I'd have to say I have never been a fan of March, the mud, pot holes, frost heaves, unpredictable weather, and dirty ugliness have never really appealed to me. However there are two parts of March that I do like, college basketball brackets and maple sugaring.
While my college basketball bracket usually depends on where my friends go to school, the attractiveness of their star players, or the color of their uniforms my experience with maple sugaring has been much more hands on, but old fashioned.
Yes, that is a much younger me tapping trees in the backyard of my parents home in South Starksboro, the old fashioned way. My dad's maple sugaring operation is pretty low tech and small. The taps are hand drilled (yes there is a tool for that), the sap is hand collected from these old buckets that my parents inherited when they bought the house, and the maple trees have been tapped many, many times over their lifetime.
The sap is then boiled in an arch, constructed out of cinder blocks in the back yard. The Dubenetsky Maple Syrup operation is anything but high tech, and only produces enough maple syrup for a year of Sunday pancakes, but it is a sign of spring and hope that the long winter is finally over. While it may not look like much, especially amidst the half melted snowbanks, greenish yellow grass, piles of dog and horse crap and bare trees I love it and encourage you to go out and try some of this years REAL maple syrup. I guess March in Vermont isn't so bad after all, as long it stops snowing!
