Big Weekend in the deep south (of Ohio)

[newman_maple]

You guys were more than right about the sap just starting in southern Ohio! I have the pan full, the wood ready to go and over 200 gallons in the tanks. Today was the biggest single day yet bringing in 65 gallons from my 65+ taps. I doubt I can boil it all down, but I plan to get most of it done before Sunday night. Luckily, I put a temporary tarp over my setup to keep the snow off. They are calling for several inches of mixed precip and snow through Saturday. Should be an interesting and long weekend. Next year, I will have a building and a larger setup. Live and learn I guess!

I will get the fire going as soon as I get home tomorrow. I am sure I will have several gallons to collect before the temps take a nose dive over the weekend.

[Homestead Maple]

Starting this way you will appreciate all the more each improvement you make. Don't give up hope. I was a little better off I guess when I first started. I took over my kids play house, (5'x5') and put a homemade arch in there with a stainless French fry friolator pan to boil in, with 35 taps. My first syrup was, well, black. Flavor wasn't to bad though. Best of luck to you.

[newman_maple]

I just got to a boil, but the weather is defiantly my enemy this weekend. The wind is whipping around and the snow is blowing. My A-Frame 2x4 tarp shelter is helping, but the wind is blowing too much to keep things nice. I will stay dry and I plan to run in and out tonight vs. sitting out there. I may lose some time keeping a good boil, but oh well..... I will be making progress. They are still calling for 8 - 10 inches of blowing snow before it's over. The radar looks like many of you are getting a big dose this afternoon too!

[maplehound]

Newman, you jsut have to learn to enjoy a good sugaring snow like this. I brought in about 1000 gallons of sap over the last 2 days. Now my tanks are dry and I have made 33 gallons of light fancy syrup for this year.

[newman_maple]

I will enjoy it for sure when I get a shack built. Bring it on next season! For now, I just do what I can to keep the sap boiling and my toes warm!

Maybe someday, I will be able to handle 1000 gallons. That would be sweet for sure.

[maplehound]

new man, My first year I made syrup in kettles over an open fire. I spent several all nighters keeping the fire going. Made all of 7 gallons my first year and worked myself to death. However I have steadly grown and still have growing pains. Hopefully nest year at this time I will have yet another addition on my sugar house. Just enjoy where you are and keep working on improving. Remember it is just a hobby, for me I just hope this hobby comes close to paying for itself.

[newman_maple]

You are right that it is just a hobby. I have had fun this year for sure even with all the issues to overcome. Even though the weather is a pain, it does make it more interesting.

[maplehound]

newman,
i jsut looked at your pictures. I wish I had a nice area to tap like you seem to have. It even looks like you have a nice lake to fish in after the syrup season is done. And boy would I love to have that Mule!!!!!!! I have a long list of wants and no money to fill that list with. :)

[newman_maple]

Well, I have no money right now either....... Prices are up and the income is down. I would tell my math students that this is an easy problem to understand.

Having the pond is great. We fish it off and on all year. I moved next to my folks and I have the edge of the farm now. Only a few acres and hope to have more someday, but the pond is the jewel of the place to me. It is 1/3 acre and stocked well. 1/3 of my taps are next to the pond and it never gets muddy there. My best spot for sure since I can take the mule to them regardless of weather.

I am going to explore some other spots on my Dad's place this year to see if I can increase my taps without getting too far from home.

[maplehound]

The only draw back to those taps is that you probably don't want to put up tubing in that area. At least not permanently. If your Dad has a good woods try the tubing it sure saves alot of time and labor during the season.

[newman_maple]

If my Dad has trees close enough for tubing, I would like to try it, but I will have to make sure the cows are not in those fields and I would likely only use gravity. The other issue is that the hillsides lead down to a small creek which would make it difficult to get out. I just need to take a closer look.

The other question I have is about bottles. I have been ordering 8 oz. glass bottles from Bascom. I really like them Bascom, but I was just wondering if you knew of a better source? Plastic seems to cost quite a bit more, but I would like to offer some in plastic. I have a few pint and quart plastic to try. Bascom's all state plastic jugs are nice, but they leave no real place for a label.

[maplehound]

I went to Karl Evans place the other day to buy jugs and glass bottles. He told me that the D&G bottles that I had been using had really gone up in price. When I started buying them they where about 1/2 the price of the sugar hill oxygen barier jug. Now they cost about 10% more. So this time I bought the sugar hill jug. None of them acctually leave you a good place to put your label bu I do use an address label that I print myself and find anyplace I can to put it. The glass bottles I mostly use a hanging tag that I make from a folded business card. Here to I print them myself from my computer and use the gold elastic cord to hang them with. Check with your local dealers and see what bottles they have to offer. Sometimes they will sell you discontinued styles for less.

[maplekid]

maplehound do you know of any maple suppliers around this area. ive went to richards but thats to far to drive unless ive got a lot of $ to spend.

[fred]

newman-i had two woods that had cattle pastured in them and very few problems- until the chain saws came in

maplekid-the closest person to you is the guy in salem but ive never been to his place

[maplehound]

I believe the guy in Salem that you are refering to is Dave Hivley. He will help you order things but he doesn't carry any supplies. Mostly he is a supplier just for the convience of being able to buy at a lower price. I ussually go to one of 3 diffrent dealers. First one closest to you would probably be Clanrence Moore. He is an elderly gentilman living near Hirram and carries a nice supplie of bottles. Not sure but I think his sons are now taking over for him. It has been a couple years since I have bought from him, but would recomend him highly. Second one close to you might be Jim Cermak of Sugar creek farms. He is in Middlefield and ussually is around on Wed. His other job is Dental surgan. he has a very impressive set up and I like buying equipment and tubing from him. I also deal with Karl Evans. He ussually deals with several diffrent companies and can get the best prices buy going to the cheapest one. Although I believe right now he is only listed with Leader. He lives just off Route 11 On Dennison- Ashtublua Rd, just oustside of Dennison. If you Want I can E-mail you there phone #'s

[maplehound]

For those of you near the Salem Ohio area, It should be a big weekend coming up but if you can pull yourselfes away from boiling come to the NEOFA's ( north east Ohio forestry association) Maple syrup Tour. At Dave and Nacy Hively's tree Farm. Sat. March 15'th @ 12:00. Dave boils on a 5x14 evaporator and usses an RO as well. He has about 800 taps at his sugarhouse and another 1000 taps on a leased woods that he hauls the sap in from. To Add a little extra to the day he will be having a profesional chainsaw carer come and will be arving a bear. Also Darren Garlough, an arborst will be there to demonstrate cutting a tree form the top down.
Dave lives at 10644 W. Middletown Rd. About a 1/4 mile east off Rout 45.
Let me know if you need any more info.

[maplekid]

well i beter get my wetsuit on all my buckets are running over and i dont have enough evaporator to handle it. maplehound ii might go to that as it is close to me are you going?

[newman_maple]

Last weekend was LONG trying to boil my 215 gallons. I brought in 140 since yesterday so I plan to start Thursday night and the wife said she would do what she could Friday. I hope I can handle this run. I will have the tanks filled in a day or so and I will be looking for buckets for the rest. A good problem to have I suppose, but I am finding a flat pan a poor choice for big runs. My 5 gallons from last weekend turned out good, but not as good as the smaller batches. I plan to limit my batches to 125 gallons or so from now on. When I get a shack and another pan, this will be much easier. My wood supply is low as well. I have enough for this weekend, but I will be cutting after that. The weather looks warm long term so this might be my last big run .... but I thought that before.

[tom jr.]

A severe sap run warning is in effect for northeast ohio for wednesday through somtime next week. periods of spraying sap hard boiling and heavy beer drinking will be expirenced through out the state. Please exercise caution when fireing evaporators as it is very hot!!!! It would be very wise to stock the coolers with boiling supplies now before the extreme sap conditions persist as this will be a 5-7 day run, please stay tuned to tapping OH thread for the latest sugar bush conditions.

[maplehound]

Maple kid , I will be there and hope to see you there as well. If the sap is running like I think it might be I may have to leave early to ga haul mine in. I think you will enjoy it Dave is a great guy to know and is a real wealth of knowledge. There will be alot of others there who are very knolagable about wood lot managment as well. It should be a fun time for all.

[maplehound]

Forgot to say that I am having a good year. Today we boiled for several hours finishing off a total of 50 gallons of syrup for the year and it is all light. Now I do wish I could at least go to a medium for a while. Also we plan on starting up again in the morning. We have about 400 gallons here at the sugar house and will have about that much more in the woods by morning. So it looks like an all day boil tomorrow. Also I had an interesting visitor today. OUr County Ag agent stopped today. He seemed impressed with my set up and asked if I would like to be a part of an ag tour. Not sure what will come of it but how fun just to be asked.

[maplehound]

I think I am finnally getting ahead of this sap run. I started the day with 1000 gallosn of sap and end it with about 300 gallons that just flowed in during the day today. Although I think we should get another big run tomorrow and it shouldn't shut down till mid or late on Saturday. 65+ gallons made and it is all light.

[newman_maple]

The sap ran great Mon - Wed and was almost gone today. I do have enough to get another 4-5 gallons over the weekend. I have gotten an early start tonight so I should not have any problems with my latest run. The weather will be much better even with the rain. The long range forecast for me has no cold temps at night so I may be done. I will wait and see.

[maplehound]

We thought we may just have a little boiling to do today so we waited till about 11:00 to start boiling. Then Dad went to the woods to check on thngs and found that we had a tank full. So after bringing down 3 loads from the woods and boiling all day I shut down at 8:00pm and still have 600 gallons waiting on me tomorrow and will have 300 - 500 gallons in the woods to bring down. BOY ARE WE GETTING TIRED. Long range forcast show that we will have alot of warm nights next week so I expect it to slow down some soon.

[fred]

BOY ARE WE GETTING TIRED. .

time for a bigger rig

[maplehound]

boiled another 800 gallons down today. Just finished up around 9:30 after starting around 11:00. I think I am now around 97 gallons made. But I am now dry in my tanks and have only about 150 gallons in the woods, so we get to take a day off. :) Also need to loook for more wood. All that dry wood seems to be disappering.
Fred, At today's prices I think I will stay with the rig I have and just not put any more taps out.