May Journal

[DrTimPerkins]

Happy May 1st everyone.

[PerryW]

Happy May 1st everyone.

Ditto to everyone!

Just finished replacing the 10 cords of wood I burned this season making 149 gallons; a good year for me. Got another few cords of pine tops to cut and split to get a start on 2015 wood.

Got some grade C on the burner now and ready to pack a 10 gallon batch of cooking syrup. Probably do a batch of Grade B also for my dark customers.

All cleaned up and ready to continue thinning the sugarbush. Pulled 55 cords of firewood and around 15,000 feet of softwood fro the 18 acres and there's plenty more left.

[Yellzee]

Finished splitting up about 3 cords of ironwood for next year this afternoon before the bugs start to get too bad. Not sure if burning straight ironwood is a good idea ?? Getting ready to design a new 2x7 arch i think with a 5 foot drop flue pan and 2 foot syrup pan. Going to measure a few rigs around here to get some ideas. Hoping to hit 25-30 gph but that may be a dream. Hope everyone is enjoying the recharge time!

[sjdoyon]

Delivered a tractor trailer load of syrup today. Waiting on excavator rental quotes so we can repair our roads which were washed out when the ice melted last month and ruined most of our old skidder roads throughout the sugarbush.

[Jeff E]

What a month. We started slow in Wis but finished strong. Not sure about overall season records, but the 2nd and 3rd week of April were amazing. I ended up buying a lot of sap from other syrup'rs who were overwhelmed with sap. So I have quite a few checks to write! Selling bulk this and next week, bottling for some stores this weekend, then replacing the wood pile.

RO saved the day, I made about 1400 gallons of syrup with just over 10 cords of wood.
So, heres the drill. Cut wood, pull taps, flush lines. Cut wood, pull taps, flush lines. repeat, repeat.

[jrgagne99]

We are getting ready to move to a new home in June. We are really excited because it is bigger and it is on the water. The downside is that there are only about 20 maples on the land, so it is sort of bittersweet (pun intended). If we keep sugaring, we'll need to haul sap from somewhere else, maybe even my existing bush.

[PerryW]

Finally did my annual (mandatory) USDA Maple Survey after they called and nagged me. Guess the season is officially over.

[super sappy]

Went to Goodriches' open house today ..... Worth the drive. The seminars were great , not a huge crowd to deal with real mellow atmosphere. Glen has a natural ability in front of a crowd and keeps things moving along ...Ill go again for sure -SS

[whitetail farms]

Well im starting to bounce back from my disappointing season, just finished cleaning everything up and putting it away going to start thinning my woods and putting up tubing in it, also looking for another woods close by have a lot leads on some nice places so I guess its time to start knocking on some doors, also been hauling in wood from where I work they gave abiout 15 cords of wood some hardwood but mostly pine witch I plan to have milled, hope everyone has a fun and safe summer,nick

[maple2]

ive been setting up a new 1000+ tap bush. got most of the 1" up. next step is to drag 3500ft of 1.25 down the center of a stream to the road. guess I will wait for a hot day for that job

[western mainer]

All I can say is it was a cold 4 hours at the farmers market today 42 out and I had winter boots and coat and long johns on, heavy rain and wind. Still was a good turn out.
Brian

[spud]

I got about 1/2 inch of snow today and now the temp is down to 33 at my house. I might wake up to a winter wonderland.

Spud

[maple flats]

Start up the pumps, buddy sap still sells at $1.50/lb.

[PerryW]

Got 2-3 inches here ans lost power for 12 hours. there was enough snow to ski cannon mountain yesterday fro top to bottom.

[Revi]

No snow here, but it was a pretty miserable weekend for the tourists. We had an okay time anyway.

[sjdoyon]

Going to Lapierre USA on Thursday to take a look at a newly designed Releaser they are getting ready to put on the market. We need to upgrade since we've outgrown ours. Hoping the price tag is not too painful.