Sugar Season.

3-18-21 VERMONT: The Ides of March have come and gone. St Pat’s Day has past. It’s still winter here, but signs of spring are visible. We still have a ton of snow around the house, but the sunny spots are showing bare ground, and those areas are getting bigger. The piles under the eaves are huge. In past years they have lasted well into April.

At the base of the foundation on the south side of the house, the sun has warmed the bricks enough to melt the snow, and the snowdrops have responded with flowers just opening.

The sugar maples are festooned with metal buckets collecting the running sap, and Steve and Diana are boiling at the sugar shack.

The road varies between frozen and muddy depending on the ambient temp. Today it’s muddy, the temp is around forty and there’s a steady drizzle. 

New blooms: Snowdrops.

Snowdrops bloom almost as soon as they're free of the snow.

Along the road, the maple are giving it up. The roads are often lined with maples for convenient sap collection. There are probably two dozen buckets on these trees.

Here's a bucket from a few days ago when it was colder and the sap was frozen.

Sweetness happening. Smoke and steam are pouring out of the top of the shack.

Our replenished wood shed. Stacking by Sam and Lily. Thanks, Guys.