Yesterday, the Angels gave us the thumbs up. It was time to tap the maple trees for maple sugaring.

We greeted each tree as a beloved friend.

Our support staff for tapping was a bit thin on the ground. The Sheehan sugaring crew of yore is scattered to the four winds.

Just when the kids get big enough to haul the sap buckets, they get big enough to spend March in their own lives! Can you imagine?

Ben is off on a golf junket to Alabama for his spring break away from his teaching post. Lizzy is rock climbing in California for her spring break away from her teaching post. Emily’s spring break has come and gone and she is back in Maine, searching through snowdrifts for her lost cell phone.

William holds up the rear guard. Yesterday however, nothing could tempt him to join us in hauling sap buckets through snow drifts.

He noted that once we had trampled out paths to each tree, he would be happy to go on collecting runs with me. He will be as good as his word on this, because he actually does like the collecting runs.

But for tapping, it was just me and Jim.

And it was a lovely couple of hours.