I think we left off right about the time the weather broke and the sap started flowing. Well, flow it did. In nine days, we septupled the amount of syrup we made in the previous month. After that, we…

When snow drifts linger into late April and freezing rain challenges new blossoms, mother bears and their infant cubs seek out wetland edge habitats. Seepage areas and vernal pools, as well as bogs,…

Clambakes, fried clams, clam diggers, clam shacks ― we usually associate clams with the ocean. You may have also seen freshwater clams in rivers and lakes. But did you know there are clams that…

The black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is a woody member of the pea family (Fabaceae or Leguminosae), and a close examination of its winged flowers, bean-like pods, and pinnately compound leaves will…

Krummholz is the original bonsai. Stunted and gnarled, it grows in rugged environments: cliffs, mountaintops, canyon walls. Often very old, it inspires us with its tenacity in the face of harsh…

This week’s WITWIT is more of a WTHHH (What the heck happened here?).

And then it came. After weeks of historic cold, the weather finally broke on March 30. There’s a comic strip that hangs on the wall of our sugarhouse, where a sugarmaker drills a hole in a tree…

Harry Houdini was a great break-out artist: handcuffed, straight-jacketed, chained and submerged in water, he’d always emerge.  Raccoons are famous break-in artists. No chimney flue,…

One irony of ancient forests and wilderness areas – known for their absence of human imprint – is that their names conjure up associations with people. In the Sierras, the Mariposa Grove…

In maple country, it seems like everyone has a favorite syrup grade. Mine is U.S. Grade A dark amber. But soon, I’ll have to figure out how my favorite grade of the past jibes with a new system…

We’ve boiled twice since my last blog post, and both times were in support of pretty minor runs. Our season total is 67 gallons of syrup, which puts us at about 8 percent of a crop. Last year by…

Sent along by Mark Heitzman, who found them on his property in Barre, Vermont.

After the leaves fall in October, the mountains that rise toward the Canadian border north of Jackman, Maine, begin to wear their maple like a fuzzy, gray wool blanket. Sugar and red maple are…

I was enjoying a morning cup of coffee in the sunroom when I saw the hawk. It was perched across the road, maybe 30 yards away, its chest puffed up against the cold. It appeared to be eyeing the…

Everett Towle is retired, but plenty active. As a sixth generation resident of Buxton, Maine, Towle inherited several parcels of forestland. He added more over the years, and now owns eight different…

Until the 1940s, most Christmas trees were cut from forests. Now they’re harvested from tree plantations. The maple sugarbush may soon be making a similar move from forest to field. In 2009, Tim…

Every year, in mid-March, my family leaves Vermont and heads to Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley to get a jump on experiencing spring. Red-winged blackbirds are calling, chipmunks are foraging and…

A reader in southern Vermont submitted this collection of seven different cones (not all were found in the forest). Can you ID them all from left to right?

As our sugaring operation grows, it gets harder to tell where one season ends and the next begins. From a production standpoint, last season ended on April 9, 2013, which is a logical place to draw a…

Deep in the heart of the last ice age, at the bottom of a glacial lake, the clay babies were born. Before I tell you exactly what a clay baby is, here’s how to find one. Take a stroll along the…