3/22/08

Saturday, 9:30 AM. 20 degrees, wind E, calm, barometer predicts sunny skies. Skies partly cloudy with some haze. The moon was full last night, and set just about daybreak. It was almost as light as day most of the night.
There was no sap run yesterday, and probably will be none today. Next week, predicted to be in the mid-thirties, should produce a good run and lots of work. To quote John Burroughs, 1886, “A sap run is the sweet goodbye of winter.” And Robert Boyle, 1663, “There is in some parts of New England a kind of tree whose juice…doth congeal into a sweet and saccharine substance.” Both quotes are from the excellent maple sugar web site of the College of St. Benedict/Saint John’s University, Collegeville, MN.