I just cant end the season !!!

[TerryEspo]

Well, I told myself yesterday that it is my last boil, flooded my pan at 10;30 pm, because I could not keep up wit the sap. Told myself I will just boil what I have in the pan and not collect anymore.

Lit the arch this morning and just had to go see what I had in my collection barrel, brought back 20 more gallons of fresh sap !

I did not turn on my Shurflo as I told myself no more sap, lol. About an hour ago, I turned my pump on and now collecting.

I am out of bottles, out of wood and still saving sap, what an addiction.

I can cut dead standing trees and use mason jars I am now telling myself.

Very hard to stop my season when sap is still good. Much easier when the trees bud and sap goes bad.

Maybe tomorrow I will stop !!:o

[markcasper]

I said 3 times I was done before I was.....know the feeling, turned the pumps on and off two seperate occasions because i was done. !4 degree and 20 degree low temps tend to change your mind.

[Run Forest Run!]

I keep telling myself that I've got enough syrup, I need to clean things up, I should pull the taps.........but what am I doing today? Boiling and loving every minute of it. :D

[saphound]

Can I ask you guys how long your taps have been in? I'd love to get more sap but not getting any. I tapped on feb 25.

[Run Forest Run!]

Can I ask you guys how long your taps have been in? I'd love to get more sap but not getting any. I tapped on feb 25.

I put in my soft maple taps on February 26 - most of them are quieting down now. My sugars went in March 10. They are in a cold forest so I always tap them later than my exposed soft maples.

[ennismaple]

We started tapping Feb 20/21 and finished the following weekend. We use Leader CV's so that likely helps extend our season. We've gotten freezing temps every day (even if just for a few hours) for the last 2 weeks so that's keeping the trees from budding.

We'll have another decent day today. The sugar is going down and so is the sap quality so it's likely that we are done on Saturday.

[eagle lake sugar]

We still have another week or two here. We still have a foot to two feet of snow in the woods and it's still freezing every night. The sugar content has been at 2.5% all season so far. We didn't get the early runs, it was just too cold until mid March, but we make it up at the end.

[Galena]

Even after the great sap tsunami, where I got completely flooded out of house and home with sap - 601l between March 7 and April 3, made into approx 23l syrup - I still have some sugars running hot, even if only one spile now out of 3! Working on 11l sap right now. But will have to pull by this weekend due to out-of-town obligations.

[Mel]

We started tapping mid February. First boil February 25. Didn't finish tapping till second week in March. Gathered last sap yesterday, final boil down today. Been a long season...

[Cedar Eater]

My wife is testing her theory that reds on gravity will stop producing before they go buddy and I'm testing my theory that north facing slopes will run longer without going buddy. My east facing slope was buddy when it started flowing again yesterday. She's boiling down about 10 gallons tonight. I'll be testing the north slope tomorrow night. These taps went in about 8 weeks ago, but they've been frozen much of the time.

[saphound]

All good information to reference in future years, thanks. I guess it just depends on where you're at, just like I've always read here. My local weather just wouldn't cooperate. I reamed out my tapholes about three weeks ago...maybe some of you read my thread about that. Well it did work great for about two days, but then the weather stayed too warm for a week, then was too cold for a week, and the last week was good but they apparently dried up again. So, as Dr.Tim said, reaming tap holes only buys a couple weeks time so if you don't get the temps you need, thats it..they dry up again. Coulda shoulda woulda....:(

[TerryEspo]

Well, I did it.

Pulled all my taps from the trees. Shut down the Shurflo, took marine battery back to garage. Sap season is done, done and done. Final boil is on the arch right now, guessing around 65 gallons I started with this morning.

Had a large droop about 50ft behind my mainline "T", didn't see that all season,,,, wonder what that cost me this in sap and vacuum ??

Back to feed the fire, not feeding it regularly, enjoying the slow pace for my last boil.

Lots to improve on for next year !!:cool: