After tapping and using buckets, we have about 5 weeks before the tap holes dry up from natural healing processes, so we wait until the last minute-- a gamble, but if we tap now and, like last year, the best runs are in mid April, we might totally miss it.
Yesterday Scott and I took the chainsaws and went through the maple sap trails and cleaned up the down trees, branches and brush so the tractor will have an easy path. We still need to do some trimming small prickly ash shoots that grow back near the maples each year from the stub.
Sunday afternoon, windy and cold, Margo and I took a short trip to see what was in the open water areas. We didn't hit the St Croix, instead stopping at Holmes Lake on Trade River and Atlas at the dam and lake.
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| The ground just south east of the dam was green with a ground cover all through the trees and brush. Escaped from the yard it appears. |
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| A narrow area up from the Atlas dam and around to the west -- from Hwy B where it goes south. |
Holmes Lake
