I hear the peepers--it's over!

[maple marc]

Oh no...........I heard the peepers last night. More tonight. It must be over, at least here in central Ohio. Something about Nature--there is a clock and everything is timed. I only hear the peepers during my last boil of the season. It's in the 60's here every day this week, and even 70 forecast for Friday. I'm leaving my taps in just in case we get a decent freeze next week and the trees haven't budded. What a sorry season. Good luck to those of you up north.

[Sugarmaker]

Thanks for the warning!
Nice stats on the 100 buckets! Good trees you have there!
Regards,
Chris

[SWohio]

Yes peepers are a bad sign for sugaring. An old saying I grew up with was "the peepers have to freeze 3 times before spring"

[jetdoc]

Peeper's loud and strong here with tree's around the house starting to show a green tint to them.

[Michael Greer]

It was 60 degrees here in the farthest reaches of New York yesterday...on the same day as our first boil, and two full weeks before last year.

[maple marc]

I should have listened to the peepers. Peepers don't lie. That was truly the end of our season here in SW Ohio, but I kept at it and wasted time and energy. Had to throw out sweet, then collected a small run and sweetened the pan again--only to dump that out without drawing any syrup. Taps had gone dry before the next favorable weather occurred.

Bust of a season: .15 gallons per tap. Worst year ever.

[fred]

Why did you throw out "sweet" sap? It doesn't go bad after you boil it.

[ash10383]

looks like we are done in NW ohio also. was hoping for a good week but only 2 taps started running again after the warmup two weeks ago. even went out Sat to tap 10 more trees to only get 5 to 10 gallon of sap a day. Started pulling taps last night. very bad year indeed in OH.