Well, maybe next week!!

[emericksmaple]

Been looking at the long range forcast and finally some cold weather in sight! We are thinking about starting toward mid-week next week which is a little early for us but 3 other years that we tapped around the 6-7-8 of Feb were some of the best we ever had. I have had 1 bucket tapped for about 1 1/2 weeks now and it has only ran about 4 gal in that time. And as many of you know a bucket will usually do better than tubing so I don't think we have missed much. It just has not been freezing at night down here. As for a season prediction ask me around April 1 and i'll let you know.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Hey celebrity, that makes two of us that have been in the Leader catalog. Way to go! :D

[Parker]

Three of you,,I know the fellow that was on the cover 2? years ago,,he postst here once in a while...

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Kevin,

I think buckets will outproduce tubing any day WITHOUT vaccum. I don't think buckets can compete with vaccum. I know they say tubing gravity will outproduce buckets, but I don't see how as I have used both for years. :?

[emericksmaple]

Kevin, I'm with Brandon I believe buckets will out produce tubing of any kind on any day! As for what percentage; we go on and normal crop as a quart of syrup per tap. So our sap usually runs between 1.8 -2.0% so on an average year a tap should produce about 12 gallon of sap to make a quart of syrup so 4 gal would be about 1/4 of a crop.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Matt,

There weather is supposed to get colder hopefully. Are you still going to tap next week or hold out until a warm up is in sight??

[emericksmaple]

Brandon, Not sure yet I'm going to watch the weather and make a decison prob around Sunday- Monday.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[emericksmaple]

Kevin,
Well i can say that I :D my butt off because my tubing is tight and straight, That is one of my pet peeves to see tubing or even worse a mainline with a sag in it. Around here it depends alot on the weather when it comes to buckets. Most of the time when I tapped 175 buckets i would get around 300 gal of sap from them and usually only get a gallon per tap out of the tubing(gravity). Since I am still playing with vaccum; vaccum may out produce buckets around here if it is set up right. But I know last year a friend of our in quebec tapped 3 buckets around his camp and only got 3- 4 all season per tap while his vaccum tubing made a full crop. I will say that i believe that you can make more lighter syrup with buckets than you can with tubing. Another thing if i could tap all buckets i would just to make that lighter syrup, but i don't have the time to collect 5,000 buckets. One more thing I believe when it comes to amount of labor involved I think there is just as much in tubing as there is buckets, the only difference is how your time is spaced out. Every one has an opinion this is just mine.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I will agree that there is better quality sap in buckets vs gravity pipeline. As for vaccum, I would think it is the best, but I can't say as I haven't used. it. :)

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[emericksmaple]

No blue lamb tees down here only IPL tees and spiles. No i have never tried tapping a couple buckets and run tubing in them. Maybe an experiment for this year.

[brookledge]

I know someone who uses plastic IPL health spouts and hangs plastic buckets over the spout with no tubing. He says that the hole never gets exposed to air and that side by side with a 7/16 old style metal tap the health spout will run longer.
Keith

[emericksmaple]

Looked at the long range and may start Mon. Looking good for next week but they weather usually changes like... Well I'll leave that one alone. if you want a look here is the address:
http://wwwa.accuweather.com/forecast-15day.asp?partner=accuweather&myadc=0&traveler=1&zipcode=15545&metric=0 and here is another site:
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/15545?from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_undeclared

[Brad]

I am planing to tap on Monday or as soon as this frezze is over. I think it will be the last long frezze of the year.