Snow days

As everyone trooped out to their local supermarket on Tuesday, the day before our big nor'easter snow storm, they all seemed to focus on bread, milk and eggs. No one seems to know why, but those are the shelves that clear out first. Someone mentioned french toast on Facebook this year and I was off like a shot to get my bread, milk, and eggs. Normally, I don't follow the crowd, especially to the supermarket the day before a big storm, but I remembered we have a bottle of New Hampshire maple syrup that Lois's cousin made last year. We call it "Liquid Gold."

Cousin Bob has been boiling sugar in New Hampshire ever since his wife got her C.P.A. and began putting in sixteen hour days during that January-April 15 tax rush. Bob, never one to sit idle, started tapping trees to collect sap and boiling it in a home made, wood fired boiler. All we have to do is save a few Snapple bottles during the year for him to fill with syrup in the spring.

His operation has improved somewhat over the years, but there is no way to rush the flow of sap or speed up the process. During the cold months of winter, people in New Hampshire huddle around their wood stoves and social activities come to a standstill. Once the temperature goes above freezing, sugaring season begins.

The trees are tapped, sap is gathered each morning, and by evening, it's in the boiler beginning the slow process of becoming maple syrup. It's also an opportunity to end that long winter cabin fever and put up a "Boilin' come on in" sign in the snow pile at the end of the driveway. It's the only indication of life in many rural areas, and if you're like Bob, you need someone to talk to just to maintain your sanity.

Now that Bob's wife, Dale, no longer works in tax accounting, we hope that he is still susceptible to cabin fever, even though she is home every evening. Maybe she'll take up reading or knitting during sugaring. I mean, how would we ever get through heavy snow days without Cousin Bob's "Liquid Gold" to pull us through.