Running

[backyardsugarer]

Despite the wind I have a decent run going today (3/15). Hopefully it will carry through till tomorrow.

Chris

[Fred Henderson]

I t must be a lot warmer there than it is here barely got above freezing today.

[TroutBrookSH]

I went out tonight to rehang buckets blown off by the wind and was surprised to find many of the others mostly full. Now have to get up early to empty before tomorrow's big run.

Greg

[Flatfoot95]

[b]You are lucky...colder than a witches....here. I have only boiled three times this year. Only about a 1/3 of my trees are producing. Still an abundance of frost. Out of 150 + taps I have only picked up about 100 gallons of sap. Hope things get better.

[backyardsugarer]

Just about 36 with howling winds (45mph) but the trees wanted to run. Too bad 1/2 my buckets were blown to hell and back. I collected about 150 gallons but it could have been 300. The wind is down today so hopefully we will do it again.

Chris

[Dropflue]

Had a decent run on Wednesday. Trees were really comin on around 3:30 PM. (two drops per heart beat). Lost buckets to the wind also. Hoping for a good run today.

[mapleman3]

well you guys had better luck than I did, lots of blown away buckets and all without sap.... hopefully they got recharged last night and are running as we speak!! I need sap for Saturdays pancake breakfast 8O

[Dropflue]

Another great run yesterday. The temps are perfect. 20’s at night. 33-35 Day. Taps are running hard in the afternoon. Evaporator is dialed right in, boiling about 32-33 gph. The sugar content is very low compared to last year at this time. Currently the sugar is at 1.5%. Last year 2.0%. Could be the dry summer we had last year. Should run good again today, and then cool down for the weekend.

Happy St Patrick’s Day!!

[markcasper]

Dropflue, Sounds like things are coming along well for this year. It was down to 9 above in western wisconsin. Really bummed b/c I have lots of vacation time right now and no sap. Makes me feel like not even tapping the remaining trees i have. I am afarid that when my vacation comes to an end, then i'll get the big runs and won't be able to handle it all.


Just hope it isn't like last year--went from winter to summer in less than a week, with deep frost in the ground and then it was over. At least this year, the frost was pretty much nil, so maybe we will get something today with all of the cool sunshine. Mark

[Dropflue]

I felt the same way last week. The taps were just weeping, or totally dry. The temps were all above 50 during the day and night. Then Monday the temps shot up to 65 * F. I thought is was all over for sure.
Hang in there Mark! And ride in out to the end!

[TroutBrookSH]

Had a pretty good run here in Monroe Cty. Sun came out late so it didn't really get going till mid-afternoon. Sugar has been ~2.0%.

Cold today -- 32F forecast, but sunny right off. Hopefully enough warmth to thaw out.

Greg

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Extremely wet down here the past 12 months and still sugar content lower than normal. Same way last year and it was normal. I think it has to do with the extremely mild winter overall. One producer down here was at 45 to 1 last year and it was very wet year and this year he started at 70 to 1. 8O

Seems the farther south you go, the milder the winters and the lower the sugar content. :cry:

[lew]

Wednesday and thursday the sap ran great in some of our woods and nothing in others. One woods with 650 taps in it gave us 750 gallons on WEd. and 850 on Thurs., A 1200 tap woods gave us 100 gallons total for both days, this woods is a little higher in elevation. We had a high both days of only 34 degrees. We ended up with2500 gallons total for both days with a sugar content of 1.8 for all the sap. That 650 tap woods was down to 1.5 on wed. and 1.3 on thurs. Good thing we have an RO. Havn't checked tanks yet today, but it was full sunshine here all day. Hopefully we'll have a couple of loads to boil.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yeah, was boiling sap last night that was 1.2-1.5%. Almost not worth the wood, but got to do something with my time these days! :wink:

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Brian,

Do you have trees that have access to lots of water?? If so, you may be sucking up water with your vaccum from those trees and pulling down the content of the other trees. :?

[sweetwoodmaple]

Brandon,

50-60 gallons per gallon is my usual in previous years without vacuum, so this is not out of the ordinary.

Brian

[maple flats]

I haven't had a good run yet but looks like this week from tues on will be all out great. Overnite lows in lo 20's and days from 35-43 degrees for next 12 days. My sugar so far has been good. Only checked it 2 days with roadside and woods trees combined in tank. Got 2.5% the first day and 3.0% this last thursday. I'll try to remember to check daily and see what it runs with some good flows this week when they occure.

[Dropflue]

Well I almost destroyed my pans on Friday night. I was boiling for about an hour when I notice the automatic draw off open. I looked at the temp and noticed it kept on climbing (219-220 *F). I said to myself: “This isn’t good”. Then I looked in the flue pan—DRY!!!!.
Holy Cow!! I shut off the gas valve, got the water hose out and starting drenching the flue pan. Realized I had a frozen line out side on the sap storage tank. No damage other than a little warping to the syrup pan. (Still flows towards the drawoff). It happened so fast from sap in pan to nothing. They say there isn’t a sugarmaker who hasn’t scorched or come close to scorching a pan. And if he says he hasn’t, he’s lying or it’s not his time yet.

[Fred Henderson]

Good that things turned out for the best. You don't need that problem right now or anytime.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Dropflue,

Heat tape is good insurance for that. I even need it inside some with an inferno arch, it doesn't put off much heat and nearly all the steam goes outside. :?