The new year is here along with the hopes of a good maple season. I have some tubing upgrades in the works but have dropped expansion plans. My long term goal used to be to upgrade everything before I retire, which is 4 1/2 years from now, to double my tap count. The plan now is to maintain what I've got and most likely sell out when I retire.

My son and youngest daughter now live in NC and the desire to be near them and retire to some place warm made me rethink my plan. My daughter got married in September and her and her husband just bought a house. There is also talk of grandchildren in the future although that happy news hasn't happened yet.

I'm not sure what I'll do when I move down there to keep busy but my son has a 1931 Model A Ford slant window that it's in need of enough restoration to get it back on the road. There is also the possibility of doing some extreme south tree tapping because they do have some maples and freeze thaw cycles in NC. The natives won't know what to think!

Happy New Year!