Tapping Northern Michigan? Traverse City area?

[corbyshaw]

Anybody tapping around the Traverse City are this weekend? Seems a little early.... but weather looks good.

[Cedar Eater]

I'm at roughly the same latitude as TC, but the eastern side of the state. I tapped a few trees on the 11th, but nothing's flowing yet. The weather is right, but the trees haven't thawed.

[ronintank]

Looking at the weather i think friday thru tuesday there should be a good run of sap. I am in the gaylord area and plan on tapping some or all my trees this friday or saturday.

[Lethalbowman]

I plan to get most of if not all of my 50 bag holders installed by Thursday evening. The weather forecast going into next week is calling me. Hope to have my 1st boil on Saturday. Hi

[Mike Prevo]

I plan to hang 50 bags near Fife Lake Saturday morning.

[Lethalbowman]

I was able to get 23 of my 50 bag holder hung after work yesterday. I should get the rest hung tonight so I am ready for the weekend warm-up. Let the fun begin.

[The Sweet Spot]

It is 3 deg. here now and supposed to be 40 tomorrow, but the trees will not thaw here till Sat. I am not tapping as the overnight temps are going to be high also. Overnight temps in the low to mid 30's for the first 3-4 nights. I do not think that the sap would flow well over the time span. It is going to be above freezing during the day for 7-8 days straight and 5 of those 8 will be above freezing at night. I wish there was a magical crystal ball that we could shake and tell us (Tap Now), but alas there is not. Here's to hoping this is some strange weather anomaly that is not a sign of our season to come. We are in Petoskey

[Jolly Acres Farm]

Were not going to tap until the first week of March.

[Lethalbowman]

154951549515496
I didn't get as much sap as I had hoped for but I decided to start my 1st batch for 2017 rather than see it spoil. I have about 5 more gallons to collect in the woods for a total of approx 30 gallons total. The sap has been running 1.5% so it's a 57/1 ratio but I am making syrup again! Yahoo.

[Lethalbowman]

15497
The pre-heater is doing it's job as the previous picture shows. 150's going into the 1st pan 210 coming out. Keeping the front pan at a raging boil. I am boiling at a rate of about 10 gallons an hour. It's going to be a quick batch.

[Lethalbowman]

15503
I love watching the sap turn the beautiful amber color as it makes it's way across the devided pan. Slurp!

[Lethalbowman]

15657
Finally finished the micro batch I started last weekend so I bottled up most of the 32 ounces of Pure Michigan Gold I ended up with. Hoping for higher % sugar content sap with the temps returning to normal.

[Lethalbowman]

Took a quick walk out to my sugar bush before work this morning to check things out. I found that most of the frozen sap in the bags had thawed out and the sap was dripping again. Hoping for many full bags tonight.

[michiganfarmer2]

tap, tube, and vacuum. One can get sap for a few days with no freezing nights

[michiganfarmer2]

we tapped feb 18. Its a good thing too. We made almost as much as our last years total just in the last 10 days of Feb.