Snow way

[Asthepotthickens]

No way did we need this dumping of snow, just makes our work less enjoyable looks like this syrup season will not bring good runs until the end of March. Question do most of you go out after a snow fall and clean the snow off of the buckets and trunks? Thank you Rob.

[Ausable]

Yes --- Normally ---- But so far it has been all work and no maple syrup. If we have a Season here - it will be a late one. Now I'm thinking - Mother Nature - If I can't have any sap will you at least let me have some apples this year. -------Try and stay positive ---Glad I don't do this for money. lol--------Mike-----

[happy thoughts]

Now I'm thinking - Mother Nature - If I can't have any sap will you at least let me have some apples this year. -------Try and stay positive ---Glad I don't do this for money. lol--------Mike-----

We were talking about the same thing about sap and apples and wondering if commercial maplers can buy crop insurance like orchard owners can. Any ideas?

Also glad we don't do this for a living because this season has so far been just south of sucks. Trying to stay positive but if the big run hits late right before Easter, we won't be around. Had planned to close shop a little early this year for a short trip. Now I may just have to run sap to the ground while we're away and hope there's some sap action left when we get back. I suppose the unpredictability of maple lends to it's charm lol.

[Tweegs]

You’ll get sap, Mike, but my guess is you’ll get it all in one big tsunami.

As for the apples… I have a friend who owns a cider mill/orchard. Two of the last 3 (or was it 5?) years, he’s had no apples due to early bloom and late frost. With some guidance offered by Michigan State extension, he’s experimenting this year with mulching (shredded straw) around his trees. The idea being to insulate the ground keeping some of the frost in and delaying bud/bloom development by a week or two, thereby reducing the chance of a frost kill.

His idea, MSe thinks it has merit and it sounds good to me. Picked up a couple bales of straw to put around my half dozen trees (we didn’t get apples last year either).

Oh, and I believe you can buy crop insurance. Saw it mentioned once here.

[Run Forest Run!]

It's still snowing here too, but were aren't going to be getting the total that you are. It's a pain. I do clean off my buckets and trees, but only because I have so few to do.

[MapleLady]

We're getting heavy snow here today with so far about 12" on the ground. I plan to go out (on my snowshoes) later to brush the snow off of my bucket lids. I'm not sure how much heavy snow they can hold before the weight pulls out the spouts. I added 3 more taps last Sunday - and those taps have been running. That makes my total to clean only 34 taps - not too hard to clean those off.

[BrutemanAl]

I clean mine off during and after snow fall , only reason being is , I only have 2 buckets with lids , and the others have no lids , I put plastic bags over them to help stop crud from falling in the buckets , and the weight of the snow pulls the bags down , I have plans to do away with the bags ( just have not had time to do it yet) , only reason I used the bags is because I borrowed buckets this year from a neighbor that is not doing maple syrup this year and he had no lids for them , so i figured I would put some bags over the buckets to help keep stuff out .

[Big_Eddy]

Question do most of you go out after a snow fall and clean the snow off of the buckets and trunks? Thank you Rob.

Ha! - sure - when we collect snow falls off the lids - usually. Otherwise it'll melt - eventually.

[MustardSeedMum]

Question do most of you go out after a snow fall and clean the snow off of the buckets and trunks? Thank you Rob.

Does this answer your question? :lol:
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