With the end of the maple sugarin' season come and gone, it is time to start cleaning up the pails and buckets and taps.  There is lots of equipment to dismantle, carry in from the woods, and clean.

Yesterday, Erica spent 6 hours at least scrubbing, washing, and rinsing the buckets, pails, spouts, tubing, and holding tanks.  We'll have some photos of that later.  For now, here are some shots taken by Liev and Violet of Mom out in the woods gathering all the maple gear.

Not bad shots for a four and five year old!

Yuck!  Look at those critters in that bucket.  Always a sign that the spring is really here and the winter is gone.

It sure looks different out in the woods without the snow and ice.  I almost forgot what it looked like out there.  Actually, we moved in here last May, so we never experience the "naked" spring woods without all the growth of the late spring...

Check out the size of that oak tree!