Into the woods by 10:00 AM to open trails and dump buckets. Was much easier today to drive the trails with the H to pack down the snow. Temperature was warmer so the snow actually packed. The snow was loose and fluffy yesterday because it was colder. That made is harder to drive through. All the main trails are open. One more trail would be nice to open, but the snow is too deep yet. We’ll try tomorrow again.
Then dumped ice and sap from all the buckets. Any sap was a week old and degraded. Weather was warm last Friday and Saturday. Then we had the blizzard and cold weather that made ice blocks in the buckets. The buckets and covers come through the blizzard mostly intact: only a few covers off and only one bucket down completely. But Noon the ice melted enough that we could empty the bucket and ice block.
The trees were dripping. We are ready for fresh sap. Not sure if we collect tomorrow or Saturday.
30 overnight. Sunny this morning shifting to mostly sunny this afternoon. Temperature in the upper-30s.
Back to the farmhouse by 2:00 PM.