Tapped in Poconos 2014

[Maplewalnut]

And the season has begun. Got about 1000 taps in today and smaller trees were wet when drilled. Bigger trees probably need another day to thaw out. Will finish tapping woods tomorrow and should have flow most of the day to help find leaks and get everything tightened up. Buckets will wait another couple weeks.

I am hoping for a good season, new wet/dry set up, couple hundred more taps and lots of dry wood. Trying to do a little better every year until I finally get a vacuum set up that's 'by the book'. Haha. Good luck to all.

Mike

[adk1]

Good luck on your season. We are starting to get the itch up here but won't be tappin for another 3 weeks

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

Good luck on your season Mike. Keep us posted!
Neil

[tuckermtn]

Hey Mike - good luck getting everything set up and dialed in. A "by the book" set up? No such thing for us, unless we are the ones writing "the book".

all the best of luck for an excellent season...

[Gary R]

Maplewalnut, good luck! I am surprised you got in sooner than us over on this side of the state. It's been above freezing for two days. We had a couple of days below zero earlier in the week. I was worried things are still froze up. Let us know how things are going.

[waysidemaple]

Going to pull the trigger this week. Just waiting for the cold to come back.

Gary,
I have a buddy that just bought a rig identical to yours. What are you getting for rates out of yours is it air tight with blower. He was just wondering and I can't remember what my 2x8 was doing.

Hope we all have great seasons!

Scott

[doocat]

Good Lusk Mike. I think we are waiting a bit yet the forecast shows so more cold coming.

Craig

[Z/MAN]

Good luck Mike. I'm waiting a while yet.

[Gary R]

Scott, upper 50's GPH. I fell below 55 last season. I took the flue pan off and cleaned the soot side. Air tight with air under and over.

[Maplewalnut]

Well sap ran for a bit yesterday, enough to realize how many bear and squirrel chews I really have. Spent day chasing leaks and flushing lines. One thing I noticed is I will never buy the green Lapierre tubing again. The amount of snot that accumulated in that tubing is far greater than any shade of blue. I have the green on a separate mainline and it was still dirty well after the blue stuff from the remainder of the bush had cleared. Those green laterals are only 2 years old also, whereas the blue is up to 10 years.

[Maplewalnut]

Getting itchy now for some sap. Looks like a brief warmup starting tomorrow but back below freezing by Saturday night for another extended stretch. Had made 40 gallons of syrup by this time last year. Snow is unreal, probably close to three feet in woods now. Only bright side is snowmbiles have gotten more miles this year than the last three seasons combined.

[Gary R]

Maplewalnut, we hope you get some sap. We probably only have 16" in the woods over here. Every day the weather liars have lowered the temps on this warm up.

[Maplewalnut]

Decent run this weekend. Got membranes flushed out, pans sweetened and made some syrup. Funny how people see steam and pull in driveway. I was filling jugs for people as fast as I was making syrup today. Snow pack took a pounding last three days and is actually manageable in woods now. Looks like a short season this year

[Cabin]

Decent run this weekend. Got membranes flushed out, pans sweetened and made some syrup. Funny how people see steam and pull in driveway. I was filling jugs for people as fast as I was making syrup today. Snow pack took a pounding last three days and is actually manageable in woods now. Looks like a short season this year

Fired up the new arch Yesterday afternoon on 25 gallons of sap. Have to keep a closer eye on things, not use to the higher evaporation rate. That snow sure makes it hard to gather the sap. Thick snow and a heavy bucket do not go together.

[doocat]

We tapped one bush. It ran great over the weekend. Holding off on the second bush for tapping until towards the end of this cold spell. Gave us time to get the sugar house up and running anyway.

Craig

[Maplewalnut]

Still all frozen here in Poconos. We didnt get the big storm they were predicting so thats a good thing since we still have 16+ inches in the woods. Temperatures not so good, back below zero tonight and hasnt been above freezing during the day in over a week again. Looks like a few more days until we start to thaw out.

[Cabin]

If weather underground is right I should start seeing some action Thursday.

[Maplewalnut]

Decent run yesterday. I was surprised since it never got above 36 but the sun is warm this time of year. Was still running last night when I checked and air temp was 30 degrees. Thats a tight system. Snow is melting quickly, hopefully the storm mid week is rain and not more snow.

[doocat]

Rumor is a little snow up our way. Sap is running fairly well today.

[Maplewalnut]

Craig- You get anything yesterday? Very strange day, temps in mid 40s here but only got maybe 200 gallons of sap. East wind may have had something to do with it. My theory is the trees are starting to thaw but roots are not yet. Only so much moisture in tree and if the root system is not thawed its not drawing anything out of the soil hence the weak flow. Seems to shutdown as soon as sun goes down also.

Oh and we got surprise inpsection by the state this week. They usually call to see when we will be boiling so they can see the whole operation, oh well glad someone was home.

[doocat]

We got a total of about 900-1000 gals yesterday. It did not freeze Monday or Tuesday night so sap slowed up. I agree the roots in the woods are frozen. We also have had low sugar. Hoping that if the ground thaws the sugar will increase. Vacuum is up so if we get the weather sap will come.

Craig

[cur dog]

Craig, I think I'm just a few miles from you. I'm glad to hear your assessment. Our sugar on the vacuum taps has been running about 1.2 %. It sure makes for a brutal amount of boiling.

[doocat]

Sap is barely running today even though it got to 40 and 26 inches on the vacuum. Oh well as long as we are ready!!! Cur Dog...stop by any time.

Craig

[Gary R]

Real slow to the west also. Ground is still frozen. Maybe some rain tonight will help us out. Good luck guys

[Dave Y]

The reason the sap is not running hard is, high pressure and south wind. It should pick up later tonight when the wind turns to the west and barometric pressure drops.

[Cabin]

9 gallons of sap Tuesday and 19 today!! Can I hope it is beginning??

[doocat]

talked to a friend of mine last night and he told me that the were digging a foundation and there was two feet of frost around the stumps they were digging out. Less in the pastures where the sun hits.,,,UGGGG!

[Cabin]

40 gallons from 45 taps today!!!

[Maplewalnut]

Pulled in 1200 gallons today. Sap ran but not like it should of. Still quite a bit of snow in woods and frost under that. I think that will prevent any great runs this year. Just thankful we are getting sap at this point.

[Cabin]

Pulled in 1200 gallons today. Sap ran but not like it should of. Still quite a bit of snow in woods and frost under that. I think that will prevent any great runs this year. Just thankful we are getting sap at this point.

Long range forcast doesnt look good for me after next week. All nights above freezing. Guess I will have to check out tapping birches then.

[3GoatHill]

Long range forcast doesnt look good for me after next week. All nights above freezing. Guess I will have to check out tapping birches then.

We're in Northampton County. Is this the shortest season ever? Makes me wish I would have tapped a lot more trees.

[Cabin]

We're in Northampton County. Is this the shortest season ever? Makes me wish I would have tapped a lot more trees.

I think my son is looking foward to me trying to tap birches. I was hoping to make 10 pounds of sugar as well as syrup but who knows.

[Maplewalnut]

Oh what a day. First decent run for new bush and sap tested at 2.3, and they are 98% red maple. I will take that any time. Collected buckets and pumped up big woods tank to sugar house all told about 1500 gallons today. Ro'd to about 12% and burned the syrup pan. Caught it just in time and the 'oh sh!t' bucket was dumped in. 1 hour soak in vinegar, 1 hour scrub lots of rinse and we were back in business. Made some syrup, filled some baby barrels are we'll do it all over tomorrow (minus the scorched pan)

[Gary R]

Maplewalnut, sounds like a great run. I wish any of my trees would put out sugar like that. Bummer about the pan. It really sets things back.

[doocat]

We finally got decent runs Friday and Saturday. Now cold again. Oh well maybe April will bring syrup weather.

Craig

[Maplewalnut]

Decent run Friday and she let loose finally on Saturday. At the height of the run we got over 400 gallons of sap from 800 tree bush in just under 3 hours on Saturday. Reds still look tight here and sap is clear. Looks like no sap again for a couple days and we will see what happens after that. Time to drain evaporator, clean her up and get ready for the next round. Big difference in sugar percentage between buckets and small gravity bush vs vacuum this year.

Mike

[doocat]

I am not liking the warm nighttime temps in the 10 day forecast. Too many of them...We will see.

Craig

[3GoatHill]

I'm not diggin' the forecast either. By the weekend it's supposed to be in the sixties, night time in the 40's.

Hey Cabin, let us know how the birch goes!

[Cabin]

I'm not diggin' the forecast either. By the weekend it's supposed to be in the sixties, night time in the 40's.

Hey Cabin, let us know how the birch goes!

It sure looks like I will have to resort to that. But then it is always good to try something new. Still doing modifications to my masonary arch. This summer I will break it down and do a rebuild hopefily with many improvements.

[Maplewalnut]

I am not liking the warm nighttime temps in the 10 day forecast. Too many of them...We will see.

Craig

Hang in there Craig...temp trending at night is lower than is was yesterday in extended forecast

[doocat]

Roger That! hope it changes...

[Maplewalnut]

Good day yesterday and woke up to surprise frozen taps today. Running real well right now with storm coming.
Even have the sp-22 cranked up to 24.5 inches....it's now or never

[doocat]

Pretty nice run yesterday and today. Still running now at 800pm. Probably run all night. Looks like maybe a freeze next few nights. Come on sap. Up to medium today.

Craig

[cur dog]

We missed a freeze by a couple of degrees last night. Not much ran today.

[doocat]

We are getting ready to cook again today. Ran all night again with another few thousand gallons in the tank. Need a freeze tonight. Forecast has changed four times in two days.

[Maplewalnut]

Same here, even got nice run out of gravity bush yesterday. We are forecast for 28 here tonight and. 27 on Monday night. Fingers crossed

[doocat]

Wow, snowing heavy and below 31 right now. Yipee.

[Maplewalnut]

Good 12 hours and counting of below freezing here. Hoping the rain the last two days soaked in and melted some of the frost in ground and it gushes today and tomorrow. Couple good runs could salvage what could of been a terrible season. Currently at 30% of crop

[Maplewalnut]

Sap everywhere !!!

[doocat]

Ran hard here today as well.

[Maplewalnut]

Still flowing , even buckets. Leaving pump on til this weekend to see if we get a freeze like predicted . If not it's over. Buds are still tight even on red maples but weather just won't cooperate this year

[doocat]

great run the last two days. Made alot of syrup and maybe a freeze tonight. Maybe the last big hoorah.

[Maplewalnut]

Hoping for a freeze next few nights or we are done

[doocat]

It has actually been running pretty good here without an every night freeze. Slowed some today though. Looks like freeze tommorrow night and the next but then....?

[cur dog]

Craig,
Its been the same over here. The pump is pulling 26" and I'm getting a nice steady trickle the last two days. It adds up. I guess it makes up for not having a super run after our Wed. night freeze.

[Maplewalnut]

Still filling barrels, good freeze last night and another tonight. Buds are getting bigger but no buddy syrup yet. Hope to make syrup all week.

[Z/MAN]

Maplewalnut, I thought this season was a washout. Amazed what a turnaround in the last week and the forecast is good for this week. My buds shouldn't be a problem. I should have my best season ever. How well have you recovered?

[Maplewalnut]

ZMAN...We are getting there...last week 'saved' the season for us. This week may push it to 'average' but probably no further because sap is just above 1%. Except for one or two days last week we never got the big runs I am used to on vacuum. Too cold and too much frost. On positive note I put on almost 1000 miles on my sled!

[Maplewalnut]

Well we are done. Came home to a tank full of ropey snotty sap. Releaser window looked disgusting. Expected a few more days as buds are still tight but it wasn't to be. After all the talk of an extended season I beat the date of the latest I made syrup in thirteen years by 24 hours.
Good Luck to those still at it.

Mike

[cur dog]

I called it quits today. The sap is still running pretty good, but its dropped to 1.1% and making commercial grade syrup. If I had an RO, I'd probably keep going, as it still tastes darn good. Its my first year with the new evaporator, and tubing system. Over all, I couldn't be happier with how everything worked. Definately a tough sap year. We had our best run on April 1st, and made most of our syrup in the last 7 days. Ended up with 105 gal. from 500 taps. Good luck to everyone.

[doocat]

Still going here. We made 100 gals with about 70 of it Dark amber. Probably the last for that grade though, it was right on the line. Looks like the rest of the week and we may be done. Has been a great April!!!

[Cabin]

My season ended Saturday. Pulled the taps from the maples and tapped 14 Birch trees. Filtered my last batch of maple syrup, smelled like a sho fly pie in the house. Dark with hints(a lot of hints) of molasses.

[Maplewalnut]

well a day after I quit, the peepers reared their ugly chorus!! Man I hate that sound

[Brian Ryther]

well a day after I quit, the peepers reared their ugly chorus!! Man I hate that sound
Mike. The old timers around hear say the season is over after you have heard the peepers for the third time.

[doocat]

Then were not done yet...

[Dave Y]

I have heard that peepers look thru glass three time before its over. meaning three freezes after you first hear them.

[Maplewalnut]

Mike. The old timers around hear say the season is over after you have heard the peepers for the third time.

Those must be the more hardy NY peepers..LOL. Sap went ropey for me less than 24 hours before I heard those darn things singing. Last night was deafening.
Bad season for me, new gravity bush didnt even pay for tube that was put up, it will be on vacuum next year. No breakdowns, no injuries and plenty of wood for next year so there are always positives.