tapping Slatington Pa

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Gonna tap, looks like a run all next week from what im seeing.

20 low's
40 hi's
mon 25th threw fri 29th
like to get at least one good run.............

http://www.weather.com/weather/extended/USPA1515?par=yahoo&site=www.yahoo.com&promo=extendedforecast&cm_ven=Yahoo&cm_cat=www.yahoo.com&cm_pla=forecastpage&cm_ite=CityPage

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Decided to wait and didnt tap last week,

i put our first 20 taps in yesterday at 230pm. By dark each was about 1/8 full. Will put another 20 or so in today in the morning and empty all before dark..today and tue's it may run alittle.

But tue's they want a sloppy mess here o boy...Ill leave anything in the jugs i get from tue's run and hopefully with the wind coming it will keep my milk jugs in place. isnt nothing like collecting jugs blown all over the woods...

then back down the temps go till next week.....
hopeing for warm ups soon...
Like to do some boiling....

charlie

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

wow the 20 taps i put in yesterday after noon are a dripping, the milk jugs are about 1/4-1/2 full on most so far, couple of them 3/4 full.

Just got done putting in another 40+ taps. Total of about 60 or so in now. Thats it for tapping no more..could have did over 120+ but gonna stick with what i got in.... just hoping for a couple of gallons by end of season now...

hope it runs like this tomorrow i should be boiling in no time

[Fred Henderson]

I hate to break this up but you can not have a thread and keep replying to yourself.LOL. I am glad to see that you are haveing fun.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Charlie,

I will reply to your thread. Glad to see you are tapped and go for the 120. Might have sap running out your ears!

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

thanks Brandon and u to Fred...

Its like a blog,
others can read and see how its going here for me. no-one has to reply if they dont want to...

plus it keeps my thread/blog updated...

when Next season comes this thread will be here and i can use the info for myself if i need it.???

anyway enough with that,

I got a total of 38 gallons between yesterday evening and this
morning..its snowing right now here....hope to get another 20 gallons by end of day if it warms up like they are saying(hi today of 40, we'll see).

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

well sap flowed over night, looks like another 20 gals at least...that should be it till this following week coming. temps right now 34 and wind w/30 mph gst.

Boil tomorrow..thurs 2-27-08

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Charlie,

Keep us posted, sounds like you are doing good so far!

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Will do brandon,
ya know after not tapping for the past 2 years it funny that the local tv station didnt forget about me.
I was out side yesterday and channel 13 pulled back up into my driveway. they ask can we do a story on you this year.
Now every year that i tapped they show up and i have to decline.
But they still come back every year and i tell them sorry i cant do that. Its like when thy see the jugs go up they show up....
they just come up my 450ft driveway and my property is posted.

I dont want the public here.
I also had the girl scouts send me a letter asking me to do a tour on the property of sugaring and our hobby poultry busniss. I had to tell them the same thing we dont do tours.

You ever have this happen to you...

Charlie

[tapper]

No can't say that has ever happened here. Maybe something to do with nearest tv station being over 60 miles away?
Cant blame you for not wanting groups of people. I've had requests to host groups of people for reasons other than sugaring and always turn them away. One group decided they were going to hold a mountain bike race across my property without any sort of permission. I put an end to that as bikes were on the starting line.
It's a shame what the lawyers and insurance companies of this country have done to make it this way.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Can't say I ever have. I wish I could get some PR. Guess that's the way it goes, I would like to have some free advertising and you don't want it and get it anyways.

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Ya i guess it has to do that nobody in this area taps tree's and makes syrup, most other sugariest are at the least a 2-3 hour drive from here. Ive noticed people slow down super slow when they drive by our frontage and just stair at the tree's being tapped.

Its funny you think they never seen this before, well maybe they haven't..

Ive also been ask to do a demonstration at the Allentown AG show, but just didn't have the time to do it.

I'm so small here i wouldn't want to expose myself to the public as i would never be able to supply it on 125+ tree's, then you get folks coming around all times of the year.

Made my first gallon of syrup yesterday..Looks like a meduim amber, but boy is it good..been awhile for the real thing...

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Same down here, hardly anyone makes syrup. 5 years ago, I was probably the only one within 45 mintues to an hour. Now, there are a couple more, but most people don't have a clue how it is made or anything else about it.

[PATheron]

Tours must be a popular thing with the maple syrup. Our kids gradeschool is bringing out their third grade on march 13th. They asked me if it would be alright and I told them go for it. Im not even a producer just a hobbiest but im drawing in a crowd. Great thing for the kids to see something like that. Thats how I got interested watching my grandfather when I was that age. Looks like another bigsap monday. Whole week looks good for all over. Best of luck to everyone with their runs. Im going to try to get my releaser dumps under a minute. Ill keep you genetic defects posted. Theeeron

[Sugarmaker]

Theron,
Hey I resemble that remark:)

Slatebelt,

Just my 2 cents,
We get lots of press in the area and took the opposite approach. We now have 12 sugarhouses that will open their doors to the public on March 15 and 16 from 10 to 4. This is not for everyone. Yes some come back at other times of the year. Yes you need to be aware and cover potential liability aspects. view our association web site www.pamaple.org
But I think we are making many folks aware of maple sugaring process and first hand tastes of natural maple products.
Also from a sales point of view, not all folks buy your product but they only have your product to choose from when they are in your sugarhouse, and most folks do buy something. I enjoy meeting the people, have made a lot of new friends and plan to do it again this year.

We only make 100 gallons of syrup. One of the producers on the tour will make only 25 gallons. So you dont have to be big to play in this game.
The good syrup I make I want to sell! Selling it retail and making it into value added product is a way to keep the profits up to buy new toys next year.

Regards,
Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I carry $500,000 in product liability and the same on liability on the sugarhouse premises and for anyone visiting or working for me, I have coveage on all of it. Shame it has to be that way, but I would hate to lose everything that I have worked so hard for and God has blessed me with over someone looking to sue me.

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Yes you do want some good coverage as poeple now days seem to be sue happy, may be one day when i have a real nice small set up i might think about having folks come up.

I have plenty of people from this first year i started that will take my surplus syrup if i have it. Them folks always call every year to see if i have made any. But this year im just makeing for ourselfs. To much going on with the hatching eggs business here. lots of coops and birds to be taken care off and my skull bsiness keeps my busy also.

Got a nice small run of sap yesterday from my 60 trees i have tapped. 30 gal of sap. it does look like it may be a good running week...we'll see..

Sugarmaker..nice association web site, looks like you all put alot of time into it...

charlie

[Sugarmaker]

Charlie,
Thanks on the web site. Always trying to promote the maple products. A lot of folks worked to make the website operational.
Great to hear from you. Hope the syrup is sweeter that ever for you this year!

Regards,
Chris

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Just got done making another gal of syrup today.
sap appears to be running but not as good as i thought it would today.

temps are around 50 today ,hardly any wind. temp where 60 today

Looks like I'll get about 30-35 gal of sap today out of the 60 taps i have out.. was hoping all the jugs would run over but not the case--so far anyway today. got 35 gals of sap and they are still running some, but i think they may stop as they dont want it to freeze tonight...o well if it does stop they do want it to get cold again towards then end of the week...

Here is 2 pic's of my home made rig in action last week.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v185/hinkjc/Maple%20syrup%20Making/1stbatchofsyrup2008008.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v185/hinkjc/Maple%20syrup%20Making/1stbatchofsyrup2008007.jpg

some of the finished goodys..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v185/hinkjc/Maple%20syrup%20Making/1stbatchofsyrup2008013.jpg

[tapper]

Nice looking syrup there Charlie.

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

thanks Tapper...as im sure you know it tastes as good as it looks, if not better..

[Sugarmaker]

Charlie,
You have one heck of a boil going there! I like the swept back flue design. It looks really fast:)
The syrup looks great, nice pictures.
Sounds like your trees ran about like ours 1/2 gal. per tap.

Chris

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Sugarmaker, she was cranked up and i was given her all she got for what she is..

I think it does about 7-8 gph..+/- depends on me keeping it cranked...

Nice Web site by the way........I like it......

Ya, that sounds about right on the sap, however i thought maybe it would run all night but seems like most of them stopped,
maybe about 15 0f 60 tree's have some sap in the jugs..5-6 of them 1/2 full. looks like it may be over till we get another freeze here..

How's it lookin there, still running or did it peeter out on you to..???

gues it was just to warm hit 60 and then it stayed about 45 all night if not warmer...Most of the snow is finally gone and a huge rain storm a comin tonight..there saying 1" to 2" inches by morning..sloppy sloppy sloppy..

charlie

[Sugarmaker]

Charlie,
Yes we did not get the expected run from that warm weather on Monday
We got 210 gal on Monday and 150 gallons today. the trees were done running about 11:00 last night. We can boil about 10 times faster than your rig, but you will have just as much fun as we do:)

I have really been enjoying folks coming to the sugarhouse and visiting. A little harder for me to concentrate but well worth it.

Our wood is holding up well and we have about 20% of our crop made.
Keep it coming!

Regards,
Chris

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

it cant be over yet, only boiled 3 times so far. All small batches made.
1 gallon
1 gallon
3/4 gallon........

Weather channel says its going to be a cold March here.. we'll see???

Tree's ran so so yesterday after all this rain stopped they kicked in a bit.

Looks like i will collect about 20-25 gallons of nice clear sap today off the 60 taps.

i still want one or two more gallons of finished...i made appox 2-3/4 gallons so far.

we need a good cold snap again for a few days & nights...

charlie

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Charlie,

Your just getting started, good luck and keep us posted!

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Im finished, pulled all the taps this past fri...To much rain for me..
temps are way to warm & the Pheasants starting laying eggs and the bobwhites to, just waiting on our wild turkeys, spring is on, as they are strutting there stuff again...

Do it all again next year...

I made 3 gallons of some good looking and tasting syrup...

It was so good to be back at after 2 years and get the good stuff back on the table.

Hope to see and read all your posts next season, it been a pleasure to be here..

Charlie..........

Brandon good luck gobbler season if you go......

[Dennis H.]

Sorry to hear that you are wrapping up bussiness for the year, but glad to hear you didn't walk away empty handed.
I am pondering the same thing here. I will give it till next week and if it doesn't get any better I am also pulling the taps.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Charlie,

I haven't spring hunted in years. Too much to do with getting all the wood in for sugaring. I try to have it in the dry by end of June and I work full time. I used to trout fish a lot in the spring and play golf and I gave all that up too for the most part. Things change a lot with 2 little kids but I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world.

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

well brandon, Id never give up my hunting fever, Our oldest daught has went onto college and moved out, now our youngest daughter has been going hunting now, this will be her second year, she is 11. Last year in pa they started a new program for youth menitor hunting ,any child can go now with a lic adult, they may not carry the gun, but once seated in the woods they may take an animal, no lic needed. she has a chance at a gobbler and a buck and squrriel hunting. if she kills a turkey or buck we just make up a homade tag and send it in to the PGC..

last year i called a jake turkey in and she got it..She used a 20ga with 3" turkey load..she was very happy with taking a jake..no buck for her, we seen doe last year but she isnt allowed to take a doe.

But the best part of it all, is we get to be togeather and enloy the outdoors. My wife also hunts so its a family thing here that we all like and fun with it..

Your 2 little ones will enjoy there time out there to if you take them, we used to also trout fish here but havent gone for over 8 years as there are too many poeple in these little creeks. Just gets crazy, dont need that...

Yup fella's im done but happy with what i got...Been eating plenty of it..

Charlie

[Dennis H.]

That youth mentioring thing you mentioned about is a good idea for PA.
With all the video games, tv and computer it is too much like work to go out into the woods. This is an excellant way to get kids out of the house and do something with their dads or even moms or even grandparents.

A guy at work showed me a pic in the back of one of those hunting newspapers and it showed a 7yr old with a huge buck that he got, wow. Now that should keep him heading to the woods next yr.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Charlie,

I have taken my boy every year starting when he was 14 months old. He will be 6 in August this year and hope to get him a .22 and let him start shooting a little. There is no age limit in WV, as long as they are under 15, they don't have to have a license and they have to be with a licensed adult. I bought him his lifetime license before he was 2 and it only cost $ 270. If he doesn't hunt, then no big deal as at 17 months, he didn't know what Christmas was anyway, so a good thing to spend his Christmas money on. Oh yeah, he did get a few other gifts and plenty from other family members!

LOL!