too cold, too warm, = not a good season

[MaplePancakeMan]

Now it was ridiculously warm in jan.... would have been a great time to tap but i didn't who would foresee jan as being notorious for maple syrup? feb was too cold and now March is being too warm. 63 today and sap stoped... flowed beautiful yesterday collected almost 250 gallons. Boiling currently will be done in about 3 hrs letting my giant embers burn out before i add more wood. Anyway back to my rant. With 40s for lows the next 3 days i'm sure i'll get yellow gross sap for 2-3 days no point in boiling , then it will be a good week long stretch for weather but then its gonna be end of march and around here its gonna be around 60-70 degrees and i'm gonna get maybe 2 good weeks of mapling. I'm upset i haven't even had enough to fire up my RO. Not that i've got all my piece for it yet but i still wanted to! Anyone else having bad luck with this season?

[Fred Henderson]

The best thing to do is stop whineing and play the hand that God has dealt you. If I make 1 quart that is more than I had yesterday.

[HanginAround]

Patience, you will get what you're going to get. I always said you should look at ten yr averages in this business, you'll have good yrs and you'll have bad ones, it will all work out in the end. But, too soon to worry about this year yet anyway.

[MaplePancakeMan]

I'm trying i really am, i want to be wrong really bad. i just don't see it happening. I do look forward to gardening though

[Rob Harvey]

You may not be wrong, this may turn out to be a horrible year, but its like being a Red Sox fan - "wait till next year". (but then again Im a Yankee fan.) Rob

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

It looks like I will end up at around 75 gallon or less for the year which is not good for 500 taps, but I just praise God for the health and strength and the season he has blessed me with. Nearly everyone would like more, but our season was about 2.5 weeks long for the most part. Like they say, just gotta play the hand that is dealt with you. I have been guilty of complaining too much in the past, now I am just thankful for the opportunity. There are some on here like Ron who just have to look at the computer and can't even make syrup this year.

PMA(positive mental attitude)

[MaplePancakeMan]

I guess your right, i should just be happy with what i got. Its probably because this year i bought a lot of stuff and not having any syrup to offset that even a little is a little disapointing. However on a brighter note, i'm almost finished with the 230-250 gallons i had of sap but kinda looks like i'll have almost 6.5 gallons which is so much better than the 2 i got from the same amount of sap the first boil.

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

Well you had to sweeten the pans, so you got to expect less that first time.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Sounds like you have a pretty good sugar content, my ratio looks like it is 55 to 1 this year and last year was 57 to 1. Way too warm most of both winters is likely why.

[MaplePancakeMan]

WV, its probably because the first 120 gallons came from buckets where i dumped large chunks of ice out of them so it was probably more condensed.

[Dave Y]

PMP,
The season is far from over. It is just begining. And boil till the trees stop giving. Commercial syrup is worth somthing too!