Southeast Ohio 2018

[dugan.55]

Planning on tapping on Sat. weather looks good

[dugan.55]

How did everyone's lines hold up in recent ice storm? I had one line down with tree and all lines were covered completely with approx. 1/4" of ice

[buckeye gold]

Yeah I had some damage from Ice. All my lines were sagging and I had one broken and two pull apart from tees, all from fallen limbs. Yesterday and today I walked them all and broke ice off, repaired and tightened. I still did not get them back up to where I'd like and there are still some minor sags. but I think they'll work for the rest of the season. I have all 3/16th, no main lines. So next fall I will have to rework a lot.

[bmbmkr]

We didn't get any in our neck of Lawrence County, just 1 1/2" of rain, and a few snow flurries. Haven't had any sap in a week, still froze up. got another 60 taps in this week, ready for the thaw this weekend! Glad y'alls woods weren't damaged too bad.

[buckeye gold]

It looks like the next week will keep us really busy with sap. This coming 10 days will probably be the best of my season and then it will start to go down hill. I will probably quit sometime during the first week of march.

[dugan.55]

Boiled for fist time on sunday from one day of collecting ended up with roughly a 100 gals to boil down, homemade pan worked as it should and very fast after she got up to temp. I'm at roughly 40 gal an hour. Sap hasn't been running very good here at all is anybody else seeing this. I did go recheck all my lines to make sure they weren't broke somewhere since I should be getting flow on a couple of days. Sunday night we got a surprise with about 5 inches of snow that decided to appear, this weather down here is nothing like the outlook was a few weeks ago

[bmbmkr]

That's a awesome boil rate! Feels good when your home made stuff works!

We've processed 300+ gallons last week Feb 3, then another 550 this weekend- have drawn off about 10 gallon of Syrup. Have 225 in the tank now, hope to have a good run and get er cooked down before this crazy heat wave comes- supposed to be 65 F day after tomorrow. I'm lovin the RO, last year I had already pulled a couple all nighters, 20+ hours, 18+ hours this year 2x as many taps only 13 total hours boiling in 3 boils already have more syrup than last year.

Hope you all have a good week! Ben

[buckeye gold]

I was expecting sap all weekend, I boiled for the first time in 10 days today and it was a short day (4 hrs.). I suppose the dam will burst for a couple days then dry up. The whole season has been that way, glad I started early. I'm already ahead of last years syrup total.

[bowhunter]

I just finished tapping yesterday morning. I decided to start late this year. Last couple of years I've had gaps of 3 weeks or more with no appreciable sap flow. I checked my buckets this morning and I am got a little flow Monday and Tuesday afternoon. Hopefully the dam will break this afternoon and tomorrow. I'm planning to boil on Friday or Saturday, if I get enough sap tomorrow.

[buckeye gold]

It warmed up last night and the dam burst this morning. I collected 50+ gallons and by 9:00 AM when I took my big tank back to hook lines in (I have my biggest tank on a 3pt carrier on my tractor, I put three 3/16th runs into it and move them into a small collection while I'm transporting to the Shack) all my lines were running full streams. It looks like a long day tomorrow.

[buckeye gold]

My first thought this morning when I went to check tanks......ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! My main collection tank was sitting about an inch over the 150 gallon mark. That is three 3/16 lines with a total of 48 taps. My other two barrels were full as well ....over 250 gallons off 107 taps. I cooked 125 and quit from exhaustion. I just let the lines run on the ground today until I could get tanks back under them. I hope the sap I'm holding keeps. If I had someone making syrup near me I'd give it away, but I don't know anyone within 30-40 miles. Note to self, back off the taps on 3/16th next year.

[asknupp]

I hear ya buckeye. Having a sap flood here too. Let things yesterday and lastnight. Ro will be busy this afternoon. Made 6 gal Wed night.

[dugan.55]

Yep it is sweet to see homemade stuff work as it should, Sap flowing here like crazy should have approx. 500 gal to process on sat. I have a full 275 in the woods that I cant get to the mud here is incredible this year. Might have to take the CAT down there n collect that lol. Cant wait to see the whole process work from adding sap at one end and bottling on the other continuously sounds like a good plan but I will give an update later on.

[bmbmkr]

How is your sap holding up in the heat?
I RO'd and boiled 600 gallon Wed afternoon- didn't finish until 0500 yesterday- got about 3 hours sleep. We had to go to town yesterday morning- got back about 1 pm and my 330 collection tank was running over- I pumped it up to the sugar house and started the RO- got the fire lit- Boiled about an hour before near disaster. Before I started I had re-arranged some of the fire brick "diffusers" on my grate- I have a home made arch, home made AUF- trying to get some more heat for a more consistent boil in my flue pan- whatever I did worked for my syrup pan anyway- in between stacking wood, putting new filters in the filter tank, checking RO, checking head tank valve, level and float valve- I neglected my syrup pan- she bubbled up and scorched- I had my OS bucket- started dumping in, scared to DEATH my an was goin to warp. I got the arch shut down, cooled down and inspected my pan, just a small scorched area about 1 sq ft, it peeled right off with a plastic scraper- I am extremely thankful it wasn't worse but pretty disappointed to lose all that sweet and I figure the concentrate was toast by this morning. My pans hold about 14 gallon, had 45 gallon of 5% concentrate in the head tank. I've got 18 gallon of syrup made so far, and my customers are knocking down my door for more more more- I'm wore slap out. Thankfully it's raining cats and dogs and windy out right now I'm sittin my butt on the couch takin it easy- for another hour, then it's out to scrub & soak the pans, the tanks, the filters, pits and pans, everything- I am looking forward to the freeze tonight to maybe recharge the trees. Glad to hear you all having plenty of sap too.

[buckeye gold]

I feel your pain Ben. I just came in from finally catching up. All sap is cooked, and the shack cleaned up, and I scrubbed the head tank. I still have to bottle two days worth. I don't know how much sap I missed, but Wednesday I just couldn't handle any more sap and I let the lines run on the ground all day. I kid you not it was practically squirting out of those 3/16th lines. I guess I must have them set up about right.

with a small rig and no RO I just can't handle those tsunamis. I cooked the last of the hold over sap today. It was a bit cloudy, but still good. I had it stashed in shaded woods gully. I made all dark syrup today because of it, but the chief and high commander has already confiscated it. You know they have all the different "cuts" of bourbon, well the dark rich syrup is Mom-ma's cut in this household. I was really afraid it was gonna spoil. It was close as the sap had a slight musty smell cooking, but we chilled the syrup and tasted it and it's very good. Sure was full of sugar sand though. I had to triple filter, but I got it sharp and clear.

I hear ya on the mud dugan55. I have totally destroyed my back field and road into it. This has to be the sloppiest mess of a season I have ever had. Next year I may run lines clear to the driveway, just to avoid this.

If I had good sugar content I would have the most syrup I ever made, but it has been averaging 1.3. Today it bumped up to 1.6.

I do not think I will be boiling much longer. We have daffodils coming up.

John B has been coming over and keeping me company in the shack, Ben. He asked about you and said if he knew where you lived he'd drive down. He was wondering how your getting along with the tanks.

[dugan.55]

Cooked all weekend ran approx 650 through it and ended up with 12 gal finished. The whole bottling idea didn't work out this time to busy running around collecting as much as I could before the temps climbed up to swimming weather. Syrup is chilled like you buckeye mine was a lil bit cloudy and turned out on the dark side as well. cleaned up everything and have my lines dumping onto the ground to help sweeten the flooding water down river. last two days been close to 70 hope the trees don't bud and the peepers go away for a bit longer

[dugan.55]

Trees are producing again, should be good rest of this week, processed 200 gal last night and again lots of sand in the bottom seems to be pretty dark as well, doesn't look like any amber/light syrup going to get produced

[buckeye gold]

Better smell when that is boiling and taste the syrup.....I would be worried about off flavor after all that warm. I have seen it do this before, but I washed everything up when it got warm and I am not dirtying it all again so I pulled taps. I tried making syrup one year on a run that came after it looked like season was over....it was not good tasting syrup.

[Rockport]

Sounds like me,I tried to push it one time..Maybe I missed the last week ,last Monday was it for me, had some reds I think somewhere in there hiding ! Sap looked good made decent color ,slight taste but the smell !!! I am near Parkersburg WV , where are you ? just wondered if you had any reds and when they may have went south. my blacks and sugars are still not budding.

[bowhunter]

This season has been another disappointing one here. I got decent sap runs the last three weeks of February but the sugar content is low again this year. It's taking about 60 gallons to make a gallon of syrup. My production per tap has gone down every year since 2013. It started at slightly more than 1 quart per tap. It's now down to about a pint per tap. I check my permeate tank sugar content every day and it's right on zero with the refractometer. I check the zero of the refractometer every day as well. I don't think we have much season left here. By March 1st about 15% of my trees had stopped producing while about 15% were going bonkers during the last run. I haven't had any kind of a run in over a week. It looks like I might get a run on Sunday and there might be one more run in March before the weather warms up.

[maple marc]

Hey bowhunter, I feel your pain. Look at my trend. I just don't get big runs anymore. I collected 140 gallons on Monday which I boiled for about 3 gallons of syrup. That put me at a total of about 14 gallons for the season....wooo-hooo. I'm seeing the same number of dry taps and great taps as you. I may try to move some of my dry taps to some other trees, but my pickings aren't too good. We may get one last hurrah this weekend. Good luck.

[dugan.55]

finished the year out with 22.5 gal, and my refractor finally showed up was running 1.9 on my last run of sap for the year, time to get cleaned up n grow for next year