New Story Contest: A New Beginning - Lily M. - 08/06/21

Contest: Winners

New Story Contest: A New Beginning

Submitted by: Lily M., age 9, Canandaigua, NY

The Start of Sap Season
    
I ran down the hill, filled with excitement. Spring is beginning, and that means sap season! Sap season is a time in spring when days are warm and nights are chilly. At this time, sap is really active inside trees.

I reached the bottom of the hill with my brother and sister, while Mom and Dad followed. We faced about fifty trees that end the yard. One of them is a sugar maple. The sap that comes from sugar maples is delicious when boiled down into syrup. We walked through the trees until we came to a strong-looking tree that Mom and Dad are sure is the maple.

“And you know because it has silvery gray bark and the buds are spear shaped, right?” my brother asked.

“Exactly,” Dad answered, and then he explained to us that you should always drill the hole on the south side of the tree, because that’s where the tree gets the most sun, so more sap flows out.

BRRZZ went the drill softly until there was a hole five-sixteenths of an inch wide in the tree.

“Now we put in the tree tap,” Mom said. A tree tap is a small piece of plastic that helps transfer sap into the bucket.

“Oh, can I do it?” asked my sister, and so she put the tap into the hole, and Dad secured the tree tap with the hammer. Then my brother took a long, thin tube and attached it to the tap. Finally, I picked up the bucket and put it next to the tree and then fitted the long tube that was still attached to the tree tap into the bucket so that (hopefully) the sap will come out the hole, go through the tap and long tube into the bucket.

The next day we peered into the bucket. It was half full! I jumped for joy, and my sister hugged me.

Later, my brother and sister and I each got to have a small spoonful of syrup. I tasted its rich goldeness and smiled. Sap season has really begun!


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