In Vermont, March is a Winter Month.

3-22-19 VERMONT: We came up a few days ago to find a lot of snow here. We have two feet in spots while a couple of sunny areas have melted down to the grass. It was sunny and in the forties in the afternoons but in the teens at night. We could walk around the pasture on the crust, but would occasionally break through and get a boot full of snow.

Our neighbors, Steve and Diana, have started sugaring. The buckets are out and the sap is dripping. They were boiling yesterday for a short run. It takes 40 gallons of sap to get one gallon of syrup. When they are boiling the sap the sugar shack is enveloped in steam and smoke.

The big pond is still frozen, but the little pond in the pasture is open. It gets more sun.


There's about two feet of snow in places. The first floor windows are partially blocked by the piles under the eaves. Welcome to spring.

Sugar time. The old Vermonters planted sugar maples along the roads, not for foliage display, but to facilitate collecting the sap.

Maizie has no trouble walking on top of the snow, we occasionally break through the crust, but haven't bothered with the snowshoes.

Judy and Diana gossiping over the fence.

The bucket has frozen and unfrozen sap. The tree is only losing sap from the spot where the spigot is plugged in. All the rest of the vascular bundles under the bark are intact.

Today it’s snowing. We’ve had about four inches of new stuff and all the trees are coated. Snow is sliding off the metal roof and thudding on the piles under the eaves. At times we have white out conditions. The power is out and the generator is running. It’s very beautiful, but I’m ready for it all to melt.


Today we have another three inches, so far, but it's slowly warming up and may turn to rain.

It's still beautiful, but I've had enough snow for this year.