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	March 8th through 11th, 2012

During tapping weekend I, 120 maple trees were holed. Twice as many were to be spiled this weekend.

Buckets were first ATV'd up to the trees and later, when the warm weather made the road too soft, sledded up.

240 additional trees were given holes.

And spiles and buckets.

Just after noon on Saturday, the sap started to run.

Sap was collected on Sunday.

240 gallons were pulled from the woods by the time the collecting was over.

Cookers were fired and sap started its journey towards syrup.

Lots of snow is still in the woods, but Knott lane ended the weekend snow free.

All during the tapping process, there was ice on the lake and a water-slush mix on top of that ice. I would guess that the ice is over 15 inches thick. I regret not drilling a hole to check it. I also lament not putting up the rain gauge before we left. I think we got almost half of an inch of rain by Monday afternoon but again that's just a guess. Looking at the shore, the lake may be a bit lower than it was at ice in. Boo. Active springs and all that snow on the watershed should push it up a bit. We need a really wet spring.<br><br><br>-Nemo predicts ice-out and golf are just a few weeks away.

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