I got about 30 gallons of sap, handling full time work and a homestead can be challenging, I finished at dusk. It is a great chore to end the day with, I just wish I could do things at a more leisurely pace.
Maple sugaring, season 2
We are ramping up again for our second season of Maple sugaring. With perfect weather ahead:
And based on a UVM study, I tend to prefer tapping early even with the chance of cold snaps as Winter & Spring figure out who the new boss is. Essentially from what I gather, you can’t tap too early but you can tap too late. I also really like the taste of early flow and the season is spread out in more manageable chunks of labor.
This sled is proving to be invaluable
The wife & kid are traveling but the neighbors are here to help
Cleaning the tanks and buckets takes a long while, it’s amazing we did it last year without a well for water.
It takes a lot of work to get everything ready, we will apply a lot of lessons learned last year. I uncovered the evaporator and didn’t even have to kick out a raccoon.
Traveling Wood
With decent snow, a new chainsaw, a large sled and the recently discovered “tire splitting” technique, we’ve been amassing a large quantity of wood.
Here’s what getting it home looks like, I’ve been working on 4 poplars which domino’d onto one another during the last surprise wind storm.
The sled & ATV combo is also a great way to move children around.