This past weekend was the first official open house for the sugar shack. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. The sky was clear, bright blue and the sun was strong and warm – it must have reached 50 degrees. I didn’t check the thermometer because I was too busy greeting people! Usually the […]

I froze today! While most ladies were enjoying bon-bons and flowers for Valentine’s Day, I was out working with Joe getting the tubing ready for sugaring season. Couldn’t have asked for a better day with my Love! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_8R0pw87aM&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

The 2009 Massachusetts maple syrup season is over too soon for Joe and I. Our crop this year was down 20%, mostly because the temperature did not fluctuate enough for the sap to flow. The nights need to be below freezing and the days warm for the best production. If it just stays cold night and

Joe snapped this incriminating picture of Pearl and I resting in the sun as he left to go collect sap. Really, though, I was working! What’s a girl to do while she’s waiting for the maple syrup to heat up for bottling? Yeah, I’m earning my keep…this maple stuff is exhausting work, you know! We

Today we had a very special (and thin) visitor at the Hardwick Sugar Shack. Mr. Flat Stanley came all the way from Texas to see sap flow out of the sugar maple trees. God may bless Texas, as the song goes, but there’s not a maple tree in sight in the grand state. That’s why Mr.

In January, Joe and I bought some land near Moose Brook in Hardwick. It’s a beautiful spot…the river flows through the property, there’s great hiking, and of course there’s lots of sugar maple trees! The video below shows Joe and I last weekend at the new land, before our first open house of the 2009 season.