Time to Tap

I woke up feeling horrible. Contemplating life, love and the pursuit of happiness. The weather started out gray and dreary which made getting out of bed all the harder. Fortunately the clouds lifted and the sun came out in force- melting the snow and actually heating the house through the south facing windows. "Time to tap the trees," I thought. I've been thinking about taping my trees all winter. "This year I'm really going to do it," I said to myself. The challenge was getting all the supplies together- especially on a budget. Last Sunday after church I talked with a couple members of the "Men's Group" responsible for the church's sugar bush operation. Dougherty asked, "Got any maple trees on your property?" "Yes, I said and I'd like to tap some" "Need any spickets? I've got some and some buckets if you need them," he added. So there was my blessing. He delivered 11 buckets and spickets to my door the next day. When I mentioned that I still didn't know how I'd boil all the sap down, he suggested, "Got a turkey fryer?" No, I didn't but my friend Barb did! She received it a year ago for Christmas but hadn't even taken it out of the box. Another blessing. So this afternoon, I and my two dogs, Ollie and Harry headed to the far corner of my six acre backyard to the little grove of old maple trees. The melting snow crunched under our feet as we sank in closer to the earth. As I slowly drilled into each tree and added the spicket the dogs first explored and then sat in the sun next to one very large maple and watched. And I tasted the sap as it came out of each tree to make sure it indeed was a sugar maple. And my body absorbed the sun reflecting off of the snow and the trees. And I listened to the crows and the chickadees calling to their friends, and I felt healed for the day.