Forty years we had the old smoke stack. When Lew and his friend Eric set up a crude sugar shack on Birch Hill in Stowe in the mid-seventies, a friend of Eric’s parents fashioned a stack for them in trade for syrup. It moved with the arch (salvaged forty years ago from a field on… Read More
Blowdown Day in November
Stowe photographer Paul Rogers http://paulrogersphotography.com or INSTAGRAM trekked into the woods in November on a day when the crew cleared fallen trees from the tubing lines. Here are a few of Paul’s photos from that day: Tomorrow the crew will head up for another day of… Read More
Apple Tree in November
WEATHER: Hazy sunshine, high in the 50’s, no wind. Too warm, but good working weather for the woods crew who’ve been busy repairing tubing. Today’s sun reminded me of a journal entry from a year ago, The Year of the Apple Glut. In September, a syrup customer called from out-of-state to ask if she could… Read More
Eureka
SYNCHRONICITY: “The simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection.” SYNCHRONICITY: Easter Sunday, full sun, and a classic sap run at last. Chief of Operations writes: Heaven Sent It was a rough morning Thursday in the sugarhouse as I found myself once again being hammered by an incessant… Read More
Animals as Leaders, Animals as Chewers
HILL REPORT: Crew member Ross writes: Well, it only took seven weeks, thirteen boils, and numerous trips into the woods to get the lines in ship-shape and the vacuum to the optimal 26.5 in Hg. Even now we will find animal chew or fallen branches that have pulled taps, so the work goes on. Amazing, given… Read More
Stranger than Fiction
Chief of Operations writes: 3/14/16 The temperature has held near 33 degrees all day and the sap is barely weeping out of the lines entering the sap shed. The temperature is supposed to rise during the night and I know a better run is coming. 3/15/16 I check the sap shed at… Read More
She’s Broke
Poem for Palm Sunday Your bone broke into four pieces, the surgeon said. North south east west Summer, autumn, winter, spring The earth, the air, the fire, the water Return return return return No return She’s broke and won’t ever be just like before. It’s her season of the upper extremity – This whole shattered… Read More
A Rule for Pumpkin Pie
Connecticut College COOK BOOK It’s a navy blue hardback book the size of a smart phone. Inside the cover is this photo: This pocket cookbook was published in 1922 by the Connecticut College Endowment Fund. It came to me from the home of my grandfather-in-law, Daddy Lewis, who lived on Shelter Island, across Long Island Sound… Read More
Late November Bears
On This Date Two Years Ago: She says to L across the breakfast table, “Yesterday I hiked a ski trail to the Octagon, and as I was coming back down three bears crossed upper Toll Road. They crossed single file about a hundred yards below me. Probably a mother and two cubs.” She… Read More
What, Never?
Walking up Nebraska Valley Road today at dusk, the nip in the air invigorated me to my core. Once, on a similar autumn day, a friend commented, “You can divide people into two groups, the ones who feel happiest with cold air striking the cheek and the ones who are energized by the warm… Read More
The Nebraska Knoll Blog 