where the three sap buckets hang.
“Yes,” he says with the authority of a man who lives and breathes weather. “Sunday night, then Monday and Tuesday nights, too.”
“But will these be freezes that last just an hour or two in the wee hours of the morning? We need full freezing nights.”
“You’ll get those.”

A raven swoops through the pine trees below the garden and vanishes.
“Whoa, a raven! My buddy says there are no ravens at Mt. Mansfield.” (TK lives near Boston but skis at Stowe.)
“Well we have lots of ravens in Nebraska Valley,” I say. I don’t tire of watching them zip by in full-spread grace.

Janet, TK’s wife, holds close to her chest a quiet T Rex, the dog who features daily in TK the Weatherman’s daily weather podcast (find it on YouTube. Steve, a gorgeous Maine coon cat, co-stars.)
“We shop around for weather forecasts, and your prediction for next week sounds good to me. I’ll take it,” I say.

When we’re in a cold snap, we sugarmakers fret over the prospect of a thaw, especially in late March, the critical time to get the syrup crop in before the high sun of April days hastens bud break. When we’re in a round-the-clock thaw, as we were Sunday afternoon through late-day Wednesday, we long for a cold snap.

HOW’S IT RUNNING? The sap gushed starting Sunday afternoon and all through the 55-degree-warm, sunny Monday. As is to be expected, the run tapered off day by day until it shut off late Wednesday. At 6pm Thursday 4/2, the temp was 38, the air felt gloomy, and the sap tanks were filling up quickly. I like these perky cold runs best of all.

SAP SWEETNESS: Up to 2.2% sugar, the first time above 2% this year, then dropping to 1.9% as the run died out.

BOILING STATUS: Day 12 and counting.

CHIEF OF OPERATIONS’S SATURDAY CHORE LIST, MARCH 28 (to complete before the next sap run)

• Deal with frozen sap tank hose pump. I have rebuild parts, but concluded nothing needed to be replaced.
• Replace broken plastic hose fitting in vulnerable location with a metal one.
• Replace two quick connector rubber seal washers for cleaning hose that were leaking badly. Last count I used eleven of these handy connectors. Unfortunately the sealing washers never seem to last longer than a year or two and I’m constantly replacing them. I order two dozen of them at a time.
  
• Repair broken shop vac handle.
• Replace damaged extension cord end.
• Replace worn plastic handle on a five gallon pail with a wooden one.
  
• Clean niter off broken syrup pan plug so it could be welded.
• Clean brushes and switch on grinder.
• Tighten fittings on two RO connections to stop leak, and squeegee flooded floor water into drain.
  
• Clean arch blower switch and damper.
• Clean filter press threaded rods.
• Lube vacuum pump.
  
• Clean extractor and transfer tanks, and oil float rods.
• Remove ice from three outside stairs.
• Clean out sugarhouse trash for a dump run.

PENSÉE PAUSE:

Changes
-Turn of season-
Smell like coffee or toffee
In the maple steam you inhale
And assess each new day.

THERE ARE CHORES IN THE WOODS, TOO.

And, finally….

MUSIC TO BOIL BY. Move over, Boomers. Make way for the Millennials who manage the evaporator and the playlist.
Freedle Coty lists the Top 14 so far in 2026.

Handsome Boy Modeling School – Rock and Roll (Could Never Hiphop Like This) Part 2 (Instrumental)
Air – Kelly Watch The Stars
Polo & Pan – Canopée
Roy Orbison – Drove all Night

Cranberries – Dreams
Furuko – Pepas
Icarus Himself – Digging Holes
Donovan – Season of The Witch

John Maus – Hey Moon
Paul Simon – Late in the Evening
Édith Piaff – Non, je ne regrette rien 
Ween – Tried & True
Nelly Furtado – All Good Things Come To An End

….And the classic CD: Maple Sugaring Songs