February Journal

[jimsudz]

No one has start this months journal,I must be the only one that has time seeing that I haven't tapped yet. Was able to set 600 g tank at new bush on Saturday , got the evaporator together on Sunday . Still need to swap out vacuum pump, and replace 150 drops drops before I tap. Hopefully I'll be ready for the next warm up. Best of luck

[highlandcattle]

As soon as we finish running errands Ron will be boiling. Temp reads 46° in car. Releaser sticking so turned off pump while were gone. This us the earliest ever; freaky weather.

[ennismaple]

We attended the Lanark & District Maple Syrup Producers Association annual meeting on Saturday. It was a good day, well attended and we all learned something. Tim Wilmot was supposed to attend and I was looking forward to his presentations but he could not make it. My highlight was the presentation on vacuum pumps by Jerry Maryles from Airtech. I think he just cost me a whole lot of money - which we'll get back quickly with new kick *** pump we plan to buy! I will definitely remember we need 2 aCFM per 100 taps!

We emptied and re-packaged the last 2 drums in the basement on Saturday evening. Only odds and ends left on the shelves now so we're getting ready for fresh 2016 syrup!

Yesterday I got the quick connects onto one releaser that I didn't like how it was set up. We can now close the valves, open the quick connects and completely take it apart for cleaning. We will definitely be doing the same thing for other releasers moving forward.

[lakeview maple]

I pulled the trigger on my barn lot today, 135 taps on a Guzzler pump, I had reran the lines this year and tightened up the system and added 50 taps . I add 2 short sap ladders on one end of the bush, its really flat there and I couldn't get any pitch. Man was I happy to see that little Guzzler pulling the sap up the ladders! It was my first attempt at a sap ladder and it worked great. . If the weather holds at all Im tapping the rest of the mtn on Wednesday. Hope everyone has a good start,Allen

[adk1]

Wow lvm u started huh. Guess I don't blame you there earliest ever for allot of producers. I am not pulling the trigger yet the highest it got at my house on Sunday was 34 degrees, felt nice but not quite sugarin weather yet

[plattmaple]

Just finished up boiling for the night. We made 20 gal. of amber (i still have the habit of calling it med.)off of 900 gal of sap.We boiled for the first time yesterday & made 5 gal. so we have made a good start. It hasn't froze here since friday so the sap didnt run here today but it looks like it's gonna tonight. The forecast calls for a high of 44 for tomorrow, so we are hoping for another run. I dont have much faith in it though cause they called for high sat. of 38, it was 48. Sun. 48. it was 58. I just hope it doesn't get too warm & shut our tree's down. If the temps are what they forecast it should be a good run. I haven't heard how other guys that are tapped in our area, are doing. Iv'e been too busy to talk with anyone yet.
I just want to say that we have been keeping records since the 90's & we normally start tapping around the first week of feb. so we don't feel like we're too far off of normal for us. We have a early bush
so that's why we normally tap so early. Some years we make out really good. some we don't. We would rather make good early season syrup than the late season stuff anyway. It seems like every time we make a lot of late season barrel syrup, the price comes down & we about give it away. Nothing more frustrating than selling syrup for $20 a gal.& having to let it go for that. But that's farming!
Anyways' I hope everyone has a good season!

[lakeview maple]

Wow lvm u started huh. Guess I don't blame you there earliest ever for allot of producers. I am not pulling the trigger yet the highest it got at my house on Sunday was 34 degrees, felt nice but not quite sugarin weather yet I had 43 On Sunday and 52 today, I only tapped the barn lot so far and hooked up the Guzzler , I let it run for 4 hours on 135 taps and I got almost 45 Gallons of sap. Ill hook it up tomorrow morning and see what happens. If it stays even close to this Ill be punched in by the weekend.
https://www.facebook.com/164295847106420/videos/524214067781261/?l=3221380082601525476

[Bushfrosh]

I've posted these graphs on a localized tapping update thread (Eastern Ontario) as well but I thought this also might be a good spot to have them in case anyone finds them of interest.

The first two graphs detail our efforts over the past 2 years (2014 and 2015) by showing our sap collections vs daily maximum and daily minimum temperatures. The weather data are an average of 3 weather stations (namely Peterborough, Trent University, and Trenton A) which crudely surround our sugar bush. Also, please note that negative sap totals for a given day represent that I did not check the bush on that day.

The other two graphs show the relationship (or lack of relationship) between tree diameter, spile orientation, and sap production of the trees in my bush during the 2015 season. Note that I use the term estimated sap in the graph as I have estimated values for the odd occasion when wind blew a bucket off a spile or precipitation discoloured the sap (I directly measured 3034L of sap which was actually collected and boiled and estimated an additional 53L of sap for the purposes of these 2 graphs). Also please note that for the 2015 season, I only installed one spile per tree.

Enjoy and I hope everyone has (or had) a great season!

[highlandcattle]

38° here and dark. Looks like it wants to rain since yesterday,but nothing. Ron turned pump on at 7 a.m. sap coming in nicely. Ran out of gas at noon.letting it stay off. Looks like another 240 in the bulk tank.