north central ohio tapped

[newmod]

Near loudonville tapped 5 days ago. Boiled down 30 gallons today. 30 taps installed so far.

[bretmw]

Tapped here also just outside Perrysville. 30 taps and have made about 3 gallons of syrup so far. Been a slow start but starting to pick up. Have had 3 boils here.:)

[Grand Square Acres]

Go Redbirds!!!! lol I'm from the L/P area still have family there. Now I am 40 miles south of you guys in Granville. Just turn on my vac and sap is running great, checked bags and they are dripping good. It's about time things start flowing. Will most likely be boiling tonight. will be the 4th one of the season.

[newmod]

Sap is running great now. Just wish I had more time to keep up with it. I have about 110 gallons waiting to be boiled and I am sure I will have all my 3 gallon buckets full from 45 taps. Good to hear some local people on here. It is addictive. My wife is even getting into it. Plan to expand to close to 100 taps next year as long as I have time to build another (better) evaporator.

[newmod]

Collected 100 gallons today off of 45 taps

[Grand Square Acres]

WOW you had a great flow. A friend of mine up in Ashland thinks you guys might have about 8 to 10 days left. As for me I think next week will be it for us. I am running way below average, hope next week will give some good flows.

[bretmw]

Wife and I collected about 90 gallons last night. Going to boil Sunday. Can't wait. If I didn't have to work today we'd boil today. :)

[Grand Square Acres]

I was planning to boil today but don't have enough sap. I need at least 250 gals. to even think about firing up the evaporator. I collected 75 gals on 200 taps with 100 on vacuum. Put all in drums and have it in a walk in cooler set at 33 degrees should last for a couple days with no trouble til Tuesday I hope. Just have to wait and see what this next week holds. Hope this is not the end.

[newmod]

Boiled 30 gallons last night. Working today UGH!!! Tomorrow is gonna be a full day of boiling.

[Grand Square Acres]

newmod: What is your boil rate on Tankenstein? I would guess around 10 to 15 gals per hour. This is my first year on a 3X8 leader drop flue and I get about 70 gals an hour. Last year I had a 2.5x8 homemade rig I built and it got about 30 gals per hour and it was to slow last year ended up dumping over 2000 gals of sap that went bad before I could boil it, but still made 25 gal. of syrup. Got the bigger rig and now can't get the sap, have only made 4 1/2 gal so far.

[newmod]

Grand Square Acres,
I would bet mine is only doing about 8 - 10 per hour. We just threw it together quick and need to do a lot of fine tuning (ALOT ). I plan on doing a lot of things different for next year . I. am planning on being up to around 100 taps next year. It is all on steep hillside and would work great with a tubing system but I have no idea on how to set one up. Also, if I do tap 100 I will definetly need a better (quicker) evaporator. This is my second year doing it. I guess I need to see how the drop flue and continuous flow pans actually work. That would be a lot better that batch boiling on flat pans. And yes I have had to dump out some sap because not able to keep up also.

[Grand Square Acres]

Newmod: My tubing is on a very steep hillside. if you would like to check it out let me know. Next year I hope to have 250 to 300 taps on tubing. For the past 2 seasons I've tried to set my system up on gravity but couldn't get it to work right,due to hill being to steep, so this year I put it on vacuum works great.

[mjjoutdoor]

Grand square acres, I'm just west of you in Gahanna. This year I've got 90 buckets out and plan on tubing a lot of it for next season. I would love to see your setup if possible. I'm supprized that you are only at the 4.5 gal mark. I'm going to consider myself very lucky to have made 20 gal so far. Good luck with the rest of the season, I don't think we have much left.
Matt

[Grand Square Acres]

mjjoutdoor: you are more than welcome to come out and check out my set up. Just send me a pm. As for low production my woods are on a northern slope and I still have some snow on it I think everything is still frozen I haven't had a good flow yet this year like in the past. The most I have collected from any of the bags we have out was maybe 1 1/2 gal. nothing like in the past were we get 5+ gals in one bag. This is my first year with vacuum, past 2 season I had tubing on gravity, still was getting double the sap than I am with vac this year. Just puzzling. But I am still hopeful that things will turn on this week. 1st season here (2011) we put out 100 taps with bags collected over 3000 gals of sap. 2012 & 13 we put out 75 bags & 125 on tube collected 5000+. This year 150 on tube 75 bags haven't collected a 1000 gals yet for the year. With out looking at records I think we are around 850 for the season. Have to take the good with the bad I guess.

[newmod]

Grand Square Acres,
Thank I would like to check out your operation some time. We boiled yesterday and ended up with 1 1/2 gallons. You were saying you trees are on a north slope, mine are also and we collected 75 galloons yesterday. No problem with them producing this year. Just a problem with me trying to keep up. I will PM you later

[Grand Square Acres]

Late yesterday afternoon we started to get a good run going then it had to freeze again. Around 4 we collected what was in the bags almost 80 gals and the tube tank had almost 100 gal. without the vac on. It doesn't figure, our high temp was only 35F. Just went out to check tubing and it was starting to drip so I turned on the vac. will see what happens temp is only 34f . Hope to get enough sap to boil this evening. Also hoping that this late season run keeps up til Saturday we are having a Maple Syrup Open House from 9 to 5. Could use some help any volunteers.

[mjjoutdoor]

Grand Square I've experienced the same sap flow here in Gahanna. Collected around 150 gal over the last 2 days. I expect a small flow Wed and a good one on Thur. I wish I could come give you a hand on Sat but I plan on boiling all day. If the sap quits and I finish boiling I'll get in touch. Good luck
Matt

[Grand Square Acres]

I turned the vac on and in 7hrs collected another 175 gal. also got another 50 off bags, That gave me a little over 400 gals to boil down last nite. Made about 6gal of mid-amber. Hope for one more run for Saturday.

[bowhunter]

I didn't get more than a drip here in Marysville yesterday. You guys are 60 miles south east of me.

[Grand Square Acres]

Bowhunter: Our trees are located on a step north sloping hill. I think they are starting to thaw out. I also fill its to late, maybe one more run this week and it will be over, for the trees across the road on a south slope are full of buds.

[RC Maple]

In Putnam Co there hasn't been anything to gather this week. The last day I had anything in the buckets was Saturday and they were done running by the time I gathered. I too am hoping for a good run at the end of the week. I was looking at the monthly temps for here and saw that there have only been about 3 weeks of days since mid Feb for sap flow (21 days give or take). I hope the end of the week isn't the end of it.

[Grand Square Acres]

Best run of the season last night. Collected 125 gals yesterday around 4 pm. Woke up this morning have another 150 gals in the tube tank without vac on and bags are over flowing. Turned on vac at 6:30 am just checked almost another 50 gals. in 2hrs. Looks like the last run will be the best. Was planning to pull taps this weekend, but now will take a wait and see approach. Checked sap it is running a little over 2%. Looks like a long day boiling. With this run I might have a average season.

[bowhunter]

I had a big run overnight. I just did a spot check this morning and most of my gallon jugs are overflowing. I probably have 1-3 gallons in a majority of my 5-gallon buckets. Can't wait to see how much sap I've got. Can't collect until this afternoon. I'm guessing this is it for the season.

[Grand Square Acres]

To much to late. Been flowing real slow all season. Just when I decided to pull taps every thing let loose. Collected around noon today 300 gals. on 65 bags and 150 taps on vac. Still flowing strong. Looks like I will have sap to boil tomorrow for our open house. I am going to boil about half tonight to make room for what we collect in the morning. I have a little over 400 gals right now but just check tank on vac, timed the release cycle it is dumping every 3 min. but it only dumps about a gal at a time. But that's about 20 gals an hour. I'll take it.

[maple marc]

Finally a good run--collected 330 gallons on my 100 buckets today. Could be one last run on Monday here. Will struggle to make half of last year's production.

[RC Maple]

Wow! That was the best run I have had in my 3 years of gathering sap. I had to make 2 trips to the woods since the 5 gal buckets I usually gather with barely held the first half of the sap. I had to go back a second time and I still had to spread the last 3 gal among some of the tree buckets because I didn't have room to bring it back, Averaged over 2 gal/bucket and many were more than that. I was hoping I would have enough to boil today and tomorrow. My bucket runneth over.

[Grand Square Acres]

Glad to hear every one had a great run. my total noon to 9 o'clock last night when I turned off the vac. another 175 gals on vac. bags look to have 1 1/2 to 2 gals in them. Time to get the fire going and start boiling for our open house today.

May all your pans over flow with the golden nectar of spring. Good luck every one.

[bowhunter]

Maple Marc,

That's a lot syrup for 100 taps on buckets. What's your secret? I don't think my trees will do more than 35 gallons per 100 taps. My sugar averages about 2.5%.

[Grand Square Acres]

I am glad the open house is over. Had 93 people sign the guest book and I know that there were a few that didn't so figure around 100 guest in the sugar house today. Sold over 12 gals of syrup, only boiled 10 gals sold more than what was made today. glad for the smaller 2 to 4 gal runs earlier in the season. But still below average year. Hope for one more run Monday with this snow coming down might get one more. Over all great day. But anytime I'm making syrup is a great day. :D

[bowhunter]

Looks the same here in Union County. I had about 92 gallons of sap on 108 taps today. Monday will be it. The sap still seems ok, but I'll see how it boils tomorrow. I heard the peepers while out gathering buckets this evening...spring can't be far away. Well after a slow start I did 24 gallons with about 2 1/2 tomorrow on 108 taps. This was my second year and first with the RO. Boy that's a huge improvement. Took my half pint from 6 gallons per hour to about 17. Drew off about 3 gallons of syrup for every 6 hours of boiling.

[Grand Square Acres]

My 5th season and looks like I will be a little short making my 35 gal. average. Still need 12 gals. to hit it. With the weather forecast looks like todays run will be it for the season. Guess let it run collect in the morning and do a final boil. Then clean up everything and start working on next season, want to rerun all my tubing so I can pick up more trees and remodel sugar shack. Neighbor stopped by during the open house offered me his woods to tap next year ( all he wants is a gal. of syrup) so need to get over there to check it out and start planning on how to tube it. Looks like I might be busy during the off season.

[Grand Square Acres]

April Fools Day latest I've ever boiled. Last one of the season, collected 310 gal. and started pulling taps this morning. Final numbers will take a couple days to figure out. Looks like it might be a average season or very close. Glad its over and sad its over. But there is next year.

[Grand Square Acres]

Final # for 2014= 1765 gal. sap made 37 gal syrup jugged and ready for sale. 80 qts, 120 pts, 32 half pints. mostly dark amber with a very good taste. Made over half of it in the last week of the season. Over all good years.

[bretmw]

Pulled my taps Wednesday the 2nd of April. Ended the season with 7 gallons of Syrup. I didn't think that was too bad of a season using my 1/2 pint and 30 taps. Wife and I had a lot of fun. Can't believe its over already. Only used a cord and a half of wood.;)

[newmod]

Had a good year of sap! I lost count of how many gallon collected. Next year I am dedicating march to syrup month. This year I had everybody and their brother calling and wanting remodeling jobs done. WELL, next year I am only working my firefighting/paramedic job that month. and dedicating the other days to syrup. Already starting on my new sugar shack and plans on a new evaporator. It was a fun year though.
NEWMOD

[Sugarbear]

Finished off yesterday. Ended up with 75 gallons off of about 350 taps. Not too bad for a late and short season.

[newmod]

Sugarbear,
I sent you a private message

Newmod