Helen Van Hemel, 11, left, and her sister Margriet, 9, lift buckets of sap from one of three trees tapped in their yard. Their family is part of a six-family neighborhood "co-op" that makes maple syrup each year. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Lyle Merrifield moves firewood onto a rack in the sugar house at his Gorham farm on Thursday. Merrifield said that the sap flow is tapering down but that he'll be collecting sap and boiling through this weekend. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer