Littleton NH area Maple Season

[PerryW]

Guess I'll stat a new thread since I'm finally mostly set up for the 2014 season. While this is the lastest I've ever tapped in 25 years, there are many years I'd wished I'd waited till late march to tap (hindsight is 20:20 LOL)

Shoveled out a path to the sugarhouse, uncovered the pans and dropped then down on the arch yesterday. Got the feed pipe installed and set up the head tank to the evaporator.

Dragged out all the tanks and stuck the mainlines into the 600 gallon tank and hung most of the buckets today. Tapped most of the trees starting a week ago, but still have about 100 holes to bore tomorrow. Some of the warmer taps I bored today out in the sun actually dripped when I bored the holes, but quickly turned to icicles around 6 PM.

I am optimistic about the season as the there is no heat wave predicted and I did not tap too early. Bring it on!

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Good luck, I hope you get tons of sap and cant keep up!! :-)

[optionguru]

Perry, no I told you so's. I couldn't help myself in February with that warm up, I got a whole quart and a half of syrup out of it :). I guess the upside is I only tapped 1/3 of my trees back then. Looks like there's hope for the next week at least. Hope to see you around the barn.

[PerryW]

Don't feel bad Pete, the first year I tapped all my trees at the end of february and as soon as I got everything set up, it went down to 27 below and stayed below freezing for over 2 weeks. Hindsight is always 20:20 with sugaring and I have also missed runs by tapping too late. Maybe someday I will get vacuum so I won't have to worry about tapping too early but I doubt it. Too much of a luddite for that!

I guess I underestimated the number of hole remaining to bore. I went through all 4 batteries and still have 20 or so more to go. Even with prolly 600 tapped on the big bush, there was only 10 gallons of liquid in the tank. Mostly last year's rinse water so I dumped it. I'm guessing that the 50 degrees predicted for tomorow (with some sun) will thaw things out enough so maybe sunday or monday things will let go.

[Russell Lampron]

It's looking like you guys up north could finally be getting some sap weather. Good luck!

[PerryW]

Thanks Russ, forecast does look good after monday.

Stayed above freezing last night so it ran enough overnight to push rinse water from last season out of the pipelines. Dumped about 60 gallons of sap out of the big tank and closed the valve at 7 AM for the season.

Snowshoed the bush through deep wet snow and there was enough flow to find all the leaks and patch up the squirrel bites and repair a few broken connectors. Think I got all the big problems fixed. Hung a few more buckets and got a few more things ready in the sugarhouse. My road is nice and muddy so maybe the trees will actually start running next week.

It ran maybe 50 gallons today (from 7 AM to 7 PM) and the buckets were still dripping slowly. Maybe the rain will help the thawing and beat the snow down a little. Looks like another slow day tomorrow as temps coast slowly downhill till the expected freeze on Sunday night.

[PerryW]

At the risk of jinxing us, it looks like the mother of all sap runs this week in the North Country of NH

EDIT 1:04 PM. Just gathered the bucket from saturday & sunday's run and some of them were full, but averaged 0.75 GPT.

ALthough it only got down to 31 deg, most of the buckets were half ice. Might even get a run this afternoon before tonite's freeze.

Tough sledding though gathering buckets while postholing up to my thighs. Glad I only have 50 to gather.

[Russell Lampron]

It's good to see that you are getting some sap. The buckets down here aren't doing anything and the vacuum isn't doing much either. I managed to get 400 gallons from the vacuum over the last 50 hours from 700 taps. Tomorrow looks promising though with a low of 27* tonight and sunny with a high of 46* in the forecast. With any luck at all we could first see the first real sap day this season. That is if it isn't an April Fools joke by the weather forecasters.

[PerryW]

With a low of 31 last nite and a high around 35, I didn't expect much but ended up with 375 gallons to sweeten the pans tomorrow AM.

Then one more leak patrol tomorrow late morning beforethe big runs tomorrow. weather forecast looks as good as it gets.

[PerryW]

boiled up the 375 gallons of sap from last night to sweeten the pans. Gathered 400 gallons mid-afternoon. The littleton trees ran great but the colder Lyman Trees are still sluggish.

Made my first 6 gallons (medium) today on April Fools day. It was running good at 4 PM when I gathered so there's probably a coupl hundred gallons out in the woods now.

[optionguru]

We collected 20 gal off 40 taps yesterday and made about 1/2 a gallon. Broke my 2nd hydrometer in as many years. Still hoping the taps become a little more productive in the next couple of days.

[PerryW]

Well I'm getting about half as much sap as I would expect for these weather but mother nature is a fickle woman. Up to 18 gallons all Medium amber. Grade has climbed slowly since I started 2 days ago.

[Russell Lampron]

It does take a while for the trees to completely thaw and run good. Mine are coming into it now and the sap totals have been climbing all week.

[PerryW]

running like crazy today. even the cold taps have woken up!

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Took a while for you guys, but good luck on the rest of the season

[PerryW]

got 550 gallons of sap on friday. boiled it up today and made 13 gallons of Medium for a season total of 31 gallons. Might get a freeze tonite!

[Russell Lampron]

We got a freeze last night but not a very good one. It will be enough to keep the trees on vacuum running but I don't think the buckets will run very good. The ground was still soft at 11:00 last night when I came in from the sugar house. The freeze should have been just about perfect for you guys.

[optionguru]

We got about 1/2 gpt in the freshly tapped section but the (over anxious) taps we did a while ago are barely covering the bottom of the buckets. Made another 1/2 gallon last night bringing the season to 2 gallons on 45 taps. Ouch!!

[PerryW]

We got a freeze last night but not a very good one. It will be enough to keep the trees on vacuum running but I don't think the buckets will run very good. The ground was still soft at 11:00 last night when I came in from the sugar house. The freeze should have been just about perfect for you guys.

About the same thing here Russ. Just a skim of ice on the puddles. It's may be enough to push out 100 gallons of sap for me, which should give me a couple hundred gallons to boil up this afternoon.

EDIT 10:16. Hmm. Just checked the 2 buckets within walking distance and they are dripping 1 drip per second and sap icicles hanging off them.

[PerryW]

ended up with 300 gallons of sap and made another 8 gallons for a total of 39 gallons. All dark amber today. tomorrow looks good!

[red maples]

How many taps are you up to? geez what have you been gong for a week and your already at 1/2 of what I made the whole season!!!

[PerryW]

Brad, I'm guessing around 800 gravity taps this year. But most are small trees w/ small crowns with 5/15 tapholes. An average year is 120 gallons for me.

[PerryW]

well it didn't run as good as expected, but picked up 250 gal at noon today and made another 7 gallons of Dark Amber for a total this year of 46 gallons.

[maple maniac65]

700 taps here in Sugar Hill on Vac and have made 85 gallons so far all dark amber

[PerryW]

picked up 200 gallons just now from what ran since yesterday's noon-time gather. Should put me up to 50 gallons for the season.

Hoping the weather men are right on wednesday's hard freeze. Weather does not look promising after that until a week from today.

[optionguru]

I'm thinking Thursday will be it for us. Got about 1/2gpt yesterday. If I get the same Thursday I'll be able to do one more boil and start thinking about building my new bee hives. Good luck all.

[PerryW]

ended up with 7 more gallons of Dark Amber for a total of 53 gallons. Almost 50% crop.

[PerryW]

thermometers reading 17 deg and 22 deg and classic sugaring weather today. Should get me past 50% crop. Some warm weather ahead, but I think my trees can handle it. Next tuesday looks like more sap! Might be grade b, but that's okay.

[PerryW]

made 6 gallons of dark on thursday and 8 gallons of B today (friday) for a total of 68 gallons, about 60% crop.

Looks like there at least 100 gallons out there that ran today so should make a couple more tomorrow.

Gonna wait and see if I can make it to tuesday nite for the next freeze. hope the weathermen are wrong about the 60's and 70's for next 3 days.

[PerryW]

well the thermometers ranged from 23 to 29 this morning, so looks like there will be a partial run at least. Washed out the tanks and ready to gather after the run shuts down (whenever that is)

[PerryW]

made another 5 gallons of good tasting grade b for a total of 73 gallons. Gonna hang on though the hot weather to see if things start running after tuesday's expected freeze.

[Russell Lampron]

You should be okay up there if you are still getting good sap. Mine turned cloudy and the buds on the reds are about to pop. I called it a season last night with 165 1/2 gallons made.

Good luck with the rest of your season.

[PerryW]

The last take-off didn't have a hint of metabolic taste and, other than a few buckets with yellow sap, the rest was clear.

Temps today were much cooler than expected and tuesday nite is still showing a hard freeze w/ highs in the 30's for wednesday. gonna hang on and see what happens.

[PerryW]

Dumped out all the sap in the buckets and tanks just before dark. Probably dumped about 150 gallons, some of which was the color or orange juice. Down to freezing now, so we'll see what happens over the next few days. TapHoles are only 3-4 weeks old but ain't never sat through temps in the mid-70's either! I have heard no peepers yet, but saw some small frogs hopping across the road last night.

Sitting at 60% crop and last saturday made good tasting grade B. Most likely be commercial, but we seem to be able to sell that just fine.

[Russell Lampron]

Perry I think that you still have some season left. You may get your best runs of the season now and I wouldn't be surprised if the color went back up too.

[PerryW]

never warmed up today, but happy to see frozen ground and snow again. ready to see what happen tomorow & friday. looks like perfect dugaring weather.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Im jealous...I hope it keeps running for you Perry!!

[PerryW]

not much yesterday. Only started dripping at 5 PM. either didn't warm up enough or trees are done. Might have ran till 9-10 PM so maybe there's some sap out there? Looks like today& tonite is last chance for a little more syrup.

[Russell Lampron]

From what I can see in the forecast you should be getting some decent sap weather up there. It has been too cold here except for today. It looks like light freezes here through Sunday which should mean mid 20's for lows for you. The daytime highs look a little better too. I think you still have some season left. The trees are budding down here so even if I turned the vacuum pump back on I wouldn't get anything good enough to sweeten the evaporator again.

[PerryW]

I gathered between 11 am and 12 noon and things were just started running. Picked up 150 gallons of sap and boiled that down and made another 3 gallons of still good tasting syrup for a total of 76 gallons so far. Color was below grade B, but still no metabolic after taste. Checked things again about 6 PM and some of the cold trees had 2/3 of a bucket and still dripping, though about 10% had dried up. Some of these colder trees actually had the best run of the season of nice clear sap and I expect some full buckets in the morning when I gather. My warmer bush did not run as well and the sap was a little cloudy, but I shout still have at least 300 gallons of sap to pick up in the morning. Not much of a freeze tonite, but I should get to 85+ gallons or about 70% crop. not too bad for such a short season.

[PerryW]

picked up 500 gallons of sap this morning and made 11 gallons. Grade went back from commercial to Grade A dark amber. Probably the best run all season! While 10% of the buckets had dried up, one bucket was running over and had 4.75 gallons of sap that run from Noon yesterday to 10 AM today! Looks like 25 deg tonite. could be more tomorrow. Up to 87 gallons, 72 % crop.

[PerryW]

Hard freeze last night in low 20's. looks like we might get to 80% crop today.

[Russell Lampron]

The forecast looks good for you guys up there. If the wind doesn't blow too hard you should get a good run.

[PerryW]

picked up 250 gallons of sap this afternoon and made 6 more gallons of DA. Total is now 93 gallons. No freeze tonite but should have a little sap tomorrow to gather. Thought he colder buckets had their best runs of the season today & yesterday, my larger bosh is slowing down. I'm guessing it will be over for me after tomorrow night's boil. Looks like I'll make to 80% crop.

[PerryW]

Picked up about 125 gallons and took off another 3 gallons for 96 gallons total. Still no off flavor but trees are starting to slow down so this is it for me. Probably make 2-3 gallons from the contents of the pan.

I'll end up with 80% crop but still not bad considering I had the month of March off to do other things. The season was exactly 3 weeks long here (4/1 - 4/21). Sure glad I held off tapping till the end of march!

See you all next year!

[Russell Lampron]

You can't complain about an 80% crop, you could have done much worse. I am very happy with the 165 1/2 gallons that I made which is about average for me.

[PerryW]

You can't complain about an 80% crop, you could have done much worse. I am very happy with the 165 1/2 gallons that I made which is about average for me.

Nope, not complaining here. I kind of like the idea of working half as long and still making 80% of a full crop. We had probably 20 gallons left over from last season anyway.

[MapleCamp]

Hey Perry good job 80% seems to be the norm around here. I did 25 gallons last year 25 this year up in Lancaster. Sounds like 100% but I tapped 50 more trees this year......so I'm saying 80%. Last year I tapped Feb. 22, this year last week of march, 2 week, later, done. Seemed like it was over before I had a chance to have fun this year. It got pretty muddy here, but I did save some wood.

Have a great summer
Jay

[Homestead Maple]

I did 80% also Perry. I stopped the 22nd. because the trees just were't running much. I was making a good flavored B at the end.