Boiling 2017

[Revi]

I was surprised by yesterday's run. There wasn't a hard freeze, but it ran anyway. It was not that warm either. We boiled off around 90 gallons so we are going to make some syrup now!

Which is good, because it hasn't been a banner year so far. We had a nice run over the weekend, which was perfect for slow boiling with all the people around.

It looks like this week is good, even thought it didn't freeze last night, so today might not be that great. We need to make some syrup!

[Mitchman]

Mitchman here!! My brother sold his house but kept the saw mill, so with moving and the passing of our mother this Jan. we are taking the year off. I will keep in touch with you all, and hope you have a great year!!!!!!

[abbott]

I think it's shaping up to be a very solid season in the end. I'm about 65% production now, so unless next week is a complete flop and summer comes the following week, I should make enough syrup. Last year ended up being about 125% expected production.

[West Sumner Sugar]

I agree, we are 100% on track for a standard or slightly better than standard season. We are about 5 gallons shy of last years production. 90% of our sap has come from the L/A area. Hopefully the Sumner trees let go this week. I will say that the 50 taps on 3/16 are completely killing the 75 on 5/16. Last week, 5/16 barely produced 5 gallons while the 3/16 produced just shy of 50. Pretty impressive for a trial run!

[hambone]

I was so surprised by the nice run from the field trees yesterday. They fooled me again with no sun and a stiff breeze. It keeps you on your toes. I think we will boil today just to keep ahead of the huge runs coming!

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Our gravity trees here in Peru still haven't shook loose. 25 degrees overnight. Hoping the sun today will get them going. We are only at 10-15% normal amount. I've been saying "next week looks good" for 2 weeks now.

[Revi]

Not much yesterday, but maybe today. We hope to have some for the weekend, so we'll boil a bit and pour off and save most of it for when we have time.

Did it freeze last night? Hard to tell what it did up on the hill...

[Jal-Bear]

Froze around here last night. Mostly cloudy right now with a stiff breeze. Would be nice if the sun could stay out. Still have quite a few trees that have not given up a drop yet. Had one real good run at the end of Feb. Since then mostly 30-40 gallons every now and then. Hopefully it breaks loose soon!

[GotSap?]

It's been a disappointing season for us so far. New evaporator, expanded Sugar Shack, new mainline, and big jump in 3/16ths only to be at about 50% of where we were last year at this time when we were winding down. I have many trees in the woods that haven't run a drop yet. We've had a couple of good runs that give me a lot of hope for the 3/16ths, but seems like it really hasn't started yet. There's still 2+ feet of snow in the woods, which seems to be keeping things from thawing. It finally seemed to get started yesterday, and the weather forecast has me hopeful for the upcoming week, but it seems I've said that a couple of times already this season. Crossing my fingers!

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Just checked the totes, running good on our sunny slope. Steady stream into the totes. Might just be opening up some!

[Revi]

Big weekend!

We are finally catching up a little! It doesn't look too good for next week, so this might be it! We'll see...

[awpoolco]

I was glad to see your post. I have felt as if I was doing something terribly wrong this year. I have only collected 200 gals and I have 225 taps on 5/16 gravity. Put away all my buckets to focus on a simpler system this year, been worried I did it all wrong.

[CaptT820]

Glad to see everyone's posts on this subject. Like everyone else, we'd like to have more sap, so we are in the process of figuring that out. About 150 gallons on 85 taps so far this year, but like others have had taps that virtually gave us nothing due to constant ground snow cover. Still learning this craft every day.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Big weekend here too, good today as well. Not sure what the rest of the week will bring.

[abbott]

33* and snowing Sat. so not much sap. But yesterday really let loose. Today not so much but still decent.

Set new personal bests today - boiled off 1260 gallons of sap to make 35 gallons of syrup. Lit the fire at 5:45 am and got back home at 7:30 pm. Suddenly approaching 90% of expected production and feeling very good about the season. But Revi is right - the end could be near for many of us. Here on my hill if the forecast is borderline it doesn't freeze.

But then again, there's still over 2 feet of snow in the woods...

[Jal-Bear]

Disappointing past couple of days over here. Sunday was great sap weather but didn't get cold enough Saturday night to get it going. Froze up Sunday night, thought today was going to get a good run, nope. Slowly started around mid morning and never really got going and by mid afternoon it had completely stopped.

[Revi]

We had nothing yesterday, so we're pulling the taps on Saturday. It's been a great season!

[abbott]

We eked out a freeze last night and the sap ran pretty good today. Not expecting it to freeze tonight, but maybe. Will likely keep the vacuum going for several days and see if we get one last freeze on Sat. night.

Nearly at 100% crop now, so it will be a good year when all is said and done. Sap totals are down, but sugar has been up, so the wood pile is looking great still.