Started in Eastern Oh

[SevenCreeksSap]

Tapped into my yard trees as a test run on the Tuesday(Jan 7) and they are really dripping. So I couldnt resist and started some of my smaller bucket lines down at our bush. Time to start gathering. Our 10 day shows after this weekend of too warm nights, it will be perfect sapping weather through next week.

Our friend needed some $$ this summer so we bought their freezer. Just going to freeze what we get in buckets until we get a lot, or end up getting in all the taps. Coming on line slowly adding taps to the mainline we put up this year.

Got a 10 point buck during muzzleloader season so thats all done and in the other freezer. time to get busy.

6262

[Willis]

Glad to see I am not the only one with itch around here. I tapped a yard tree a few days ago and will probably put out some more taps today.

[J. Baker]

I live outside of Arcanum (about 30 min. NW of Dayton). This is my first year of sugaring. Curiosity got the best of me on the morning of 1-11-13, so I tapped a few trees. They were drip, drip, dripping. Tapped a few more trees. A lot more dripping. By noon I had 22 taps out. The next day I collected roughly 35 gallons of sap. I evaporated into the night and ended up finishing approximately a gallon of syrup. Then experienced the sugar sand dilemma when bottling. The next morning I figured out where I went wrong in the filtering/bottling process (too hot) and reconfigured my procedure. For the beginning of my rookie season I had a blast! Even though it was nearly 90 degrees in my sugar shack on Saturday.
I look forward to putting out more taps and processing more sap a little later. We're currently below freezing today.

[SevenCreeksSap]

Sounds like JBaker got the bug. Welcome.

It got cold here again so the sap slowed down today. didnt get enough to fire up the evaporator but its all in the freezer waiting until we get enough. Maybe when the weather changes again that will be the real season.

[SevenCreeksSap]

we've slowly been adding laterals to the top of the hill and have 170 tapped, and shooting for 200 this year instead of 300. I have a feeling that will be enough to handle. Had a good run this weekend and going to have the first boil today. time to empty the freezer.

[SevenCreeksSap]

with the first run we ended up with 3 1/2 gallons of nice grade A light, the stuff I love. Finished it at home over the weekend and still need to bottle it. last night I cleaned out the pans because there was frozen water in them from chasing the sweet out, and my caged tank was empty at 5:30. with the warm night I checked it today, and had 80 gallons of fresh sap. nice night time run I guess. Boiling that down now. got cold again today, so might be a little break to get ready for the weekend. forecast looks great after friday for the next week. I saved 2 weeks of vacation to make syrup, and it starts friday. looks like I couldn't have timed it better.

[Maple Bandit]

I live outside of Arcanum

Hello J. Baker, We are nearly neighbors. I am in West Milton. And I have a question. I have racoons nibbling the corners of all my sap saks and they have ruined them. New ones ordered and should be in today. Does anyone know how to deter these furry friends (or not so friends). We are trialing hot sauce sprayed on them, but with no sap remaining in the holey bags, no way to tell. I haven't read anything about other tappers having this trouble. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

[heus]

I have read on here that some place a length of duct tape along the bottom seam to deter squirrels. Maybe it would work on coons.

[garytapsmaples]

Completed my first boil last weekend 300 gal sap bottled 7 gal of nice light syrup. Not running real good this week too cold. Hoping for a good weekend.

[TerryEspo]

Nice 10 pointer.

Oh ya,,great to hear your getting sap.

Terry

[mapleguy]

hey garytapsmaples whats the sugar % in your sap and did you boil out all 300 gal. or did you flood your pans with sap. I,m trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong I've had a couple of pitiful runs with about 400 gal. total at 3.5% and have yet to take a drop off usually I have 1000-2000 gal. on a good run but temps up here are just too cold.

[mapleguy]

heus how many gallons of syrup do you normally produce whats your sugar%? thanks

[garytapsmaples]

I don't know what the sugar content of my sap is but I usually estimate my sap to syrup ratio @ 40 or 50:1. This year it's closer to 40:1. I built a new arch and had a 30"X8' flat pan made last year. Prior to that I used two iron kettles for 30 years. I add sap as it boils as I did with the kettles and don't take anything off until the end. Then I strain and finish & bottle on a turkey frier and stove where I can control it better. I made 17.5 gal of syrup last year. I get a little sugar sand which I'm sure is a result of my methods.

[SevenCreeksSap]

Had a really nice run monday night into tuesday, and had 125 gallons in the tank, which is a good run for me. Most of our trees are 16-18 inches at best, and we finished up the tubing with 182 taps in. I may get a few more buckets in but what we have is keeping me busy enough. didnt get the air blower in this year yet but did get arch blanket in the whole evaporator so at the best full fire I was getting 20-22 gph yesterday from what I could tell. That keeps me hopping by myself. Finishing up some more this morning on gas. I have figured out to get as close to finished on the evap and a lot easier to fine tune it on the turkey fryer. This is already shaping up to be our best year.

[heus]

2011 produced 127 gAllons on 331 buckets 80 gal last year. Sugar content only around 1.5-1.8 normally. First year on vac this season 517 taps

[SevenCreeksSap]

Looking back at this post to see when I first tapped some yard trees as a test, they have been tapped for over 8 weeks, and a couple are still putting out good clear sap. I guess the weather has been just about right. the others in the yard and the first small lines I put up are definitely drying up though, so I'll start pulling those. we ended up adding taps over a period of a few weeks as we put up lines, so I'm figuring to pull them in the same order and taper off.

This past week was the best runs we've had so far this year, with over 500 gallons boiled off since Monday, and had another good run today. Time to go back to work monday though so probably good that I'm dropping taps off. Have bottled 10 gallons so far and have a lot of almost syrup to finish off. Its been our bst year by far already, and hoping to finish off with at least 25 or 30 gallons.

[SevenCreeksSap]

Sap has really slowed down with the cold snap, and I pulled about 70 taps over the weekend just in case we do get another run this weekend. I had to get back to work, cooking vacation is over, and I don't think I can do all nighters boiling any more. Hoping to get another boil or two in but starting to see small buds developing. still have 100 or so taps in because we tapped over several weeks. seems to work well for us to go in segments and as the early trees dry up still have some going. Syrup is getting much darker as we go.

[SevenCreeksSap]

I can't believe I'm still getting some sap runs of good clear sap out of the last 50 or so that we put in as we were putting up lines. It doesn't smell or taste buddy yet. I'm not sure at what point to pull them all without ruining what's in the pans. I'm still getting 25 or 30 gallons every dayand doing a short boil to reduce it so it doesn't spoil or anything. I always feel like I pull taps too early, and don't want to quit this year. Its the best year I've personally had, and still shooting for 25 gallons of syrup to sell enough to get a water jacketed bottler.

I see most of you along the Rt 40 parallel have pretty much finished up. I'm seeing some small buds, but nothing bursting out yet. My finished product is definitely dark and very maple tasting, but I did a small craft show sale last weekend and thats what the people wanted.

I used metal fencing to hold my fire bricks against the sides of my curved firebox, and the fencing has burned up. too many roaring fires I guess. so my bricks are starting to fall in, and my grate and angle iron braces are bowed down. definitely using up the homemade evaporator. Also want to make enough to buy sheet metal and angle iron for a real style evaporator.

How do you know exactly when to give in? Temps for the next week look just about perfect.

[SevenCreeksSap]

We did end up pulling all the taps last sunday, after 2 last runs of about 40 gallons each. Sap was still pretty clear but sugar was lower. I only have a sap hydrometer and it was reading about 1%, and I'm out of energy, time, and split firewood. I draw off before proper density and finish on a gas finisher, made out of my first barrell evaporator, and still have about 18 gallons os super sweet near syrup to finish off over the next few weeks. so far we've bottled just over 16 gallons and I'm expecting maybe another 5-7 to come out of the sweet. It's definitely been our best personal year and way better than last year. what a difference in seasons.
Maybe if we can sell off what we have bottled, it'll be enough to buy a good water jacketed bottler to finish the rest in. Always something else to buy.