forester.jake
.sap moon.
It's now 1:30 am...
There is something so amazingly wonderful about sugarin' late into the night- among my favorites is stepping away from the beehive of activity within the sugarhouse- the endless checking levels and flow of boiling sap in the evaporator and sap storage tanks, the endless stoking a rip roaring hot fire, 'snap, crackle, & poppin' away, the socializing with family and friends in the hot steamy sauna like conditions- and stepping outside alone into the cool dark night air.... just the quiet of the dark and the waxing moon silently slipping through the sleeping trees. All is asleep tonight, all but the maple trees still drip.drip.dripping into the buckets and the hearty breed of "sugarmakers" who wait and prepare and dream all year of a "perfect" evening such as tonight. Or this morning i should say :) I go up to the big old maples in the dark and pat them each a solemn thank you of appreciation. And marvel at the whole process of it all and the awesome symbiotic relationships with earth, moon, weather, & seasons. Yeah, i'm a treehugger and proud of it. And i know my other treehuggin friends know exactly what i'm talking about here... All is quiet and still out here in the dark but oh what a thrill to observe the bright lights of an old sugar house, the light from the old windows spilling onto the monsterous snowbanks, the beads and bands of light sneaking through the cracks of the old barnboards, steam from the boiling evaporator rolling out into the night air, the showers of sparks drifting up into the inky dark sky from the firetender stirring or stoaking the roaring fire under the pans...
Amongst all this activity i take a rare moment of peace and quietude with myself all alone to soak this all up and savor the moment... and enjoy the beautiful waxing sap moon drifting through the night sky and playing amonst the naked trees, casting all sorts of wonderful shadow patterns upon the snow. The full moon is tomorrow night, the infamous "full sap moon", the big one, the one all us crazy sugarmakers get excited about because it's the one that causes the biggest, largest, & hardest sap runs- the ones legends are made of and stories told in the sugarhouse for decades to come... I've lived quite a few of these amazing runs myself and have the stories to tell, the "big ones" of 5-plus gallons per tap, boiling all night-all day-all night for some marathon runs... Ahh, the stuff i live for!
Sadly, the clouds are rolling in and we are about to get a big wave a rain... bad news, sad news for us... rain will usually shut a sap run off and of course i'll be sad to not only miss the spectacular moon rise but miss out on some good photo ops too. Oh well, i AM thankful for what we DO have. And for now i'll just continue to enjoy and savor the moment for what it is... a most wonderful night :)
.sap moon.
It's now 1:30 am...
There is something so amazingly wonderful about sugarin' late into the night- among my favorites is stepping away from the beehive of activity within the sugarhouse- the endless checking levels and flow of boiling sap in the evaporator and sap storage tanks, the endless stoking a rip roaring hot fire, 'snap, crackle, & poppin' away, the socializing with family and friends in the hot steamy sauna like conditions- and stepping outside alone into the cool dark night air.... just the quiet of the dark and the waxing moon silently slipping through the sleeping trees. All is asleep tonight, all but the maple trees still drip.drip.dripping into the buckets and the hearty breed of "sugarmakers" who wait and prepare and dream all year of a "perfect" evening such as tonight. Or this morning i should say :) I go up to the big old maples in the dark and pat them each a solemn thank you of appreciation. And marvel at the whole process of it all and the awesome symbiotic relationships with earth, moon, weather, & seasons. Yeah, i'm a treehugger and proud of it. And i know my other treehuggin friends know exactly what i'm talking about here... All is quiet and still out here in the dark but oh what a thrill to observe the bright lights of an old sugar house, the light from the old windows spilling onto the monsterous snowbanks, the beads and bands of light sneaking through the cracks of the old barnboards, steam from the boiling evaporator rolling out into the night air, the showers of sparks drifting up into the inky dark sky from the firetender stirring or stoaking the roaring fire under the pans...
Amongst all this activity i take a rare moment of peace and quietude with myself all alone to soak this all up and savor the moment... and enjoy the beautiful waxing sap moon drifting through the night sky and playing amonst the naked trees, casting all sorts of wonderful shadow patterns upon the snow. The full moon is tomorrow night, the infamous "full sap moon", the big one, the one all us crazy sugarmakers get excited about because it's the one that causes the biggest, largest, & hardest sap runs- the ones legends are made of and stories told in the sugarhouse for decades to come... I've lived quite a few of these amazing runs myself and have the stories to tell, the "big ones" of 5-plus gallons per tap, boiling all night-all day-all night for some marathon runs... Ahh, the stuff i live for!
Sadly, the clouds are rolling in and we are about to get a big wave a rain... bad news, sad news for us... rain will usually shut a sap run off and of course i'll be sad to not only miss the spectacular moon rise but miss out on some good photo ops too. Oh well, i AM thankful for what we DO have. And for now i'll just continue to enjoy and savor the moment for what it is... a most wonderful night :)