March journal

[maple flats]

I guess everyone's too busy. It seems no one started the March Journal yet.
So here it goes- I have gotten no sap yet, ran the pump yesterday when the temperature got up to 36 F. Vac ran at 27" for an hour and I only got about 1/2 gal off over 300 taps. The trees must still be frozen. I will try again today, maybe temps in the upper forties will thaw the trees. Then it looks like the next 4 weeks will be good sap weather, freezes almost every night and warm most days, in the 40's on most days. If that happens it could end up a much more traditional maple season.
Yesterday we put our larger pump and engine out at the lease. That's at higher elevation and the temps generally run 4-6 degrees lower. That sould also give up some sap starting later this week. Too windy today to risk working in the woods, 18+ MPH keeps me out of the woods. Too much risk for falling trees and limbs.
Based on the forecast it looks like my first boil might come Tuesday , especially if the trees thaw today so sap runs today and tomorrow.
I will be doing my start of season clean up on my RO tomorrow, then tapping more trees at the lease. Still have maybe 400 more taps to put in, to end up at about 1000. The mains all look good, but at the lease several laterals are down, and frozen into a layer of ice which slows things a lot.

[wnybassman]

I am making candy and sugar today waiting for the sap to roll in.

[raptorfan85]

Waiting, waiting and more waiting. I feel like Eddie money, "I've waited so long!" I got about 5 gallons from 60 taps on a shurflo yesterday while it was 42 and sunny... They're still frozen up tight. Hopefully this warm spell kick starts things. I'm getting impatient lol!

[to100]

Tapped 1 tree in full sun yesterday and was wet couple ounces. Ran a new line to shed and finish roll out 2 other lines.
Before the Big winds 2 week ago I had big tree wells around all trees with solid 12 +/- snow. The wind filled in all trees with dense snow. Now roots are frozen so good flow needs some sun/rain. Waiting to tap others for flow to push out wood chips and flush lines with ice.
Going to be a fun mud season, had a thaw in early February. Been avoiding ruts since.
Mid week should start flowing, then off to the races.

Best to all for a great season.

[Chickenman]

Was able to gather 25 gallons this morning and got all the ice out of the bags, pour off the melted sugar water from the frozen pails and mixed all together for 5% sap. Boiled it all off to sweeten my pan. Almost was able to draw off but had to start cooling down the arch. Weather looks good for the next several days here.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Tending to lines and checking equipment so I'm ready for the real runs. I thought I'd boil tonight but not enough sap and quite a bit of ice in the tanks. Hopefully boiling tomorrow. At March 10 already and barely done any boiling. I think it's make or break for the next 3 weeks.

[maple flats]

I ran my vacuum pump and even at the warmest part of the day it took almost an hour to get the releaser to dump once. It dumps about 3 gal. My trees still have not thawed out after the long deep freeze. Maybe tomorrow.
However, my vacuum was below normal, only at 23", normally 25-26. The wind was strong enough that I did not chase the leaks, too risky for falling trees or limbs. The wind should be less tomorrow, I will look for leaks then.

[Starks sugarbush]

Taylor county Wisconsin, tried tapping March 8 had hard time finding tubing and mainline. over 2 ft of snow and more on way. will be couple weeks at leasthttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190311/267a85128b92df8b4d86bb5bbd56d199.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190311/3df03f85664d69ac0714ed2917973bbe.jpg

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[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Definitely have been busy. Finally the snow settled down some and I was able to get all 350 taps or so in by myself on Saturday. My partner worked in the shack while I tapped. Then we both were in the shack yesterday. A few odds and ends to do but we will be ready for anything that comes this week. We'll let it run on the ground for a day then start collecting. Good luck everyone!

[maple flats]

Today will just be my 3rd boil. Sap ran well yesterday. We will also be tapping about 300 more, on my lease, the first good flow there was yesterday. We are at about 700, heading for 1000 +/-. We had to remove more trees that were on the lines, 2 were on the mainline, 1 on the wet dry, 2 sap ladders were pushed to the ground. All of this was in about a 4-5 acre area that was good two weeks ago. We have to keep an eye on widow makers, this area also has quite a few hanging, broken branches and tops. Some broke what looks like they were healthy sugar maples off at 20-30' up on trees that range from 6" up to about 10" at the break. I don't remember having that before except when a tornado ran thru many years ago. All we've had are straight line winds, but lots of it. All of this has slowed the tapping considerably in my lease this year.

[maple flats]

Yesterday was too cold for sap flow here, it got to 33 F but the trees didn't thaw. It was our first Maple Weekend day of 4 this year. Because the temperature was cold we ran the evaporator at medium cruising speed so we would not run out of sap. Traffic was slow too because of the temperature is my guess, we only had 14 cars all day, but they were buying product.
Today the sap will start by 10:00 and the temperature will get up to 49 F according to the forecast. We will thus be running full speed ahead, run the RO, the vacuum pumps. We still have about 700 gal of sap from Friday and before that is gone we will get plenty more to work with.
This might in that respect be the best Maple Weekend I ever had. Most I either need to nurse what little sap I have or sometimes just feed the pans with permeate. With the forecast more than 15 degrees F higher today, traffic should be much better too.
I hope everyone else is getting good sap flow too.
The forecast for this week looks like lots of sap too, but by the weekend it could get too warm for too long. That could end it all, time will tell.

[maple flats]

Looking at the forecast for here, it shows no freeze starting Thursday until Sunday night into Monday morning with day time temps those days at or near 60. Then a Monday morning freeze, and a Tuesday morning possible freeze, Thursday morning maybe freeze and Friday (April 5), freeze. After that if the trees still don't bud it could go all the way to April 18-19 or 20. I've never gone past April 14 getting sap in the past.