Week of 3/3/25

This week the weather started warm and cloudy with it getting up to 51 degrees by Monday afternoon. I took hay up to the cows on the ridge this afternoon. The crane and geese are flying north in huge flocks today, spring must be here. I saw 8 deer in one herd today, which is the most I have seen in one herd in a long time. The trees started to sap some this afternoon. Ruth is still quite sick.

Tuesday was still warm and cloudy with light rain starting by mid-afternoon and getting heavier by the evening. I got the first sap in today with 360 gallons. The sugar in it is about average at 2.4. It is the first cooking of the season. Ruth is feeling somewhat better today.

Wednesday was cloudy and wet after 1.4” of rain last night. We had a mix of snow and rain this morning, with that getting done around noon but then getting very windy for the rest of the day. I had time today to go to Dodgeville to take care of some business.

Thursday it had cooled off with a low of 22 and a high of 40, getting back to the syrup weather. However, it was mid-afternoon before the trees thawed out and the sap began to flow so I didn’t get to cook today. I had a couple of visitors from Mt. Horeb come to the farm thinking we would be cooking. I was sorry to disappoint them.

Friday was a cloudy wet & snowy day and quite cool with a low of 23 and a high of 40. We had enough sap, a little over 300 gallons to start up the cooker. I got our first syrup of the season. The 2” of wet snow we got was all gone by the evening.

Saturday was warm and sunny with a high of 52 after a morning low of 19. We got a good sap flow once the trees thawed out. Started cooking at about 3 in the afternoon and got the 400 gallons of sap cooked down to syrup by 8 in the evening.

Sunday was a warm and sunny day, getting up to a high of 56 with a low in the morning of 23. I got 500 gallons today and started cooking again at 2 in the afternoon and got done at 8 p.m. Sunday evening. That ended a busy week.

-Helmuth Krause