Well it’s spring, time here in Vermont when the snow melts, the creeks overflow and frost heaves make huge holes in the road. It’s also the time we get lots and lots of mud! Vermont is a very rural state, so we have lots of dirt roads. In the spring those roads can get pretty nasty.

Cars and trucks get stuck in the mud all the time during mud season. It must be a great time for the tow truck drivers! Because maple sugaring is in early spring, sometimes mud can be a big problem. A large sugaring operation can involve hundreds of acres of maple sugar woods.

So to get to those maple trees they make small roads in the woods to get to them. Sometimes they use tractors, sometimes horses, sometimes even logging skidders. If we get a really fast thaw it only takes a few trips down those roads before they are all mud. (more…)