Signs of Spring

Mount Israel Road

Three nearly back-to-back Nor’Easters have restored the snowpack here in Sandwich, New Hampshire, but it’s officially spring now, and the signs are clear. Longer days (and daylight savings time) mean that we’re fixing supper while it’s still light out, and the roads are giving way to the inevitable at this time of year — mud.

A neighbor was enjoying a visit from her daughter and grandsons when the subject of rutted roads came up. “What’s a rut?” asked the preschooler who lives in Washington, DC. Oh, my. No shortage of examples around here. The Sandwich Road Crew valiantly combats the havoc wreaked by the change of seasons — lingering frost heaves on paved roads and deep ruts and gelatinous mud on dirt roads. A layer of ground up recycled asphalt on top of loads of loose rock are a help, until they are inevitably, inexorably sucked into the mud.

Booty Farm Beauty

Happily, the lengthening days herald the renewed vigor of the farm chickens and the resulting eggs. Hallelujah! Slowed winter production and the hens’ hobby of hiding eggs meant that we had to purchase eggs for a while. (Steve once found a cache of 40 eggs squirreled away in the barn.) But no money can buy an egg that holds a candle to ours. Hens that scurry about the farm snacking from the compost pile and grazing under the bird feeders lay the most gorgeous, delicious eggs. Just look at that color. That is a beautiful egg.

Also on the bright side, milder temperatures during the day and freezing temperatures at night get the sap running in maple trees. Booty Family Farm is deep into sugaring season now, in all its vagaries. A passing snow storm might not stop the flow, but a deep freeze will.

country style ice cubes

Recently, we emptied the sap buckets of ice blocks in order to make room for the new flow. We collected only 90 gallons of sap (compared to a good day of 700 gallons), but our efforts were rewarded in two days when the buckets were brimming with sap, and drops pinged into the emptied buckets as the flow continued.

Diane at the fire box

Steve has already spent close to two hundred hours in the sugar house boiling the sap down into liquid gold. At times he sends sap collectors out while he tends the firebox, and occasionally Diane ably takes the helm of the evaporator. The Booty girls — Rachel, Hannah, and Robin — grew up in the sugar house, eating Diane’s magical popcorn and sipping maple tea ladled out by their dad, our Peter. Now Steve does the same for Elsa, and occasionally she curls up in a nest on the floor, alongside family dog Briar, and snoozes as her father finishes up an evening boil.

Nate the Great

Normally, sugaring season would be accompanied by lambing, but the former ram Russell has proven to be a hard act to follow. Russell was a brawny fellow, but Nate, a young purebred Romney from Southern New Hampshire, seems to have issues, primarily in the stature department.  Simply put, Nate is a bit on the short side. It looks as though he may have only been able to get his job done with one ewe. (***See the April Update below!!!!)

In the photo, Nate is the conspicuous little guy with dreadlocks.  He looks chill, but he needs to rev it up a bit, if you know what I mean, in order to live up to his moniker. The good news is that Steve at least has the prospect of getting a good night’s sleep between rounds of sap collection and sugar house boils. Hopefully he’ll get a deer this fall.

I love seeing the sugar house in spring billowing wood smoke and maple steam. “All is well,” it seems to say, “Life is sweet.”

*** APRIL UPDATE! News flash! Nate has fathered eight lambs and counting! (Two little rams just yesterday!)  Click here to go to my YouTube channel and watch Elsa bottle feeding a wee ram named Joey 🙂