2017 Season done for me

[SlopYourDripper]

Pulled my taps yesterday before the big April Fools snowstorm (8" of new snow on the ground and still snowing hard). Taps were in for exactly 6 weeks (all 41 on buckets) and about half had shut down completely; the rest were barely producing anything except for a handful that were still going strong. But I couldn't bear the thought of slogging thru another almost foot of snow just to try to extend the season a few more days. Buds are opening anyway and I have to be out of town most of this coming week. This weekend is for boiling off the last 5 gal of sap I have and cleaning/putting everything away 'til next Spring. Well, that and snowblowing/shoveling. I am so done with winter....

Surprisingly, I made almost my "normal" amount of syrup (~3 gal) this year even tho it has been the strangest sap season I can remember. Low 70s in February, followed by an upside down March (that lion/lamb thing) with l-o-n-g deep freezes (low of 4°) and maybe one or two days that reached into the low 50s. I batch boil on propane cookers and the most sap I had this year was 23 gal over a 2-day run at the beginning of the season. Others have been in the 8-12 gal range, punctuated with hard freezes and tons of snow. Syrup is tasty, all light to medium amber. I made a couple batches of candy and nuts, too.

It looks like February instead of April! The older I get, the more I dislike winter. But I can still fantasize about eating fresh peas out in the garden! :D

[Run Forest Run!]

SYD your experience this year is identical to mine, right down to cooking over propane. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. Hurry up and wait. It was impossible to figure out.

[SlopYourDripper]

Ah, but I didn't get to see any Northern Lights! ;)

[Run Forest Run!]

Yes, well sadly, neither did I. :( Even though the evening was clear, they must have been faint here. Not to mention that my neighbours light up their house like they are expecting an aircraft carrier to land.

[SlopYourDripper]

LOL, RFR... I have a neighbor like that too, at least around Christmas! Easy to overlook, tho - the whole family is wonderfully kind, friendly and generous.

Speaking of aurorae, did you know about this website?: Spaceweather.com (http://spaceweather.com/) Lots of info about what's going on overhead and some terrific galleries. You can even subscribe to a service (http://spaceweathertext.com/)that texts you notifications of things flying by in space, including the Northern Lights.

BTW, I have to say, you have the best username on MapleTrader! If your name was Jenny instead of Karen, it'd be [I]perfect! :lol:

16298

[Sunday Rock Maple]

Your name is a good one as well --- especially if you were to ever go to a "bancy fall".

[SlopYourDripper]

Haha, exactly right, Brian! Where "Rindercella lell in fove with a prandsome hince"!:lol:

Jeff

[Run Forest Run!]

Hey SYD, thanks for the compliments on my user name. I'm glad you like it. lol In retrospect it really would have been funny if I'd used Jenny instead of Karen. If I'd thought of that beforehand I certainly would have.

I think we have the same neighbour. Christmas around here is a 'Griswoldian' event, complete with their motorhome in their driveway. You can see their display from space....which, by the way, is likely part of that webpage link in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

The link looks awesome. Thanks!

As an aside, I have prepared my snow pea bed and the seeds go in tomorrow. Perfect weather for sowing pea seeds, marginal weather for collecting sap.

Life is like a tapped maple, you never know what you're gonna get.

[CaptT820]

Any season length projections out there for NH? I am thinking we'll get a run today and that will be it for the season. I don't see much favorable weather out there going forward. Any thoughts from others?

[DrTimPerkins]

Any season length projections out there for NH?

My expert opinion is that the sap will run until it stops. That's about as good as it gets.

[psparr]

My expert opinion is that the sap will run until it stops. That's about as good as it gets.

No wonder you make the big bucks :)

[handtapper]

my non expert opinion is that buckets are all done in southern NH unless you have a micro climate or unless the forecast for Fri-Sun gets colder overnight. Tap/Vac you might get a few more days. Alot of my taps dried up in mid march and just never ran again. I just checked one site with about 150 buckets and maybe 25 have 2 gallons and the other 125 are dry empty. Odd year overall

[handtapper]

I pulled all of my buckets today, just need to finish off the flue pan contents in the syrup pan, clean up and thats a wrap for 2017. It doesn't feel like we are into April with all of the snowstorms but they are forecasting 76degrees a week from today April 11th. Time to get to the garden and other spring chores.

[CaptT820]

We are still hanging on for now. Collected nearly 8 gallons of sap on Monday (4-3-17) from our trees with very strange results. Some trees I expected to have a lot of sap (in the sun) were nearly dry, while others buried in the woods under the snow were running great. Very inconsistent results this year. My wife and I collect data on every tree that we tap, so it will be interesting to see how the weather and the snow have affected each tree's performance. We are hoping to get one more small run this week as it was unexpectedly below freezing again last night (28 this morning). Still about 8-14 inches of snow on the ground.