Endless Winter

The air temperatures for the second week in April were about 15 to 20 degrees (°F) below normal. Despite the freakish cold, there were some signs of Spring.

There were more signs of Winter though. The condition of Knott Lane took a turn for the worse. At least that's mostly gravel under the snow. Mostly.

The cooler weather has extended tapping season and the snow-weary were called to the sap mines just off the western shore.

Mining sap has soaked up all the time reserved for boring a hole in the lake to check the ice. The ice in the sap buckets was this thick.

By the end of the week, enough sap had been boiled down to syrup for bottling. Just over eleven gallons were pushed through the plate filter.

The color of the syrup is quite light for this time of year.

That's four batches (samples from each batch from left to right) so far. The taste is becoming more "Maple-y" (that's good) and the color, as noted earlier is still light amber (that's good too).

All during the syruping process, a local eagle soared overhead looking for signs of Spring (to eat).

It was noted that Winter does not seem to be observing traffic signs this Spring.

Some of the snow squalls we've seen this week rival any of those from earlier in the year.

It's snowing. Hard. Again. Truth be known though, we are hoping that the snow does not turn to rain before sap collecting time. Collecting the one to two hundred gallons of sap resting half frozen in buckets during a snow storm is not great fun. Collecting in a driving rain is less so. My guess is we'll get both. Yay. Warmer weather is predicted for next week. I'll try to get an ice measurement soon. If you're planning to golf this week at NCC, bring orange balls and a snowblower.

-Nemo's sighing in a winter wonderland.

Endless Winter

April 9th through 15th, 2013