2026 Race is on

It has been a relaxing winter season. The beehives are ready for spring, I remodeled my closet, and we have been doing a lot of baking. Although it has been cold, and snowy, we have been able to take projects on at a slower pace.

That ends this weekend.

With the recent warm spell and the end of February, it is time to tap some trees and kick off maple syrup season. I am washing out jars, ordering new lids, and getting equipment ready. Yesterday, I cleaned our reverse osmosis unit and installed new membrane filters. Despite an oncoming winter storm, the sap buckets will go into the woods this weekend.

Not only does March signal the end of winter, it brings the start of our busy season. While walking the dog today, Maggie found a couple of trees brought down by this week's windstorm. They need to be cut up for firewood. Three weeks of sugaring will be followed by starting seeds indoors. That will then lead to new bees to repopulate our hives. That will lead to tilling the garden and mucking out the coop. It all peaks with the planting of the garden in late May.

Last weekend it was 60 degrees, so I spent a day building a new coop for meat chickens. While it has been nice to relax this winter, it was nice to be outside building and working again. Soon, we will once again be outdoors more than indoors, which is the point of living here.