Its been cold the past four days. Highs in the 20s. Lows in single digits. It was 9 this morning. But the weather pattern is changing. Sunny today. Warmed to abut 30. The next week is forecast for 40s during the day and 20s at night. That’s sap weather. We started tapping today.

Got organized. Tractor took some time to warm up after sitting in the cold. The tapper would’t start. The spark plug was full of carbon. After cleaning the spark plug the tapper started on one pull. Into the woods by 8:30. Cold but sunny. Two person crew to start with. After an hour a third joined. Around 12:30 three more. That makes tapping much quicker. We got 418 out today. We’ll finish the remaining 82 tomorrow for 500 taps.

But Noon it warmed enough that some taps started dripping.

Back to the farmhouse by 3:00 PM.