These cold nights and warm days we're going to have for the next several days should start the sap in the maple trees!  Daytime temps today were 40ish, with plenty of sunshine this morning, but clouding up this afternoon.  It hit single digits last night (above zero), and I think that may be a little too chilly to stimulate sap runs, but tonight it's going to be warmer.  We'll probably hear of producers who have tapped early and will benefit from this spring-like weather.  Actually, this isn't unusually early - after all, town meetings are coming up in less than two weeks (March 7th).   It may be all this recent snow is slowing things down as far as getting the trees actually tapped and the lines up, but there have been seasons when producers had far more snow to deal with.

There is still a fair amount of ice under slush, snow and gravel on roads and driveways.  The ice now is softer than a week ago when it was so cold.  My creepers bit in just fine today when I walked up Jamie and Marie's hill at noon.  there were a few spots where it looked pretty glare and I was concerned, but I found if I came down hard with each step, the creepers dug in and held.  I couldn't do that when it was so cold.  The ice on the roads now is punky.

That's not to say the pond ice is punky - although there are daily warnings around the state to beware of thin ice on lakes and ponds.  We haven't heard from any fishermen lately about how thick the ice here at Joe's Pond is, but perhaps someone will contact me with that information.  Kevin?  Kyle?  Kyle is probably too tired from clearing roofs to want to go ice fishing these days.  We'll see.

Fred stopped in at Three Ponds today.  That's the new eatery that will be opening up soon.  There's still no official opening date set - Caleb (Clark) told Fred it is hard to predict.  There is no remnant of the old Joe's Pond Country Store there at all.  You won't recognize the place - it's very nice, clean and new and will be configured very differently than the old space.  We'll keep you posted.