We got the sap run we were hoping for after the cold of yesterday.   This morning started sunny but very windy.   Got up to the high 30s quickly.   We checked the buckets in the morning.  Not much happening.  The spouts were wet but not running.   It looked like the cold wind would inhibit the sap run.    By Noon the wind quieted down and it warmed rapidly.   Got into the low 60s.    The trees responded.   By 2:30 PM visitors were reporting buckets ½ full to full.   So we got the tractor and set out to collect.   Picked up 420 gallons of sap.   This puts as at 2020 gallons of sap for the season so far.

We also bottled this afternoon.  We had a lot of help so the crew went out collecting while we stayed to bottle.  29 quarts.  

The wind did bring down a “widow maker” from a tree.  Broken tree branches that are caught in the tree and have not yet fallen are called widow makers because if they fall on you then can kill you.     Husbands were the ones working in the woods so the wife would become a widow if one of these branches fell on him.    One tree by the sugar house had a large widow maker.   We have been cautious of it all season and were hoping it would come down safely.   Sometime overnight the wind did bring down most of it.   There is still one branch caught in the tree.  

Tomorrow more cooking.  And maybe collect again.  It will not freeze tonight so the trees will drip all night.