more syrup and ticks

Can we make more syrup today? Last night it was below freezing. Two days ago Sylvan spent the whole morning gallivanting about the yard in his underwear. I love this about sugaring, getting up close and in the face of the season change. Watching as new life emerges from the thaw, like ticks. Dylan was out on the Other Side of the Deep Woods and said they were plentiful, he put his head down at knee height and said you could see them on every branch along the deer trails waiting for a passerby to cling to. We need to allow the coyotes and mountain lions back in to eat the white footed mice that carry the lime disease. We need some wild creatures to thin the deer populations that carry the little beasts. We need healthy populations of wild birds that want to gobble the little creatures down.
I digress, our business at hand is making syrup, and today we may make more, it may be grade B, but that is the most requested variety we have so...
Next post will be on Sols' tree tapping experiment.