Chief of Operations writes: QUICK UPDATE March 28th: There’s no time to elaborate. We boiled well into the wee hours and are right back at it. In short: sap, sap, and more sap; playing “tank tag” which involves redirecting the sap into various holding tanks every little while to fill them up to the max… Read More
Hill Report: Chasing the Bubbles
Guest blogger Bob Page writes: A simple summary of the three laws of thermodynamics and the fight against entropy. First Law: You can’t win. Second Law: You can’t even break even. Third Law: You can’t get out of the game. It’s been two years since I volunteered to help out at Nebraska Knoll during emergencies… Read More
Let’s Bake a Cake
Maple Trout Lilli writes: PARSNIP CAKE WITH MAPLE MASCARPONE CREAM “Where there is cake, there is hope, and there is always cake.” – Dean Koontz I was speaking with my sister the other day about the state of our world and she said “make a cake – you’ll feel better”…. So I pulled out my… Read More
The Wood Wide Web
Through my twenties, when I struggled to figure out where – if anywhere – I fit into this world, I envied trees because they knew their place. It didn’t matter the tree as long as it was deciduous and healthy. I don’t know why I never considered being a spruce or balsam fir. I envied… Read More
Maple Trout LIlli’s Thai Curry Soup
Our beloved food correspondent Maple Trout Lilli is back! She nourished the crew on a recent boiling day with this fine soup. I couldn’t taste the maple but I could taste the difference. She writes: CUSTOM THAI CURRY SOUP WITH A hint OF MAPLE A light but warming soup for when it’s still light at… Read More
A Gusher Run on Friday the 13th
—Of all the things to worry about today, that’s low on the list, said Chief of Operations. She had complained that the wood chunks for stoking the fire were all hardwood one day and all softwood the next. The ideal stoke is a blend of the two, the softwood (spruce in this case, harvested… Read More
Night or Day?
Weather: In the past week we got two freeze/thaw cycles followed by a cold Saturday. Today, Sunday, A Mighty Thaw (The Mighty Thaw?) got going. At 7pm it’s in the mid-forties and most likely won’t freeze for several days. This forecast is not ideal, it’s intimidating. How’s It Running? Those freezing nights last week triggered… Read More
Right Away
Tapping. Then right away, scrubbing tanks, setting up the pans, shoveling, prepping the RO and the vacuum pump. I could go on. But right away, a run. Then right away, boiling. Then a few cold days to say, ahhh, we’ve survived the first run. Now a forecast for a repeat of the first run, only… Read More
It’s 2020: The Same Only Different
Same late February light, Same rattling of beech sapling leaves, Same maple trees, Same snowshoe route up the hill, Same brook to cross, Same tapping ritual, And the backpack with all the tools weighs the same. Late February light differs hour to hour, A new troop of beech leaves rattles this… Read More
Things Furling and Unfurling
The unfurling began in earnest three days ago when the sun came out and sweatshirts came off, and wool hats, too. The unfurling, that is, of the baby maple leaves, all brown and red and wrinkly to begin with. As spring green creeps up the hillside, first bedecking the Old Bush and currently coloring in… Read More
