April Journal

[sirsapsalot]

where is everyone ?????? hello April 5Th and no April journal.

[RustyBuckets]

We are all crying in our spoiled buddy stinky sap sitting in our tanks. Trying to decide if we should flood the market with Mersh. Its weird cause after RO ing it, its nice and light in color yet taste like........................... never mind its just taste bad.

[sirsapsalot]

WOW at least you got some sap. Here in upper Michigan near Wisconsin we taped on march 15th and didnt get a drop. I sure hope march 15th is better next year.

[Brandy Brook Maple Farm]

We are all crying in our spoiled buddy stinky sap sitting in our tanks.

I just wanted to tell you I like your phrase (above), "spoiled buddy stinky." If there were grades of commercial (as my son asked about the other day), I think you have accurately labeled three out of four (?) of them. We can just call the last grade "bad."

I think I would like it very much if Mother Nature didn't provide us with such a bounty of this next season.

BBMF

[Gary R]

I've been doing the maple thing hard lately. Been to three sugarhouses in the last week. Stopped at Dan W's. He just bought another 100+ buckets. Looks like he'll be busy next year. He also lives by a large stainless equipment dealer. I'll have to stop back again and see if there's anything we need. I stopped at Mapleack's also. Got to visit with everyone. They have one very nice kitchen for maple.

Tubing's washed. Four plus cord of wood is all done. Added the new steam stack for the front hood. Cut a sugarhouse door down and reversed the swing. I'm ready for next season:D I have about five vacuum pumps. none are running 100%. I need to tune a few up so I can run 27".

[Yellzee]

wood almost "topped up" for next year... only needed topping up since the season was so crap. Finally got around to finishing my final batch of syrup yesterday... good size at 13l so my season total a whopping 41 litres on 120 taps. Nice medium batch with great flavour and creaminess... think i'm saving that one for my family use.

Other than that... took a walk through the woods yesterday.. found 2 taps I forgot to pull... wildflowers are out.. weather was great.

[Revi]

I've been working on things at the sugarhouse lately. I have most of next year's wood ready already, which wasn't too hard since we only used about a third of what we did last year. I fixed the pull start on our DR powerwagon and I plugged taps back in. We pulled the taps about 3 weeks ago, but we let them drain out before plugging them back into the holders. I was thinking today that this is a really great thing to be doing. Blue sky, 60 degrees, no blackflies. It hardly qualifies as work. I looked up at the crowns of the maples which are budding out now and saw that they are doing pretty well. To paraphrase Ratty from the Wind in the Willows:

"There is nothing- absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in Maple."

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

Getting things ready for next year, and geting ready to build my homemade releaser. Gotta go get a bunch of plumbing sttuff first. Cant wait to start the new sap house construction! :D

[Yellzee]

Sap firewood all split and piled under cover. Feels good & looks good. 16 cord of house wood all split, now to stack and sell most of it. Outdoor work progressing nicely unless you look at my dog dug hole filled lawn or the garden.

blackflies out in full force last night for the first time.

major issue I'm fighting is a @#$%@#$ beaver that keeps building a small dam every night by the culvert that drains my land.... can't find him during the day to "elminate" the problem... so every morning I tear the dam out again. May have to get up real early on the weekend and sit out there with my peacemaker...

[Revi]

We've been doing podcasts from our sugarhouse. Here's the latest, entitled Too Big to Sink:

http://sugarhousejournal.podomatic.com/player/web

Check it out. Let me know what you think.

[adk1]

Been thinning alittle in the sugarbush, then splitting what I have been thinning (all hardwood) and stacking for sapwood. I am pretty much topped off right now but will keep plugging away at the thinning. Heading to the LEader Open House sat to buy 4 more rolls of grip and some fittings. Gonna tube about 60 or so in a friends bush this fall. That is really about it

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

just split up about 1/2 cord mixed hard and soft, open house Saturday then more wood on sunday

[lastwoodsman]

Really good shape in wood and most of it stacked right now. Waiting for new 5" Daryls filter press to setup. Also eyeballing ground layout to see how best to run another 400 foot gravity line. Going to use all 5/16 tubing this time instead of running laterals to 1/2 inch mainline.
Woodsman

[Jeff E]

Similar to everyone else, 'smart thinning' the sugarbush, getting firewood done for the house and syrup, adding more tubing, correcting problems with existing tubing, cleaning, bottling for customers.
LOOKING FORWARD to next season...

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Really good shape in wood and most of it stacked right now. Waiting for new 5" Daryls filter press to setup. Also eyeballing ground layout to see how best to run another 400 foot gravity line. Going to use all 5/16 tubing this time instead of running laterals to 1/2 inch mainline.
Woodsman
Im not the smartest guy but I do believe the quicker you can empty the lateral the more (easier) it will flow. But I have been wrong in the past

[jrthe3]

Getting may stuff packed up will be heading to leader open house tomorow after work

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Getting may stuff packed up will be heading to leader open house tomorow after work
be there sat morning around 8:30

[Revi]

Well I got the woodshed all filled for next year, which was not a very hard chore considering how little we used this year. Fortunately we had a bunch of crappy wood waiting right next to the woodshed. Next year we may use our usual 3 cords again.

[Tithis]

If I was smart and not lazy I would probably be chopping wood for next year so it has a chance to dry out more, however I AM lazy so I'm not thinking about that yet.

Only maplely thing I'm doing is tending to a sugar maple sapling I planted. I got it for free and planted it to replace a young oak that lost most of its top due to the october snowstorm. I'll be middle aged before its ever ready to be tapped, but its autumn color will be enjoyed regardless.