2012 @ Greyfox Farm

[Greyfox]

FINALLY this on-again off-again season may be up and running. My small-time hobby operation is all gravity tubing, and today I managed to boil off the first product of the year with the newly modified arch. It seems to be putting the heat to the pan much better than last year so hopefully I won't have to spend every night until 11:00 boiling. Frankly, I don't think my liver could take it another year. I have my 20 taps (wow!) running into a 1/2" main, and I'm getting about half a gallon per hour. Only about 1/3 of the taps appear to be running today, but this week looks good weather-wise so hopefully we'll be cranking up the volume. What I did manage to make was very light with a wonderful vanilla flavor. The wife decided to make oatmeal and drowned it in what I managed to produce....what a waste. Would it be cheating to substitute her bottle with Aunt Jamima....no...guess I can't do that.....karo syrup maybe? (sigh) No, better let her use the good stuff.

[Greyfox]

Wind and weather didn't cooperate today. We had a nice cool 23 degree night and a sunny morning, but a brisk wind gusting to 15 MPH held down the temp so we only saw a high of 35 degrees at 2:00, and by 4:00 it had dropped back to 32. The main line thawed just enough to release about a gallon, but nothing was running at the trees. In a perfect second-guessing world I'd tap later this week, like say on the 24th, which is when I tapped last year.

Back to the real job tomorrow, with the hope to have enough to bother with by this Thursday. Good luck to everyone else.

[Greyfox]

The weather channel promised a high of 45 degrees today but up here at 850 feet elevation on the North-facing hill nature delivered 34 degrees. Nature won, and only a couple of taps ran.....hell, just look at yesterdays post. As they said in The Federalist Papers "The Same Subject, Continued."

[Greyfox]

Flash back to last year. February 24, 2011. I walked down the road and summited the head-high snowbank and started down my logging road towards my sugarhouse. I made the 300 yard trek in just under five minutes. Shovel in hand, I dug DOWN enough to open the door to the sugarhouse. Tapping supplies in hand, I trudged up-slope and in 30 minutes had 20 taps running. I didn't dare take my snowmobile on this adventure. It's a 20 year old sled that I'd just purchased for short-money but the track was smoother than James Carville's head and the skis more crooked than Bill Clinton and I KNEW that I'd sink out of sight in the three to four feet of snow that we had accumulated since November.

Back to the present. Tonight after work I tossed on a pair of hiking boots and walked to the sugarhouse through the inch of sleet that we're getting. I didn't dare wear the new Air-Jordan retro sneakers that I rioted for last Christmas; the laces might get wet. I stepped UP into the sugarhouse, grabbed a flashlight and went out to collect the few gallons that flowed today. Last Fall I re-did the sled from top to bottom: new Camoplast skis and carbides, new hifax, new Ice Attack track, rebuilt suspension; it's the bomb sitting on the grass in the back yard. I've put 4/10 of a mile on it so far this winter having run around the front yard four times, but I don't dare take it to the sugarhouse since the track is 1-1/4" and it would bottom out in the 3/8" "snowpack" we have. Great value for a $95 OHRV permit, as my wife is kind enough to point out.

The good news is that hopefully this week the run will start for real. Sunday is Daytona: Go 99!

[adk1]

Great post 99, mother nature at her best. at the end of last year Ipurchased a pair of Cabelas snowshoes to tap in and walk around the sugarbush. They have yet to feel the wet chill of snow.

[Greyfox]

4:00 P.M. Rain delay at Daytona, ice delay here. Anyone in the market for a few hundred feet of 5/16" ice sculpture?

[Greyfox]

I came home from the real job this afternoon and took a quick drive into the sugarbush. The main line had unthawed and, much to my surprise, yielded a pretty fair run compared to what I've been having. The high today here was only 34 degrees but sap was running. Dare I jink myself and say MAYBE the trees are starting to give it up to the gravity lines....?

I've made a quart and a half so far and it's been a nice light amber with a good vanilla note. Great stuff. A quart and a half of syrup made and only half a fifth of Johnny Walker Black gone; pretty good ratio so far.

[Greyfox]

March 1st and we're getting 6 to 10 inches of snow. February looked like March, so I guess it's only fair that March seems like February. It only took a quick couple of hours to boil off my inventory and make about a quart. The high for today looks to only make it to around 25 and it looks like it'll be Saturday before it loosens up again, but from there on the forecast looks good. An incredible sense of deja-vu just flooded over me; didn't I read that same exact forecast somewhere before? Oh yeah, in my own post from last week...and from the week before that... Ever see the comic where Lucy holds the football and Charlie Brown kicks it? No really, THIS time the run is for real, the weatherman WON'T change the forecast. This time is DIFFERENT. No really, you can trust me, I'm not like all the others.

The good news is that it was a good day in the sugarhouse with the snow coming down and the steam rolling out of the vents. There wasn't anywhere else that I'd rather have been. Enjoy the day boys; none of us gets enough of then, so make them all count.

[Greyfox]

After work today I took a quick look at the yield off the 20 taps that I have running into a 1/2" main, and netted only two gallons today. I'm afraid that the poor yield is a result of my tapping WAY too early this season. Undaunted, I tapped in 10 more trees. These runs are 5/16" tubing into buckets; a few doubles and a few triples. (Sorry, the Scotch is making the math make my head hurt). They're running with a steady tap-tap-tap into the aforementioned buckets. The wife just came in with Chinese food...let's take a look at the fortune cookie. Confucious say "Lazy redneck has busy day boiling soon." I hope the Sage's wisdom is correct. Now I guess I'd better go eat my "crab-gangrene"... whatever that is.

[SSFLLC]

Greyfox, Not sure what you tapped with. If you used check valves or health spouts. You can pick up the next size up on tap size and ream the hole to get you another couple weeks. Sunnyside Maple in loudon should have them. Keith

[Greyfox]

Thanks Keith, I may have to give that a try. I know the folks at Sunnyside; nice people.

I checked my records for last year, which was the first year I tapped, and this bush netted 7.6 GPT for the season. I'm currently at 2.2 GPT. I'm just abut where I was at this time last year, but I'm concerned that they may be healing already. This woods was logged off about 40 years ago so my trees are on the smallish size which I'm sure is a factor as well. I'll give it today with the temp in the 50's and see what happens. Of the 10 I tapped last evening eight ran and two are still dry this morning. We had a light freeze here last night (30.6 at 4:00 A.M.) so time will tell if they run strong today. Around noon I'll light it up and boil down what I have and hopefully it'll be running as I go. Good luck to you.

[Greyfox]

I got a half-hearted attempt at a run yesterday. Got enough to make a day of it boiling. Making DA now. Odd, but some of the new taps ran about 1/2 GPT and some were absolutely dry. There was no rhyme or reason that I could isolate. It was either/or, nothing in between. The weather for Saturday through Monday looks great, then who knows. I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

[Greyfox]

I worked half a day this morning so I got into the woods around 3:00 this afternoon and was greeted by the first real run of the season. The 20 taps on the half-inch gravity main line were drumming away steadily to the tune of about a gallon an hour and a couple of the newly tapped trees were pouring out even better than that. I boiled off what I had and netted a surprisingly light and buttery syrup. If only this season won't fall prey to the dismal forecast for next week...........

[Greyfox]

The forecast beyond tomorrow looks dismal, but I'm living in the present, and the present is all good! Today the Sap Goddess shined her sunny countenance upon me and returned the first REAL run of the season. I have buckets-full in inventory now and the run rolls on, AND I'm off tomorrow so I can get a good night's sleep and crunch through it all day tomorrow. A day all alone in the sugarwoods; well, not alone, I'll have a 12-pack and a bottle of McClelland to keep me company, but it still beats the real job. Hope the rest of you gets this one last shot as well. Good luck all.

Doc