Closed for skiing on March 12, Friday. Too warm and the road just went to mud. Very soft and muddy in quite a few places. So stay off for Friday, we will be skiing again on Saturday and Sunday, the temperature is suppose to drop and the road will freeze back up.

Ian will grind up the skiing for Saturday and Sunday, it will be a fast frozen granular.

The high temperature Friday 45º, and sunny, low Friday night 15º. Saturday’s high 34º and sunny, and Saturday night low, 23º. Sunday’s high temperature 32º and mostly sunny.

The road on Saturday will still be rutty and potholed, but will harden back up. Remember when dealing with mud. Aim high, drive slow, don’t stop.

We will be boiling on Friday, after we gather the rest of the sap. Time to sweeten the pans.

Cliff asked how many gallons of syrup per cord of firewood. On our evaporator, set up the way it is, my best guess, is about 20 gallons of syrup per cord of wood.

Open, 38º at 7 am and cloudy. Expected high 60º and sun and clouds. Good spring skiing, corn snow and all trails open.

The road was firm this morning, but it will soften up and get muddy. If/when you hit mud, aim high, drive slow and don’t stop.

We are getting ready to make maple syrup!!!!! The sugar house is almost back together and ready to fire. The buckets are gathered, the tubing line tanks will be pumped today. And then we will fire it up. The first day is called sweetening the pans. You boil and boil and boil and you maybe you make some syrup. Remember 40 gallons of sap makes 1 gallon of syrup.

Open, 23º and sunny. Another beautiful day for a spring ski. Forecast high 49º and sunny. All trails open, really good spring skiing. Fast in the morning and slow as the sun hits the snow and the temperatures warm up. The snow started to slow down about 9:30 am yesterday. The opposite happens in the late afternoon. In about 10 minutes the skiing can go from slow to fast. (Or fun depending on your point of view.)

Spring skiing yesterday was faster in the shade and slower in the sun. This might happen again today.

The road started to get muddy and soften in spots yesterday. It froze overnight, but will soften today and get soft in spots again. Remember, drive slow, aim high, don’t stop.

We are getting ready to sugar. Making maple syrup is a labor of love. Yesterday Ian and Sverre tapped the long tubing lines. Chuck and Sverre started tapping the buckets. Ian and Mindy put together two more lines on the hill above our house. Today Chuck and Sverre will finish the buckets and get tanks at the bottom of the tubing lines. Whew!

We always see the beauty of sugaring, but in reality a lot of sugaring looks like this.

All the tanks go out today to collect the sap. The biggest to the sugar house to feed sap into the evaporator. The small tanks go on the bottom of sap lines to collect the tubing sap. And the medium tank sits in the trailer to “gather” all the sap together, either emptying buckets, or pumping from the tubing tanks. The sap is then pumped to the sugar house. You got it, the sap is moved around, a lot!

Open, 30º at 7 am. clouds and sun. Clouds and sun today with an expected high of 42º. Good spring skiing, all trails open.

Trail information: Woodcock, Snow Goose have a skate lane, everyone is loving this. And I have heard there are leaves and pine needles in the tracks on the Middle and Upper Blue Jay, which slow you down. The Chickadee is good, but best when the temperature or the sun soften it.

Spring skiing is harder and faster in the morning and late afternoon in general. This also varies with the day temperature and the night temperature.

Wednesday and Thursday will all be the 50s. Friday 48º. I will let you know here if, for any reason, we have to close any of those days. Friday night is going to be around 22º, and Saturday and Sunday 33º, with the temperature in the teens Friday and Saturday nights. The weekend will be a loose frozen granular snow. Fast and fun for some people. Hard and scary for other people. This information is all just FYI.