How is your season so far. We have had a lot of sap in a short period of time. Since we are moonlighters we have been boiling nonstop for the past 2 weeks. You have to make hay while the sun shines! How is your season going?

Hi. I'm having an event-filled sugaring season this year. I'm boiling while trying to build a sugar shack at the same time! This has led to several near-misses with the sap pan and we are going to have an abundance of thick sticky syrup because of it. No burns yet, thank goodness. Also, in my haste to get the taps in, I grabbed an old brace bit that I thought read "5/16". I merrily drilled my holes (with my trusty old brace from boat-building days) and tapped in my spouts. They felt a little looser than they should have. So, I looked again at the bit (this time with my glasses on) and guess what it reads? "6/16"! Who's ever heard of that? Well, needless to say, I now have leaky spouts and have had to go back and wind gaskets around each one...

We are a small operation; just homesteaders with ~30 taps. We've got a Leader Junior evaporator. The shack is down in the woods near the edge of a bog. We love watching the spring unfold. The ice thaws, the red-winged blackbirds come back. It's lovely. The kids love every minute of it. And so do I.

We have about 300 gallons to boil this weekend whether it runs or not.

I think it will be a good show. The temps are a bit on the cool side, but we'll have a fire going in the front room and the evap cranking, so it should be toasty in our sugarhouse.

We are doing great, learning more each year and getting the hang of it.

We'll be around this weekend if anyone wants to stop by. Take I - 95 to exit 132 and go on Rt. 139 12.2 miles to the Burrill Hill Road, take 2.2 miles and our sugarhouse is on the Skowhegan/Norridgewock town line. We'll do tours, collect buckets and have fun! Wear boots and dress warmly if you want to walk around, because the snow is still deep. You won't need snowshoes because the snow is pretty hard nowadays.

We pulled our taps last weekend and are finishing up the last of the near syrup from the evaporator. We made over 36 gallons, which is our best season ever. If we hadn't run out of wood we may have made some more. We also ran out of plastic jugs and we would have run out of our wives patience if we had kept boiling. All in all it was a great season.