March winds

The winter that wasn't. My prediction for tons of snow couldn't have been more off. We had 80F degree temps several days last week. Our road turned into a swamp. My driveway ate a truck. Willow saw a butterfly. I was bitten by mosquitoes. We saw a bunch of ladybugs.

My lilacs are budding. Crocus and snowdrops are blooming. Ticks are everywhere.

Then the North winds came down yesterday. The ground refroze last night. The chicken water froze all day long. The winds are gusting enough to shake the house.

No one knows what to make of the weather. MY goats keep coming into strong heat, including my senior doe that didn't even show much heat last fall. The migratory birds have returned.

I was a little late in getting the maple taps in. I put in 10 taps and got about 16 gallons of sap in two runs. That made about a quart of delicious maple syrup. That's an estimate since I put it up in fancy jelly jars and cool jars I saved, like the charming little squat better than bullion jars. I just boiled the jars for ten minutes to sterilize, and then poured the hot syrup in and inverted them until cool.

The heat last week put an end to the sap run. Maine Maple sunday was this past sunday, and I bet no one was running fresh sap through the evaporators! I left some poor trees with the taps in, cince it was supposed to come off cold again. I think I will pull them, though, since it takes many smoky hours boiling the sap down(if there is another run) for syrup and I am feeling lazy. :)

We are all actually hoping that we don't slip back into a typical Maine spring, because everything is so far ahead of season that a cold snap could be devastating.