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March 2nd through 8th

There was some snow and a few mornings fell into the teens (°F) but last week had more of a Spring shine than a Winter residue. It was time. Time to enter the ice-out contest. Time to check the lake ice. But mostly, it was time to put holes in maples, collect sap, and fire the cookers. Early in the week, an egg sighting in the nest on Lake Metonga's shore made the entire week feel more Springy. Blue sky and sunshine for much of the week made it even more Springy. Full on sun and above freezing days have not been kind to the Southern Bottle Rocket War fort.. It was worse for the Northern rampart. At the start of the week over 100 trees were spiled and bucketed. We'd be remiss if we did not comment on the snow in the woods around Lake Lucerne. It's deep. If not for the ATV with the feet, many men would have been lost to the deep drifts and roaming yeti. At the end of the week, an inch of predicted snow turned out to be closer to 6 inches, but you could still hear water running all around the lake. The sheet of ice that is Knott Lane was made better by the coating of white. The warm weather on the weekend made it even finer. Many of the sugarbush around the lake were a beehive of activity as local tappers scrambled crews to hole the trees. We tapped out on the weekend just in time for the first good run of the season. Normally, our first run is measured in pints with the bottoms of the buckets just covered over. This season started with a few overflowing buckets and pain for those that didn't properly stretch before trudging the trails. Just before sap gathering, it was discovered that Knottlane's primary cooker had issues. The predicted collecting squad was shorted as some of the men were sent to Menards. News of the full buckets hit the camp and auxiliary cookers were pressed into service to struggle to stay ahead of the trees. Sunday was close to bleeding into Monday before the primary cooker was repaired and the camp was up to full strength. By Sunday's sunset, there were large puddles covering much of the lake ice and 100 gallons of sap headed for syrup in the secondary cooker. Tapping season's first real run is about a week early this year. In the rush to get all that sweet pancake topping, we didn't have the time to get a lake ice check. It's estimated that under those lake puddles floats about 17 inches of hard ice. We'll get an actual check soon. It's looking like an early ice-out, but that could change faster than you can say ZOMBIE WINTER.<br><br>-Nemo's not so tanned, not so rested, not so ready. At least there is symmetry.

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