Can't make sense of this weather!

[Too Tall]

I'm fairly new to tapping trees. This year I expanded up to 50 taps on gravity. I have all my lines run. Drops are spliced in. Spiles ready to be tapped in. With the weather over the past few weeks, I feel like I already missed half the season!

Looking at the forecast around here (North of G.R.) I decided I'm going to tap on Feb 13th no matter what. Hopefully it's just my inexperience that has me feeling like I've already missed out!

[Snappyssweets]

Your fine. I am over here near Midland. I finally broke them out and put them in last weekend.
I pulled only about 20 gallons Monday, Tuesday and wed. Nothing Thursday or today. I boiled and got about 2 quarts finished. I expect to be honest that we will see a good run first of March. With a few days here and there between now and then. I just couldn't stand it anymore so I put mine out. All gravity on mine. :D

[Too Tall]

Yeah...I'm hoping that because my trees are all in the woods that they are still "waking up". Hopefully the week of February 22nd the faucet turns on and doesn't shut off until the end of March!

[Forrest hunters]

Just north of GR here too. Forecast in my .02 doesn't look like a warm up after the next few days until the 15th. This weekend looks okay, but I haven't been able to trust the 2 week forecast forever. It keeps looking better to delay the season some. I hope we get a stretch to really freeze the trees and ground. I think then when we get a warm up the trees will let loose.

[bowhunter]

You haven't missed anything. We all get the bug and start tapping earlier than we should.

[vinkandy]

This winter has been difficult to predict. I'm in the Grand Haven area and going to wait until the week of February 14th to watch the weather real close. Tentatively thinking about running my taps sometime that week.

[Sugarmaker]

Welcome to the world of making syrup.
Once you do tap then everyone that hasn't is late.:)
Regards,
Chris

[Michigan Maples]

Wow........I have my supplies ready to go, but I didn't expect to see so many people tapping already. This'll be our third season tapping, just makin' syrup for the family. I'm expecting to put in about 25-30 taps this year, that's nearly triple what I did last year, in which we made about 2.5 gallons finished. Our 15 day forecast for the Kalamazoo area doesn't show any promising temps. I think I'll wait at least another week.

[mchuntress]

I got antsy and put in 10 of my 30 taps yesterday. All buckets. Nice to be out in the woodlot. :D

[ehausinfrats]

Looking at the forecast for this weekend it saying a low of 2 degrees. I really worry about the evaporator freezing. Looks like I may tap the 21st. Weather permit.

[Too Tall]

I'm going to tap on the 14th I think. Looks like good weather from the 18th on.

Hmmm....I actually feel prepared this year. I must be forgetting something.....

[Tweegs]

We’re going to be ready to go on the 20th.

My wife and I ran an experiment a few years ago to check the accuracy of the 10 day forecast.
The short of it was that 10 days out the forecasters had a 2% chance of guessing the temperature within +/- 5 degrees, and only a 60% chance of getting it right (+/-5) 24 hours in advance.

Lesson here is, you can prepare for it 10 days out, but don’t go scheduling vacation time just yet. :lol:

[Michigan Maples]

We’re going to be ready to go on the 20th.

My wife and I ran an experiment a few years ago to check the accuracy of the 10 day forecast.
The short of it was that 10 days out the forecasters had a 2% chance of guessing the temperature within +/- 5 degrees, and only a 60% chance of getting it right (+/-5) 24 hours in advance.

Lesson here is, you can prepare for it 10 days out, but don’t go scheduling vacation time just yet. :lol:

LOL!!!
I've been watching that long range forecast also. Looks like the Kalamazoo area(we're tapping in Van Buren Co.) will be ready starting about next weekend. I think we'll be out tapping the 18th or 19th

[fishman]

I'm thinking about tapping around the 15th. Unfortunately it's March 15th.

[Too Tall]

Well, I tapped all 60 of mine today. I'm hoping for a run this Friday. Forecast looks good.

[gbwaterski]

I tapped 141 this weekend i hope to see ti run by Saturday. I am an hour north of grand rapids.

[Cedar Eater]

I was going to tap today, but I don't like to tap during snowfall. So I guess I'll go get more firewood from the woods. Tomorrow looks like a better tapping day. Temp supposed to hit 31.