We are getting ready!

By: Marieanne Coursen, Agricultural Interpreter

Jiggs and Buckwheat wait patiently while I unchain the pole we brought up from the drive shed. It will be the top of our nineteenth-century fire arch:

 
Cement block fire arch in progress:

Arches up, picnic tables in place, firewood stacked and covered:

Farmer Wayne tapping a maple tree on The Farmers’ Museum grounds along Route 80:

Farmer Wayne ready for me to ask Jiggs and Buckwheat to move the cart on to the next tree:

Sap dripping!

Barrels being filled daily with water to swell the wood so that they will hold the sap:

This Sunday starts Sugaring Off at The Farmers’ Museum!    I can’t wait to see all our old friends and meet lots of new folks, too.  As always, there is a great breakfast to be had in the Louis C. Jones Center in our main barn, our shops will be open, the schoolhouse will have fun activities, maple goodies will be baking in the More House oven, the blacksmiths will be banging their hammers, and of course we will be gathering and boiling sap and doling out jack wax.  Come dressed for mud and let’s talk maple!