Taps are going in

[VA maple guy]

I got back from a ski trip to Snowshoe West VA today. We had about 13 inches of snow while i was there, awsom ski conditions!! I got about fifty taps in today. The sap was running great. More taps are going in tomarrow. Temps are going to to be a little warm the next few days.
Gerry

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Gerry,

Where are you in VA?? I don't recognize the location??

[VA maple guy]

I,m about 4 miles northwest of Leesburg VA. I,m right between RT7 and RT9.
I got about ten more taps in this morning befor it started raining.
I hope to get more in this afternoon after it stops.
Gerry

[VA maple guy]

Well i got about 160 taps in this year. I might add a few more, but i'm not sure if my two little evaporators will handle any more if i get some good sap runs. I ended up with 40 taps on sugars this year compared to 5 last year. The next few days looke pretty good arround here, so i hope to be boiling soon :D :D
Gerry

[lharris1]

Gerry: Have you had any good runs and fired up the evaporators yet? Good luck with the early tapping.

[VA maple guy]

I collected about twenty five gallons several days ago. Most of it came from my sugars. It's been run through a uv filter a few times to keep it fresh. I fired up my little 2x3 cinder block evaporator for the first time today and made about a half gallon of dark amber. I dont know what a 2x3 flat pan should do, but it did about 5 1/2 gph. I shure hope this cold weather would hurry up and get here. It is suppose to be in the mid 60s
tomorrow around here . I saw two red maples that had opend there buds
on the way to work this morning. It might be over for my reds before it gets started. :evil:
Gerry

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Gerry- Maybe the reds got tired of waiting for you to do your thing(Tap em') and did there thing first?? sounds like your a day waiting too long?

[markcasper]

Gerry, Never fear, the potential cold may freeze the red's little buddzy's off. You really can't go by what the buds look like at this point in the year. I have some red maple that have explosive looking buds every winter, every year. And then too, I have made buddy syrup from trees that looked like they were dead.

To let you know, one of my sample trees that I tapped 1 1/2 weeks ago was a red and only gave me a cup of sap. Now this is a good running tree every year and it just has not reached the right time yet. Good Luck! Mark

[VA maple guy]

Mark, I shure hope your right, we suppose to get good weather starting
tomorrow. Hoepfully my reds will be ok and start running.
Gerry

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Gerry,

Your still in good shape. Put the taps in your season will be fine! :D

[VA maple guy]

All my reds have been taped for about a week now. So far i have barley collected one gallon from them. My sugars and Norways have had one small run.

Gerry

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Gerry,

Checked your 10 day forcast and it looks like some awesome syrup weather. Sure hope it happens for you this week! :D :D

[VA maple guy]

Amem to that!! :D :D
Gerry

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Gerry,

How about an update to let us know how it is going??? Haven't heard from you in a while, so that must be good! :D

[VA maple guy]

Well your right, things are starting to pickup around here. I've collected
about 160 gallons in the last few days. Most all of it has come from my
sugars. My norways are running pretty good, but my reds have only
produced about three or four gallons . The sugar is averaging right at
2% in the sugars and 1.8 to 1.9% in the norways. I haven't checked
my reds yet. I boiled down about 115 gallons yesterday, i'm not shure how much syrup i got, i haven't finished it yet. I shut things down at one
thirty in the morning. My two little evaporators together averaged 16 1/2 gph. I guess that's not to bad for 15 1/2 square feet of flat pan. My new
copper tubing preheater worked pretty well, i added on a small manifold
with two ball valves so i can supply both evaporatos from one stack.
I hope this good weather you sent me sticks around for a while.
Gerry

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Gerry,

Way to go and it is supposed to get cold this weekend here, so hopefully you will get another run next week! :D

[VA maple guy]

Well, I've been real busy this week. All my trees finaly turned on. I collected over three hundred and fifty gallons of sap and made 8 1/2 gallons of light amber. If this weather keeps up, it's going to be a real good year. :D :D

Gerry

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Gerry,

Way to go. I am sure you are getting the cold weather that is hitting us, so it should be good again later in the week next week! :D

[sweetwoodmaple]

Wow, it's good that you are getting light amber out of the reds. The buds have swelled on my reds, so I'm wondering whether or not to tap them.

We are going to get zero or below temps, so I may tap one of my reds during the next warm up and see what the steam smells like in the kitchen before ruling them out.

[markcasper]

Tap them all! The syrup will be fine.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yeah, probably will. Plus, the earliest budding tree is close to my house, so I'll keep it off the vacuum line and use a bucket so I can sample every few days.

Brian

[VA maple guy]

Brian, 3/4 of my sap has come from my sugars. That may be the reason for the light amber. Things have slowed down around here the last few days. Tomorrow i hope for a good run, 20 tonight and upper 40s tomorrow. The buds on my reds have also swelled but so far thing are ok.
good luck, and tap them all.

Gerry

[VA maple guy]

Things are starting to slow down around here. I've made 15 gallons so far, everything from fancy to grade B (my favorite). I hope to make 5 more gallons befor it's all over. This will probably be the last week for me this year. I'm already thinking about next year, maby a 2x4 or a 2x6. I'd shure like to reduce the amount of time i spend boiling. What kind of gph should you be able to get out of one these evaporators ? I may start looking for a used one after the season is over.

gerry

[lharris1]

We considered getting a 2x4 for the 2005 season but ended up getting a 2x6 I found on e-bay. Last year we boiled off around 21 gph. Added a new SS steam hood and put in a preheater and burning dryer wood :D we seem to be getting around 28gph. Good luck.

[lharris1]

We considered getting a 2x4 for the 2005 season but ended up getting a 2x6 I found on e-bay. Last year we boiled off around 21 gph. Added a new SS steam hood and put in a preheater and burning dryer wood :D we seem to be getting around 28gph. Good luck.

[VA maple guy]

Well my season is over. I pulled all my taps today. I ended up with about 15 or 16 gallons this year, i haven't bottled it all yet. This year was shorter than last year by about a week but i made more syrup. I can't really compare it to last year because i added about 40 taps on sugar maples and a few more in reds. Good luck to everyone who is still going or is just getting started. Hope yor season is a good one. :D :D
Gerry

[brookledge]

Start counting down till you tap again. Time flies.
Have a good off season
Keith

[220 maple]

Gerry,
I met you at the seminar in October in Highland County, VA. I have jumped on board. Hopefully we'll meet again at another seminar I'll e-mail if i hear of any. I'm pretty sure mike is planning another for this summer or fall. Sometimes Henry Brennaman has one at his camp at Salisbury,PA. I have attended two at Indian Water Sugar Camp near Keyser, West Virginia. About 30 miles north of Petersburg,WV.

Mark--220 Maple

[VA maple guy]

Hi Mark, It's good to hear from you and see you have jumped on board. I really had fun talking to everyone at Mikes sugar camp last October. I'm up for a road trip, if you hear about a seminar in VA, WVA, or PA. Maby we could meet some of the others from this fourm who have the same sickness. :D :D
Gerry

[220 maple]

Gerry,

I agree it is a sickness, hopefully there is not a cure.
I've got it bad.. so bad instead of staying at the camp on Sat. and finishing the seven milk cans of syrup I went on a all day roadtrip and visited other camps, three out of four was boiling strong. Had a blast. Sugarmakers are some of the best people I've ever met. Apparently it's a common bond type sickness

Mark