07 is here

[VA maple guy]

I got 50 taps in today before I went and ran with my local hash club. The next three days are going to be verry cold. hope to get another 100 in later this week.

[325abn]

Hash club???

[VA maple guy]

325abn, go to www.gfh3.org that will explane it all.
Gerry

[220 maple]

Jerry,
I guessed you would get rolling this week, I hope to have mine tapped by this coming weekend, When it warms up after this freeze watch out! We both may need life jackets to save ourselves from drowning in sugar water. I usually watch channel 9 weather from the DC area. If is shows near freezing temps. then it right for me. I'm usually 10 degrees colder than The Wash. DC area. How does your red maples look? The ones that I've observed in my Pendleton County sugar bush look fine. Plan on checking my Grant County sugar bush trees tomorrow. If they look good like the others I'll be real happy.
Mark 220 Maple
P.S. Have you been to Snowshoe this year? Their web site said they have had 31 inches of new snow in the last two weeks. I don't ski, the conditions would have to be near perfect...

[VA maple guy]

Hi Mark, I hope to get the rest of my trees tapped by the weekend if it warms up.
I'm far enough north west of DC that my temps average five to ten
degrees below the city.
I think my reds will be ok. My girlfriend lives in Arlington County about
a mile from the DC line, some of the reds near here hade there buds open up
and the little seedlings started to form befor this cold snap.
Havent made it to Snowshoe yet this year It's been to warm up until a week ago and I've been pretty busy doing some remolding on my house.
Hope to make it up there at least once this wear. I hope your right about the life jackets, Good luck! and keep us posted on how you are doing.
Gerry

[220 maple]

Jerry,
I worked steady at getting ready all last week, But didn't get any trees open.
I have my Pendleton County Bush 90 percent ready to open. Hopefully Wendesday after this blasted ice storm I can finish there and open them trees. The cold weather appears to be holding on until the weekend. Then I believe we are going to get some 50 degree days. If that happens after all this cold weather. Watch out! One of my helpers said the The North Mill Creek will probably rise due to the overflow of the sap tanks. I feel certain we will have a record run, or a least a record since we started keeping daily records on sap quanity. And since I've added more taps into the system that will only make matters worst. If I get more than I can handle I'm going to haul some sap to one of my friends in Highland County. He usually buys sap every season.
Mark 220 Maple

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Mark,

Who in Highland co, Ivan Puffenbarger??

[220 maple]

Brandon,
Yes Ivan Puffenbarger is the Highland Countian I'm talking about. And he is the closest to my camp. Others buy sap also. Jay Eagle, Mike Puffenbarger, and Glenn Heatwole are always in need of sap. If I ever meet you in person I'll tell you how much money was offered per gallon for 2 percent sugar water to my cousins if they would open there trees. They own over 400 acres in Pendleton County in which 75% is sugar and 25% is red maple. I'm not kidding.
I walked their woods and I would estimate 5000 to 10000 taps. I have encouraged them to tap them. I told our friend Henry B. of Salisbury how much was offered and his reply was he wished he lived near there, He would sell his sap for that price. I don't know what others pay for sap, but this was a extremely sweet deal.(no pun intended)
Mark 220 Maple

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Mark,

I used to go up to the maple festival in Highland Co nearly every year when I was a kid and it was a great festival. Always enjoyed the open pan Rexrodes boiled on. Never got to see Puffenbargers in action. 2 years ago when we had such a great season my parents were up there and he had to crank up the evpaorator in the middle of the day on Sat. I would have loved to have been there to see that monster run. I have never seen anything bigger than my 2x8 boil.

My dad loves going over to Jay Eagles camp when he goes. He found it 3 or 4 years ago and thinks it is the great thing he has ever seen. It seems Jay is extremely knowledgable about all aspects of the maple tree and industry 365 days a year and my dad is extremely impressed by his setup. Maybe I can get up there sometime again. I started to go last year as I was done as it was a bad year and short season here. If I am done, I need to be out cleaning tubing and tanks and putting them away on Sat and go to church on Sunday, so I haven't gotten to go in years and kinda miss it as it is truly an awesome maple festival either weekend.

[VA maple guy]

Well I finally got more taps in saturday and today. I'm up to 181 and have only taped a few of my sugars, looks like I'll be over 200 taps this year. We had
a snow/sleet/freezing rain storm last tuesday that kept me in my plow truck
untill friday afternoon. It left my area with five inches of almost solid ice on the ground. I went to tap one of my bushes on saturday, sliped and fell
about four times broke one of my drill batterys and a 5/16 bit before I went back home and got an old pair of boots. Screwed twenty five small pan head screws in the bottom of each boot. I could have used some crampons
but the screws worked pretty well. That was the worst conditions I could
imagine to tap in. Tomorrow should be my first good run, about 50 degrees.
Gerry

[VA maple guy]

221 taps, that's plenty for me this year. I've been pretty busy this week.
The sap's been running crazy all week. The sugar % is averaging about 2.0
to 2.2 when all the sap is mixed. I have one, two tap sugar that is running
for to five gallons a day at 3.0 to 3.2 % W0W !!
I've made about seven gallons of syrup, almost half what I made all last year
in just two boils.
Buckets are full right now, could not collect today, drove to PA today to buy
550 ft of old maple flooring that came out of an old factory, will look great in my living and dining room.
The guy has got a ton of the flooring if anyone is interested.
Rain tomorrow and then a warmer up, Hope I get one more week like this past one.

[VA maple guy]

221 taps, that's plenty for me this year. I've been pretty busy this week.
The sap's been running crazy all week. The sugar % is averaging about 2.0
to 2.2 when all the sap is mixed. I have one, two tap sugar that is running
for to five gallons a day at 3.0 to 3.2 % W0W !!
I've made about seven gallons of syrup, almost half what I made all last year
in just two boils.
Buckets are full right now, could not collect today. Drove to PA today to buy
550 ft of old maple flooring that came out of an old factory, will look great in my living and dining room.
The guy has got a ton of the flooring if anyone is interested.
Rain tomorrow and then a warm up, Hope I get one more week like this past one.

[220 maple]

Jerry,
The conditions that I've tapped in this year has been extremely difficult at times. My aunt several years back gave me a pair strap on metal cleats. They work real good on ice and on some of the steep slopes that I navigate to tap trees. The sugar tree that is giving up the 3.2 water is it a Black Maple? I have several Black Maples in my sugarbushes and they always taste sweeter.
Mark 220 Maple

[VA maple guy]

Boiled 120 gallons last night, looks like medium to dark. No sap today, maybe some early next week.
No, it's just an ordinary every day 18" sugar maple.
gerry

[VA maple guy]

Looks like it's just about all over for me. I had the best two day run i've ever had this past weekend, 380 gallons. I got my two evaporators up to twenty gallons an hour this year, still to slow. Will be looking for a 2x6 for next year.
Not shure how much I'll end up making this year, some where around twenty gallons. Maby one last run this weekend. Also almost out of wood.
Gerry

[220 maple]

Jerry
Are your red maples hanging in there, Mine seem to be stuck even with the warm weather we have had, the silver that is in my yard in Harrisonburg buds all opened. My son that goes to school at University of Mary Washington told my wife that he believed it was 80 degrees last Wed. in Fredericksburg.
Mark 220 Maple

[VA maple guy]

Mark, my season is over, I ran out of wood. I poured about fifty gallons of sap on the ground today. This is the first year my reds did not just shut off. They are still running a little, even though about half of the reds have opened
there buds. So i did not feel so bad about dumping sap. I went to Highland county's maple festival this past weekend, I visited Jay Eagles sugar camp
for a couple hours and watched him finish and filter sixty gallons of dark amber.
How is your season going. I hope it's going to turn out to be a good one,
especially with what you have just gone through.
Gerry

[220 maple]

Jerry,
We are finishing up this week. Considering everything it has been a decent year. We didn't get everything tapped but we're going to be pretty close to 150 gallons when all is said and done. Some trees I tapped on the 6th of March, missed several good runs from them. If I could have got all my trees open I believe it would have been a record year. The sugar content was good at 2.3 to 2.7, I've had 3.3 water in the past. My reds ran up to the last day also, some of them had no buds at all, others had swelled buds but were not open yet. I probably only had 20% of my reds open. I missed alot of water there because I usually have to pull the taps on them by the 1st of March.
I when by Jay's the second Sat. of the Festival. He was boiling in one of his flat pans. He was hoping to get on more good run. My wife went with me that day, she was amazed how clean it is at Jay's camp. Everything is spotless.
Mark 220 Maple