Didn't tap all of them

[Mike Van]

I did most of mine yesterday, no freeze last night, many had some sap this AM at dawn. I can never seem to get dark syrup, or I get very little. About half of my trees will run right up until the last frost. I saved a half dozen I'm not going to tap until March, just to see if they'll run darker later?

[Mike Van]

I had 20 gal. of sap [wow, huh?] this afternoon, so I dumped it in, fired up & boiled it down to about 4 gal. Smelled good!

[Revi]

I did most of mine yesterday, no freeze last night, many had some sap this AM at dawn. I can never seem to get dark syrup, or I get very little. About half of my trees will run right up until the last frost. I saved a half dozen I'm not going to tap until March, just to see if they'll run darker later?


They will all run darker later, I'm sure. The dark syrup is from more beasties that get cooked into the syrup. Making only light syrup is a problem we'd all love to have.

[scw]

Tapped 31 of 100 here in Guilford on Sunday. Been too warm. Got 20 gallons Sunday and Monday. Better get the pans set up soon.

[Mike Van]

Picked up 55 gal/sap yesterday & boiled it off. Should be some more today, as the big trees just started running. Looks like some time off from Sunday to ????????

[Mike Van]

I picked up about 50/gal of sap on Thursday. My son had to help me dump buckets, I was so sick for 3 days. !st day was throwing up, 2nd day was the other end. Glad thats over with. Fired up at noon today & boiled it off. Sure was great to be back out in the fresh air. Looks like by Wednesday we should be running pretty good here.

[Mike Van]

Picked up 60 gal. & boiled it off last night. May be a little left over today in the pails as it was still running when I was collecting. After that, old man winter comes back for a few days. Stupid groundhog.

[Mike Van]

Back at it finally, we should have some sap for the next few days - weeks? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/MikeVan/syrup09.jpg

[markct]

glad to hear ya got some sap again mike, mine have been flowing great here too! they ran almost around the clock since friday! i pumped out friday at 6 pm and my tanks had over 200 gallons in morning from 325 taps. the only disapointment is that its a bit under 2 percent sugar content, but i figured it might be low since alot of woods trees and swamp/red maples

[Mike Van]

Hey Mark - If anyone didn't have [a lot of] sap in Ct. this past weekend, it's cause they didn't drill deep enough! I picked up a little over 100 gal from my 50 trees, looks like Tue. it should be running again. Boy, I got MUD! driveway, barnyard, what a mess.

[markct]

oh yea do we have mud here! i had to find a longer hose to dump the sap tank into the bulk tank so i could keep the truck on the gravel driveway, atleast the ruts in the gravel drivway are only a few inches deep so far as opposed to the 8 to 10 inch deep ruts where i backed up to drain the sap! yea this week ahead looks pretty good for sap indeed

[Mike Van]

What a joy, the mud, ice & snow are gone! :) Part 2 of this, I tapped 6 extra trees on the 13th. These are ones farther away from the barn I've never tapped before. Mostly I want to see how long they'll keep running after some of my others have stopped. Good weather this weekend and beyond! :)

[Mike Van]

Had my best one day total ever yesterday from the same 50+ trees I do every year, 120 gals. of sap. Today looks good too. Woodpile took a hit for sure.

[Mike Van]

Well, my late tapping experiment was all for naught, as I still had some 30 trees still running fine when the season just up & ended. I was praying for one more frost............ Anyway, I had my second best year, ballpark 1050 gal/sap. I'm happy. Now I gotta clean all this crap.......

[markct]

yea my few buckets i added later stopped at the same time as all the others, started washing my tubing yesterday still gota chase the sweet outa the evap with some water this weekend. a very disapointing yea, under 20 gal total for me here but next year im gona add another 150 to 200 taps and hope for a better season overall. on a sidenote mike, i just moved my sawmill up by the shop and started tearing into her, changing the motor and adding hydraulics so i can add powerfeed, once maple is over theres always another project coming up!