The snow is melting fast.  It was up to 50+ today.  Did not freeze.  It was sunny.  We knew we had to collect.  Started out just after 1:00 PM.  We picked up 330 gallons.  This gives us 3230 for the season.  Unless something unexpected changes with the weather today is likely the last collection.  We plan to start pulling taps on Friday. 

One of our trails through the woods had a lot of water and mud from the melting snow.  We avoided it because we didn’t want to get the tractor stuck and didn’t want to create big ruts.  It was  nice  to have a different pattern through the woods.  But it did mean we had to carry farther.

After collecting we stayed in the woods to clean the syrup pan.  This gives us a head start on tomorrow’s boiling. 

We have to check bottle inventory in the morning.  We need enough bottles and caps for about 18 gallons yet.   We should be OK with bottles but need to count caps carefully to verify we have enough.