Hill Report, by woods crew member Ross Scatchard: The sugaring season thus far has worked like a series of games. Tapping could be seen as a game of sorts; search for the live white wood to set the tap amongst the dotted pattern of previous tap holes. Good luck on some of the double tapped trees.… Read More

 Chops writes: 3/23/15 It’s well into another frozen round of enthusiasm-deflating sugar season doldrums. I had thought last March was the coldest I would ever see, but here it comes again on repeat. I have been told by people who should know that this freakish Arctic weather is a result of global weirding, a direct… Read More

  This winter bites. The overnight low Not quite zero Well below norms The snow formed by A darn north wind Cold, fiendish. Fiendishly Toppling trees on Keystone lines. Lest I neglect the Best bit: skies Bluer by day Than I’ve ever Seen later March Bluer than blue Snow white (too white) And two days… Read More

From earlier this week: Sugar Season in the Fickle Mode  3/17/15 The thermometer which hangs in the shadow of our north facing woodshed is always quite accurate, even when the sun is shining. It shows the temperature has been oscillating between 31.5 and 32.5 for the last 16 hours. During this time the precipitation has… Read More

“Expect the unexpected.” “Expect nothing.” ******** The first boil taught me there are layers of expectations. What we thought we expected, and chatted about as we built up the fire in the arch: The filter press pump to work. (It did.) A novel crisis to bedevil the crew. (It did.) What we expected but didn’t… Read More

Weather: Tuesday, high in upper 40’s, overnight in 30’s; Wednesday around 40; currently 37 degrees at 11:30 pm. West wind (“Wind from the west, sap flows best”), mostly sunny. Picture perfect. How’s It Running? Steadily since Tuesday afternoon. Sap Sweetness: 1.2 % on Tuesday, 1.1% Wednesday. Weak indeed. Boiling Status: Fired up at 7 pm… Read More

Coast to coast, there’s no end to talking about the weather. Today I read in my brother’s local newspaper The Nome Nugget  that Alaska suffers from too much warmth and too little snow. The start of the Iditarod got moved from Anchorage to Fairbanks for only the second time in its 43-year run (the ceremonial start… Read More