5
COLIN
Nicky tipped the bucket over, spilling the sap into the gathering tank. The work was backbreaking, but it was necessary.
“Last one,” he said with a groan. He set the bucket back on the spile and stretched. “We should really look into connecting all these to the tubing. I’m too old for this.”
I chuckled and nodded. “I am, too.” I rubbed my own sore back. We took turns emptying the buckets. My grandmother wanted some of the farm to stay the way it was historically with buckets hanging on trees and sap collected by hand daily. Modern farms invested in tube systems that collected the sap and vacuumed it directly to the sugarhouse. Over time, she was transitioning the farm to that, but she still held on to tradition.
“Cleotha loved to get out here and look around, but the hills are
