February Journal

[maple flats]

We are continuing to fix lines and tap. It seems I have far more repairs this year than ever before. We've had far too many high wind storms this past year. Anyways, it ends up taking 3x as much time as usual to get each line ready to tap. I had very few mainline issues but there are very few laterals where I can just replace the tap.
It looks like maybe next Tues. we might get a little sap and then on Wednesday it should be good. Late last week I got 100 gal of sap, but I need at least 250 gal to sweeten the pans. I now have a 100 gallon block of ice, but that will help keep next week's sap cold.

[lakeview maple]

I got all the 3/16th lines installed , replacing the 5/16th ones from 5 years ago. I cut in all the drops and installed the saddles. I ran a new mainline for a new piece of woods and picked up another 100 plus taps by doing so. I got a huge blessing the other day , the boss at work wanted some trees cut at his camp so we went and started , it was all red pines about 80 ft high that were pretty dead. I loaded my dump trailer and my pickup with a cord plus of awesome sugarwood. Theres about 50 more to go, nice to have a little extra to roll into the season and for next . All that left is a little remodel inside the sugarhouse. I I'm looking to replace my head tank , its a 125 gallon poly leg , it works ok but a pain to clean . I called around and no one had any stainless this time of year so the search is on. Ill make do if I need to but would rather not. Allen

[maple flats]

Try Next Gen Maple in Syracuse. I bought a 150 gal SS tank for a head tank this time last year from them and I moved my old badly dented outer shell SS 200 gal milk tank to to use as a sap tank if needed.
In fact, if you want the 200 send me a PM. Inner tank good, outer dented. Covers ok but nothing to brag about. $100 if interested and I can load it. It is heavy!

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

February already........yikes! We spent a lot of time on the laterals this year and got everything so far on a 10 tap limit, maybe the occasional 12 where things are spread out. Big improvement from 20+ taps on some laterals. Huge clear cut above us this summer appears to have drove moose through the grove at some point though they seem to be gone now. A ton of damage, probably 6-7 rolls of tubing so far and 2-3 more from what we have seen. Slow going, we have been on snowshoes since mid-December. About 75% done the lines and new drops so we are on the right track but not leaving much cushion in regards to time. Vacation Feb. 11th-18th then it's time to tap and sugar season begins. As always, like a kid at Xmas looking forward to watching that releaser dump!

[Maple Man 85]

Behind as usual!!! Logging was pushed off until the ground froze again thankfully we have had a week of cold weather and the dozer was packing down the trails this morning. Need to plow out sugar house and start setting up tanks.

[n8hutch]

Skipped down to Bascom's on Friday and got some more supplies, that place is picked clean can't get over how many tanks they have sold since the last time I was there in July.

Tied the 1000 feet of 1" mainline I put up yesterday, I tied it about every foot, looking at Bascom's lines they looked to be tied every 6 inches can't imagine it.

Slacked off and went for an 80 mile snowmobile ride this morning. Went out and put out 1000 feet of 5/16 this afternoon, averaged about 25-30 taps per roll. Pretty pleased with that. Hopefully the cold holds through February still have lots of work to do.