When the West Wind Blows

Sugaring happens when the west wind blows. It was slated to blow this weekend so earlier in the week we asked a local pal we shall call the Artist who’s been doing this for some centuries. Should we be getting ready? The answer came swiftly: no sugaring in the forecast for two weeks. We have time.

Thus, we had to scurry a bit when Saturday morning turned out to be the moment. Mostly due to the 7/16″ drill bit I bought for this activity and that had gone missing. We put it in a safe place last year so the carpenter would not waltz off with it. A very safe place. Plus, each and every one in the four or five sets of drill bits that live around house and barn had gone missing also. The carpenter made up for the lack of 7/16” drill bits by thinking of this before the local purveyor of such closed for the weekend.

In the midst of preparations we found the Artist on the answering machine saying he’d never question a Canadian on the topic again as he’d set his taps early in the morning and sap was running like crazy. I guess we’ve been here long enough.

Tapping is a happy time. The hound had been on leash arrest since he tried to ear half a dead deer a few weeks ago was running around while we waltzed across the property in knee-deep snow setting taps. Don’t let anyone ever tell you sugaring is simple: as you will be able to tell from the photographs, it is a highly complex process that should only be attempted by Skilled Professionals.

When the west wind blows in late winter everyone gets busy, and the biggest busy-ness is boiling. Not there yet with our new sap storage system, but the way it’s going, that will be tomorrow. Now all we need to do is find wood to burn…

On March 18, 2015, I wrote about how we got to making syrup in a post called Got Sap?

Check out the images — they load a wee bit slower than the sap runs today.