Crawford County 2021

[Irish Ridge]

Sunday, Feb. 28th...
50 taps placed over the past week on Irish Ridge. We used snowshoes the first days making a path to trees still resting in over 18 inches of snow. Next trip brought buckets and hoses. When we drilled, we found dry wood, wet wood, and a few dripping slowly. We checked trees throughout the week and each day more trees got into the game. Leading us to Sunday morning. Plan A was to get at least some sap collected before church but a steady drizzle at daybreak put plan B into place. Only full buckets will be emptied this afternoon with a full collection Monday and first boil Tuesday morning.
Glad to see activity over in southeastern Wisconsin and Vernon County. We also follow the Iowa thread as Milleville has checked in and reported the season "on" earlier this week. They are located just across the Mississippi River from Cassville. May we all have a good season.

[Irish Ridge]

Monday, March 1...
Collected sap late yesterday afternoon. All trees now producing sap working out to about a gallon of sap per tree. However trees weren't doing much around 5 p.m. Wind had increased, barometer was going up, temperature going down. Monday looks like a day off. Well, actually a work around the shack day. Will also get reports from other local sugar shacks.

[Mr Sugar Maple]

IR so far been thankful the snow melt is not flooding the valleys, you must have more snow there, the deepest I could find was 11 inches in valley shade. Were close to Viola WI. Good to have the cold nights to get that sap flowing. God Bless

[Irish Ridge]

Tuesday, March 2nd...Going out to make fire very shortly. Looking forward to a long day. OK, the local report is as follows...Star Acres over on Bouska Road had sap moving slowly until yesterday. Their only highlight so far this year was a skid steer stuck in the snow making a path into the woods. The boys on Vineyard coulee had a little more than a gallon a tree. Ferryville reports that their north facing slope has yet to start the season. Gotta run, time to make the clear stuff, brown stuff.

[Irish Ridge]

Thursday, March 4th...Second fire of the season today. slow going here. Only 40 gallons out of 50 taps over 48 hours. Steam and any smoke rising straight up. Sugar content is about 2.5 per cent. Would really like to make a little syrup before the high temperatures arrive early next week.

[Irish Ridge]

Friday, March 5th...an early morning trip to the woods revealed a continued slow drip. Executive decision made - forget collecting sap today, good time to finish on the gas stove. Two gallons of amber syrup now cooling on the kitchen counter. One quarter of the way to matching our lowest year of 8.5 gallons (2018), and a long way to go towards matching our best year of 21.25 gallons (2020).

[spike in wi]

We tapped ours on Feb. 26 this year. Put in 105 taps and omitted a couple of woods that we normally tap due to an excess of snow our own aging!! So far not a lot to show for our efforts. We ran about 130 gallons through the RO yesterday and fired the evaporator so we've got that sweetened up and ready to go. Could be a slow year but who knows??

[Irish Ridge]

Thanks for checking in Mike. I was wondering how things were running in your neck of the woods. We had the same task ahead of us when we tapped. Deepest snow in the woods in years for us. My wife and I had to snowshoe in and then simply did some laps to pack it down. That seemed to help a bit. Also we weren't able to plow a path nearly as close to the woods. Heading out this morning sometime to collect everything before the big thaw. Looks good weatherize after that but that can change fast as well. Haven't seen a moth yet this season but my guess is that will change today.

[Irish Ridge]

March 10th...Through the weekend we just kept plugging away, gathering sap and boiling. Not complaining about the warm temps but it did slow things down. That allowed us to keep up with finishing. Now at 4.5 gallons for the season which is half of our least productive year. Yesterday we worked in mid 60's temps and in the afternoon strong south winds. We collected sap one final time in the afternoon yesterday and each tree gave about a quart over the previous night at best. Now that it is raining this morning, it appears to be a good day to finish yesterdays boil inside. Hopefully another two gallons or so. Snow is pretty much gone anywhere the sun can catch it. The mud to follow should be fun. Still haven't seen any moths and branches don't appear close to budding - thinking the season is far from over.

[Irish Ridge]

March 11th....collected sap from the past 48 hours. Total per tap dropped from a quart per tap to a pint a tap per 24 hours for the last 48 hours. Hopefully a low of 30 degrees tonight will fool the trees into getting back in gear. Found a few moths in the pails which I can handle but the ants crawling around bug me. Two pails had that for my enjoyment. Brushing back the paths to the trees tomorrow. The scratched cheeks have to stop. One of these times it will be an eye. Finished another 2.25 gallons of syrup yesterday during the rain. Starting to feel better about potential end of season results. Except for a drift here and there, snow is gone.

Brother in law about a mile away started tapping 15 trees this year. On his third day boiling, he collects from half the trees. He decides to get everything all set up so he just has to light a match when he comes back from collecting from his second of two groups of maples. The story goes that he comes out of his woods and sees smoke from the stack and steam from the pan. Yes my friend, I often start today's fire from yesterdays ashes. Just wish I could have seen his face and known the thoughts running through his mind. Won't hear from Ferryville until Saturday.

[Irish Ridge]

Saturday, March 13th.....Just finished collecting sap from my 50. 21 gallons over the past 48 hours. So there was an improvement but I sure am not bragging. Better temps ahead and a solid snowfall prediction for Monday. Still not seeing buds which is the only good thing to report. Hoping others are doing better. Next report is Monday.

[Tommoore30]

Hi Irish Ridge - follow you and Mr. Sugar Maple and Lulu since you're nearby,....I'm actually relieved to hear your sap yields - we have 35 taps and I was expecting a record harvest only to find (and extremely grateful for) 35 gallons collected over the week. The bigger Amish boys the next ridge over said their trees shut down late Mon-Thur last week. Things are flowing now, slow and steady, looking for a good boil Fri-Sat this next week.
Tom

[Irish Ridge]

Monday, March 15th.....Thanks for the update Tom. I was curious as to what others are experiencing. Didn't boil this weekend and not sure when I will next. I have 25 gallons of sap buried in snow and hopefully another 25 in the woods. Will probably collect midweek and Saturday and then do one final boil this weekend. If the forecast holds the season is looking more and more like it is pretty much over for me. Each year is certainly different. 7:30 a.m. and snow flakes are just beginning this fine Monday morning.

[Mr Sugar Maple]

Hi Irish Ridge, The weekend was not very good for us either, as far as sap runs had 200 gal in storage, collected 60 gallons Friday 155 Gallons Saturday 40 gallons from the17 tubing taps. the tubing was running on Friday where as the buckets were all dry.

[Irish Ridge]

Thursday, March 18th.....Hadn't checked for 48 hours due to the snow. Found 5 gallon pails near overflowing. Sap running the best it has all season. Seeing buds beginning to change shape and color. A very different season to say the least. A check of the weather reveals another good 48 hours at most. The decision has been made to pull taps on our last sap collection which will be Sunday afternoon. A strong last couple of days here will really help in boosting me above my least productive year. Hey Vernon County, be prepared to work this weekend and make the most of it.

[Mr Sugar Maple]

Boy I found a lot of work on Friday. Check my post out.

[Irish Ridge]

Tuesday, March 23rd....Last report was Thursday - taps flowing well. Friday morning the 24th, a college roommate decides he has to see this operation. A good fire is already underway when he arrives and we go to collect sap. Some trees were easily at 2 plus gallons during the overnight. This task took us until 2 p.m. and then we were able to relax and catch up as we fed the fire. He stayed until 6 or so. I stayed until 9 p.m. or so and then checks every few hours through the night to try and stay caught up. Saturday was just more of Friday. Sap slowed a little but the wind sped up a lot. The decision was made to keep going through the night again. Finished up at 7 a.m. with some daylight. Sunday afternoon we started back up. With a boil on, we also made our last collection of sap, taps, hose, and buckets. Sap was losing the nice clearness and the flow has really slowed. With the warm wet forecast we did not feel bad at all punching out in the woods. Moving on, we finished outside boiling on Monday morning. Today we finished on the gas stove.

The last week with exceptional sap flows allowed us to make half of our sap in this final week. What had looked like a middle of the pack season turned into our third best year. 50 taps gave us 13.5 gallons this spring. All that is left is the clean up of 65 pails, some pans, and such. An enjoyable season once again.

Mr. Sugar Maple, I checked out the post. I get tired just thinking of your operation, but it sure sounds fun as well. When you spoke about the long hike up it reminded me of my buddy helping me on Friday. He pointed at a couple of trees with buckets and was going to go get them. I told him, you follow me, we'll do it together. He asked why. When we got to the edge of the ledge and looked down he understood. Takes a special breed to be able to work these ridges. Hopefully the noises have stopped coming from under your cabin. Have a good end of the season.