A somewhat chilly February draws to a close with some warmer days in the forecast. Our farmers look forward to the spring, and of course the weather is one thing that farmers are always thinking about.

The spring of 2012 was remarkably warm. In fact, it set the record for the warmest spring in New Jersey history. This early warmth set the stage for 2012 setting a record for the warmest year in New Jersey history.

2011, in contrast, set the record for the wettest year in New Jersey history.

2013? So far, January and February have been somewhat average, which, at least lately, has been somewhat unusual.

Farmer Jim reports that the sap is still running clear, and Howell Farm has already well bested its 2012 maple syrup production.

"All in all, a great year," says Jim. He predicts that this week will be good for both collecting more sap and bud growth, so after one more strong week the season may soon draw to a close.

Danielle, who works in the Howell Farm office and is known this time of year as "the Syrup Queen," has been finishing the syrup on the Howell Farm stove before bottling. She also keeps meticulous records.

In 2012, Howell Farm bottled 30.9375 gallons of maple syrup. This year, 39.79 gallons have already been bottled, and another 7 or 8 gallons are expected today.

The Howell Farm record for syrup production, 62.5 gallons, was reached in 2005, the year Howell Farm started using a modern evaporator. In 2007, 57.81 gallons was produced. In 2011, 54.19 gallons.

Danielle believes that 2013 probably won't threaten an all time record, but she could could see a top three finish of 54.2 gallons or more.

Down in the sugar shack, I listened in as farmers Jim and Allison explained the secrets of maple syruping to visiting schoolchildren.

Each child went home with a wooden tap of hollowed staghorn sumac, in case they wanted to try syruping at home.

Step one: Use a 7/16th drill bit to make a sap hole in a sugar maple. Insert a tap, and hang a bucket.

For home boiling, Jim recommends a turkey fryer. But you don’t want to boil inside your home, he advises. Do it outside.

You’re in for a long haul.  It usually takes 14 to 16 hours from raw sap to finished syrup.

A hint: Syrup boils at 219 degrees.

A mother asked if taking sap hurts the maples trees. According to Jim, a tree produces 1/3 more sap than it needs, and we usually take 1/4 of that 1/3. The trees don’t seem any worse for the letting.

When I was 16 and getting ready to take my driver's test, I remember wheeling around some empty parking lots with mom or dad in the passenger seat of that beautiful 89 Camry.

I was reminded of this today as I watched Intern Virginia take her first steps behind a draft horse in the empty barnyard of Howell Farm. Farmer Jeremy watched closely.

"Line management is the hardest part of driving," Farmer Jeremy imparted. Instead of 10 and 2, Jeremy explained to Virginia the importance of keeping the right amount of tension on the lines, how to pick up slack, body positioning. Never drop the lines.

There are apparently some different schools of thought when it comes to driving horses. "I'm not teaching you high-end driving," Jeremy said. "I'm teaching you dirt farmer driving."

Today is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, so there were no school children at Howell Farm to collect buckets of maple sap from the sugar bush. This is certainly sugaring weather: The nights are freezing and the days are in the 40s.

Farmer Rob, Intern Virginia and I spent the morning collecting sap the old fashioned way, but with several modern advantages. As in days of yore, we checked and emptied each galvanized steel bucket one at a time. But we emptied the buckets into a large plastic reservoir sitting on the back of a motorized cart.

After the last bucket was emptied and rehung on the side of a maple tree, the reservoir told us we had gathered more than 150 gallons of sap. Once boiled, this should be good for about four gallons of maple syrup.

Of course, boiling sap into syrup might be overrated. As I try to do each year, I drank some pure, ice cold sap straight from one of the buckets. It was slightly sweet, extremely refreshing, and I don’t think I swallowed any bugs this time.

In just a few week's time, Howell Farm’s draft horses will take to the crop fields to do what they're known for -- the farm's iconic activity -- plowing. With a farmer holding the lines and striding along, two horses abreast will pull the walking plow up and down the furrow in preparation for a new year of planting.

Farmer Rob hesitates to speculate when the first plowing of the spring might come. Every year is different, and there's still snow on the ground and in the forecast.

Before plowing, and very soon, the horses will be back to work pulling the manure spreader. Manure spreading days develop a cadence. The farmers load the spreader via pitchfork, they drive the horses and the spreader out to the field, they spread the manure, they return to the manure pile, then they load the spreader again. Repeat and repeat. But each time the giant winter manure pile gets a little smaller and then finally it's gone.

The manure helps return fertility to the soil. But there are other benefits to this end of winter work -- it's an excellent warm up for the horses, and for our farmers too.

Last month, Howell Farm greeted Intern Virginia, who will be living and working at the farm through November.

Virginia hails from Upstate New York, near the southern edge of the Adirondacks. She spent last year working at Hawthorne Valley Farm in the Hudson Valley.

Her career goal: To grow vegetables and raise livestock.

Another goal: To farm with draft animals.

Why draft animals? Hard to explain. It has to do with creating a simpler lifestyle, she says. Plus, tractors are noisy.

Oxen or horses?  At Hawthorne Valley, Virginia worked with the cows at the dairy and even started training two young calves to follow simple commands. So right now she’s most intrigued by oxen, though she has an open mind. Her original impression of Howell Farm’s draft horses is that they are huge.

After two months abroad -- in Costa Rica I’m happy to report -- I’ve made my return to Howell Farm. This morning I strolled down the familiar farm lane eager to observe what was just the same as when I left and what had changed while away.

-The ducks were still stealing corn out of the corn crib.

-A horse in harness waited outside the barn, ready for the morning’s work.

-I spotted evidence of the recent ice harvest. This year’s harvest was completed very carefully on thin ice, Farmer Rob explained: two-and-a-half inches. Usually the farmers feel comfortable with at least four inches beneath their feet.

-Farmer Gary updated me on the season’s maple sugaring activities. So far, about 11 gallons of finished syrup have been produced. Sap has stopped running for the moment, but should resume once daytime temperatures climb back up above freezing.

-Today is the first day of the farm’s maple sugaring program for visiting school children. They won’t have any buckets to collect full of tree sap, but there’s still plenty of work for them hauling wood, sawing wood, and learning the finer points of evaporation technology.

-The cover crop in the kitchen garden remains a blanket of green.

-A new fence has been constructed around the chicken house.

-The winter manure pile, as always, looks formidable.