Anyone near Shawville QC tapping soon?

[Zamkev]

Wondering if there is anyone out there near Shawville Qc, or Ladysmith with any "local" info on weather and expected date for getting a constant run.

I'm in Ottawa and the weather sure looks appealing in the next week or so, but I was up around Shawville yesterday and it seems so far off.

Any info/thoughts appreciated.

Thanks.
KT

[can'twaitforabigrun]

I would recommend getting your trees tapped this weekend at the latest. Very strange year this year, as many producers in southern Ontario tapped 2 to 4 weeks early and it may be done down there fairly soon, while most of the larger producers around Lanark County are all tapped and have already had a few small runs. Right now it's not getting cold enough at night for the sap to run, then Friday and Saturday will be too cold during the day. Sunday and Monday (11th and 12th) are looking like extremely good days for sap. Next week is going to be interesting as it will be warm enough, it will just depend on the location of your bush as freezing temperatures may be marginal. Here is something I've come to learn over the years; the sugarbush is guaranteed to be colder than the city and especially more so when there is snow on the ground. The city acts has a heat sink as concrete and pavement absorb heat radiation, on the other hand snow reflects the sun and also cools the air above it. Many times I've been fooled into thinking that the buckets in the bush would be over half full, as I would be in town on a clear sunny day and the concrete and pavement would be radiating the heat, making it feel like 6 or 8 above. I would get to the bush to find hardly any sap or no sap, the actual temp. in the bush was 3-5 above, and if there was a slight breeze from the northwest it would guarantee a lot less sap. I could see this year being a very short season, with almost all the sap coming between the 11th and the 20th in eastern Ontario and west Quebec. The sap shouldn't go buddy as long as there is snow on the ground. A lot of snow will melt next week if we get the double digit temps. that are predicted. We are going to need a good sugar snow near the 20th to prolong the season. Sorry for the rant and here are temp. forecasts for the next two weeks for Pembroke, Ontario which is just west of Shawville. The last three are computer model 2m temps. extrapolated from this site, http://mag.ncep.noaa.gov/NCOMAGWEB/appcontroller?prevpage=index&MainPage=index&cat=MODEL+GUIDANCE&page=MODEL+GUIDANCE


Made at approx 5pm March 7th 8L 8H 9L 9H 10L 10H 11L 11H 12L 12H 13L 13H 14L 14H 15L 15H 16L 16H 17L 17H 18L 18H 19L 19H
Environment Canada 3 8 -11 -2 -17 6 4 12 -6 7 0 8
Accuweather 7 8 -8 1 -14 0 -4 8 -7 10 -1 11 0 12 -1 12 -1 12 -1 12 0 12 -2 11
Weather Network 8 8 -10 -1 -12 2 -2 10 1 8 0 9 0 8 -3 6 -2 7 0 7 -1 8 0 10
SREF 6 UTC 4 7
GEFS-MNSPRD 12 UTC 5 6 -5 -2 -9 -4 -3 6 0 5 2 8 5 10 3 8 3 9 3 10 5 9 4 8
NAEFS 12 UTC 4 7 -6 -2 -12 -4 -3 6 -3 4 -2 6 3 8 2 8 2 9 2 8 2 8 0 7

I apologize for the terrible quality. Excel documents don't really transfer over to the forum too well. If you pm me your e-mail I can send you an e-mail with the original excel document and I can send you a new forecast everyday. I do one up each day, and at the end of the onth I will go back though the temperature records to see which forecast was most accurate.

[can'twaitforabigrun]

The temperatures did line up with the days when I was typing it in. If anyone has any idea to upload data from a ecel document onto the forum or how to link to the excel document itself, it would be much appreciated. If anyone else wants these forecasts for eastern Ontario, just pm me your e-amil address.

[Zamkev]

That is very useful information - thanks for your reply.

I have sent you a pm as the additional info would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again.

[letterkenny]

Tapped yesterday, March7. about 70 taps. Rain today, so I left everything in the collecting barrels. I will pick in the morning and start to boil

[KenWP]

The guy beside the hog barn made his only syrup so far back in Febuary. Trees didn't run worth a darn the two warm days we had this week. Sunday should be good. My one test tree hasn't ran yet if it ever does. In the 2009 season I never boiled till the 18th so there is time yet for things to still improve. My trees are allways later then others due to the wind from the north.

[Zamkev]

Well, as per last yr, I'm checking in on folks in and around Shawville/Ladysmith, Qc. Anyone tapped yet? Anything running? Likely not at the moment as it's pretty cold. I expect the start of a constant run to begin at the end of next week(21st/22nd) - based on current forecasts.

Anyone else around that area?

[Green Bastard]

Hey there, Im located about twenty mins from Shawville and have tapped feb 27 and had it running slowly since then but the last two days have been very slow. Hope this helps

[Zamkev]

Hey GB - would you agree that the end of next week is when sap ought to be free-flowing hopefully more consistently?

[Green Bastard]

Yes id think so it looks like it will get cold for this week coming until about friday. The 14 day weather changes often but id definitely say that the sap would be runnin by the end of next week more consistently than it is now. Hope this helps.

[can'twaitforabigrun]

We might be tapping this weekend up near Griffith, friends of ours tapped half their bush near Dacre last weekend. I'm heading home Pembroke) this weekend so I should be able to talk to fellow producers around the area and find out what has been happening. I currently attend college in Lindsay. If anyone wants forecasts from multiple outlets (Env. Canada, Weather Network, Accuweather and various computer models) in chart form feel free to private message me. I should have more information from back in the valley posted up by the end of this weekend.