Thawing out...

It has been a rather long, very cold winter in Central New York.  Our first 8 inches of snow fell on Thanksgiving day.  And, with the exception of one unusual week in December, we've had snow cover....

Lady joined me for a walk, Nov. 27, 2013

...at least at our elevation....ever since!  We've had record cold temps all over the northeast this winter, which meant too many days in which we did not even break out of the single digits.   

Brrrrr!  




Needless to say, I have been carefully watching for signs of spring and thawing out for several weeks now.  So, without further ado, I have some promising "signs" to share with you......

The birds are coming around, again! In addition to this little guy, and the gorgeous robin below, my resident bluejay, who insisted upon dining on our cat food last spring, is back! 

(He still prefers the cat food to bird seed...oh, well...)

Places in our woods that were frozen solid less than 2 weeks ago, are now flowing, crystal clear water....

  And, most importantly, of course..........

Sap is flowing from our maple trees! 


According to the 10-day weather forecast for this area, we should have sap every day in the coming week.  And, so long as we have those cold nights to complement our warmer days, we can keep collecting sap and making syrup. 


I can't help but grin when I lift our bucket lids to see 5 inches of sap inside, and that steady drip...drip...drip... from the spile!

William was excited to discover nearly 30 gallons in our high-vac gravity system's collection drum this afternoon!

















Oh, yeah!  Speaking of signs, we added one of our own to the farm today, too..........

We now have enough bottled for folks who want to stop by, and we expect to be boiling and bottling a bunch more this week.  We're looking forward to meeting many new people, as well as sharing with our family and friends. 
Next week, we'll have a 4H group visiting the farm to learn about maple syrup production.  Learning is what we are all about, so come on over if you're curious!  What fun this is going to be!