Southern Ohio starting off big

[buckeye gold]

I gave in and tapped my 50 early taps the end of last week. Had my first boil Sunday and the sap hasn't quit flowing. I have boiled 4 straight days and this morning my collection tank was running over (60 gallons). Sugar isn't great but better than usual for early taps. Looks like it slowing today, but I'll probably do a short boil tomorrow. I'm pushing three gallons for the last 4 days and a super sweet pan that will make another quick draw tomorrow. Let's hope this is a sign of good things to come and not a short warm season.

[bmbmkr]

Keep up the good work Buckeye!! I wanted to tap so bad yesterday, butheld off,supposed to be in the 60s again this coming week with rain, 10 day looks decent after that. I'm scalling back this year from 800 to 500 taps, some of em are new. Some are creek bank silvers, I might only et a few weeks out of them, they have flower buds already, but no leaf buds. I'll be tapping this coming week for sure, been workin on the sugar shed in the mean time. New lights, got a new valve nipple welded in the 300 gal tank I got from your cousin, made some lids for it. I have some other "new" stuff, a tankless propane water heater, 200 gallons of propane to run the canner, water heater, 3 burner gas stove and the RO closet heater. Been busy the last few weeks. I'm also running my incoming sap through a UV sterilizer and got a UV "room" light that's goin in the top of the 800 gal dairy tank in an effort to combat sugar loss from microbes on these warm southern OH winter days. Headin out to finish up my solar panel racks, 600 watts on one pump set up with an inverter to run the UV and 400 watts on another that will be running a 7 gpm diaphragm pump that's goin to hopefully help get sap all the way to the sugar house this year without me totin the gas pump and gas cans 300 yards through the woods.

[buckeye gold]

Well it's been a busy January. Sap runs have been almost continuous and strong. I have boiled 700 + gallons of sap and have 9+ gallons of syrup. As usual for early sap the sugar has been low, but the syrup good. I was planning on downsizing this year and only making for personal use. I am almost there and my main bush of 100 taps hasn't even neen tapped. I may not tap most of it as I don't need the sap for my goal. I wish someone was close enough to give the sap to. This bush should produce 1,000 gallons of sap, but I don't have the will to cook it. I have never seen an early season like this.

[Pdiamond]

Nothing like getting done early. But are you going to look at it and say, now what am I going to do?

[buckeye gold]

Pdiamond,

Nope, I will move right to firewood cutting and early Saugeye (hybrid Walleye) fishing then starting garden seeds and more. This old man has plenty to do.

[Swingpure]

Pdiamond,

Nope, I will move right to firewood cutting and early Saugeye (hybrid Walleye) fishing then starting garden seeds and more. This old man has plenty to do.

Different timing, but I have the same list. As soon as the sugar season ends, I am splitting and stacking firewood for winter 24/25, with the goal of getting that completed before black fly season, then lake trout and eventually pike season.

I have three trees to drop while the ice is still good. Two I just need to pull from the direction of the lake to ensure they do not come back at their cottage and the third is a large oak that we will drop on the ice. We are just waiting for the ice to improve so it does not break the ice when it falls.

[bmbmkr]

Sap poured like crazy this weekend, made 13 gallons of syrup yesterday. Saps runnin again today !

[buckeye gold]

I wondered how you were doing bmbmkr. I had 165 gallons yesterday and 70 today. It has slowed up with the warm weather though. I tapped the main bush last Saturday and it has been running 2% sugar. I think I will boil through the weekend and maybe Monday then quit for the year. I will have made my goal and since I'm not selling any I'm trying to make all I can. Too bad there's the potential for a lot of good sap in the main woods, but I will not us it.