sugaring!

I now am in NH during one of the coolest seasons of the year - maple sugaring season. This is when people rush to put taps into all of their maples, collect a ton of sap (literally), and boil it down into maple syrupy deliciousness. Sap runs in maple trees when the temperatures freeze, then thaw. Somehow that causes the sap to flow up, and you can collect that sap without hurting the tree.

With 40 gallons of sap, you get 1 gallon of maple syrup. The farm we visited, already made 125 gallons of syrup. Syrup. Do the math - that is a lot! Back in the old days, farmers would collect sap from buckets with a horse drawn sled, but now the lines make it a lot easier.

The farm's owner, John, has been sugaring his whole life and among other things, fixes up tractors and cars, like this 1942 Chevy firetruck. As for sugaring, John still gets sugaring heat from wood.

If he switched to oil, what would he do with his time? It would be like watching sap boil. Not a bad life. And pretty tasty too!