Okay so we made the big decision and crossed the Rubicon. We went all in on tapping today (Wednesday- 2/14/18). But okay to be honest, we did some preliminary tapping on some smaller sections over the last couple days, just to test the waters and tackle some technical problems in those sections, but today was the Big Day. Dylan (my son) and I knocked out about 400 taps today, and we hope to finish the effort off tomorrow with another 150 or so. We had a light sap run today and have about 50 gallons of sap in the tanks -- not much -- but a start. Ground is still quite frozen, but air was a warm 46 F at 2pm. Its always exciting to start tapping -- it means winter is in its last stages (6+ weeks), but damn, tapping on Valentine Day is the earliest tap date I can recall over the last 12 years or even my memories from the early 1980s in Central NY, when I first learned the maple art. So, my excitement is mixed with concern and reluctance -- I just do not like to tap so early -- another week or two -- no problem -- but before Feb 15th -- damn. But the forecast indicates a long and warm thaw next week (Mon-Fri) with temps in the 50s and maybe hitting 60+ F. Not what I want to see -- too warm, too early and for too long. So, with that cloud over us (and I do wish for an ameliorating cloudiness), the weather says its time to tap our maples to catch these early thaws. But, I'm hoping for a quick return of winter, with cold temps and snow before the sun gets too high and the days get longer. Maplers are like Mooncussers, we hope for weather to stretch out the storminess and gloominess of winter as long as possible to fetch us up a good maple season, and "Bah" to nice warm sunny Spring weather.