Sugar Season’s End

There’s a poignancy to the end of sugaring.  We talked around the dinner table about whether there would be more good sap, whether it was worth boiling again.

Someone remarked how unusual it is to finish sugaring when there’s still snow on the ground.

“Call it!” someone else said. And that, more or less, was  it.

There’s lots of clean-up to do, and the urgency is gone.  Now the trees are all revisited,  taps pulled out of the holes.  Equipment is cleaned and restored.

The crew is tired from the intensity of the season, keeping up with all-night sap runs.   Bugs are back.  Colts-foot is up. The phoebe sings.

The rush of spring is on.