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The old sugarhouse still sits peacefully in the woods, its joints creaking with the wind, its wood slowly decaying as young maple trees grow up around it. The first picture was taken in the 1960's and the second picture was taken last week.  

The summer of 2023 must have been very good for bears in Northern Vermont.  We saw quite a few bears and saw signs (scat, foot prints, scratch post, etc) of many more.  We don't usually have any problems with bears, we collect sap from the sugar maple trees and the bears go about their business being bears.  Occasionally an inquisitive bear will bite through the plastic lines we use to collect sap. This causes a vacuum and sap leak and we have to go out into the woods and isolate the problem and repair it. But this isn't too often and mostly...

We all like a sweet treat now and then, some of us more than others.  But for baking, cooking, and adding to your coffee what's the best sweetener?  Well from an environmental impact perspective and from a health perspective we think maple sugar is the clear winner.  Maple sugar is made by boiling down maple syrup, stirring until it crystalizes, and sifting. Nothing is added and no extensive processing.  Maple syrup is made from boiling the sap of maple trees, again nothing added and no extensive processing. The maple trees are in a natural forest that require no outside resources (like fertilization,...

This was our second year participating in the "Birder Broker" program  sponsored by The Vermont Center for Ecostudies. This is an annual survey by an expert birder in our woods during the summer breeding season to identify  the species present.  Nathaniel Sharp has conducted the survey for us both years and his ability to identify birds based on their calls and a quick glimpse in the woods is amazing. The survey consists of walking a mile loop and noting the number of each species present.  The same route is used three times, one week apart.  All of the data is entered onto a database...