Willow Creek Sugarhouse 2024

[red maples]

Well I guess its time I get this going. Looks Like the maple news took over the trader. SOOOOO many ads. a little bit of a deterrent I know this thing isn't cheap so thank you to the maple news. but anyway hope everyone is doing well.

I had a Hip replacement surgery November 28th/23. Its been a long time coming. Delt with pain for a few years. Got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore. advanced arthritis, bone spurs, hip displasia... all in all pretty bad. Doc didn't know how I was still going at the pace I was. My wife says I have the pain tolerance of a heroin addict but anyway surgery went very well and after sitting on my a$$ for too long and putting on 13 lbs still getting stronger everyday and that deep hip pain is gone still a little pain here and there but dont need pain meds or even advil at this point getting stronger every day. I am currently at 11 weeks. back to work 5 hrs a day. I am on my feet all day so he restricted me to 5 hrs and no heavy lifting. should be back to full time in a couple more weeks.

So I started tapping last Sunday Feb. 4th and just took things very slow and steady still a bit of ice and snow but just did what I could do and finished tapping this Sunday. and over that time collected 800 gallons and did my first boil yesterday got the pans sweetened and made a few gallons of syrup. sap still had a pretty green hue but ended up with border amber/Dark I didn't check it yet. Went through the tubing across the street which I did Sunday morning and fixed all the leaks vacuum is holding at 27" I wanted 28" I think I will settle for that for now.

I got a another 500 gallons in the tank since last night but that is gonna sit until tomorrow. Hopefully there will be no school tomorrow and I can boil early but we went from 8 to 12 inches of snow of 3-5 inches to maybe even 1 to 3 storm is going south. :cry:

big freeze up coming for the next 7 to 10 days. Hopefully things get ripping after that.

hopefully we will have a great season like last year!!!

Happy sapping everyone.
Brad

[BAP]

Brad, sounds like you are on your way to recovery and getting back to moving freely. Good news! As far as the weather, the more they talk about it, the less they know. The storm is a complete miss here and this morning’s forecast has backed the cold freeze down to not as much of a freeze up. Keep up the good work. I have made 10 gallons of light AR over the last 2 days with more sap to boil today. Good luck with your boiling

[Hop Kiln Road]

Brad, good to hear you're back and able to pull your weight! Kind of curious where the doctors found the after market parts. Perhaps the Boston & Maine, or is that defunct? With little snowpack or frost in the ground this early hopefully we won't get a repeat of last year and things get too warm too fast. Good luck. Bruce

[red maples]

I would love a repeat of last year I had a bumper crop last year because I tapped early and caught that early run but things shut down a little early. I have no idea where they got my bionic hip from. I think its titanium alloy, plastic and ceramic.

that storm from last week turned out to nothing went south. but for some reason school was called the night before so got to boil and already up to 12 gallons. it was early sap that was still quite a bit green so its a little on the darker side. but just into dark should lighten up after I move out what has been sitting in the evap since tuesday.

Managed about 25 to 30 gallons of sap but I will dump that and start fresh. things should start to thaw looks like tuesday or wednesday this week. with some good sap weather on the horizon.

was able to get a few things fixed. got a couple of leaky fittings on the RO retaped a leaky main line fitting reset and tightened.

sugarhouse cleaned up thats always a work in progress. gets full of crap with bee stuff and chicken stuff in the off season. always a mouse or 2 to evict constant battle!!!

still debating on buckets.... but don't need to worry about them until wednesday. see how I feel then.

[johnallin]

Brad,
Always good to hear from another trader who’s been here since the “Haynes days”.
Never a dull moment back then…. Glad to hear you’re still going at it.

As I get older-wiser it becomes more satisfying to just take my time and fine tune what I’ve got.
I get done what I get done, no more no less. Still more important to make really good syrup rather than lots.

4 hours in the sugar house today, thinking I’d get it all knocked out and ready, ended up with me replacing lots of little **** that I had been putting off for years.
Let the Games begin!

[red maples]

OH yes Haynes that a blast from the past... Good to hear from you but What are you doing on the NH thread? I don't do to much on the rest of the site anymore. I used to but no time. back then I was still watching my little ones who are now big ones, this year I have one graduating college and one graduating High school getting ready for college. I am and have been back to work full time (except for now still recovering from the surgery) but 5 hrs a day should be back to full time in 2 weeks.

I wish the sap would get going but too cold!!!

I was at the rollinsford winter farmers market on sat not for me for my wife and cathedral Ledge distillery from canterbury. was there. they have a maple vodka thats pretty good. I am not a fan of vodka but its pretty good my wife got me it for xmas I think she likes it more than me. but they had a Bourbon that, well they gave bourbon barrels to a maple sugarhouse (certified organic) and they aged maple syrup in it. then they took the barrels back and finished a batch of bourbon in it. its really good and unique. it has a spicey bourbon front then had a slight maple sweet finish really good. just figured I would share.

[johnallin]

OH yes Haynes that a blast from the past... Good to hear from you but What are you doing on the NH thread? I don't do to much on the rest of the site anymore. I used to but no time. back then I was still watching my little ones who are now big ones, this year I have one graduating college and one graduating High school getting ready for college. I am and have been back to work full time (except for now still recovering from the surgery) but 5 hrs a day should be back to full time in 2 weeks.
.

Not on the NH thread, but this time of year will check in to see new posts.
Yours was in the "new post" area and I recognized the name...
You, like many, aren't very active anymore, but it's always good to read what you have to say.
Take care and hope you have a great season.

[red maples]

you too John...

Well looking at the long range forecast (I know you can't put much stake in it ) not good! Not good at all! too warm not many freezing nights. stupid Rodent that thinks he's a meteorologist... I hope it changes. Maybe need to start looking at January tapping for next year.

[red maples]

looking back to last year I was already at 40+ gallons this time last year. so far I have roughly 15 gallons. 2 completely different februarys. next week looks very good but the following week looks a little warm. its a bit far out to be any kinda of accurate but we'll have to see even tomorrow's forecast doesn't seem accurate anymore.

some how the sap actually ran a little. I think because the sun was warm and anywhere the sun was hitting was enough to get some dripping. was windy and hovered around 33/34. 2 day total was about 260 gallons low sugar. so I squeezed it out and freshened up the pans made a few gallons and got the pans freshened up. gonna try and get the back pan filtered today its not really that dirty but I wanna get the niter out before it gets rolling this week.

tapping the buckets today. have about 25 or so. no big deal but wanted to wait to get those in. especially since this looks like its gonna be a warm march the less time the bucket taps are in the better for bacteria build up.

only 9F here this morning not expecting a huge sap flow today. but its coming...

[red maples]

Well had one of my biggest runs ever with about 1200 gallons of sap. Sugar is VERY low across the board. Vacuum sap is only about 1 to 1.25% and even buckets on the big sugars is usually between 2 and 3 percent was only 1.75 it usually is enough to boost the sugar in the raw sap. I though it was gonna be more but only made just shy of 18 gallons.

Had a hose starting to fail on the RO. so it was leaking pretty bad put a bucket under the drip was only able to get to 13% for concentrate. Was a little longer to boil. thankful for the day of freeze up so I could run around to find a replacement. the only thing I could do was to put together a braided hose with sharkbite attachments. I will get some better stuff in the off season and get a few replacements for back up, not if but when they fail.

well last frezze up was last night only got to 30*F but was for a long time. Temps for me are NOT in favor of maple looks like it will be about 5 days before the next freeze. Depending on what weather you look at Accuweather is more favorable than the weather channel. but I find the weather channel to be more accurate than accuweather.

Well goodluck everyone!!! hope you get lots of sap before the flow goes away!!!

[UB29]

Collected and processed 275 gals. yesterday @ 1.4%. Grading out to Dark, so I guess that's it for Amber from here on out. No freezes for the next 5 days, so here we go again...........shutdown.
Time to drain and clean the pan, I guess.
Thanks, Bill

[red maples]

Well I guess its been a while since I posted... Man I have just been so CRAZY busy that I got way behind... well after the february freeze up and then thaw I was going gangbusters for a bit then we have slowed right down and the weather just turned for the worst. severe lack of freezes have just about done me in.

Buckets and been pretty worthless and there is little Very little sugar which is under 1% now. I am still getting a little sap but it is the darkest strongest syrup I ever made. its not buddy but it is maple weekend syrup which is always darker than normal because I am talking not paying enough attention loose the boil just not good for production. so that will be about 5 gallons of BBQ sauce syrup.

As for maple weekend we were busier on saturday and we lucked out with the weather on sunday. but it seemed like much smaller crowds I don;t know if that has anything to do with it being a week early but sales we just as good as year for me so that was good.

Anyway way behind last year way behind sap production is still pretty good but since no sugar in the sap syrup production is very low. but good temps forecasted for this week and maybe snow next weekend as long as my trees hold up and get regenerated hopefully we can get another week.

who ever is still going good luck.
I am done haveing some corned beef and sitting my butt on the couch... exhausted!!!

[red maples]

Well looks like this will be the last hurrah we'll see if things get turned around or not over the next few days. if not I start pulling taps next week. Got everything cleaned out just incase this little freeze up gets things going. Reds buds are swelling a few yard trees popped and I pulled those but all the woods ones are still OK.

Need more syrup man!!! Pretty dismal second half of the season. Maybe need to rethink taping earlier next year. this past year I think we could have tapped in early January and made syrup most of January... thats a scary thought. I dunno.

[Amber Gold]

I noticed the same thing here. I boiled last night and it was meh. We'll see what happens after the cold snap. I haven't seen anything pop in my woods, but then again, I try not to look up either.

[red maples]

ha ha I always look up... too many reds not to look... Sap is really really nasty there is a lot bacteria in the lines. it is was running a little yesterday and today but sugar is still under 1% and off flavors are getting worse. only need so much syrup for BBQ sauce. its about a gallon per batch and I usually make about 5 batches a year and I already made 6 gallons of off flavor. and have 2 or 3 left over from last year.

I shut the vac pump off today... :cry: so thats a season I guess. just a little over 2/3rd of a crop. but averaged 80:1 for the year really really bad.

worst season for sugar in the raw sap I have ever seen in my 15 years of doing maple. We need to bring winter back. or I am gonna have to start tapping in January and hope for the best.

well if anyone is still going good luck!!!

[UB29]

Same here, Brad. Sap up on the mountain was still trickling, but nasty looking. And when I looked up............the reds are popping.
So that's it. Just a bad and disappointing season. Probably end up at 65% or so production vs. last year. With this global warming, we'll all be tapping on New Years day before we know it.
Thanks, Bill