February 25 - February 28/29 Slush

2010- After four days of shoveling  eight or more inches of something very like wet cement, and my arms and back and shoulder aching from it, what else could it be?  And it says so much; the offspring of the snow of winter mating with the warmth of spring, the frozen white crust slowly turning green with the water melt running underneath. After freeing one of these rivulets with the shovel, it gains momentum joining others in the trip down the driveway forming a miniature river complete with waterfalls and rapids.

The last winter storm;
Green snow undermines white ice,
Stream sweeps it away.

2011- Much the same weather this year, but on top of a foot of snow. As it warms and rains there’s the likelihood of more flooding than last year.  I saw flies yesterday, the ones that fly in dizzy circles that I drew in a cartoon. I’m a little ahead of last year in gathering sugaring supplies-drill charged, tubing and spouts ready. When it stops raining I can set up the fireplace and stack wood but I think it will be difficult with all the fallen wood being buried in snow.  I love the sound of rain at all times, but right snow it’s the sound of the loosening of winter’s iron grasp; the sound of life beginning to flow again through the veins of trees and animals and us, too.
2012-Maple sap is continuing to run and I hope to boil down another batch on Friday after this next snow, sleet, freezing rain, rain event passes through. I covered the wood I have but it will be a challenge to find enough dry.
Out at the reservoir the eagles were busy rebuilding the nest that blew down in the August hurricane.  One swept in right in front of me landing on a branch where it hopped about a bit and then leaned over and broke a branch off and flew away with it. Why that particular tree and branch. Obviously it can tell dead branches from live even when they are leafless.
2013-Perfect forecast next week, supplies gathered, wood stacked and covered; we’re getting good at this syrup making. So of course the next instinct is to ramp up-find more trees, collect more sap, even if the trees are on other properties, requiring driving to pick up. Really? My syrup partner is all excited about this but I push back. I like it small. Some is enough. I remember working at the bakery when it was new: a small operation, one wood fired oven, productive and efficient, but human sized.  Then sadly, since more is more, another oven was built and pressure increased to work faster and produce more. By the time I left it was beginning to feel like a factory and now I hear the whole operation is moving to extensive new quarters and actually will be a factory. I know the saying ‘grow or die‘, but is it true? It seems human activities grow until they bloat, eating everything in their way and then collapsing under their own weight. That’s not what I see around me, surely not what the trees say.