This week the sap started running. My, it is early. But we jumped to it and started getting ready. At the end of the season last year we decided we were ready to cook down our own sap (an Amish neighbor has been cooking for us up until now). We ordered a custom-made pan for evaporating the sap and hauled the wood cookstove out of the barn. Andy also hooked up some stove pipe and tarped off the area so it's quite a nice little cooking corner under the shelter of our barn overhang.
He equiped an old sled with handles so it can be pushed through the snow with heavy sap buckets (much easier than pulling).
After all the getting ready we played in the sunshine, listened to the sap drip-drip in the buckets and waited for them to fill. In the end it was only 20 gallons of sap we collected (just over a quart of syrup when it cooks down) so there is much more collecting and cooking to do. But now this fickle weather has gone and turned cold on us again. Wind howling tonight and snow in the forecast. Spring is coming though, ready or not. I'm hoping we'll be ready.
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