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A Sappy Schooner

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Good morning everyone. “Oh what a beautiful morning….” The sun is rising through the trees. The robin red breast will have a sore throat if it keeps up its present vocal pace. The hairy woodpecker has got to have a headache by now. Nature is going crazy out there. And so are we!

I pulled in the maple taps for the season yesterday and am boiling down the last of the sap as I write. The finale of the sap run makes dark cooking grade syrup but no less delicious than the early amber syrup. I am sad at the thought of seeing this annual ritual end. It is as sweet to my soul as it is to my taste buds.

We spent yesterday painting, as advertised, and the crew did a tremendous job. Today we paint the beige tops of the cabin houses and start tarring the rig. The smell of tar is another one of those annual rites that stirs my soul. Just the smell of pine tar somehow triggers the innate nautical creature in all of us here. Just think of the sailors that for hundreds of years have been preserving their vessels, the rigging, and their lives with the boiled sap of pine tree stumps (that is an over simplification but you get the point). Pine tar is good for dandruff too. My guess is that by days end the crew will have healthy scalps and we will all be enjoying a healthy rig.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Photo by the death defying Jim Dugan. We love you Jim!
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