Looking At Friday

[GSCampChris]

Looks like we are going to try and get about half of our taps out on Friday. We upgraded to tubing on vacuum and only have about half of our taps ready to go. So we plan to put out those 200 this weekend, and then continue to work on the other lines as we go.
We also added an RO, and a new Smoky Lake 2x6 Evaporator this year. I feel like Christmas is arriving... i can hardly sleep!
Now to prepare the wife......


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[newman_maple]

Good luck! It sounds like you have made some serious upgrades this season. I hope it all goes as planned!

Myself and a couple other local folks are tapping this weekend as well. I plan on about 140 taps due to back issues. I wish I had tubing, but my trees are scattered and most are on my Mom's land.

[buckeye gold]

I am with you Newman Maple, I am ready to pull the plug on my fall taps and move on to my Spring woods. So soon as i get a warmer day I am breaking down the evaporator and my tanks and washing up. I hope to reset gear and tap all my regular taps by Sunday. I think season is here. It would not surprise me that we see a warming trend just as extreme as this infusion of cold has been. It will be a scramble by early mid Feb and then probably a cold March.

[Worthy]

I was thinking about tapping Friday, but I may just wait until next weekend, which looks like another warm-up should roll in. Last year, I held off right about the same time for an extra week+ and it didn’t work out. Hoping this year my gut is right a good Feb.

[Worthy]

UPDATE

After some more thought, I decided to tap a few walnuts today. I've been meaning to give them a go, and if it turns out I tap them a bit early, and lose out on later season, oh well. Especially given that I have no idea whether we'll like the walnut syrup or not. I'll give the maples at least another week, as my goal is to maximize collection from limited taps.

Tapped first thing this morning, but no sap running yet. I assume the trees are still pretty frozen after the brutal cold we've had in the past month, but also unsure of when to expect walnuts to flow best. I guess I'll find out soon enough!

[GSCampChris]

We put in about 70 taps on Friday and they were dripping by late afternoon. That is 2 of our 5 lines and we were pulling about 24 inches of vacuum. Going to get the other line that is fully prepared to tap tomorrow.
Then... Monday we install the final breakers for our RO machine and we will be ready to go.


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[newman_maple]

We tapped everything Friday night and Saturday. We ended up with 163 taps. I really doubt I will have any huge run now with above freezing temps at night, but some of trees will run well Monday and Tuesday after a long hard freeze.

Let the fun begin!

[buckeye gold]

I put 70 out yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, all on 3/16th. The line were running pretty steady at dark last night. I suspect they will really cut lose today. I still have the 40 fall taps out and they are still running to, but I'm not sure I'm going to use them. The next 10 day forecast says it will be busy in the sugar shack. Game on boys

[dobbs4m16]

Tapped 150 in Brown County today--looking promising.

[buckeye gold]

I had 35 gallons of sap off the 70 taps. I noticed today there is still a lot of frost in the ground, so it's going to take a few days for them to really get running. The flow rate was picking up this evening when i checked the tank. I at least got some sweet built up in the pan.

[GSCampChris]

We boiled 300 gallons yesterday, and even though our electric was off for the RO and our AUF, we are in love with our new evap. Drew off our first round around 3:00 pm and hung in for a second draw right before running out of sap in the gravity tank. I felt like a kid again! Hoping for another couple of good runs before we get that cold spell i am seeing in the extended forecast.


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[buckeye gold]

I had three good days of runs. One day I lost a lot of sap because of a couple lines chewed in two, but I found them and fixed them. I have not had any big runs, but good. It took a few days to get the frost out of the ground. They quit Tuesday night and I am just holding that small run until it runs again. It looks like another good cycle starting today. My sugar has been a little better than last year and I hope will go up. My runs have been about .75 gal per tap, but I expect that to really pick up now that the ground is thawed.

I had a down day yesterday and I at least got some non Maple work done. I also moved some more wood to the sugar shack. With my fall season and this start I am ahead of the pace for the last three years, it looks to be a good year.

[Worthy]

GSCampChris,

It's interesting that you had good production. In addition to the walnuts i tapped, I tapped a silver I normally don't use, just for comparison's sake. Bottom line is I got very little production to date...probably 2gallons/tap. And that was from the walnuts, whereas the silver has essentially not run at all. Could this be a difference between buckets vs. tubing? Regardless, I'm glad I held off on my primary trees, whether it's a collection method or a microclimate difference. Next decision will be Tuesday night, next weekend, or even beyond. This is only year 4 for me, so a lot of second-guessing and anxious excitement.

[jdircksen]

GSCampChris - I came across your posts and I'm curious where you are at? Where is a Girl Scout camp in Columbus and how many taps have you been doing? My son is in cub scouts and I'm looking at helping out at Camp Lazarus (boy scout camp). I think they did around 750 taps last year.