Northern Ontario-2017

[northwood]

After a brief warm spell in late February followed by a 2 week deepfreez, I thought we might be in for a strange spring but the 14 day forecast finaly looks promissing. I think i'll tap this weekend and get the pans cleaned up. Looks like it might get warm enough to collect a little sap and maybe a little boil early next week. (hopefully) Anybody north of Huntsville tapped in yet?

[MapleRatz]

Heading up this weekend to get my lines in up the hill. How much snow is still in the bush?

[northwood]

Still have 16-20 inches of hard packed snow in the bush although it is melted away nicely from the tree trunks. +4 to +5 and sunny for the next few days. Trees should be waking up.

[MapleRatz]

Yup, that's what I had as well. Tested one tree outside the camp and it sat right at 3%. :cool: Will test more this weekend.
Ran 2500' of 5/16" in 5 laterals up the hill, but by the time I was done up and down that hill in the snow just couldn't get back up to set any taps.
The cold weather today and tomorrow makes me feel better about not being in yet. I see it is -11C (12F) there today.
Looks like this weekend will be the start of it, next week being 4C (39F) or above every day, and the nights below freezing as well.
Heading up Friday to tap and get set up.
HERE WE GO!!!! :cool:

[northwood]

I collected 50 gallons from 60 taps on Monday.(2 days worth) South facing trees dripped pretty good. Totaly locked up tight since Monday night. Should see a little sap today (Thursday)with the full sun and +1C. I think i'll sweeten pans tonight and hope for a good run this week end.

[Fort Wisers]

Hey northerners,
My wife and I currently live just south of Ottawa but I'm from North Bay originally.
We also have some land north of Mattawa with a small cabin.
We're getting our feet wet this year by tapping a few trees here at home, with a goal of eventually tapping up north.
We will see where the future takes us....
Good luck to everyone!

[northwood]

Hey "Fort Wisers" welcome to world of suggaring. This is my 5th season, and I realy look forward to it every year. It's my transition time from winter to spring. Always trying to improve my boil rate, and figure out how to get just a few more trees tapped. Anyway, have fun with it and I bet we hear from you again next year. With more buckets of course:mrgreen:
I've been to Mattawa many times. Beautiful country up there.

[Fort Wisers]

Hey "Fort Wisers" welcome to world of suggaring. This is my 5th season, and I realy look forward to it every year. It's my transition time from winter to spring. Always trying to improve my boil rate, and figure out how to get just a few more trees tapped. Anyway, have fun with it and I bet we hear from you again next year. With more buckets of course:mrgreen:
I've been to Mattawa many times. Beautiful country up there.

Thanks northwood.....
yeah it's pretty safe to say we're hooked already, even with our 4 whole taps LOL
Pretty pathertic start, but it's a start, better then we accomplished last year so it's all good!
Take care and happy sugarin

[northwood]

For some reason, we feel that if we get everything ready and be prepared, the sap will come.:-| However, mother nature is calling the shots. The forecast through the week end is looking less than ideal for anything involving sap production. I guess we wait until the sun comes out, melts the fresh layer of snow, and the trees wake up again. I love this hobby!:lol:

[northwood]

Just wanted to share this latest addition to my converted oil tank evaporator. I added a small cage fan hooked into the 2 inch threaded hole at the bottom of my fire box, put in a cast iron grate, and improved my boil rate by at least 30%. I noticed a huge implovement in the sustained boil after wood loading and no big buildup of coals. I think i can add another 20-30 taps :mrgreen:

[lewichuk19]

how is everyones season going in the great white north??

[northwood]

It's been a verry slow season to put it mildly. The weather has either been too cold (everything frozen solid for a week) or too warm (standing around in T-shirts). I've got 100 taps and have so far made 14 L. (2 small boils In 4 weeks) Last year we made well over 60L. I think those on a vacume system are doing ok, but for those of us on old school dripping, were getting our buckets kicked. (pun intended) Anyway, we are at the mercy of mother nature and it's out of our hands.

[lewichuk19]

I hear you on the being at the mercy of mother nature northwood!!...Seems it is either too hot or too cold. This weekend looks like beach weather, if the ice was off the lake..lol...As far as sap goes, this is our first year doing it, just selling sap to a buddy. Decided to try a 50 tap trial on 3/16, 2 lines of 25 taps. It seems to work as advertised on here. 1 line is constantly running at 17" of vac, the other around 21". As of last night we were at about 39 litres of sap/tap. Here's hoping the trees dont bud in this heat wave and we can get a few more decent runs....

[northwood]

Well this was the run we've been hoping for. The taps oppened up Friday night and ran beautifuly through the week end. Boiled all day Sunday and still have some in reserve. Averaged over 1.5 gallons per tap. Some buckets overflowed by mid day on Saturday. Still 8-10 inches of mushy snow cover, as well as a couple nights at -2 -3, so might get a little more sap this week.
If anybody has a sap surplus, I would be glad to take it off your hands.

[northwood]

It's been a great week for sap. We had good flow on Tuesday and Wednesday despite the cool overcast conditions. Looks like the evaporator will get a good workout over the Easter week end. Last week ends syrup was heavy with nitre but a great flavour (dark amber)
Sounds like the southern part of sugar country is in clean up mode and planing for next season. Glad to hear most of you had good runs late in the season. How's everyone else in the north doing?

[lewichuk19]

Tapped out yesterday. Was really impressed with our numbers on 3/16th tubing, gathered 3250 litres of sap on 50 taps. Just sold the sap to a buddy, but it converted over to 71.2 litres of syrup, or 1.42 litres/tap. Weather here wasn't the greatest, lots of hot days without enough cold nights. Sap was still pouring outta the trees when we tapped out but the sugar content had fallen to around 1%

[northwood]

Hey lewichuk19, those are impressive numbers. I have a hard time reaching 0.75/tap on bucket. The sap ran realy good leading up to Easter week end. We filled our storage containers and boiled all day Friday, and a nice little run again yesterday. Boiled late into the night and the trees were still dripping slowly at 1:00am. Long range weather shows 2 nights below freezing this week end and that's it. Might get one more small boil and then pul the taps. The red maples have started to bud with the rain this morning so we only have a few more days.

[lewichuk19]

thanks northwood...i suggest if you have good slope you switch over to 3/16, the stuff is amazing. The only time that it wasnt running was when it was froze. Wasnt always running fast, but on days when the guys around here on buckets were getting nothing, i was still collecting. Was still running when i tapped out, but the guy that was buying the sap finished for the season, so there was no point in us continuing....