Where are the cheese heads?

[ehafkey]

It's pretty quite on here from the WI folks. Either everyone is distracted by the nonsense going on in Madison or everyone is running around trying to get ready for the first big run. I was going to tap next week but the forecast doesn't look real good right now.

Being its my second year I'd be interested to know when people are thinking about tapping. Is the first week of March still to early?

[Rhino]

Cheeseheads are still lurking around, gearing up for the upcomeing season. Holding tight and watching the extended forecast. Nothing but cold comeing for a bit. Would like to hold off tapping until around March 7th start. Takes us 7 days so that would be perfect.

[jgavic]

March 7th is my guess....You have about three good weeks for your tap holes...Sometimes we get some crazy runs in April.

[C.Wilcox]

I thinking March 5th will be the day for me. Need to get the pan scrubbed up, the buckets washed out, and some sort of a preheater figured out yet.

[rinert]

I think if I am ready I will tap the first 100 on the 10th. Then I will tap 50 with the boy/girl scouts on the 19th when it is hopefully a little nicer.

[WI Sugarpop]

Sounds like March 5 will be a good day to start. I'm not ready yet and neither is the weather. We just got rid of most of our snow and now we're supposed to get 8-12 inches on sunday.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Steady....Steady your starting to spook the heard. I have always started on the 15th of march but Im thinking early. Im not reading any of the Wisc. threads because they get me all worked up. I would feel better reading Emails from my wife's boyfriend than threads about tapping early:o

Now Im thinking if I get back into cheese land and spend a week adding taps and redoing lines and building up the aluminum scrap life would be great. Maybe a day or 2 at Smokey lake pan benders would be good:lol:

[benchmark]

Haynes- I believe someone has already tapped your trees for you:lol: no need to get worked up!


Heres a quote from an earlier post: "I got the fever pretty bad the last couple of days too. I knew it was far too early to tap my trees so I headed up to Jacksonport WI where I knew of a semi abandoned tubing system. I could tell by the snowed in driveway that the guy must not be around. It looked like the trees weren't even tapped last year. To get my fix Angela and I went ahead and tapped all of the trees. There turned out to be around 1100 of them. I couldn't find a 5/16" bit anywhere in my truck so I just used a 1/2", as it was the closest I could find. If this guy shows up this season he will just have to run a bead of silicone around each tap before starting up the vac pump. We left a note on the nice red painted sugar house that said "your welcome". I feel a lot better now."

[Haynes Forest Products]

Benchmark Dang you got me going on that one. I hope you repaired the down lines:) Im calling the police.

[benchmark]

Haynes- It wasnt me, i was one of your fellow Wisconsinites. Check it out here: http://www.mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?t=11249 I couldn't get the link to work lastnight.

[Pete S]

We're getting up to 12" of snow this weeekend. It was VERY tempting last week especially when I was stacking firewood and "thought" I heard some Sandhill Cranes. I almost dropped what I was doing and ran to tap some trees!

We are going to wait,................BUT the 8" stack goes awn the Vap-nator 2010 TODAY!

[southfork]

Not much going on in Oneida county. I am holding off and really expect to tap after March 10, but the weather may have something to say about that. Pretty cold in the forecast.

[C.Wilcox]

Snowing to beat the band in southeast WI right now. Largest snowflakes I've ever seen in my life. I realize others might accuse me of blasphemy, but I hope we get all 12 inches that were predicted and that it stays around for a while. Winter was just ending too soon for my tastes and I was hoping to get out on the snowshoes at least once more. Plus, the sap sled slides over snow a lot easier than muddy fields.

[ehafkey]

Snowed a little around mid day. Now it looks like it let up, just snow blowing around.

Had a productive day yesterday, finished bricking by barrel evap and did a test boil with my new 2x4 pan for Andy at Wegner Metal works. (Super nice pan!) Finished up my cupola doors and piled a little wood by the door. Now all I need is some good sapping weather and I'm in business.

Included a few pictures

[maple ridge tappers]

I can't speak for everyone from WI, but I'm still celebrating the Super Bowl.

One heck of a hangover!

[GramaCindy]

Watching the Daytona 500 of COURSE!!!;)

[Bolen Creek Sugar Bush]

Prob wont tap till after the 15th pending on weather. Got 1,550 on gravity and 350 buckets. Every thing ready just waiting just got 12" of blowing snow.

[3rdgen.maple]

Haynes you going to cheeshead country and tapping this year?

[Haynes Forest Products]

Yes I am:) If I dont use the $3000.00 worth of toys the wife will kill me. Im trying to time it so I can get back there before the season gets going to set up new equipment and spend a day bugging Jim Schumacker. I have my old pans I want to see about adding steam tubes to. Need time to relocate my tanks and reroute mainlines so I can stay out of the mud holes. So everytime I hear someone tapping in Wisc. I turn off the computer and get grumpy:emb:

[mike z]

I always end up tapping a week before I intended to. So I'm waiting till mid March this year. No matter what. Unless things look just so... Oh, who am I kidding, my trees have been tapped for 3 weeks now:lol:

[Typical8]

Saturday spent all day on top of the snow. Never busted through. It doesn't get any better than that.

[southfork]

I am heading back to Montana to help calve out another 200 head. Very cold there too, coming this way.

[Jeff E]

I am going to start tapping on the 4th. I have a lot to tap at home, + help some new guys get their woods tapped. I Hope to operational and have tight vacuum by the 10th. It seems to take me a week to get the bugs out of the system.
If it stays cold, I may hold off until the 10th. But for me, I really want to be ready when the sap starts.

[wegnerwelding]

Snowed a little around mid day. Now it looks like it let up, just snow blowing around.

Had a productive day yesterday, finished bricking by barrel evap and did a test boil with my new 2x4 pan for Andy at Wegner Metal works. (Super nice pan!) Finished up my cupola doors and piled a little wood by the door. Now all I need is some good sapping weather and I'm in business.

Included a few pictures


Wow Ed,
The sugar shack looks awesome. Can't wait to get up nort' and do some boiling myself.

[NJG]

Was washing our taps w/ drop tubes last night and as they were hanging to dry, the drops of water hitting the floor sounded like sap in the buckets! Certainly didn't help my spring fever any.

[ehafkey]

Thanks Andy! the shack would be useless without that awsome pan you made up for me. Did a test boil and it works great, the back half of the pan really boils hard and i wasn't even trying to push it. I'm thinking of tapping this coming sunday but not sure what i should do, looks like a few warm days and then back into the 20's. any thoughts?

[ryan marquette]

I am about 35 minutes west of the Fox Valley. I plowed out some lanes in the woods tonight & how nice was that with the big ruts from the tractor that I left last week workin in the woods in the warm weather. I started walking around in the woods with my ladder & tapped a few end line trees & some sap "ladder" trees this week. Weather has been mostly cloudy & around 30. Pretty much all the trees I tapped were wet or dripping. Whats gonna happen when the sun peaks out & it warms into the upper 30's? I might tap some gravity tubing this weekend & maybe finish up next weekend. I don't like to wait too long because I rarely make any syrup in April.

[Jim Schumacher]

I am about 35 minutes west of the Fox Valley. I plowed out some lanes in the woods tonight & how nice was that with the big ruts from the tractor that I left last week workin in the woods in the warm weather. I started walking around in the woods with my ladder & tapped a few end line trees & some sap "ladder" trees this week. Weather has been mostly cloudy & around 30. Pretty much all the trees I tapped were wet or dripping. Whats gonna happen when the sun peaks out & it warms into the upper 30's? I might tap some gravity tubing this weekend & maybe finish up next weekend. I don't like to wait too long because I rarely make any syrup in April.

Ryan. Turn your phone on.

I wish you wouldn't talk that way Ryan. Some of us don't have established sugar houses and we still have to set everything up and put the bricks back in the arch and build a spark arester and wash the bulk tanks and ....:confused:

Chuck. He's trying to spook the heard. What do we do with him???

[guppy79]

I stopped by my mother in laws today in Medford wi. The power company had done some prunning and I noticed the maples had sap sickles hanging from the cut limbs. Now its gonna be cold again. Back to waiting I guess.

[Merklin Maples]

Wanted to tap last weekend, but too cold. I am planning on tapping on March 5th. Weather Forcast for next week looks good. Anxious as usual to get started.