Anybody going to tap in southern ontario ?

[hicks road]

Just wondering if anybody was going to tap this weekend in or around the Southern Ontario area ? I want to but should maybe wait another week or so I think the day time highs in the long range are still a little bit low.

[vikingHB]

Just wondering if anybody was going to tap this weekend in or around the Southern Ontario area ? I want to but should maybe wait another week or so I think the day time highs in the long range are still a little bit low.

I'm in SW Ontario, and I won't be tapping for another 3 weeks. This is a week earlier than most years. Hopefully our weather will get colder, and my timing will be ok.

[Yellzee]

all this tapping talk is stressing me out. Hate to say it but I don't even feel like making syrup yet.

Looking at the 14 day forecast here in Belleville... there is a week of plus 2 minus 3 weather coming.

I might upgrade to the check valves and tap family day weekend, gotta think the season will be at least a week shorter than normal, so why not tap a week or so earlier I guess.

[hicks road]

I tapped 75 trees on Saturday and have collected about 70 gallons in the last two days of good quality sap, I know it is early but you just don't know what the weather is going to do.

[Ren]

I am definitley not going to hang all my pails, but I think I will hang 50 to 100 pails this weekend. That is unless the long range forecast changes.

[Ren]

Well the little man and myself finally decided to drill a few holes today. We headed out around 1pm and started drilling. We got 25 buckets up and all but 1 or 2 were dripping. It sure was nice in the bush this afternoon. We are going to hang some more over the next couple of days. http://img.tapatalk.com/461e61a1-77ac-e23a.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/461e61a1-77c3-a3f6.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/461e61a1-77ce-f202.jpg

[Brent]

Today I got to about 525 check valves tapped in. About 150-200 more to go. Put the vac on this afternoon. Poor flow but we have about
150 gallons in the bush tanks ... mostly frozen solid. 350 gallons in the tank by the sugar shack. That may be boiled or may just be used to flush the RO About $750 worth of syrup could be made with it. Think I'll flush with the well water.

The wife is anxious to get her buckets up. I'm encouraging her to hold off. Those holes will dry up pretty fast if we get a bout of warm weather.
The check valve taps will run till July. (foul buddy *&^%, but they'll run.)

[MustardSeedMum]

Well, I'm officially confused. To tap or not to tap yet?

Small backyard operation - increasing from 30 to 50 taps (buckets) this season. Steam pans on a fisher woodstove.
We're in Erin - so a little north of you, Brent.

Would you recommend that I hold off putting my drill in? I've just put in 5 this morning since it looks like sap MAY run the next few days. But then again
the weatherman has been dismally inaccurate lately.

[MustardSeedMum]

I tapped 75 trees on Saturday and have collected about 70 gallons in the last two days of good quality sap, I know it is early but you just don't know what the weather is going to do.
Wow Hicks road. Where in Ontario are you? That's an awesome amount of sap.

[Brent]

Well, I'm officially confused. To tap or not to tap yet?

Small backyard operation - increasing from 30 to 50 taps (buckets) this season. Steam pans on a fisher woodstove.
We're in Erin - so a little north of you, Brent.

Would you recommend that I hold off putting my drill in? I've just put in 5 this morning since it looks like sap MAY run the next few days. But then again
the weatherman has been dismally inaccurate lately.

The historic rule of thumb for tapping in our area has been St. Patty's Day ( March 17) That was for traditional taps with buckets. Then you could expect 3 - 4 weeks of run before the trees went buddy or the holes dried up because of bacteria action starting to heal the tap hole. I'm going early because with the new check valves, the holes almost never really dry up, so there's nothing to lose for my vacuum system. My wife wants to put out her buckets like you and I'm suggesting she hold off a few more weeks. But, it's a bit of a crap shoot. With the weather the way it is, we could see the trees start to bud out mid March and the buckets could get nothing edible.

PS My sister lives about a mile south of Ed Stewart's. We're actually between Bolton and Caledon East.

[MustardSeedMum]

Your sister might be my neighbour! I'm just south of town.

That's my worry - in 2010, we tapped March 1 and got a month before the trees got buddy. And even then, during march break was a write off because of the summer-like temps.
Got only 18L with 30 taps.

Ah well, it is what it is.

[Ren]

I hung another 10 buckets this morning and a couple of them started dripping before I got the buckets under them. I really didn't think anything would be running today but apparently some are. It looks like we may get a good run over the next couple of days. It doesn't feel right hanging buckets this early but my gut feeling is telling me to. The way this winter has been we may not get the temperatures we need in march. The good thing is that this is a new section of the bush that I have not tapped before so if these taps dry up early, I still have a couple hundred other trees to tap!

[MustardSeedMum]

That's great Ren! I tapped 5 today. Completely dry. I'll find out the next couple of days whether things will thaw out. If so, you can bet I'll be putting in more taps like a crazy woman.

Like you, I have lots of trees to tap - so if the first batch dries up, I'll go on the hunt.

[Brent]

Hate this #$%^& aging process. Finally finished tapping the vac system. 652 taps in. Finding about all I do is about 100 per
day. Found a giant rodent chew in the last vac line to the 3rd releaser. Shortly after open up the line with the chew the vacuum pumps went nuts. Got dark. I think the moisture trap overflowed and the pumps ate a slug of water that came in via the chewed holes. They were about 18" long and essentially at off the top half of the pipeline. Must have made a great rain catcher. Looking forward to more fun in the morning. Not going to tap the bucket trees for a few weeks yet.

[argohauler]

I was talking with my neighbour's cousin tonight and he said that the sap was testing 3% already.

[argohauler]

Brent, heard your area was to get freezing rain today.

Brent, have you tested the sugar in your sap?

The neighbour said he wasn't going to tap any soft maple this year because of the bud size. I looked at some of mine and they didn't look too bad. I'm pretty sure the buds on the hard maples are more noticeable than normal. I saw a sapling hard maple and it looked almost like it was going to pop. I hate this winter that wasn't winter. No ice in Lake Erie and no elevation could quite likely result in a poor season.

[Ren]

Collected 40 gal of sap last night off of 50 taps. I went out this morning around 9:30 to put in 25 more and cut some wood. Sap is running good today most are dripping every second or two. I checked on some buckets when I got there that were empty and when I left they had a liter or so in them! Looks like I may get to test the new pans with some sap on Saturday!!

[MustardSeedMum]

Ren - I'm green with envy.

Putting my drill to rest for a while. It was bone dry as of yesterday. Maybe I'll go out now and see if anything is happening...probably not. Trees are still thawing out.
Must be my 1300 ft elevation or something. :(

Argohauler - are you all tapped in? Sap must be running in your neck of the woods. How are you finding your plastic spiles? Did you drill those in at an angle? These are new for me as well. Used the black tubing spills last time into 5 gallon buckets.

May the sap start gushing for all of us!

[drpud]

Hi everyone
I'm situated just west of Woodstock and have placed 60 taps from Wed until today. About 30 gals so far and testing at 3 % sugar on the refractometer. Good luck.
Paul

[Ren]

Just collected another 45 gal. I would say that at 5:00 pm about 50% of my taps are still running. I guess we will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

[ca2devri]

I'm near St.Thomas and collected about 50 gallons from 60 taps yesterday. Should be flowing well today and the weekend looks good too. Should be boiling a lot this weekend!

Chris

[Ren]

Just got back from collecting yesterdays sap. 75 gal in the barrels on the utv and probably another 15 left hanging on the trees. (I didn't bring enough collecting barrels). Sap running real good this morning will have to collect again this evening. Total tap count to date is around 75ish. Sap to boil know is round 200 gal. Time to fire up the evaporator!!!!!

[hicks road]

I have been collecting small amounts all week, yesterday was the best run I got about 50 gallons from 70 buckets not running real good but I have enough to boil today. I have already boiled once and got about 2 gallons of nice light syrup. Good luck everyone.

[kdawger]

had 2 test taps in for 3 weeks, wish i would have put in more. added 10 more on friday and most a dripping prettu good. my best tree last year appears to be my worst this year. hoping to get a few more in. just do it in back yard so 10-20 taps is enough for me.

[hicks road]

boiled again last night and ended up with about 6 litres, the sun is shining again today so will probably get some more today.

[hicks road]

A little bit of sap today but not as much as I expected, better luck tomorrow

[MustardSeedMum]

Well, I got in 12 more taps today. All dripping well. Long term forecast looks pretty good, with perhaps a couple of daytimes below 0.
So I'll probably just keep putting in more during the week.

Seems early. But with the few taps I have, I don't want to risk having a super short season and trees budding out by the 3rd week of March.

[Brent]

Last night, before the cold snap, I dumped about 350 gallons from the tank by the sugar shack. Got the RO connected while the vac pump did its thing all day. Went to the bush with the transfer pump only to find that the cold snap was more active than I thought. All 3 tanks had 6" of sap .... sitting on top of about a 150 block of frozen solid sap. Maybe it will thaw tomorrow.

[argohauler]

My gas drill's recoil spring broke yesterday. Went to the small engine place and they found one the same size out of a wrecked Stihl. My on/off switch also gave up and have to shut it off with the choke and it's on order. At least the recoil gave out when it started to really wet snow yesterday.

Got just over 1100 in so far and another 6/700 to go. The swamp is going to be treacherous to tap with the ice not being safe.

Went to a Pancake Tuesday supper at the inlaws church. They called me to supply the syrup, but I didn't have any. The got it from a local producer who had just made it on Saturday. It was extra light and it was disappointing to put on my pancakes and sausage.

[terry2000]

I have 87 taps. I tap 15th feb the 22 feb was first run i got 100gal +/- of sap

[Ren]

I picked up 145 gal this morning from yesterday's run. Some buckets overflowing. Sap was already running this morning around 10am. I am going to fire up the evaporator again tomorrow morning. I managed to draw off 10 or so liters of what looks like light syrup on Tuesday. Tap count to date is 95.

[timbers]

We put in about 500 taps over the last couple of days and have at least 600 gallons for our first boil of the season tomorrow. Our 2 test buckets in the front yard overflowed today however not so much in the bush.
Ian

[argohauler]

It hasn't froze now for 2 nights. Got 1300 taps on buckets in.

[argohauler]

Was a wild one in the bush this afternoon. Heard and saw quite a few trees snap off.

The trails are getting pretty sloppy with the wet snow and rain. Hope it freezes tonight. It's still 2 degrees out.

[argohauler]

Hope we don't get the freezing rain forecasted today. Caledonia has been mentioned. Niagara hasn't, hopefully I'm close enough.

Looks like a possible 4 straight nights that it might not freeze.

[chriscris]

Between us and the neighbors, at least 100 taps in Campbellville, for a good 3 weeks now.
Collected a good 60 GAL yesterday.

[cavescott]

have about 100 taps in and i have only seen about 1cup of sap. you are all talking about all this sap and the season ending soon. i would just like to be able to boil once looks good for this friday may see something then.

[ca2devri]

I might have overdone it this year. My 2X4 flat pan was good for 40 taps last year. This year I upped it to 65 but I've replace all my underproducing taps from last year with huge yard maples at my dad's place. Now we're swimming in sap. Collected over 120 gallons in the last 2 days. Oh well... I'll need to take a vacation day or two to catch up a bit!

We're near St.Thomas and the season seems to be well under way. I've been tapped for 2 weeks but could have started even sooner. We didn't really have much winter at all this year though.

Chris

[argohauler]

I just looked at the weather networks 2 week trend and if it can be believed, we'll be done making syrup on the 7th. No freezing after the 6th. I really hope it changes.

[GreatCanadianSuglar]

Have 35 buckets out and collected 230L of sap boiled down to 6L very light in colour.

[argohauler]

Well 2 nights in a row without a freeze. Thought we'd get a bit of a run yesterday as it froze Tuesday night and didn't get very warm that day. It warmed up over night a couple degrees and yesterday they didn't run.

Now we're going to get a windstorm and no freeze tonight, but then getting too cold and freezing highs for 2 days. So we might get a run Tuesday and Wednesday and then more rain moves in and no freezing nights.

[Ren]

Ya it is definitley not looking good for us here in the golden horseshoe. I sure hope the weatherman is wrong like they are usually. I have not had a run since tues.

[Brookmaple]

Tapped 45 last weekend. Hardly any sap to date. Tapping another 55 today in advance of the milder spell predicted next week.

[argohauler]

The way the weather looks right now we should have a big sap warning on Wednesday.

I'm almost afraid to go into the bush with these winds. I remember boiling one night quite a few years ago and it was windy. All of a sudden we heard a crack and crash. Looked the next morning and a beech tree snapped off about 40 yards from the shanty.

[Brent]

I just turned on the vac and the gauge won't go up past 5".

Time to go the the woods ........ with the chainsaw.

[MustardSeedMum]

Be careful out there today guys. Lots of widow makers, or in my case widower makers. :lol:

We had a tree crash at the bottom of our driveway, either last night or early this morning.

But I had to go out to empty buckets. Most of them were overflowing.

[argohauler]

Not too much damage as of 1 PM. Some of the tin I cover my outside woodpiles came off. A few plastic buckets came off, a lid worked it's way off, found a dead limb that knocked the the lid/spile off and surprised it didn't break the plastic health spile.

Had a big white pine lift and lodge into a maple. It'll likely stay put and I'll have to yank it down with the tractor if it freezes up next winter.

[MustardSeedMum]

Over 40 gallons of sap from 70 taps in the last 24 hours. Lost a few gallons to the storm.

But I'm a happy camper. I'll have a nice 2 day break and then start boiling and boiling...

[argohauler]

Well too cold for 2 days and then warm on Tuesday and not going to freeze till possibly Thursday night. It's either too cold to run or run well or too warm. Can't we have any nice weather? My wife still thinks that we're in a marginal syrup producing area.

[hicks road]

Pretty good weekend here, I dumped the buckets Saturday morning and ended up with around 60 gallons then went and dumped them again at 5p.m. and got another 40 or so, not to much today but lots of boiling going on. Looks like the next couple of days are cold but hold on till Wednesday we should all be swimming in sap.

[Brookmaple]

A few producers to the west of us near Lake Huron have taken off small batches of syrup. Still too cold to run in our area. Tapping another 55 today in anticipation of runs beginning tomorrow.

[argohauler]

It was raining in the bush today.....raining sap from all the broken twigs and limbs from Saturdays wind storm.

Well the sap didn't run worth a hoot today. Didn't start till after noon. Came up around 6:45 and the laneway to the bush was starting to freeze. They said it was supposed to be about 5 all night.

I sure hope they run really well tomorrow.

[Ren]

Ya not much happening here today either. I went out with my son around 5pm to check the buckets and found most were empty. I thought maybe it was because they were some of the first that I put up and the holes may be drying up but when I checked on some I just drilled a couple days a go, they were empty too. Some were just starting to drip. I sure hope we get a better run tomorrow. Not suppose to freeze tonight but I sure hope it does!

[MustardSeedMum]

I guess it took a while for the trees to thaw from the last 2 days of frigid temps.
Some of the trees started to drip late this afternoon, so I'm hoping there'll be something to look forward to tomorrow.

It'll be an extra early morning for me - need to get a head-start on boiling (still have a little from Friday/Saturday's run)
My storage is a 55gallon drum for 70 taps. If there's a big run a couple of days in a row, I'm going to run out of storage.

Yeah, I'm being optimistic. :)

[MustardSeedMum]

Where's the sap??? :o
I'm speechless.

[TrentonTerry]

Its just starting now in the belleville area. It wasnt running at 9am (after about 11 hours of above freezing temps), but it is now at 11 (when its 12 degrees out) :) flowing the best it has been all year now.

[argohauler]

I was very disappointed in today's run. It started running at noon yesterday, it was cool, but it didn't freeze all night. I thought the buckets should of been full by this afternoon.

Anybody got a theory as to why it was a poor run?

One thing I will say is the sap is super sweet right now. I took a drink this afternoon while we were gathering and it was almost half way to kool aid sweet.

[sdavey1]

The barometric pressure was high this morning with the nice weather. We had a very good run this past Friday into Saturday with the cloud covered sky and warmer temps and a lower barometric pressure, much better than today anyways. I think it may pick up over night as the low pressure system moves in, hopefully they don't stop too soon with the temps staying above freezing. Just saying,....any other ideas?

[MustardSeedMum]

Argohauler - could wind be a factor? I noticed a few days ago when things should've been running, I got pretty much nothing - and that day was sunny & windy.

My taps started dripping late Tuesday afternoon. Thought for sure that I'd wake up to full buckets on Wednesday morning, since it didn't go below freezing.
At 7am this morning with temps at approx 6C, the trees were still sleeping. Quite depressing.
By 10am it was 10C, with a warm breeze. Some taps started a slow drip. Things finally picked up at about noon. And it hasn't stopped. We've already collected 3 times since 2:30pm. Last collection was at 9pm in the dark. Me carrying the lantern, and my husband carrying the 5 gallon buckets. At 12:30am some of my buckets are already half full again.
My 55 gallon drum is almost full. I might have a storage issue tomorrow. It'll be an extra early start to boiling tomorrow to keep up.
I haven't tallied up my total collection today, but it's easily my best ever day. Still making light syrup.

[Ren]

Checked buckets a 2pm yesterday afternoon and things were running good. I collected 130 gal sap of 120 buckets. I emptied some of my yard maple buckets last night at 9pm and when I checked them before going to work this morning, they were half full(3 gal bucket) and still dripping. Unfortunately I can't get over to the bush till tomorrow morning, as I am working a 24 hr shift today. Does not look like I will get up to 200 taps this year. I was holding off to see if the weather trend would change but looks like we are done after this weekend. Looks like its time to start getting my bee yards in order! Oh ya argohauler, I had a drink yesterday too and it sure did taste sweet. I can't check the sugar content because I dropped my sap hydrometer.

[ca2devri]

my taps were running like crazy yesterday. I probably got about 100 gallons off of 65 taps since Wednesday night. Looks like Saturday will be big again and maybe that will be it for me? Next week's weather looks to be ending it for us. I guess it will have been 4 weeks and I'll have made about 45-50 litres of syrup off 65 taps if my guess is correct. That's not too bad.

Chris

[argohauler]

This weather is bologna! While I'm glad that it froze last night, today is only supposed to be 2 here. Tonight is supposed to be between -8 and -11, a little too cold thanks. We all thought Saturday was going to be great, now it's only 2 and the crappy part is it won't likely freeze Saturday night, even though it's going to be clear and then go up to 16 on Sunday! I bet I'll have another crappy run like I did Wednesday.

The 2 week sucks also. No freezing for that period. No lows below 4.

Still making medium, though it might go to amber today.

[Ren]

Just got back from the bush. Taps are running good right now. Hopefully they continue into this afternoon but the winds are starting to pick up. It sure is getting pretty muddy on the trails! Collected another 115 gal today.

[MustardSeedMum]

I'll second that...the weather we're getting is beyond crazy. Yesterday I was slipping on leftover ice and making mud holes in sloshy ground.
Today everything has frozen up and we got a layer of snow. Taps are frozen again till Sunday...maybe.

And you'd think we're in different provinces, with the wildly varied weather we're getting on the same days.

[argohauler]

All I can say is I'm very disappointed in today's run. I think the trees have given up. I had a short mainline of around 40 taps yet to tap and I finally had a chance last Tuesday. They even ran poorly. I think the trees are giving up and the sap is somewhat cloudy. The taps were slowing down towards dark, so they'll not likely give much more.

[Ren]

Well I am officially done. I started pulling buckets down today and will finish getting the rest tomorrow. Yesterday's run was one of the better ones that I had. I collected around 160 gal and things were still dripping at dark. I noticed that the silvers buds have popped. This year has been disappointing. I was hoping to get 200 taps in but only ended up with 130 or so. I have not bottled everything yet but I am thinking I will end up with around 80 liters. I guess there is not much we can do about the weather. Just have to hope next year will be better

Good luck to everyone who is still tapped!

Shawn

[TwinBay]

Sounds like you did well Ren;
we had 110 taps out , have had one boil yielding 2 gallins.
110 gallons of sap to boil tomorrow, say we get 3 gallons, I have sweet trees.
Then the weather is going to be hot hot hot....
We still have 2 feet of snow in the bush in PS but it wont last with this rain and that 7 day heat.
We might be done with 40% of our crop

[argohauler]

Heard first peeper frogs tonight. Trees hardly ran over night last night.

[ca2devri]

I pulled my taps yesterday. They were still dripping a bit but very slowly. The week's weather looks too warm anyway and I don't have time to boil this week.

I think I'm going to end up with almost 60 litres from 65 taps which I think is good this year. The last 25 litres from last week and this weekend is quite dark. The sap was probably a bit buddy on some of the trees. Taste is still pretty good though.

I need to upgrade my evaporator if I do that much again next year!

Chris