Maiden voyage to the Sugar Bush

Today's weather was just outstanding!  Temps were up into the 50s, water was ROLLING off the roof, and the sky was so blue I thought I was looking through some kind of a filter.  I guess my only filter was the last two months of bone-chilling cold.

Apple orchard on the way to the maple trees

 So we decided to use this beautiful day to scope out what we'll be facing when we start to tap our maple trees for making maple syrup.  Here's a view of the collection of trees and the hillside we were about to snowshoe down in order to get to the trees.

 And below is a view of my snowshoe with the boot still in it after I stepped into wet, cement-like snow nearly up to my waist.  The only way I could extract myself was to pull my foot out of the boot, and then try to dig out the boot and snowshoe.  Very thankful that it was warm out!  Leann also had a sinking mishap on the hillside, so she wondered if I had the phone in my pocket...in case we had REALLY gotten stuck.  I did but it probably wouldn't have worked down in that ravine anyway.  We'll check it out next time!  We promise!

So after I recovered my footwear, we went on our way, beating down paths to each of the trees.  It doesn't look so pristine down there now!  And it will probably snow again before the sap starts running.

Below is one tree that has the evidence of several years of being tapped.  The holes are all in various stages of healing up, and at various heights depending on how much snow there was in a given year.

And down along the creek was a well-worn deer trail that maybe we should have followed instead of trying to make our own.  We were also trying to guess the reason for some of the big depressions in the snow.  We don't know if deer just lie down in the snow or what goes on when nobody's looking.

So now we know we're dealing with a LOT of snow, but we probably knew that already.  We have our equipment all staged now, so maybe a few more warm days and cool nights like this will get the process started.  

And then I came home and took a nap!