We tapped!

[Sugar]

We tapped yesterday and went back tonight and emptied our 41 bags. We have almost 60 gallons of sap. It was still running at 7pm. We hope to try out our new evaporator tomorrow...Need to brick it first. Never bricked anything, so we will see.....

[spud]

I wish you the best Sugar. Where are you located? I plan to tap 3rd week in Jan or so.

Spud

[Dennis H.]

Good Luck Sugar, keep us posted how things are going.

Do you have a way to measure the sugar content of the sap? It would be interesting to see how they are running.

[adk1]

What? In Vermont? Third week of January, surely you mean 3rd week of February

[spencer11]

he is probably on vac, so he has a longer window to tap, thats when i plan to tap all mine on vac

[spud]

I will start tapping the 3rd week of January and hope to be done in a week. I am in hopes of a few warm days where the trees will run. Three days ago my big trees that I have fall tapped ran 1.5 gallons per tap on gravity. Had I put vacuum on those trees I would have gotten 3 gallons per tap. All it took was a day in the high 40s with the sun shining. I plan on having sap runs in Feb for sure.

Spud

[Thad Blaisdell]

I will start at the beginning of the second week in February. Only 6 weeks or so to go......... Lets all hope for a good year this year , 2 bad years in a row will hurt a little too much.

[maple flats]

I plan to tap starting about Jan 7-10. I lose my college help Jan 16. This will be 2 weeks ahead of last year.

[Randy Brutkoski]

I am going to start tapping Jan. 20th. Same time i did last year. I will not miss a run.

[ericjeeper]

I am in central Indiana. I too, have a few taps out. I am guessing a 3/4 gallon per day average on saks. yesterday was very sunny and we had a good run, today was a high of 39, but not much sun.
I will gather tomorrow afternoon and make some Christmas syrup.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

i need the weather to hold off for a couple more months to get arch built and ro built, hurry up Thad get that parts list together,
Randy, a nice day like today and you are at the house waiting for the stork to arrive? get out in those woods fix the tree damage

[heus]

I will start at the beginning of the second week in February. Only 6 weeks or so to go......... Lets all hope for a good year this year , 2 bad years in a row will hurt a little too much.
Thad you had a bad year 2 years ago? Best season in years around my parts in 2011.

[jgrenier]

I think he is talking about this coming year and last year

[Randy Brutkoski]

When you drove by and beeped your horn, i was out back of my house shooting my new weapon
. I bought a new Taurus 9mm. If i catch anyone in my sugarhouse stealing, there will be hollow points raining down on them.

[Sugar]

I wish you the best Sugar. Where are you located? I plan to tap 3rd week in Jan or so.

Spud

We are in Southern Ky.

[Sugar]

Good Luck Sugar, keep us posted how things are going.

Do you have a way to measure the sugar content of the sap? It would be interesting to see how they are running.

Oh yes! This is how...My littlest one, sticks his tongue under the tap and slurps the little dribbles down...Then he gives us the sweetness status!

[adk1]

Wow, I didnt realize that you vac suckers tapped so early. That is good cause I can live thru you until around March 1 when I start tapping this year!

[Dennis H.]

It is great to have helpers like that isn't.
My daughter loves to search out pine cones to help in firing the evap. She seen once me use them to start up the evap so now she searches them out for me.
I haven't gotten her to help in sap collecting though.

[adk1]

I have about a dozen sacks around the sugar house that the kids are in charge of collecting. Of course they only collect on weekends cause won't do it in the dark! Haha

[The Sweet Spot]

Last year was my first year with tubing. I went behind the shack to see how the flow was. Only to find the line hanging over the side of the tank. Walked around the tank to find my son with the tube in his mouth drinking as fast as he could. Sap running from the sides of his mouth, soaked his clothes. I asked how it was he said "SWEET"! There is my sugar content. LOL he was only 6 :rolleyes:

[Sugar]

I have about a dozen sacks around the sugar house that the kids are in charge of collecting. Of course they only collect on weekends cause won't do it in the dark! Haha

Mine think it is all the better to empty saks in the dark. They have 300 lumen headlamps and off they go. They have memorized the spot of each precious maple tree.

We have 50 taps and saks and today we got 80 gallons. This year is so much better than last year, and the forecast, other than a brief warm-up looks great for about a month. I am so glad we tapped early! Good luck to you!

[Sugar]

We are finishing up this run. I have 70 twelve oz. jars of syrup. Almost all of it is very light and pretty. I have some on the cook top to finish and the evaporator is still full and boiling. We will have a break until next Wednesday. We are planning on putting new bags up Tuesday, so we won't get any bacteria in our sap. We started tapping Dec. 23, and so far we have had a great season.

[Logan Cabin]

We are finishing up this run. I have 70 twelve oz. jars of syrup. Almost all of it is very light and pretty. I have some on the cook top to finish and the evaporator is still full and boiling. We will have a break until next Wednesday. We are planning on putting new bags up Tuesday, so we won't get any bacteria in our sap. We started tapping Dec. 23, and so far we have had a great season.

Good to hear you're off to a good start. Been watching the weather at home here in Southern Indiana, and thinking about heading down to our cabin next week. Long term forecast looks good, hope it holds up. Cabin is in Butler County, outside of Morgantown on the Green River. Last year managed to squeeze in about 4-5 days of sap collecting there during what seemed like the only cold snap. Hoping all the snow we had here in Bloomington after Christmas is a good omen for the rest of the season.

[Dennis H.]

Great to hear you are having a good year. Hope your season continues on for you.

[spud]

That's great you guys down south are doing well. Please send some of that good weather to us up north. Wish you all the best.

Spud

[Sugar]

I wish for good maple weather for you all! We are having a much different winter than last year. It looks like starting the middle of next week we will have about a month, at least, of just the right weather. We are so excited! We already have 93 jars, of syrup, almost all of it very light. We hadn't even started this time last year. I am using mostly 12 oz. jars. Last year we got about 75, so we are already ahead.

[Dennis H.]

Wow, very impressive that you made that much more than last year and you still have more season to go.
Hopefully you have enough firewood?

[Sugar]

Wow, very impressive that you made that much more than last year and you still have more season to go.
Hopefully you have enough firewood?

Well....I buy most of my firewood, but have some Mennonite friends that are going to help us with more. We are like family, so try to help each other.

We are thrilled with what we have received this year. I don't think we had tapped this time last year, and the weather looks favorable for the next 25 days. We feel so lucky!