Farm Friday, March 24th, 2023
Northern Lights and maple syrup
This week we had perfect weather to make maple syrup. Every night it froze, and all the mud on the road hardened up. Every day it thawed and turned the gravel road into soup. This freeze-thaw cycle is like a pump for maple sap. The freeze builds pressure inside the tree and the thaw releases the sap. When the tree thaws completely, the pressure equalizes outside and inside the tree, and the sap stops flowing. But then on a clear night, it will freeze again and start the pump back up again. A series of cold nights and warm days is called a “sap run.” We had a little run this week. More to come.
The birds are back too. The poor robins are here right on time, even though there is still one to two feet of snow in most places. The sandhill cranes are calling from high up and my friend reports her first red-winged blackbird. We saw a red-tailed hawk today that was getting harassed by two crows, and bald eagles have been seen every day for two weeks — mostly feeding on the dead deer that the melting snow has been revealing by the side of the roads.
It was supposed to be a slow week for the farm. The students went home last Friday and we just had the usual background work to do. Monday and Tuesday a volunteer came out and we spent time starting seeds for the school’s plant sale. In looking at my spreadsheets, I realized that we were a week late for starting those tomatoes and peppers and flowers. Oops.
That night I had what I call my “farming dream.” It is a recurring dream with the same situation, and only details that change. Often I am doing chores and I find that there are animals in the barn that I have been supposed to be caring for, but have been forgetting. It is the same dream as when I find that I am registered for a class in college but have been forgetting to go and it is the middle of the semester.
On Monday night, in the dream, I was going golfing with a friend (not something I do normally) and we were all set to tee off and I had forgotten where I put my clubs. I looked all over for them and I felt bad because my friend was ready to go and kept having to let people go in front of us. At one point I noticed it was getting dark, and I had missed the opportunity to play at all. Yikes! My subconscious might be telling me I need better systems to remember when to start which seeds.
Then on Thursday night, my Facebook was popping with people near me who said that they were seeing northern lights. I went out to shut the chicken door and I didn’t see anything special except a glow to the north. Then I went to sleep and my partner woke me up at 11:15 to say that people very close to us had sent an email saying the aurora was AMAZING tonight. So we went out and, sure enough, it was like being in a cathedral of light. It had been ten years since I have seen it so bright. There was a green glow across the northern sky and every second or so it would throw a cloud of white that would spread across a part of the sky and disappear as quickly as it appeared, only to be replaced by more flashes of light in another part of the sky. It was silent, but if it had a soundtrack, I imagine organ music.
I did not get any photos of the northern lights last night, but here is a Facebook post from a friend of a friend who took a time-lapse of the whole night:
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