Tapping the 2013 Season

[slammer3364]

Got 21 taps in today ran out of juice on the batteries for drill I was unaware you had to charge new batteries ooops My best friend and I will finish the other 70 after church tommorrow(my wife) Good Luck to everyone. Just keep those batteries charged

[Paddymountain]

Funny everyone complaining about the cold and no sap. Remember last year when it was hitting 60 til the end of Feb.
I emptied my ice out of my buckets today also, Sap was running just a little. Looks like Monday should bring some good sap weather.
I think we're going to be making syrup way into March!!! Hang in there everyone, it's going to break loose ,and then look out!!!

[cadocter]

Gary R, What all did you think needed to be done for the full pint pan to work? I'm just wondering to see if there's something else I should try. S Durf? I think you were over pretty close to my neck of the woods! I actually have his first evaporator. Small world! Thanks, Calvin

[Gary R]

Paddymountain, I think we're all used to a couple of runs a week during late February. At this point it has been a bust and no good weather until sometime in March. For us, last year the second week of March was all 60's with no freezes. Everyone season ended. If that happens this year most people will have a one week season. Hopefully things will work out.

Sugarmaker, too bad we missed you. It would have been nice to talk for a while.

Cadoctor, I'll PM you.

[heus]

Funny everyone complaining about the cold and no sap. Remember last year when it was hitting 60 til the end of Feb.
I emptied my ice out of my buckets today also, Sap was running just a little. Looks like Monday should bring some good sap weather.
I think we're going to be making syrup way into March!!! Hang in there everyone, it's going to break loose ,and then look out!!!
Now thats positive thinking! I'm going with that.

[not_for_sale]

I'd be interested too what needs to be done to the Smokey Lake Pan for it to work well.

[Sugarmaker]

We tapped, now we wait.
While waiting I heated, filtered, and canned 15 gallons of nice medium syrup today and sold several gallons too. Drained and filtered the sap from the evaporator into buckets. Scrubbed and rinsed the evaporator, ice formed on the cold stainless in about 1 hour. Yep still cold and doesn't look too good for much sap this week. Maybe some sap Tuesday. Several storms from midwest could affect our season for a week or more??
:)Looking forward to several good runs in March.
Regards,
Chris

[Turtlecreek]

Well, I didn't get any ral bliling in today except to boils some pan cleaner in a test boil in the renovated rig, the good news it all went well and I have a nice clean pan to start with. I waled the woods and collectes what sap I had out there and got rid of the the ice cubes.

I have had some sap stored for a while now, the tanks were all iced over for about a week now, I checks the sugar content and the ranged between 1.5 and 2, so it stored very well. Looks like a boil in my near future!

Paddymountain- I think your right its going to break loose and hold on!

[unc23win]

I think Paddymountian is right as well. Last year was last year 60 in early March 80 in later March, but in 11 we were still going April 12th I believe. Although the waiting seems painful I think it will be worth it.

[Dave Y]

This is what happens when everyone gets excited and jumps the gun. We tapped at our normal times and like every one else we wait. One positive note is that all your last minute chores can be completed be for you start to boil, instead of while you are boiling.

[Dennis H.]

Just got back from the cabin, trees are starting kick back in. I got about 75 gals of sap to boil this evening.
With the clear skies and already above freezing at 9:30 am I think I should get a good run today.

I do have to admit that this is kind of a strange year. I made about 20 gals of syrup in Jan and since then I have made just a hair over 10 gals.
Should be fine with all new tubing I am planning to hang on as long as I can.
I need the end of the season stuff for my personal supply.

[unc23win]

I am hoping to see a little sap in the tank when I get home in about an hour. Today is the first day that the temperature and the feels like temperature are actually about freezing in a while. Right now it says 38 feels like 38. I might actually turn the pump on for a few hours. Thus far when I have looked in the tank all I have seen is my reflection in the shiny stainless steel.

[KV Sappers]

Trees started to run again. Collected 9gal.1qt. this afternoon and they were dripping good. The sap in the tank thawed and with what I collected today I have 16.5 gals. to boil tomorrow. I must say this has been a strange season so far. Tapped on Jan. 27 and sap ran for 3 days then shutdown for 9 days. Trees started backup again ran for 4 days and shutdown again for 8 days. So in 29 days that the taps have been in I've collected sap 7 days out of the 29 and boiled 3 times. Last year after 29 days I had 2 1/2 gals of syrup, this year I'm 8 oz shy of 1 gal. Strange and poor season so far for me, hopefully the next couple of weeks will be better. Time and Mother Nature will tell.

[Dennis H.]

KVSapper it will pick up soon. Even on Vac it is tough to get the trees going. The cold spells are just long enough to freeze things up so that they thaw out just in time for the next freeze up.

[Gary R]

OK guys, I'm sorry for being the pessimist:cool: I tapped Jan. 7th (I think). I got 1550 gal. in Jan. On Feb. 9th I put 60 more taps in. So far I've only gotten 475 gal. in Feb. We'll see how the season goes. I got a small amount of sap today. Tomorrow is the big ?

Dave, I don't think it is jumping the gun. I look at it as trying to get the sap I would have missed. I expect my tap holes to hold out. I will be pulling them instead of making C syrup. It's just not worth the boiling for me.

[Dennis H.]

With all the new ways and styles of tap out there, CV's, Clear polys, etc, I think that it allows us to tap early and extend the season a longer than normally in the past.

[Springfield Acer]

I collected 40 gal tonight that I would call a 25%'r. Hopefully the trees will thaw quick enough tomorrow that they can run all night before it gets cold later Wednesday. The sugars were running 2.1%. The reds were not running much yet. It's hard to believe that it's almost march already!

[Turtlecreek]

I collected today with the two sap haules (my 6 year old and my 4 year old) we got about 15 gallons from 50 trees and they were still running. I'm boiling as we speak, I had about 100 gallons to boil off so i figured its a nice nigh so whay not?

The 2.5 inches of insulation I put in the arch this year seems to be woring out pretty well so far. I need to insulate the front a little better and come up with a better way to insulate the door. i am also throwing flames out my 9' stack so some adjustment is needed on my ramp to choke down the ehaust and keep that heat in instead of my blower blowing it out. The pan is boiling from start to fininsh so im happywith that.

well better go feed the arch, happy sugaring!

[Turtlecreek]

12:30 and Im still at it WHERE IS EVERYONE??? Having a great time I even had one draw off so far, kinda by mistake, let the pand get a little low and had to open the feed tan a bit so it pushed some of the sweet over so i got to draw a little off! I will more than likly get a good size draw off before tonight is over. Also had a door gasket fail on me so now I have to watch how hard I push it, if i push too much I get flames from around the door!!

[unc23win]

I got maybe 30 gallons yesterday. When I got home from work I turned the pump on and no sap. Then I checked the weather last night it said the high of 39' was observed at 10:30 am not exactly normal. Looks like today it might stay warmer a little longer we'll see. I did manage to get few more things done so when it does run I'll be a little more ready.

[Dennis H.]

Picked up another 100 gals this morning on my sap run.
It was starting to trickle in while I was there.
I am amazed how this year is turning out. Back in Jan when I tapped I was getting boat loads of sap, ground was soft. Not anymore.
For only have a few days each week being below freezing, the warm spells are just not enough to get the ground thawed. While I was up collecting sap this morning the ground was really frozen.
We are to get a lot of rain and temps up to almost 50 tomorrow so I am hoping that it will help thaw the ground a little and get those trees running again.

Oh Gary, I finally got to see what everyone was talking about in the Maple News. Hopefully that was back in the fall when that pic was taken, otherwise you are nuts for being out there in shorts this time of the year.

[Jim Brown]

Well it's 35 degrees and raining.Test trees in the yard are not running. Ran the pumps on 300 taps 2 hours yesterday afternoon pulled about two cups! doesn't look like a warming trend until maybe next week!
Now we wait

Jim

[Maplewalnut]

Same thing at this end of the state. Even with 23inches of vacuum very little sap today even with a 35 degree temp. Maybe a little sap tomorrow but after that nothing for the next 7 days. Usually finish the first week in April here so the season is getting shorter and shorter.

[Sugarmaker]

Jim Brown and Gary, You guys should be pulling in the sap this afternoon. Wet in Albion. Have about 250-300 gallon waiting for me in the bush.
Looks like it may be warm into tomorrow too??
We should be able to push some syrup through. My season is about half over and its going to have to kick into high gear for us to make our syrup goal before the taps run out.
Folks that are just tapping may have hit it just right? Time will tell.
Regards,
Chris

[Jim Brown]

Chris; just checked again and the tree in my front yard dripped about once a minute. 34 degrees now and REALLY windy.
No sap today1 Would not have paid for the gas to run the pumps

Jim

[KV Sappers]

Boiled 16 1/2 gal sap today (sap measured 1.7) ended up with 40oz. of really nice dark amber syrup. The trees were frozen this morning but this afternoon they seem to have thawed out and are running pretty good. I've finally hit a gallon of syrup for the year. 1 gal 1 qt exactly. Raining now and the low temp forecast for tonight is 35 - 38 degrees. Hopefully the trees will run all night.

[sandman6921]

Wondering what the shortest season was. I have about 30 gallons from 75 taps, ground is still frozen, trees are froze, and I see a slight red haze on the treetops....Nothing for the near future either:cry:

[Springfield Acer]

Today was another 25%'r at 40 gallons collected. The temperature drop has seemed to slow as the forecast here called for. Now hopefully the slight warming trend tonight for a short while will actually happen. The wind is picking up a bit though. Let's hope for an good run through the night until cools again tomorrow. I'm being optimistic that I will be boiling tomorrow night.

[Gary R]

Sugarmaker, I got about 10 gal. of sap today:cry: 34 and rain all day. Things are just starting to thaw out and it will freeze back up tomorrow night. Give them big road sides a hug from me.

Dennis, I might be crazy but that was an early January day. I was boiling and it was 67* out. It was hot in the sugar house. It could have been the 2 gal/tap day I had! Oh I long for those days:)

Jim Brown, Sorry to say it looks like no boiling for your open house this Saturday. Maybe we'll swing by and cheer you on. Don't feel too bad. The last two taste and tours I visited sugarhouse's that had no sap to boil. It's pretty quiet and boring. Best of luck to you guys.

Oh, forgot to mention that it's been 10* warmer only an hour south of us. Dan W and maybe Andy P should be in the sap!

[Sugarmaker]

Gary and Jim I hope to light a fire by 11:00 or noon tomorrow. Sugar house should be warm by then if you want to stop by:)
Looked at the sap and I think there may be 4-500 gallons after checking my one container. I am always optimistic. Even if there is only 200 gal., I am going to push some syrup through.
Yes these roadside trees do a pretty good job if we get the weather.
Jim, I hope your open house is good. Weather may be cold again by then.
Regards,
Chris

[WardLaFrance]

Sap was running here in Stoneboro from late yesterday to this afternoon. Not strong...but enough to collect.

[Sugarmaker]

Ward,
You are right now that I think about, it the flow has been very gradual. I had expected a strong run but doesn't look like its going to happen.
Regards,
Chris

[Dan W]

Here in SWPA there is very little happening. I thought today was going to be OK but it was so windy and never got out of the 30's. Doesn't look good for the next few days either. Last year my season ran from Jan29 to Mar 2 and I collected about 80% of my sap in Feb. So far this year I've had 2 small runs in Feb and only got 550 gallons so far. I guess it is just sit and wait for the dam to burst.

[Dave Y]

the wind is out of the east. no sap! look on the bright side we will be boiling on may 1st.

[Paddymountain]

We collected and boiled last night, just got done bottling. It made 3 1/2 gallon. Have my vac still running ,at 8:30 it was still pulling in sap. It's around 32 here right now and
is supposed to be 36 in the morning. We will boil tomorrow night as I have sap from last night that I didn't boil, and I need to collect my sap from my gravity trees.
No big runs in the near future, but we're gonna squeeze it out a little at at time!!! Everyone have fun.

[Turtlecreek]

Bottled up my syrup from last night. I made 1 gallon, that is pretty good for the first boil of the year, if i do say so for my self. My pan is very sweet, soo as soon as these trees decide to turn back on I should be in the syrup right off the bat. I have my pan pretty full so its going to take a long time to get it all boiling, I think I will just boil for a while before turning on the head tank just to draw down the level.

[Dennis H.]

I am managing to keep up with the sap, for now.
I was able to get the 100 gals I collected yesterday morning thru the evap last night before heading of to work.
From what I can see from here at work the weather station at out local school says it never got below freezing so the pump may have been running all night.
I guess I will have to wait and see once I head up to get the sap after work.

[Gary R]

I did manage to get about 40 gal. over night. I have about 80 in the bulk tank now. I don't know how much is in the 3/16 tanks. I will be boiling tonight even if it is just 2 hours:)

Ward, I'm actually located close to Raymilton, maybe 10 miles away. If possible I'd like to stop in and talk maple.?

[Springfield Acer]

I stopped to 'kick the buckets' on the way to work and was relieved to see that they're already getting a good run into them such that tonight ought to be a good haul; especially with the temps being warmer now for today. Let's hope. Looks like a boil night tonight if I get done collecting in time. Finally! :cool:

Dan W:
I hear Pgh is calling for 40* today. You should be rolling!

Gary:
I am curious to see if your 3/16 rolls today.

[Jim Brown]

Well we turned the pumps on this morning ,left them on for 30 minute and pulled ONE(1) releaser full in 35 minutes. I shut them down. At that rate it won't pay for the gas to run the pumps!

we wait

Jim

[FunnyFarm]

Running here best I've seen it this year yet. Raining now so hopefully that will loosen her up...

[waysidemaple]

It's starting kick in here. Going to collect all day and then let it run over night and kick the R.O. On in the morning. Big boil tomorrow.

[Jim Brown]

Gave it one more shot for the day. Started pumps at12:45pm, shut them down a 1:30pm and the releaser did not trip during that time.

we wait

Jim

[Paddymountain]

Just got back from collecting from my gravity trees 135 taps/ brought home al I could 120 gallons, and will need to go back and get the rest. Probably another 40/50 gallons.
there's 80 gallon in my cage tank and 50 in the head tank, looks like a long boil tonight!!!

[Maplewalnut]

36 degrees here, rain stopped 15 minutes ago, sun just came out and sap is flowing!!! Hoping the sun warmth keeps it above freezing overnight

[sandman6921]

Clearfield County -- still waiting cloudy and 36 isn't working. Maybe -- Maybe a tablespoon in each bucket
The next week doesn't look good at all
How long till the holes start to dry?

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

Got a little bit today. Collected about 45gal off of about 237 taps. Still flowing good so I think if it stays clouded over it may not freeze. Getting stuff set up for my 150 on vac :)

[doocat]

Running decent today and this evening (Wednesday). About 2000 gals. so far. If no freeze maybe all night. Unfortunately freeze coming this weekend.

Craig

[Dan W]

THEY ARE RUNNING NOW! Did a quick check in the rain and it looks like I will have a long collection day tomorrow. Boy I hope I don't catch a cold tomorrow and have to call off sick on Friday to boil (HE-HE). The weather is supposed to be cold again for the weekend though.

[KV Sappers]

Trees ran all night. Collected 22 gal this morning from my 18 taps. Did not run much today. Will boil tomorrow. Don't mean to throw caution in the wind but some of my buckets are starting to get that yellow hue in the sap. I've also been picking moth out of the buckets.

[WardLaFrance]

Hahaha...not much to see! 20 taps and a turkey fryer. I'm boiling 6 gallons down now. I was able to get 7+ gallons off of the 20 taps today! Pretty exciting stuff for a micro-rookie.

[Gary R]

Lots of activity today! I've got about 200gal. of sap. Again the 3/16 out produced the vacuum. Although both are not running as well as they should. Good news was sugar was 2.0 on 3/16 and 1.6 on vacuum. That's the best all year. I'm boiling now and possibly tomorrow just to clean things up.

I visited Sugarmaker today. It seems like we weren't talking that long and he had made 7-8 gal. of tasty medium. My cousin Kurt was setting up his evaporator. He will do his first boil of the year tomorrow. On my trip back down I79 it was around 40* the whole way. No snow in site. My place was 35 and snow on the ground from this morning. I'm thinking elevation.

Ward, it wasn't that long ago when I was on a turkey fryer. Many of us started that way. If the sap every really runs you'll be spending some time with 20 taps. You're welcome over here. Just be careful this hobby can cost a lot:)

[Springfield Acer]

Lots of activity today! I've got about 200gal. of sap. Again the 3/16 out produced the vacuum. Although both are not running as well as they should. Good news was sugar was 2.0 on 3/16 and 1.6 on vacuum. That's the best all year. I'm boiling now and possibly tomorrow just to clean things up.

I visited Sugarmaker today. It seems like we weren't talking that long and he had made 7-8 gal. of tasty medium. My cousin Kurt was setting up his evaporator. He will do his first boil of the year tomorrow. On my trip back down I79 it was around 40* the whole way. No snow in site. My place was 35 and snow on the ground from this morning. I'm thinking elevation.

Ward, it wasn't that long ago when I was on a turkey fryer. Many of us started that way. If the sap every really runs you'll be spending some time with 20 taps. You're welcome over here. Just be careful this hobby can cost a lot:)

Ward;
Pay very close attention to what Gary R said last. I can fully attest to that now in my third year and I owe it all to Gary. He warned me of the 'slippery slope' as he gave me a shove over it!:mrgreen:

[unc23win]

I am finally getting some sap. Probably between 200-250 as of about 8 tonight it was still running. Not a big run, but steady. Looks like it might run some tomorrow as well then cool down for the weekend.

[Springfield Acer]

Today was a good day but not as good as I let my imagination run wild with. My sugar buckets over the hillside made 3/4 of a gallon per tap. My hilltop sugar buckets made .4 gal per tap which I attribute to their exposure to the wind last night. My reds on tubing made a paltry .25 gal per tap. I netted 105 gallons but my sapping buddy threw in 52 taps last Saturday and brought me 55 gallons tonight also. I've got 240 in the tank and will start boiling tomorrow night. Maybe tomorrow will yield a bit more yet.

[Dennis H.]

Just wrapped up another evening of boiling.
Was not able to boil as long as I wanted because I needed to get some sleep.
I've been running on about 4 1/2 hours of sleep a day this week and it finally caught up to me.
I'm going to see if I can get Fri off of work. I still have about 110 gals from this morning and dad called to let me know that at 5pm the tank was half full.

Kvsappers glad to hear that you finally got past that pesky gal mark and if tomorrow is anything like today it won't be long before the 2 gal mark.

Gary glad to hear that the sugar content is on the rise. Now the syrup will be flying off the evap.

Ward, you will hear this same story from many of sugarmakers, "I only want to make some syrup for my self", now they have a evap, ro, filter press, vacuum pumps, releases, etc, etc.
The first step is admitting that you have an addiction, "hi my name is Ward and I can't stop thinking about making maple syrup"

Good luck.

[WardLaFrance]

I just boiled down my second pint...I'm already there! Hooked! I now have 10 gallons in waiting. Can't wait to boil again! :)

[Gary R]

Springfield Acer, you came to me with questions about maple. You did not ask if it was expensive (although I may have said it):lol: I say we blame my wife. If you two did not work together we may not have met. Sounds like you'll have a long night tomorrow.

Dennis, I bet your just about ready to buy that RO! I'm almost at 2 gal of syrup for the night, with a not very sweet front pan to start! Auto draw off is working nice.

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Don't say it KV, I am just getting in the groove and I am not ready to pull em' (but I hear you and I am watching closely)!

[meadster02]

Where are you at in middlebury. Im on norris brook and ive got 225 taps on 23" of vac and only pulled 100 gallons yesterday I think i have a cold bush or something.

[unc23win]

Meadster I am on French Hill Road, I think you did pretty good for yesterday for 225 taps. I had about 200 on vac pulling 21-22 and another 800 taps on gravity. I will have them all on vac by the end of the weekend I have to run a dry line.

[Dennis H.]

Brought home another 200 gals of sap.
I managed to get Friday off work so now I can keep caught up with the sap over the weekend.
The sap has gotten really clear this week. Last week the sap had a cloudy look to it but not any more.

[meadster02]

Well it wasnt bad but i am just waiting for that huge day where it runs the tanks over ha ha.

[Turtlecreek]

Today was a first for me. I stopped at home just a little before lunch and thought I would check to see how some of my better trees were, and I had full buckets. So, it was off to the john deere sap hauler and I collected 40 gallons and still didn't get all of the sap! I had some bucckets on the ground, but I'm not sure if they pulled off because they were to full or If the deer got tired of walking around them and bucked them off.

Looks like a boil on Tomrrow or Saturday.

[Turtlecreek]

The sap has gotten really clear this week. Last week the sap had a cloudy look to it but not any more.

I have a couple of trees that always give me "dark sap" and I always think "Im not tapping that tree next year" but it never fails I tap that same tree every year!

[sandman6921]

Still nothing. Just high enough in elevation in Clearfield County to keep it cold. Only got to 33 today and snow flurries all day. Between the groundhog and the Chief Meteorologists forecasts that aren't very accurate.... Just tapped to early this yr.

[Dennis H.]

I'm up and running once more this evening, I started to boil around 5pm and I will be here probably until 10pm when I finally can leave the sugarhouse.

Sandman, I'm not sure if you tapped early or not, I have only been doing this for 5 or 6 years now, If I didn't tap back in Jan I wouldn't have tapped until around Feb now that I have seen what the weather was. If I would have done that I would not have made more than 10 gals so far and I am knocking on the door of 40 now. I fear that being that it is now March that when it gets warm it is going to stay warm. End of season.
Now you guys up north will be later than us down here by a week or 2 though.

[Dennis H.]

Turtlecreek, it isn't dark sap it is cloudy sap. It looked like the late season stuff after it sat in the tank for a day. That milky whitish color. But now it is clear as water.
Nature, it is a strange and wonderful thing to watch.

[Springfield Acer]

As much as I thought yesterday could have brought more than it did, today brought twice what I expected. I brought in 80 gal tonight and now have 320 in the tank! I've gotta start boiling in about a half hour. I'm getting a late start due to fixing a log across my one main line.

[KV Sappers]

. I fear that being that it is now March that when it gets warm it is going to stay warm. End of season.
.
I agree with you Dennis. Based on what I'm seeing in my buckets (moth, ants, flies, ect) I think the season is coming to an end fast here. If we get a couple of days pushing high 40's low 50's look out. My sap was clear today but I've had days where the sap was starting to take on that end of season look. That being said your early tap really paid off for you and your season seems to be doing great. In hind site I wish I would have held off till later in Feb. to tap. Being on buckets and having 18 out of 32 days of sap not running was not good. Like we say ... once that tap is in... the clock is a tickin.

[KV Sappers]

Collected another 11 1/2 gal. of sap today. Sap the past 2 times has been at 1.4%. Boiled down 22 1/2 gal. today got 45 oz. of syrup.

[Paddymountain]

Just finished a night and a day of boiling. We boiled last nite from 6pm -1am, then got up and boiled from 9am-5pm. went through 600 gallons of sap.
Also bottled most of it. Sap didn't run real great today, maybe tomorrow. time to get a little rest.

[Dan W]

Decided to take off today. Collected 385 gallons and boiled it all down. The trees are still running. It looks like they may run through tomorrow. It will probably be another busy day on Saturday and bottle everthing up on Sunday. Hope the season lasts a few more weeks.

[Dave Y]

I can't beleive some of you are talking end of the season, it is only March 1. I have yet to get enough sap to boil. There are no 50deg days in my forecast,but there are almost no sap days either.

[Jim Brown]

This is one of the few times I agree with you Dave! We have only boiled twice so far Once in Jan and Once two weeks ago. Weather was not right yesterday. Went to my main bush and found 3 inches of snow and it was snowing hard. temp was 37 degrees Pumps pulled down to 24 inches and set there no sap.

we wait
Jim

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
Sap runs have been light up north but we keep squeezzing them. Picked up 120 gallons today and got all the ice out for the next deep freeze weather front coming. It was nice to visit with Gary on Wednesday. I think we solved all the worlds maple problems:)
Sap is holding at 2%. I am going to get started boiling if I can get out of the easy chair. This is our third week of having taps in place so that is usually about half way through a normal season. Its not normal and Dave and Jim can attest to that! Seems we have had to work about twice as hard to get the syrup we have made.
The electric bill is climbing with those electric blankets and heat lamps on the trees.
The electric company boom truck stopped yesterday and the guys wanted to make sure I was Ok. Visited for a few minutes checked the meter to make sure the bearings hadn't melted down, and were on there way smiling.
Did make some very good looking syrup yesterday. Might be light. I am going to change some things on the rig and see if it helps lighten the grade?
Dennis seems to be kicking some maple butt!
Regards,
Chris

[unc23win]

I got 650 gallons between Wednesday and Thursday and it tested 2.2 its the first run for most people in my area no way is the end of the season near. Looks like it might run a little today. The weekend is going to be high of 25 for us and then Monday a little warmer Tuesday-Saturday look out highes of 45 with lows below freezing. Its only March 1 a typical season for us is 6-8 weeks end of February to beginning of April of course 2012 was anythign but typical.

[Jim Brown]

I'm sure everyone remembers last year we were done on March 9th last year! We had 200 gallon in the barrels last year at this time.this year 5 gallon MAYBE!
We wait
Jim

[Dennis H.]

Brought home another 200 gals of sap. I was really surprised to see the tank full. It was kind of chilly yesterday.
It was running nicely while I was there so maybe another full tank tomorrow??

While I was there I did a little maintenance on things. Re-leveled the tank and releaser, Added a little weight to the float rod on the releaser to help it reset quicker.
Added oil to the vac pump. It should now be ready to good for a few days.

Ok I do have to admit to something that I hope you all go easy on me with. You may noticed that I regularly bring home 200 gals, not 220, 230, but 220. It is because my tank is too small.:(
When I get there to empty it the tank is overflowing. I have no idea how long it was full or how much I lost. I didn't think that I would have an issue with the size I tank I was going to use.
Now I know one thing that I will be changing next year.
Please go easy on me, Please.

[unc23win]

You know what Dennis I think that is a great thing. I hope to have a day or two that my tank is too small and runs over.

[Gary R]

EASY LIKE HELL!:lol: Do you know how bad we want that sap? Obviously you know the answer to that problem. I'm just glad that someone is making syrup.

Sugarmaker, I do have another problem to solve. We'll have to talk about it some time.

I've hinted of doom in the past but not seeing the end in sight. I guess I'll just cut wood this weekend!

[Turtlecreek]

You know what Dennis I think that is a great thing. I hope to have a day or two that my tank is too small and runs over.
may your tank runeth over!

[Sugarmaker]

Has anyone added up how much sap Dennis has gathered? I think he maybe the next syrup Barron! He just keeps bringing it in! Keep up the good work.
Jim, Hoping next week is a big one for you and Dave and Gary, seems cold in your neck of the woods.
Gary, anytime. give me a call or PM.
Well I was able to boil for a hour this afternoon and got the sugar house nice an warm, so I canned another 7.5 gallon batch of medium syrup and graded what I made yesterday. It was light:)
120 gallons of sap just is not enough to push syrup through. We will be down till next Wednesday or Thursday based on the current forecast.
Have to get some pictures posted some time.
I really like the new insulated door. It is much more pleasant to fire the old 3 x 10.
Regards,
Chris

[waysidemaple]

To date 5 barrels full and counting. Looks cold the next two or three days so I have the syrup pans sitting in vinegar cleaning up a bit. Collect what ran today in the morning. Looks like only about a 1000 gallons. R.O. Is working great. It will do 1000 gallons an hour going to 16 percent at 2.5 gallons per minute. Waiting on sap . This time last year there were only 14 days left in season.

Scott

[Gary R]

I had a surprise today. I re learned something I should have known. The sap will run when it wants to. I went to empty my two 55 gal drum on the 3/16 lines. It was 26* when I took the BAT mobile down there. I could barely budge the tanks. The valves were froze so I removed the bungs and bucketed out 45 gal. of 2% sap:o Too much to dump so I boiled it in and made a little syrup. Looks like were back down to B. All these little boils are hurting the grade.

Scott, good to here from you. Surprising it's been warm enough for you. We haven't heard any BIG SAP alerts, hows Theron doing?

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
I agree, I thought I was smarter than the trees a few years ago and was surprised by some magic runs when it was "too cold to run"!
So now like you I am wiser. I go look each day its above 28 degrees or so. Glad you made some syrup! Yea you better not dump any this year. Maybe we all tapped to early? I now have this feeling syrup may be scarce. If Yeany and Brown are not making any, we may have a problem!
Regards,
Chris

[Springfield Acer]

We finished off this past week's run this morning and my little 2x6 was rolling. Three consecutive hours gave me 47 to 48 gal per hour. My stack temp was also its highest at 1125*. I don't know why the big boost from its usual 40 gph but I'll take it. The unfiltered sample I took looks to be dark amber. Now a nap and then filtering and bottling tonight. The barometer must be a bit low today. I was able to draw off fairly low temperature-wise.

[Paddymountain]

Boiled what I had gathered yesterday today. made about 2 gallons. Time to hose everything out and get ready for the next run. Vac is running at the house fairly well for
36 degrees, it is a little sunny. going to catch up on bottleing tonight ,I think we're at 30+ gallons right now. I added up today;we boiled around 1600 gallon of sap.

[Dennis H.]

PaddyMtn, what is the sugar content of your sap?
That is nice amount of syrup for 1600 gals of sap.

I've been boiling since before noon and it looks like I'll be boiling until at least 8pm.
I'll get thru the 200 gals from yesterday but I will still have the 130 that I picked up this morning.

I am running out of room to hold syrup so I willl have to do some finishing tomorrow. I guess I'll do that after I make a sap run.

[Paddymountain]

Dennis H; My 78 reds on vac are running 1.4 percent, my sugars 141 buckets/135 gravity are averaging around 2.3- 2.5 percent. We had a fairly decent run today on the buckets. I didn't figure on getting much and we ended up with 76 gallons. A soon as I eat supper we're going to bottle up what we made Thur and today, then I should be able to come up with some pretty solid numbers.

As a side note I have 70 buckets on some big roadside trees that average around 8-900 gallons of sap per year.
Right now, we've only got about 330 gallons. I think when it finally warm up a little we're gonna see the dam burst!!!

[Dan W]

Since there hasn't been any sap here since Thursday I figured it would be a good time to do some bottling. I ended up with 9.75 gallons of medium bottled. That is the lightest syrup I have ever made. Looks like later in the week we will get more sap. Everything is cleaned and ready for the next run. I'm going to make a road trip tomorrow and check out a couple of other operations - maybe I can pick up a few ideas.

[Paddymountain]

Amazingly, all the syrup I've made so far this year is light amber. I'm not bragging, cause it's not me. We always seem to make more LA than anything else. That being said everybody wants the dark!

[Jim Brown]

Well open house and tour was a big success!! Fire dept served over two(200) hundred pancake and sausage breakfasts. we turned over 500 gallon of water into steam. and the retail store did GREAT! Next year we have a local draft horse pulling club coming with horse teams and wagons to deliver folks from the parking area to the sugar house.

Getting bigger and better each year!!
STILL WAITING FOR SAP ! High of 27 today!

Jim

[Springfield Acer]

We filtered and bottled another 8-1/4 gallons tonight and then made maple candied nuts for the first time. The nuts were great. We used pecans, almonds, and peanuts.
We filtered through a new cone filter and I am still not crystal clear! I am done with cone filters after this year. They have to be the worst way to go short of filtering thru an old rug.
Next year is either a flat filter or a press.

[Gary R]

I did get over to see Jim Brown and family. The do an awesome job on the retail. Very nice open house.

[Sugarmaker]

Jim,
Nice job on the open house. Keep spreading the good word and good maple products.
Acer,
We have used the cone filters for about 40 years and last year won the best of show at the Crawford County fair. Cone filters will work. Maybe tell us more about your filtering techniques? They should work and give good results. I am sure flat filters will work and a press is a very good filtering system too.
Here's what we do:
Cone (felt) filters have been rinsed clean and very gently squeezed of excess water. Several (3) paper pre-filters are inserted. We filter hot syrup within a couple minutes of coming off the evaporator.

We are getting real good at draining the evaporator to keep it from freezing this year. Warm weather is coming mid next week. We have half the crop canned up and ready for the Taste and Tour weekend.
Regards,
Chris

[Dennis H.]

Brought home another 115 gals this morning. I was surprised once more with the amount of sap. The past few days were not the best weather wise for sap running but they did end up running.
I will have to hold off on boiling this down, I need to get my butt up to the sugarhouse and finish all the syrup that i already have made from this past week. If I have time after finishing I will fire up the evap for a few hours.

KVSappers, how was this past week for you? How did the trees run? It is looking like that later this week and into next is going to be a good one. That is if they are correct about the weather.

[Springfield Acer]

Jim,
Nice job on the open house. Keep spreading the good word and good maple products.
Acer,
We have used the cone filters for about 40 years and last year won the best of show at the Crawford County fair. Cone filters will work. Maybe tell us more about your filtering techniques? They should work and give good results. I am sure flat filters will work and a press is a very good filtering system too.
Here's what we do:
Cone (felt) filters have been rinsed clean and very gently squeezed of excess water. Several (3) paper pre-filters are inserted. We filter hot syrup within a couple minutes of coming off the evaporator.

We are getting real good at draining the evaporator to keep it from freezing this year. Warm weather is coming mid next week. We have half the crop canned up and ready for the Taste and Tour weekend.
Regards,
Chris
Chris;
Last year we boiled in a home made 20 x 40 pan up to about 218* and then finished in a turkey fryer. Now that I have a "real" evaporator, I draw off at finished syrup and collect at least 3 gallons and preferably 5 before I do the filtering. I do not like to do less than 3 gal due to all the clean up time. This year I have reheated the syrup on a turkey fryer to 211* and check the density and then pour immediately into my cone filter with four prefilters. The filter is suspended on an open home made support that unfortunately is in the cool air in my garage which is about 55*. I have another turkey fryer pot below the cone sitting on a hot plate that I do not turn on until I have a couple inches accumulated. I constantly check the temps to maintain about 190* and do not allow the syrup to boil. As soon as most of the cone filter has emptied, I pull the lower pot and place a sauce pan to catch the last pint or two that continues to drip. It is a slow process of pulling the prefilters and getting them to drain to get to that point. The turkey fryer full of filtered syrup is then placed on the kitchen stove with the burner set to maintain the 190* (manual). It never boils here either. We bottle right there thru the pot's drain valve.
I had cloudy syrup last year on the first batch so I bought a new cone. That first batch refiltered perfectly and every batch after that was fine too.
This year I am cloudy on both of two old cones and the new cone I got last week. I have tried soaking the cone in hot water first also.
Despite this being a slow process in the past, it was always successful. This year; no luck.
A couple of notes:
One, when I emptied my plastic bucket of syrup from the refrigerator last night, there was a good 1-1/2" of brown sludge in the bottom of only 6" of syrup.
Two, two other containers that were finished earlier in the day and cooled, had chunks of sugar crystals floating on the top that I skimmed off. I have never seen that before but this is the first time that I have reheated raw syrup to finish.
When is the tour? I'd like to stop up if it works out.

[Gary R]

Springfield Acer, I think there are a couple of problems. The biggest is the heat after filtering. I believe I remember being told that sugar sand will re precipitate at 194*. You could be reaching that point. Try keeping the syrup 180-185*. Also recheck density. Sugar crystals could mean too heavy. Remember you will be losing water keeping the syrup hot for a while. Good luck!

[Springfield Acer]

Springfield Acer, I think there are a couple of problems. The biggest is the heat after filtering. I believe I remember being told that sugar sand will re precipitate at 194*. You could be reaching that point. Try keeping the syrup 180-185*. Also recheck density. Sugar crystals could mean too heavy. Remember you will be losing water keeping the syrup hot for a while. Good luck!
Gary;
That is my most likely suspicion. Granted, as much as I keep the thermometer in the syrup to keep it well regulated, the application of any heat can no doubt create hot spots which possibly creates the problem. The question is; even though I have really not changed anything, why is it that all of a sudden every batch is now cloudy?
And.....it's all I can do to get the syrup through the cone filter.
Lastly, yes, I did recheck the density and it was a bit on the rich side so I had to thin it a bit.
When are you filtering next?

[KV Sappers]

Brought home another 115 gals this morning. I was surprised once more with the amount of sap. The past few days were not the best weather wise for sap running but they did end up running.
I will have to hold off on boiling this down, I need to get my butt up to the sugarhouse and finish all the syrup that i already have made from this past week. If I have time after finishing I will fire up the evap for a few hours.

KVSappers, how was this past week for you? How did the trees run? It is looking like that later this week and into next is going to be a good one. That is if they are correct about the weather.
Dennis,
I collected 11 1/2 gal this week and unfortunately I've had to pull my taps on Thursday. Something has come up and I will not be able to maintain the buckets for the next couple of weeks so I had no choice but to pull the plug. I'm already looking forward to next year and even though my season was short this year I think I have enough syrup to get me through till next season. If not, I'm coming to see you. Keep that vac running and make as much syrup as you can. I'm already looking ahead till next year.

[Dennis H.]

KVSapper, sorry to hear that you had to wrap things up early. I guess it was good that you tapped when you did then otherwise you would have made less.

[Dennis H.]

I got all the syrup from this past week finished and filtered.
1 pint shy of 9 gals. That should give me 40 gals total so far.

[WardLaFrance]

Finished boiling this batch...one pint short of a gallon so far! Ready for another run! I sooooo need a better evaporator system....turkey fryer is getting old, fast.

[Paddymountain]

Collected and boiled around 275 galon today, looks like 5 maybe 6 gallons .Kind of wondering what tomorrow will bring,supposed to be 39 and windy. Might have to wait til Tuesday to boil agin.

Acer: Sugarmaker is right ,you can make mighty clear syrup with cone filters. First you need to get your filters in something to keep it warm. We use an old drip style 48 cup coffee pot. We also started using one prefilter after we draw off the evaporator. Then we bring the syrup to the house, heat it to 190 and adjust the density.
Run it through the coffee pot with 6 prefilters and 1 orlon. We bottle all glass and it is beautiful. hope this helps!!!

[Gary R]

Paddymountain, you must be in the warm spot of PA! Everyone around here hasn't seen anything for days. Good job getting the sap.

Springfield Acer, I am guessing that I will filter on Sunday. If you come over I'll help push you further over the slope:) Filter presses = $.

Ward, Think on how big you want to go. If you stay small, I made a bunch of 19" X 27" flat pans a few years ago. I might be able to track one or two down. You can set them on concrete blocks and 3-4X you turkey fryer rate.

[WardLaFrance]

Gary, that would seem to be my next step, I have lots of old block here to work with.

[Springfield Acer]

Collected and boiled around 275 galon today, looks like 5 maybe 6 gallons .Kind of wondering what tomorrow will bring,supposed to be 39 and windy. Might have to wait til Tuesday to boil agin.

Acer: Sugarmaker is right ,you can make mighty clear syrup with cone filters. First you need to get your filters in something to keep it warm. We use an old drip style 48 cup coffee pot. We also started using one prefilter after we draw off the evaporator. Then we bring the syrup to the house, heat it to 190 and adjust the density.
Run it through the coffee pot with 6 prefilters and 1 orlon. We bottle all glass and it is beautiful. hope this helps!!!

Paddymountain;
Do you bottle right out of the urn? What temp does the urn maintain?

[Paddymountain]

Acer: Yes we do. It has a hot plate under it with a high/low switch. we use a probe themometer in it to monitor the temp. We bottle at 180, with our bottles heated in the oven.

[Springfield Acer]

Paddymountain;
I ended up buying one of those urns on Ebay like I PM'd you about (your in box is full by the way so I'm hoping you see this). I hope to have it for finishing the next runs that are due here thru the start of next week. I saw your pix online and I am anxious to try this since I should gain two things. The first will be the warm enclosure for the cone filter. The second will be a better control of my finished syrup temps that are probably my probelm as GaryR suggested. I'm cautiously optimistic that clear syrup will flow next time. Hopefully this will end the hijack/tangent to the intent of this thread - my apologies to all.

[mapleack]

Cold weather is killing our season! 47 out now and it's just starting to run because it was 17 last night. I'm getting worried about getting a decent season, 105 or so gal made, need 270 for an average season and I don't see that happening before it warms up for good.

[waysidemaple]

Things warmed up here around 3. Running pretty good right now but already cooling off. I hear what your saying mapleack. Hoping the nights stay cool.

Scott

[Sugarmaker]

Andy,
I am with you! We took a chance and are at about a third of the crop, 50 gal of the 150 we would like to be at in a more normal season. This week end our taps are 4 weeks old. Not sure how well they will preform at this point in the season? Good news for those who are planning to tap this week. Weather looks pretty good over the weekend! Lots of syrup will be made.
Gary has convinced me that I need to change my taps and drops for next year to improve qty of sap per tap. Some taps/ drops are 5 years old, a few only one year old.
Question: folks that change there drops do you have to change the tee at the bottom of the drop? I would like to leave that in place so my lines wont shorten up to much.
Also what spout are folks throwing away every couple years on gravity systems?
I might go to a different colored tubing for the drops to show I got all of them but something like clear spouts could do the same thing.
Regards,
Chris

[Dave Y]

Chris,
The only way to keep up sap production on gravity is to use new spouts every year. the clear straight spout from Lapierre is only .14 each.

[unc23win]

Yea I am with mapleack and wayside it got warm late today and cooled off fast. The cold nights continue. Waiting to see how long it will be before we get some good runs. Looks like tomorrow is going to be about the same as today. Maybe warmer on Thursday-Saturday we'll see. I plan on adding on some taps in the next few days its always nice to work when its 35 plus out in my opinion.

[Dennis H.]

What a difference a few miles can make.
After Sat the forcast doesn't show any temps below freezing! But the day time temps are to get up to 50.

I am still chugging along down here. The wood pile is still holding in there. I have to keep a close eye on though. I think if I don't keep an eye on it the wife will make it disappear! She is getting tired of me not being around that much.
With the snow coming tomorrow and no sap coming in I am going to give the syrup pan a good cleaning after I finish boiling for the day. I want nothing to hold me back for what may be the last week of making syrup for the season.

[Gary R]

I got home late and found 40 gal. in the tank for vacuum. It looks like I might have a short boil tomorrow. It looks like we're going to have a small party Saturday afternoon. Anyone's welcome to stop in. I hope not to burn the pan:o

I stopped at Andy P's today. He's been having some computer issues. I thought I lived in the sticks but he has me beat. They've got a nice quiet place on a road named after the family. Super kitchen, stainless everywhere. Thanks for the coffee!

[sandman6921]

Still waiting. Been tapped for 3 1/2 weeks (75 buckets) and have a TOTAL of 45 gallons. Not going to be a good year up high. A haze of red on the treetops..

[Springfield Acer]

I got home late and found 40 gal. in the tank for vacuum. It looks like I might have a short boil tomorrow. It looks like we're going to have a small party Saturday afternoon. Anyone's welcome to stop in. I hope not to burn the pan:o

I stopped at Andy P's today. He's been having some computer issues. I thought I lived in the sticks but he has me beat. They've got a nice quiet place on a road named after the family. Super kitchen, stainless everywhere. Thanks for the coffee!
What time?

[Paddymountain]

We just got done boiling about 175 gallons of sap, all super high sugar content, it was really neat to be pulling off syrup every ten minutes from around 8:30-10:00
What we got tonight puts us over the 40 gallon mark! with the warmer weekend coming and a little sunshine I think this will be the time to let out all the stops, sapastrophy is on the way!!!!!!

[Turtlecreek]

Wow Full buckets everywhere!!!!! I have 150 gallons to get rid of, Thats no small tast for the little halfpint. I nee to boil this stuff off come hell or high water im out of storage and the trees were running at 1130 tonight! Looks like there is a boil in my future for Tomorrow, My pan is sitting with about a gallon of syrup just waiting to come off and with all of the sap I have tomorrow night should be a big night!!!!

[Dennis H.]

Sounds like things are going to pick up for everyone really soon.

[MikeL]

Andy, I know what your saying. We are at 1/4 of last year, hit the 40s yest and were13 overnight. The only good thing besides the major storm that I am looking out the window at and snow it will give us, is that we changed all our polycarb spiles again and left the vacuum on everyday it thawed. Last year we had 2 sidelines that got tapped without me changing the taps, after the heat wave and pulling spiles, I could see a major difference in the garbage built up in them compared to new. Best of luck, actually our long term has heat but not season ending with cold temps mixed in. Subject to change.....
Mike

[Gary R]

It didn't freeze last night, but not much sap? Today might be good since we aren't coming off of low teen's!

3 till ?, Food and alcohol provided:D A couple of different neighbors are 30-40 bucket backyarders.

[Springfield Acer]

I kicked the buckets last night at 6:30 and they had some but not enough to warrant making the trip with the Maple Cat. I checked some this morning and found that I will have to collect right awat when I get home or I'll overflow. One of my 3-1/2 gal buckets in the back yard with two taps was actually within an inch of overflowing so I had to transfer some to another slower running bucket. Looks we'll fire up again tonight.

[unc23win]

Dennis H you are right what difference a few miles make. I had a high of 37' at 4:00 and it was back down to 28' by 6 I think the over night was about 22. Not exactly running the tank over ha I think maybe I got 100 gallons right to the last drop. Today it looks to get warmer quicker, but cool down at about 6 again. I am about 14 miles from Wellsboro and about 5 miles from the NY border 30 miles from Corning NY in case anyone was wondering.

[theschwarz1]

That's good to know...I haven't checked any of my buckets or tank since it was really cold. Guess Ill check tonight and maybe start my first boil! I am in Covington.
I had to get my tank up on the stand though and didn't get that done till last night, thanks to my friend Jeff at Between Two Rivers Maple Syrup over in Charleston Twp.

[theschwarz1]

Dennis H you are right what difference a few miles make. I had a high of 37' at 4:00 and it was back down to 28' by 6 I think the over night was about 22. Not exactly running the tank over ha I think maybe I got 100 gallons right to the last drop. Today it looks to get warmer quicker, but cool down at about 6 again. I am about 14 miles from Wellsboro and about 5 miles from the NY border 30 miles from Corning NY in case anyone was wondering.

Are you near the Clarks on Glenn Rd?

[unc23win]

Yea Clarks are about 2-3 miles from me. I am on French Hill which is right by Houghtalings Garage. Today was about the same as yesterday for me it started running and ran a little then it cooled down fast again. not as much sap as yesterday surprising. Looks like Thursday and Friday might be about the same Saturday looks to be in the 40s. Forecast keeps changing I am using weather.com.

[Gary R]

I came home to over 200 gal. This is from the last couple days, it ran best today. I'm boiling most of it and will finish it tomorrow. It was still running when I collected.

[theschwarz1]

I finally checked my buckets today. They have been out for about a week...they were frozen and running over. So I went and starting collecting them so I'd have empty buckets for this weekend. Turns out my collection barrel has a hole in it! Even after I repaired it. Back to Lowes for a trash can. I need it all, or most of it, liquid so I can pump it to my holding tank. Looking forward to the weekend!

[Turtlecreek]

I have no idea what I'm boiling right now, this stuff is amazing!!! I had some really sweet stuff in the evaporator when I shut down the other day, but this sap I'm putting in now is blowing through the evaporator like crazy, it must be real high sugar content. My sap hydrometer fell and I broke about an inch off f the top of it so I'mnot sure how accurate it is reading but it is giving me a reading of 5% on fresh sap!!!!!!

I'm burining the midnight oil tonight baby!!!!!

[Paddymountain]

Turtlecreek; I'm burning more than the midnight oil, I'm blowing through a lot of wood ,tonites a little slower than last night.I 've drawn about 2 1/2 gallons
last nite had 4 1/2 til now. I think I'm going to hang in to 11:00 . I have a friend coming tomorrow art 8:00 to boil for me .I need to get something done in the shop.
I have about 250 gallons for him to start with. Should keep him out of trouble for a little while.

Everyone get ready this weekend the dam breaks!!!!

[Springfield Acer]

I had my best haul today albeit from yesterday and today but it was 200 gal nonetheless. I boiled 110 gal tonight and tried a suggestion from another poster here and did my draw off directly into six prefilters and then the orlon cone. What I got was my first crystal clear syrup of the year - two gallons worth. On top of that it was as light as my first run. It ran thru quickly. I will end up reheating carefully and filtering again when I bottle after I get about five gallons.
Thanks to Paddymountain, I have a coffee urn coming that will become a good permanent set up for final filtering and bottling.
I'm a much happier camper!:D
(Thanks also to the other poster who recommended filtering right off the evap. I'm not sure I'll bottle there but I could with a little adustment).

[Dennis H.]

Sounds like the rest of PA is getting going.
Good Luck guys.

[Springfield Acer]

I had 31.2* this morning at 7:00 and my buckets are full enough to suggest that the sap never stopped last night. Hopefully another good run today with temps forecast in the mid to upper 30's.

[happy thoughts]

Glad to hear sap is flowing somewhere in PA :). Hope everyone has a decent season. Still coming in dribs and drabs here but I remain ever hopeful! Best wishes for my fellow maplers in PA:)

[Dennis H.]

The sap is running!
I ran for sap this morning and the sap was just pouring over the tank side only find that the there was no vac at the releaser, moisture trap tripped. But holy cow was the sap running on gravity.
Emptied the tank and cleaned out the moisture trap and away it went. I expect another full tank in the morning. Tonight looks like the last freeze free night for several days so I may have to run up more than once a day to empty the tank.

Not going to be able to boil down much this evening, I put some milkstone remover in the syrup pan last night and then took the time to give it a good cleaning this afternoon.
It should be good to go till the end.

I did look over my records for the season so far and I have collected just under 4000 gals of sap. Tomorrows bounty will push me well over that mark.
It makes me laugh when I think that 4000 gals have gone thru this little 2x5 evap.

[Gary R]

It's slow but we're getting sap. I didn't boil everything last night. I got about another 130 gal today. I'm boiling it all tonight. 3/16 did very well and 1.8%. vacuum is holding at 1.6%. It looks like we all will need to take work off next week:D

Happy Thoughts, I hope this warmth gets up to you guys so you all can get to making syrup. Good luck!

[Springfield Acer]

The mild weather last night allowed a decent flow with 130 gal collected. The sugar buckets ran better than 3/4 gal/tap at 2.1% and the red tubing was less than 1/2 gal/tap at 1.4%. I boiled another 100 gal to try to stay ahead with only 125 left in the tanks. I got two more gal of very light and clear syrup drawn off again. Tonight's colder temps and a milder day tomorrow will no doubt slow the flow before the big run this weekend. I hope to finish up boiling everything tomorrow night and bottle Saturday morning then it's off to GaryR's to see/meet some fellow sappers. :emb:

[Paddymountain]

Dennis H: You are a brave man, 4000 gal through a 2x5!!!!!
We have boiled probably 3000 gallon on our 2.5x8 and I'm about out of sleep. I boiled til 11:00 last night.
My friend boiled from 8:00 am -1:00 pm today, and I boiled from 6:00-10:00 tonight, and there is still about 300 gallons in the tank, and we couldn't gather all our buckets tonight. I'm going to bed soon and tomorrow nite I'll give it all I got.
We passed the 50gal mark today ,and I know til Sunday we'll be over 60.
My goal was 80 and it looks possible if we don't run out of firewood or ambition.
Hope everyone is still having fun!!!!!!
This weekend is going to be the tsunami.

[Turtlecreek]

Filtered and bottled 2 gallons and one pint total tonight, that is what I drew off the lil half pint last night in a little over 5 hours start to finish, that included a little slowdown in the middle to put my daughter to sleep. I collected half of the bush tonight and the trees did not run that well, so I'm letting hte other half go to tomrrow, then Ill gather everything in preperation for the flood of sap this weekend.

Looks like I will boild Sunday after my Daughters birthday party. I hope I dont run out of fire wood, its going to be close I may have to dig into the reserve pile!

Total syrup so far this year stands at 3.5 gallons, certainly a slow start, but I;m on track for my 6-8 gallon goal for the year!

[Dennis H.]

From an individual up north, "You got to want it!"

Or be stupid.

[Jim Brown]

Well we pulled 400 gallon yesterday, running it through the RO as we speak. don't know weather it will run much today

going to turn the pumps on about 10:00am and see Will boil off this afternoon.


Jim

[Springfield Acer]

[QUOTE=Paddymountain;212393]Dennis H: You are a brave man, 4000 gal through a 2x5!!!!!
We have boiled probably 3000 gallon on our 2.5x8 and I'm about out of sleep. I boiled til 11:00 last night.
My friend boiled from 8:00 am -1:00 pm today, and I boiled from 6:00-10:00 tonight, and there is still about 300 gallons in the tank, and we couldn't gather all our buckets tonight. I'm going to bed soon and tomorrow nite I'll give it all I got.
We passed the 50gal mark today ,and I know til Sunday we'll be over 60.
My goal was 80 and it looks possible if we don't run out of firewood or ambition.

Regarding Paddymountain, I concur! After I went to bed, I got to thinking about 4000 gallon thru an evaporator that probably gets 40 gal/hr +/-. Then I thought, well there's probably an RO in the picture; nope! So we're back to 4000 gal at 40 gph = 100 hours of boiling. Really? Holy cow, I couldn't dream of getting that much boil time in. Well done, Paddy and you're not done yet!

[Dennis H.]

I'll have to look at my notes, but I figure that in the 8 weeks that I have been getting sap I boiled about 160 hours.

I need an ro bad!

[unc23win]

Well I got about the same amount of sap yesterday as the day before and the day before that about 100 gallons each day. Today looks to be the same only warming up for about 4-5 hours from 12-5 or so. The good news yesterday I got to check for leaks found a few and then got another 100 taps on vacuum. Last weekend I installed booster #2 so I have taken advantage of the time without sap.

Looks like tomorrow the **** should burst. Looks to be near 40 all day and go down to 33 with a little breeze might get down to 25 or so. I wish my total was 4,000 gallon for the year so far um hardly maybe 1,000.

[theschwarz1]

You guys are making me all jealous! I only have maybe 40+ taps in, I haven't gotten enough LIQUID sap to boil yet! MY first collection was all ice. I have about 30 gallons of LIQUID sap right now, the rest is still trying to defrost... hoping to boil tonight and this weekend. Such a late start up here...for a little guy. No syrup to speak of yet. =(

[ELM_DALE_MAPLE]

Finally sweetened the pans last night. Got through 110 gal last night and more to come...glad its here

[Etown Maple Syrup]

I just wanted to be number 400 in the thread!! It's funny how I am almost done and most of you are just starting. The next five days here in Elizabethtown, Pa are not good for sap flow and I suspect it will end here. Have fun getting going and have a great season! Now I may have time to head for that maple festival near Somerset in two weeks!

[Dennis H.]

Pulled in another 200 gals of sap this morning. It is still clear and running good, Maple Monk it isn't over yet. The end of next week looks to have a few days with temps back down below freezing.

I'll be here in the sugarhouse all this weekend!!

[Springfield Acer]

So much for a short night of collecting and boiling down everything before the big rush tomorrow! I had to help my wife with a project after work then I helped my boiling buddy gather and deliver 90 gallons. I never started collecting my own until after dark and drug in another 160. I now have almost 400 gallons and did not boil a thing. Sooooo, an early start tomorrow and no chance of canning even though I got my new urn today but hopefully a good time at GaryR's. We saw 41* today, not the forecasted 36*. It's 26 now.

[Paddymountain]

We got 145 gallons of sap today, hoping for a freeze tonight. My friend boiled from 8:00 am-4:00 pm and I boiled from 6:00pm -10:30pm.
I need to go drain my flue pan yet tonight. we crossed the 3000 gallon mark today. Probably have enough wood to make it to next weekend.

[Gary R]

Well, I forgot to close the bulk tank drain valve. According to the releaser counter at least 30 gal. went on the ground. I have about 130 total in the tank. The 3/16 ran very well. My 55 gal drum was overflowing from 38 taps in 24hrs. I'll nee to start collecting twice a day! Looking forward to the festivities today:D

[Springfield Acer]

What a beautiful morning! I was boiling by 7:00 and had my first draw by 7:30. Gotta go chuck some more wood! I still hope to make it Gary.

[Dennis H.]

Really sounds like things are picking up. Very glad to hear that.

Paddymtn. Not too bad, hope the wood pile holds out for you.

[NE PA Maple]

Let me start by saying thank you to everyone who posts on this site. I've never made syrup before and this has been very educational and everyone's input has helped ease the learning curve. So far I have collected about 45 to 50 gallons of sap from a total of 21 taps. I am currently (as in right now) boiling on a turkey fryer. I finished my first syrup last night (a full Qt and an additional 10 oz.) which came out a beautiful gold. This has been a lot of fun so far. My biggest question right now is, how will I know when to pull the taps? I know I have read the sap will start to turn Yellow, but what else do I look for? Again thanks to everyone for the posts, they are really very helpful.

[psparr]

The steam will stink when your boiling it. Smells like socks.

[NE PA Maple]

The steam will stink when your boiling it. Smells like socks.

LOL, Thanks, I at least I won't think it's me now if that happens.

[cur dog]

Let me start by saying thank you to everyone who posts on this site. I've never made syrup before and this has been very educational and everyone's input has helped ease the learning curve. So far I have collected about 45 to 50 gallons of sap from a total of 21 taps. I am currently (as in right now) boiling on a turkey fryer. I finished my first syrup last night (a full Qt and an additional 10 oz.) which came out a beautiful gold. This has been a lot of fun so far. My biggest question right now is, how will I know when to pull the taps? I know I have read the sap will start to turn Yellow, but what else do I look for? Again thanks to everyone for the posts, they are really very helpful.

When the nights stay above freezing, your runs will slow, thats when the end is near, and your sap starts looking cloudy. You aren't far from me. It looks like the next 4 days will be the best run of the year so far. If you haven't, stop down to Loches. They have all the supplies you need, and are a wealth of information. Spend $20 and get $200 worth of help and advice.

[Dennis H.]

NE PA Maple, glad to hear that you are having fun. It is addictive so be careful.
If you have the energy you can keep making syrup up until the stuff your making tastes terrible.
But like the others said it will 1st get to the point where it smells terrible boiling. But it sure makes some tasty syrup.
I think it will stop flowing before you get to that point though.

[Paddymountain]

Didn't get the Tsunami we expected but still came up with 250 gallons to boil. Hoping to pull off 3 or 4 gallons tonight.

Dennis H: I won't tear the siding off the house to make syrup, but I'll use everthing I got!!!
sap is running in the releaser a little faster since the sun startede to set.

[Dennis H.]

Will the neighbor notice if some of his siding is missing!

I've been splitting the slab wood that I picked up about 2 weeks ago. Fire the evap check temp run out and split a few, back inside fire the evap check temp out and split a few, Repeat!!!

[NE PA Maple]

When the nights stay above freezing, your runs will slow, thats when the end is near, and your sap starts looking cloudy. You aren't far from me. It looks like the next 4 days will be the best run of the year so far. If you haven't, stop down to Loches. They have all the supplies you need, and are a wealth of information. Spend $20 and get $200 worth of help and advice.

I was there last night to get a hydrometer cup. You're right, wonderful people. Their open house is next weekend and unfortunately I'm out of town the end of the week and won't be back until late Sat. Afternoon.

Dennis, thanks. I believe your right about the addictive qualities. I'm already in negotiates with the wife about a small evaporator and sugar shack behind the house. I have a daughter starting college in the fall so we'll have to see how it goes. :)

[cur dog]

I was there last night to get a hydrometer cup. You're right, wonderful people. Their open house is next weekend and unfortunately I'm out of town the end of the week and won't be back until late Sat. Afternoon.

Dennis, thanks. I believe your right about the addictive qualities. I'm already in negotiates with the wife about a small evaporator and sugar shack behind the house. I have a daughter starting college in the fall so we'll have to see how it goes. :)
You would be hard pressed to find two nicer people than Randy and Jamie. Enjoy, Like Dennis said, it becomes an addiction. Every year, you will want more and bigger.

[Springfield Acer]

This beautiful day saw 375 gallons boiled by 2:00 then a few hours at garyR's for some sap talk, food, and a brew or two. Good time.
Came home and collected 215 more. The coffe urn with the cone filter and six prefilters produced nice clear syrup and I bottled right there while I boiled doing two jobs at once. Thanks guys for the help.

[Z/MAN]

Let me start by saying thank you to everyone who posts on this site. I've never made syrup before and this has been very educational and everyone's input has helped ease the learning curve. So far I have collected about 45 to 50 gallons of sap from a total of 21 taps. I am currently (as in right now) boiling on a turkey fryer. I finished my first syrup last night (a full Qt and an additional 10 oz.) which came out a beautiful gold. This has been a lot of fun so far. My biggest question right now is, how will I know when to pull the taps? I know I have read the sap will start to turn Yellow, but what else do I look for? Again thanks to everyone for the posts, they are really very helpful.

NE PA MAPLE, It always warms up and the sap stops flowing before we get bad sap here.

[WardLaFrance]

Ended with a gallon and a pint today! A little darker than other runs.

[Dennis H.]

Grabbed another 195 gals of sap this morning.
It wasn't overflowing?? I think the end is near for me down in this neck of the woods. 2nd day in a row with temps almost 60 and the night before below freezing.
The sap is cloudy also.
Haven't walked the lines this week to see what the tops of the trees look like, but I don't see that red hue while driving up to the cabin so not sure why it is happening.
It has been 8 weeks since I put the taps in so that may be doing it.

I am very happy with the season so ifit would end this week I would not be mad at all.

[Dave Y]

Finally sap!!!!!2600 gal and still coming! About time!!! Started boiling at 9:30 am and have made about 5gal so far. Hope to fill the barrel to day.

[Dennis H.]

Dave Y glad to hear that your season has started finally.
Good Luck.

[Gary R]

Boy have I been busy. I can't thank my father enough for doing most of the boiling the last two days. The party was a great time, it was tough getting out of bed this morning:lol: We filtered 7+ gal of DA yesterday morning. Made some nuts. We boiled 250 gal during the party. Another 235 gal was boiled today. We have about 8 gal of what looks like medium to filter yet! We have already made more syrup than last year. We have collected a couple gal of sap less than last year. It was 65* out today. That is scary but it will be cold again soon. The 3/16 tubing has been running between 24" - 27". Were collecting twice a day.

Dave Y, I am glad to hear you finally have sap.The best of luck to you!

[Dennis H.]

Good job Gary, It is nice to have help isn't. My dad and mother both have help from time to time this season. They are a life saver.

[Paddymountain]

Help is a great thing. I had a friend boil Thurs and all day Friday, And a couple others help gather buckets. Even so I boiled every day from Tuesday to Saturday from around
six to midnight. We made about 24 gallons of syrup just from Wednesday to Saturday. I just got back from gathering my buckets around dark,got another 250 gallons of sap.
I'm gonna take a break tonite and let my friend boil it tomorrow. It looks like cooler temps coming back by midweek. Hope everyone is having fun!!!!!
So far we have collected 3400 gallons of sap, and have it all boiled except what I got tonite.

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

Let me start by saying thank you to everyone who posts on this site. I've never made syrup before and this has been very educational and everyone's input has helped ease the learning curve. So far I have collected about 45 to 50 gallons of sap from a total of 21 taps. I am currently (as in right now) boiling on a turkey fryer. I finished my first syrup last night (a full Qt and an additional 10 oz.) which came out a beautiful gold. This has been a lot of fun so far. My biggest question right now is, how will I know when to pull the taps? I know I have read the sap will start to turn Yellow, but what else do I look for? Again thanks to everyone for the posts, they are really very helpful.

I see you are in montrose pa? I am in dimock, not far from you. Where in the montrose area are you?

[Jim Brown]

Well the season finally got here yesterday! Pulled 1500 gallon of sap in 12 hrs. Slight freeze last night and back at it today pulled 700 more today and the puimps are still on! RO is a LIFE SAVER with 1` and 1.5% sugar Made about 25 gallon of nice Med today RO stock tank is full and we have 300 more gallon to run through it in the morning.Should have around 700-1000 gallons in the tanks by morning .Waiting for the big freeze up to reset the trees

Jim

[Springfield Acer]

Got a good night's sleep, went to church, and then set to boiling. We boiled down yesterday's 215 gallons while my son and brother inlaw collected another 175 and my other buddy brought me 70. I boiled from 1:00 to 7:00 leaving 120 to go tomorrow night plus maybe get into whatever runs by then. Everything is still very light. I'm right around 2000 gallons collected and 27 gallons of the sweet stuff. My sugar content has dropped though. I noticed today that I was not getting the normal gallon per hour. I checked today's run and my mixed average of all the red and sugars was only 1.3 or 1.4%! Normally my reds are not that low by themselves and my sugars are at a normal 2.1% making the red/sugar average 1.7 or 1.8%. Is this the effect of warm weather and faster running sap? I do not think that the increased flow has brought me additional sugar, just more boiling time and more wood used up! :o
We set up our lawn chairs out on the shack porch and watched the evaporator from there. The temp inside was 115*.
GaryR, were you in shorts and sandals again today? What time did the shin-dig finally wind down? (thanks again for the fun time!)

[Dan W]

Dave Y glad to hear you are finally into it. Talked to Jack around noon yesterday while I was collecting and he said not much was happening. The way it was running here I figured it was only a few more hours for you guys.

Collected 750 gallons yesterday and today-boiled off yesterdays this morning and will do todays after work tomorrow.

[waysidemaple]

Long day. Made 170 gallons. No idea how much sap I collected I lost track of the number of trips. Just brought home 1100 gallons to keep the tank from running over.

Scott

[FunnyFarm]

She shut the spigot off today not but a few drops all morning...

[JBurkett]

We are on the down hill side of a pretty good run. Made 130 on Sat, 90 yesterday and should finish with another 90 or so tonight. My brother came up from State College to help haul, what a lifesaver. Jim B, sounds like a good weekend for you as well. Gary, 3/16 lines are going to be the wave of the future. I'm glad you took the plung and put some in. You can be our resident expert!

[Jim Brown]

Well the trees are not running AT ALL!.We need this cold spell to reset every thing. We finished another 25 gallon today .Only at 25% of last year so far looks like a short season. We now have a person to run the rig I just haul sap and run the RO. Real life saver! And TIME Saver!

Jim

[Maplewalnut]

Wow, who shut the faucet off!!!!

[Gary R]

My father boiled another 235 gal while I was at work today. This evening we filtered 10+gal. of Dark Amber. We have made over 41 gal. for the year. 6 more than last. There is a BIG dent in the wood pile. The sap has slowed big time. I have company coming tomorrow for a boil. I hope we have some sap.

JBurkett, When your ready for 3/16 let me know. I'll help as best I can. It's great to make this much sap without a pump and releaser.

[Springfield Acer]

We only gathered 50 more gallons today and boiled everything in the tank before 9:00 to put 4-1/2 more gallons into storage. I'm now at 31-1/2 gallons for the year. Who'da thunk it? My syrup has finally darkened up some to medium amber. Looks like a welcome break tomorrow to reheat, check density and bottle part of the 15 gallons that I have in the fridge. Looks like another good weather spell coming here in Mercer. I never expected to make 30 gallons. Now, 40 seems attainable. Way too much for me! Isn't it?

[Gary R]

Springfield Acer, I'm over 40 in a couple of ways and you have more taps:) Go for 40 and I hope you make it easily. I'm gunning for 50+. What are we going to do with all this stuff?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Dave,

What kind of rate you getting out of that beast with a steamaway on it?

[Turtlecreek]

I hate to say it, I'm pulling out:( Life has offically got in the way, my kids have something everyday of the week except Wednsdays, and on Sundays we have church stuff. That along with I accepted the Assistant Chiefs positon in my fire department, work, and the fact that my wife isn't getting home until 6:00 each night, all makes it impossible to get sap boiled in a timely manor. I had 100 gallons go cloudy on me last week, and I had to let my pan go for too long that I started to lose it.

I did get enough to cover my pre orders for the most part, except for a large order that I will have to buy some syrup to fill. I should have made enough to cover my expenses for the year so its not a total loss, but I could have made a couple of bucks if I could have kept going.

Oh well, I'll get it next year!!!! Good luck you guys, I hope that this cold snap re starts everything.

[Dave Y]

Brandon,
We are getting around 350gph and we fire about every 40 mins. If you want to see it run come on up. We can put you up. I hope things are going well for you and your family.

[Maplewalnut]

Left for work without checking releaser and wife is not home til late afternoon...is anything running today in PA land?

[doocat]

It is still running here, Tuesday, but slow. Going out in the rain to find some leaks.

[Dennis H.]

Turtle creek that is a bummer, sorry that you had to wrap it up early.
Now you can have fun with the family, I know my wife is looking for it to end.

[Springfield Acer]

Springfield Acer, I'm over 40 in a couple of ways and you have more taps:) Go for 40 and I hope you make it easily. I'm gunning for 50+. What are we going to do with all this stuff?
You tell me. I'm open for suggestions!

[Dennis H.]

Everything is better covered in maple syrup!
Trust me.:lol:
I had a guy buying syrup off me so that he could coat this mothers medicine. He told me that she would eat anything that maple syrup on it.
I am picturing a bowl of lucky charms with maple syrup poured all over it.

[Paddymountain]

Things came to a halt yesterday, when the rain ends I'm going to dump my buckets and get ready for the cool down coming. Evaporator is soaking in vinegar water and will get a good hosing out before the next round.

[daileytapper]

Things came to a halt yesterday, when the rain ends I'm going to dump my buckets and get ready for the cool down coming. Evaporator is soaking in vinegar water and will get a good hosing out before the next round.

Same here. Sap was running great on Saturday & Sunday, now isn't hardly running for us. Hasn't been below freezing for the last 3 nights.

[doocat]

Rain opened the flood gates here. Better runs than yesterday. Even without a freeze.

Craig

[Dan W]

Just finishing checking buckets here in Allegheny County. Nothing but a few ounces in most of them. Hope this next little cold snap helps. I can use a night off!

[FunnyFarm]

Made me run out to check... still nothing here.

[daileytapper]

Just checked the buckets tonight. Maybe got 5 gallons out of 15 buckets, most of it came out of "Big Burtha" in front of the shack. It doesn't look like it will be running here till Thursday.

[NE PA Maple]

I see you are in montrose pa? I am in dimock, not far from you. Where in the montrose area are you?

Probably closer than you think, I'm over on Meshoppen Creek Rd. about a 1/2 mile from the new gas wells that have recently gone in.

[Springfield Acer]

The buckets are bone dry today and it's just now down to 32*. I filtered and bottled 9-1/4 gallons tonight with my new coffee urn. That is much nicer. It seems like 7 gallons is the limit before I need to change cone filters. The last eight quarts got progressively cloudy. I'll be re-filtering those with a bunch of my earlier cloudy stuff. I'm tired and going to bed while I listen to the lids pop.

[umpwood1]

The trees stopped running here for the last two days. It gave me a chance to get caught up and get some wood. I am sure the sap is going to run like the dickens again this week. I really like my new A&A 2X6 Raised flue, It's a humper. I have to go back to work today, so I'll be cooking in the mornings again.
Woody

[Dennis H.]

A quick update.
I am just 100 gals shy of 5000 gals of sap collected! I told the wife that I was going to turn the vac off this morning when I went to collect but I just couldn't. Being that close to that big number and calling it a year, I just couldn't. We have a nice freeze up last night so they should be able to give up a little more.

I am now making only Grade B. The sap is coming in cloudy and it is foamy like crazy. I have used more defoamer today than I think I used the past 8 weeks.

My wood pile that I had stacked for this sugar'in season is now gone! I have been forced to tap into my backup pile of corkscrew willow that I had on had for campfires. I am going thru that stuff real fast. I still have the slab wood that I got a few weeks ago and I for see using that before the day is out.

Do not know the exact number but I am now over 50 gals of syrup made and I am on my way to 60!

"You got to want it", quote from PATheron.

[Paddymountain]

Way to go Dennis H; 5000 gal is quite an effort with a small operation. we are at 3400 right now and things are at a stand still.I don't know how far it's going to go, my buckets
have been up for about 4 weeks, I;m hoping for another good week then we probably pull the plug. cold weather is back but it don't look like much sap is moving!

[daileytapper]

The trees stopped running here for the last two days. It gave me a chance to get caught up and get some wood. I am sure the sap is going to run like the dickens again this week. I really like my new A&A 2X6 Raised flue, It's a humper. I have to go back to work today, so I'll be cooking in the mornings again.
Woody

What kind of boiling rate do you get with that A&A 2x6?

[daileytapper]

A quick update.
I am just 100 gals shy of 5000 gals of sap collected! I told the wife that I was going to turn the vac off this morning when I went to collect but I just couldn't. Being that close to that big number and calling it a year, I just couldn't. We have a nice freeze up last night so they should be able to give up a little more.

I am now making only Grade B. The sap is coming in cloudy and it is foamy like crazy. I have used more defoamer today than I think I used the past 8 weeks.

My wood pile that I had stacked for this sugar'in season is now gone! I have been forced to tap into my backup pile of corkscrew willow that I had on had for campfires. I am going thru that stuff real fast. I still have the slab wood that I got a few weeks ago and I for see using that before the day is out.

Do not know the exact number but I am now over 50 gals of syrup made and I am on my way to 60!

"You got to want it", quote from PATheron.

That sure is quite a good season for you. I've been following you on Facebook, you do very well with your updates and I enjoy reading them. Hope you can reach 60 gallons!

[Dennis H.]

They say every dog has its day, well I think it is my day or season.
I do not see it happening like this again for some time.
I put the taps out Jan 14 and other than I short time, about 1 week, in Jan that things froze up it has run since.
This Sun will be 9 weeks!
I do think that all new tubing for the year has helped the most. The vac helped the next most.

[Dennis H.]

I am pulling the plug, calling it quits, the end.
I am out of wood. I tried using the slab wood that I picked up a few weeks ago and I think it would be more fun watching paint dry.
It just isn't dry enough.

I am so close to my 5000 gals of sap mark but I guess I will try again next season.
Not sure what my total syrup count will be until I have it finished and filtered. I still need to finish what is in the evap.
Then I will throw some milkstone in it and kick back and relax.

[KV Sappers]

Dennis,
I have some wood and you are more then welcome to it. It's different lengths and thicknesses but it's all dry. If interested let me know. It's yours free for the hauling.

[Dennis H.]

Thnaks for the offer KVSappers, I think I am done though.
It would have been cool to say I boiled down 5000 gals but I am done.
I am looking forward to some lazy time in front of the tv before cleaning everything up.

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

Probably closer than you think, I'm over on Meshoppen Creek Rd. about a 1/2 mile from the new gas wells that have recently gone in.
We are VERY close then. A few miles. How many taps do you have?

[KV Sappers]

Thnaks for the offer KVSappers, I think I am done though.
It would have been cool to say I boiled down 5000 gals but I am done.
I am looking forward to some lazy time in front of the tv before cleaning everything up.
I can understand. You've had a tremendous season. Next year. Enjoy your lazy time, you deserve it!!!!!

[Gary R]

We have been very busy over here. Sap was still running Tuesday. Low pressure and rain Monday night brought 155 gal. boiled last night. The sap dropped to 1% and a little cloudy. We went from almost medium syrup Monday to as dark as black coffee last night. I had today off and help over. We drained the entire evaporator and cleaned with brush and water. We filtered and canned almost 4 gal of the dark stuff today. I'm going to make 5 gal of maple wine with some of it. We cleaned every tank, even those in the woods. We are one pint shy of 45 gal. of syrup. We should be froze up until Friday. The weather looks incredible for the next week. I better take some more time off.

[Sugarmaker]

Wow,
had a few minutes to get on here and check to see what the PA folks are doing. Dennis,Gary Jim Brown, Paddy mt, and all have been making syrup when the sap is there. Good job everyone! I would say this has been a tough season for most of us. The weather just has not been great. Lots of cold spells for days at a time in our area. I don't have the numbers with me But I think we gathered around 4000+ gallons of sap @ 2%sugar content and have made 93 gallons of syrup all grades.
We went from light syrup on Saturday morning to dark amber on Monday afternoon. From gathering 700 gallons in a flannel shirt on Sunday to running a propane heater in the sugar house with temps in the 20's today.
We have had two folks in the family say they heard the spring peepers on Sunday evening That's usually just about the end?
Some folks in the area just tapped late last week. So now I am confused! Is the season over or just beginning?
We are getting ready for Taste and Tour this weekend. Had the Dept of Ag stop by and inspect us Tuesday.
There may be a sap run Friday or Saturday too.
Our taps are 5 weeks old and the containers are starting to get coated due to the warm weather. We might be able to go for another week??
Regards,
Chris

[umpwood1]

Daileytapper,
I'm not pushing her real hard and getting 25-35 gph. I really like it. One small leak in the left bottom corner of the front pan. I will take it back for repair this summer. I wll be buying from them again.
Woody

[Gary R]

Chris, I'm not sure about the season either. I have a big red in my yard that looks like it's going to pop leaves any day. The neighbors have big sugars in Grove City and they say the buds are swelled. I don't know if my vacuum trees are going to recover from having two days in the 60's. Our syrup grade may never come back up. I'll probably hang in there for a week and see.

[Springfield Acer]

My brother inlaw collected for me yeaterday because the one big tree behind his house had six gal off two taps. He tried collecting but called it off after finding very little in the buckets and tank. He only brought in 30 gallons. I refiletered and rebottled all my cloudy stuff last night (about 4-1/2 gallons) for something to do sugar-wise. Hopefully tomorrow's temps will get it rolling again before it's too late. My taps are five weeks too.

[Paddymountain]

Same here in central Pa. My buckets have been up since Feb 9/10. We dumped the rain out of them Monday nite,and wiped them out good. We haven't had a sap run since Sunday.
The reds here at the house aren't budded yet, but..... I would like to get a few more runs before it gives out. Still have about 6 gallons of syrup to filter and bottle.
4 rows of wood in the SS yet .supposed to be sunny and 40 tomorrow, if they don't run then ,well we'll see.

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

Figured i would jump back in and give an update. We have 144 gallons of syrup so far from 500 taps. doing really well and i am more than pleased. Looks like the season will last a few more weeks too because of the cold weather. My tapholes are still giving good sap and I have been tapped since january 28th!!!! i believe that replacing the spile every year is a necessity because it allows you to tap earlier and have a longer season. Do you guys agree?

[Jim Brown]

Well it's 2:30pm and the mains and lats are STILL froze!. Got down to 19 here this morning. We will start the pumps tomorrow,not worth the price of gas to pull on forzen lines!

Jim

[unc23win]

Dennis H It looks like you had pretty good numbers in gallons of sap pre tap whats that about 20? Nice

[Paddymountain]

Well, we're back into it!! the sap ran fairly good for as windy as it was today. i was able to scratch up almost 100 gallon with buckets, and vacuum. Not sure if I want to load it up and haul it down to Dennis H so he can hit the 5k mark. I would but he probably is fast asleep. We finally got caught up with our filtering/bottleing tonight. Tomorrow might be Ok, its supposed to be really cold tonight and sunny in the morning before it clouds up and snow or rains. Does anyone else think it has been a cloudy spring? It seems the sun comes out for an hour or two, and then that's it....clouds.

[unc23win]

I think you are right about the lack of sun Paddy. Even the warmest days here haven't been that sunny. It would be nice to get 40+ with some sun.

[Dan W]

A nice run is beginning here. Looks the weekend will be a repeat of last-lots of sap!

[NE PA Maple]

We are VERY close then. A few miles. How many taps do you have?

This is our first year making syrup so we started off easy at 21 taps. We can a little more than double that without going away from our home, which we have already talked about doing next year. I stepped up the game last week and moved from boiling on the turkey fryer to boiling in a 2 x3 pan with 2 turkey fryer burners under it. Much quicker. The wife has asked a lot of questions and understands better how it all works and has also gotten in to it. And my son has decided to make syrup making his senior project next year. It also was a bonus that, without ever discussing it ahead of time, my father-in law also decided to make syrup this year. So it's been fun comparing notes as we go. All in all, we're having a great time and I'm pretty sure we're hooked.

[mapleack]

We've been plugging along, way behind in syrup total from where I'd like to be, February was just too cold. Looking at long term forecast right now it says theres only two nights NOT freezing until April. Aside from being into B/C syrup right now we may get an epic long / late season. Fingers crossed. I washed all my woods tanks and releasers two nights ago, hope to get back into DA today or tomorrow once the flue pan gets flushed through. Around 160 gal of syrup made right now, still hope for another 100 gal. Good luck all, if you run out of wood, burn the dining room set, they make new furniture every day, only get to sugar 6 weeks a year! :)

[Dennis H.]

I turned off the vac this morning.
I actually gathered up enough wood to boil about 50 more gals of sap yesterday. Still not enough to make the 5000 mark.
When I went up turn off the vac there was 200 gals of sap waiting there just laughing at me. I pulled the plug from the tank and watched the sap flow out of the tank.
That was hard to watch.

I plan on oulling all the syrup off the evap this evening and putting acid in the pans. Then I will finish the remaining syrup on the propane burner.

How much per tap? By the numbers yeah it was close to 20 gals per tap. But every day that I got 200 gals of sap There really was more. My tank overflows at 200. So if I could have collected all the sap that flowed I would be well over that, but if I did get all the sap I would have ran out of wood a long time ago.

[Paddymountain]

325 gallons to boil tomorrow!!!!!

[Springfield Acer]

Only 50 gallons tonight and its starting into the cloudy phase. I couldn't help but boil the 80 gallons that were in the bulk tank tonight as the end is near and I had nothing else to do. The good news was that the tank average was an even 2%. I got 1-1/2 gallons of dark amber for the first time. It's still 34* and rainy. Hopefully, there will be good run through the night and into tomorrow. We are planning on taking "The Tour" tomorrow up around the Edinboro/Albion area in the afternoon and maybe meet a few fellow sappers. :)

[Gary R]

Dennis, Dennis, Dennis.....quitting? You were our hero. I bet your building is made of wood:cool: Seriously, that was an incredible season. I hope you are able to get some rest and enjoy time with your family.

It was 41* and somewhat of a west wind yesterday. Hardly any sap. I got about 50 gal. It is close to skim milk. I'm going to boil what I have today. I do not want to waste my time on C syrup. If this is the end it's a bummer. I'll keep at it for a few days and see if it clears up. I may end up shutting off the vacuum and only use the sap on the 3/16. It is mostly sugars and is on a colder hillside.

[Dave Y]

For those of you that have been getting sap, I can almost buy the fact that the end ma be near. But as for myself i dont see it we have only had one run and there are no sap days in the forecast. I say i will be boiling at the end of April. I hope!

[Jim Brown]

Well I also have had NO sAP! I had my pumps on yesterdayfor a hour in the afternoon and didn't pull anything.Today It is SNOWING REALLY HARD! and we have 4 inches on the ground since 9:00 am. Still snowing!. I went to the woods this am and rinsed tanks and turned on the pumps ran for 30 minutes NO SAP!

Trees in my yard has dripped some(26 buckets) but not what you say they are running.

I sure hope it gets with it SOON!!

Jim

[Springfield Acer]

Well surprise, surprise, surprise! (in Gomer Pyle voice)
I went out to rinse my bulk tank at 10:00 and kicked the two yard buckets along the way and one was over half full and the other overflowing. It must have run all night. I fired up the Maple Cat and collected 130 gallons that came in over the last 17 hours. Then my boiling buddy showed up with 50 more! So I now have enough to keep me boiling for another 3-1/2 hours that we will do tonight after we get back from the 'Tour'.
And the last note; the sap is clear today.

[Dan W]

It ran all night and still is here. Collected 470 gallons and had a couple of visitors with sale as a result of the article in the paper. Running it all through the RO and will boil it all tonight.

[pamaple]

You guys are talking about no sap and the end, I just collect 1,400 gal from the last 24 hrs crystal clear and just over 2%. Ill probably have to gather again in the morning the way it's running right now.

[Dennis H.]

I now have the total amount of syrup made for this season.
Drum roll please.

56.5 gals.

It was a lot of work to get to this mark. I am happy with it, even though I wish I could have made 60. Maybe next season.

The evap pans are now soaking with milkstone remover in them and everything else in the sugarhouse is cleaned and put away.

I do need to fix my filterpress though. While filtering the last syrup that I made from what was in the pans the handpump blew up! The rubber diaghram burst while filtering and blew syrup everywhere. Even on the ceiling! I'll have to get that later.

[Run Forest Run!]

That's fabulous. I've only got 1/2 gallon so far. Things are just starting for me, and I'd love to get 2 or 3 gallons. Last year I only was able to squeeze out just under one gallon.

[Dennis H.]

Here are more number for those folks who love numbers.

I tapped Jan 14th, Collected my last sap on March 13th.
That was 8 weeks 3 days.
I collected 4835 gals of sap and made 56.5 gals of syrup.
The sugar content works out to be right at 1%, ouch! That hurt. No wonder I went thru so much wood.
I boiled 31 times for a total time boiling of 185.25 hours!! Holy cow, that even surprises me.
I averaged each boil to be just under 6 hrs, 5.97 hours.

Now for the syrup
I made no light syrup this season, with sap at 1% I can't for the life of me figure that one out.:rolleyes:
Medium, 12.25 gals
Dark, 15.375 gals
Grade B, 28.875 gals

Now I know why I was making so much grade B.

I need an RO!

[Run Forest Run!]

Average sugar count at 1%?!!! Holy cow! You should get a medal for perseverance and dedication to the craft of sugar making. Great job.

[Dennis H.]

I use a refractometer to check my sap ecah time I collect.
I the beginning of the season I was reading 1.5%, Ok I said that is good. Then later on I thought something just did not seem right.
So I recalibrated it and yeap, it was off. It really was reading 1.1%, oh crap!

I think I am going to pick up a sap hydrometer for next year and not using the refractometer.
Some times low tech is better than high tech.

[Gary R]

We went and visited a few sugar houses today for the taste and tour. We got to see a 6X16 Force 5 with piggy back boiling. I don't think it would even fit in my sugar shack. We came home to a little sap. 150 gallon over the last two days. The 3/16 doubled the vacuum on sap per tap.

[Paddymountain]

We boiled from 9:00am -5:00pm and kicked about 350 gallons of sap .I kept the first 3 or 4 draws seperate from the rest knowing they would be a little darker. After that what
I got looked to be a little lighter. I got to slow my rig down a little; I'm getting some scorch marks along side the partitions in my pan. Right now it's soaking in vineager.
The sugarsand has been really heavy the last couple of boils. It snowed all day today ,and we didn't collect sap. It's supposed to go to 24 tonite and be sunny for tomorrow!!!
I'm inching ever so close to my goal, should be there in a day or two. 3 rows of wood left in the leanto, not gonna burn the siding on the house!!!
hang in there everyone, the end is looming in sight!!!

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
Thanks for stopping by and visiting on the Tour. I always learn something from you!
We simmered syrup all day at a slow boil, with water in the back pan. Kept the sugar house more comfortable for the folks coming in from the snowy cold.
We did make about 3.5 gallons of dark red syrup from that batch draw. That puts us at 97 gallons for the year on 4310 gallons of sap.
We had a great time today visiting with lots of folks as they came to learn about making maple syrup. I think we had over a hundred + folks come through the sugar house today. It was great to meet Springfield Acer and his wife. We will do it again tomorrow:) Adam and Kelly were here to help that was very nice.
One family came up from South Hills near Pittsburgh.
Regards,
Chris

[Z/MAN]

Having a hard time here getting sap and the sugar is low. The temps are missing us by a few degrees every day.I think if I was in the valley I would be flooded right now.

[WardLaFrance]

Had a great time on the tour today...only had time to make it to Yatzor's and Hurry Hill. Learned a lot and meet some great people. I have about 40 gallons to boil tomorrrow. Season total of 2 gallons of syrup, this rookie is smiling from ear to ear!

[Springfield Acer]

What a very nice day on the tour and as always, a good group of people. We got home at 6:00 and found the sap was still running nicely. We went back around and picked up another 85 gallons to net 215 for the day which matches our season one-day best. We just finished boiling 125 tonight and are getting medium amber again. There's still 135 in the tank waiting for tomorrow, I doubt much will run through tomorrow but that's what I thought yesterday about today! 36 gallons made so far.

[mapleack]

Great day yesterday, over two gallons of sap per tap. Taps are almost two months old, I'd say that's a sign of what CV's can do. Nice to make 25 gal of syrup in a day. Forecast looks good to go at least another week, I'm hoping the hard run yesterday flushes things out to get me back up from making commercial.

[Jim Brown]

Went to our main sugar bush today everything is froze SOLID!. lats as well as the mains!.These taps are can run on gravity if need be and there was about 3 inches of sap in the tanks(1100taps) And by the way there was 7 inches of new snow in the woods and it started to snow again when I was there. No sap for a couple of days if it warmed up today!

Jim

[Springfield Acer]

Jim;
That's amazing what the difference of 20 miles and probably a couple hundred feet of elevation can make. Even though it was not terribly warm here (37 max), we did stay above freezing for about 36 hours thru yesterday at 7:00 and tied our best 24 hour sap run of the season from last Saturday. I hope you get relief soon!