So on some days the sap flows almost like water from a hose-
about 100 a gallons a day for 3 days straight last week. On other days it shuts
down to almost nothing. 100 gallons one day, 10 the next. Depends on the
weather- you need those cold nights below freezing and the warm days above to
get the juices flowing in the maple woods. If it stays below freezing, nothing
flows- same if it stays above freezing. One tree will give like gangbusters for
a week, and then slow to a crawl while its neighbor takes off. The trees in the
full sun seem to give more sap earlier in the season, but the ones in the shade
seem to catch up later in the season. Even on a single tree, one tap may give a
lot more than another just a few inches away. Sunlight, temperature, bucket
position and countless other factors all are at play.

For the patient sugarer, one just needs to wait and take
what is given. Can’t push the river, as they say, or the sap flow.  Wouldn’t it be interesting, if we applied
this to other areas of life? Instead of fertilizing our crops with chemicals
and pounding the soil to dust to force higher yields, what if we nourished it
and took the harvest that it can yield sustainably? What if we guaranteed
everyone full employment like nature does? (Humans are the only species who suffer
unemployment!) and enjoyed the bounty when we had it and supported each other
when the flow was slow?

Nucor Steel runs their business this way, and they are
the most profitable steel company in North America
and one of the tops in the world. They lay off no one, just send them to school
for more training, put them to work fixing equipment, painting the parking
lots, doing maintenance- and when the good times come back, they have a loyal
workforce ready to go. They make more money than their competitors in good
times and in bad. Nature doesn’t have to meet ever increasing targets every
quarter- that’s the physiology of cancer- out of control insistent growth.
Turns out to be deadly.

If we could be as smart as maple trees, we’d learn to take
nature’s bounty when it was offered, and pull in our leaves when it is not,
grow when we can and slow when we must, to act in harmony with our environment,
keep the community strong and whatever the season or weather, to simply let it
flow.

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