heat wave

   Our regular February thaw is here and we have taps in about fifteen trees.  Yesterday's harvest is only seventeen gallons of sap; this only cooks down to about five cups of syrup, but don't they look good?  "Liquid gold", too, as each pint represents a good deal of work; the boys, however, consider anything outdoors an improvement on doing schoolwork if the temperature rises above freezing (and even when it doesn't).