2009 Season WestVirginiaMapler

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/06/09

I was able to get off work a couple of hours early and put in 230 taps on one of my south side bushes in about 2.5 hours. Also, got both of the tanks set and made some minor repairs. Temperature was about 40 or a little higher and all blue sky and sun all day and no wind. Beautiful day to be in the woods working and the sap was running a little before dark. This bush is split in the middle by a fence and belongs to 2 different people. The larger side has aprox 165 taps on it and all but about 5, I used the Leader Disposal extensions to see if they make a difference as the other side of the fence has about 65 taps on it and these 65 run into a different tank than the other 165, so I can see how big of a difference they make if any.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/07/09

Spent the morning at my son's bball game and hit the sugarhouse about 11:15 and spent a couple of hours tapping the other south side bush, setting tanks and making a few minor changes on the tubing and repairs. This bush has aprox 115 taps on it and a lot of them are very steep or have to be tapped off of a ladder because they are nearly flat and I have the high end of the taps on the flat area about 8 to 10 feet off the ground to maintain slope. In this bush, I have about 90 of the taps on the Leader tree saver spout extensions running into the same tank and I have about 15 other taps running into a seperate tank that are not on the spout extensions. I also have 4 other taps running into a small tank and 7 on buckets, so it will give me a good idea how much difference if any these spout extensions make pendiing the season will run until around March 21st which would be 6 full weeks. Temperature was in mid 50's most of the day and sap was running pretty good in both bushes by late afternoon with lots of sun and some wind. Forecast for next several days show warm, rain and little freezing. Hope to get enough sap for a good long boil one day this week, but we'll see what happens. Ground still frozen pretty good and not sure how deep it is frozen.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/08/09

Here's 10 day forecast current temp at 8:30 is 46 degrees

Today
Feb 8AM Showers
45°
24°
30%
Mon
Feb 9
Partly Cloudy
52°
36°
10%
Tue
Feb 10
Few Showers
58°
39°
30%
Wed
Feb 11
Cloudy
56°
32°
10%
Thu
Feb 12
Rain / Snow Showers
43°
25°
30%
Fri
Feb 13
Partly Cloudy
45°
27°
Sat
Feb 14
Rain / Snow Showers
41°
24°
40%
Sun
Feb 15
Rain / Snow Showers
36°
23°
60%
Mon
Feb 16
Partly Cloudy
35°
24°
10%
Tue
Feb 17
Partly Cloudy
33°
18°
10%

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/08/09

I had one of the helpers to check out my tanks this evening and appears there is 400+ gallons in them so far since yesterday morning. Supposed to get to 27 tonight, so hopefully a decent freeze that will get them restarted again tomorrow and I can get out of work by 3 or so to collect. Might be able to do a big boil on Tues, but wait and see. Lot of temps in 50's and pushing 60 for next 3 or 4 days. Way too early for this so far, but take what we get and hopefully a big boil on Tues or Wed.

[Tomahawk]

Hey Brandon!!

Glad to see you're off to a great start.

Good luck this year my friend.

[mapleman3]

Git R done Brandon!! looks like you'll be boiling something soon!!

[Sugarmaker]

Brandon you are right into it! Great our season is just a few days behind.
We may be boiling Tuesday night also.

Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/09/09

Collected around 500 gallon of sap this evening and maybe a touch more. Sap was still running some and not supposed to freeze this evening so it will quit running overnight or during day tomorrow. Upper 50's today and pushing 60 next 2 days. Then colder into middle of next week, so no more sap runs in sight at this time. Hope to get at least another 100 to 150 gallon tomorrow afternoon when I collect, but we'll see. Will fire up the evaporator about 7:30 tomorrow morning and make sure no bugs or problems before I turn it over to one of my helpers to boil while I work. Not a bad run for the first run as I have only about 2/3 of my taps in the the other 1/3 that are not tapped are my best running taps which will go in sometime in the next 2 to 3 weeks. Hopefully the spout savers will help extend the season this all this 5 day high temp spell.

[mfchef54]

wvm,
what's the sugar content?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have no idea what sugar content is, but seems good for me as I average about 50 to 1 ratio or 1.75% sugar content. Drew off close to 10 gallon yesterday from 585 gallon of sap and that is starting up with raw sap, so probably close to 3 gallon of syrup still in the evaporator.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/10/09

Collected aprox 60 more gallons today and boiled off 585 gallons total which included sweetening pans. Drew off close to 10 gallons and it is all light syrup. Temps in upper 50's today which is 4th straight day of temps in 50's and close to 60 tomorrow and then a cooldown over the next 10 days, so no more syrup weather in sight.

I have aprox 350 of my 525 taps in and all the taps are on the south side. I have aprox 175 north side taps that I got aprox 10 gallon per tap in 10 days last year, so they are my ace in the hole in case too much warm weather hurt the south side trees. I didn't tap them until 4 weeks after starting on the south side last year, so hope to wait until around March 1st again this year and hit it right again hopefully which is about 3 weeks before season usually ends here which is around March 21st.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/15/09 Appears we had somewhere around 150+ gallon of sap run on Sat and Sunday. Not a lot, but every little bit helps. Been busy at work and haven't been to sugarhouse for a few days. Cold last night and in 20's all day today and supposed to be 14 tonight and 42 tomorrow with lots of sunshine, 28 tomorrow night and 40's and rain and snow on Wed and then very cold into next week. Hope to get a small run tomorrow and Wed and then get ready for the next run. Will try to collect what sap runs tomorrow along with what is in the tanks from Sat and Sunday tomorrow evening and then collect anything else that runs after tomorrow evening on Thurs as I have to be out of town in training on Wed.

Good luck to all the northern brothers, it won't be long if you haven't tapped yet. I still have 33% of my taps that I haven't tapped yet and they are on the north side and are my best flowing taps, but hopefully can wait until around March 1st as I did last year to tap.

[mapleman3]

Hey Brandon, we are still slightly cold here, although with the sun it gets near 40, I'll start thinking next week I'll tap. Hope it starts flowing for you again soon!!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jim,I

t was really warm all week and lots of days in 50's and pushing 60 for about 8 days. This week is too cold, so I hope it's not one of the years where it is either too cold or too hot most of the season.

Better get in the woods and get those drops in this week so you will be ready to tap. We are just over 10 days until March 1st.

[Tomahawk]

Lookin' good Brandon!

I really enjoy following along with your progress -- thanks for the posts.

Checked out your photo album again too -- awesome setup!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/17/09

Collect around 210 gallon that ran on Saturday and Sunday before it turned cold again. Supposed to be a small warmup on Wed and Thursday, so hoping for a little run.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/19/09

Collect 240+ gallons that ran from Tues evening thru Wed night. Never ran much or very hard, just slow and steady. This year is one of those years that vacuum would make a big difference in sap quanity. Wind chill was close to zero this evening collecting sap and snow was flying down heavy at times. About the coldest it had been in collecting sap, at least in a long time. Very cold tomorrow and small warmup Saturday before getting very cold again.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/20/09

My dad and my main helper boiled off 455 gallons of sap today in 7 hours and canned off everything that they drew off today and what was drawn off from the boil last week and canned off 18 gallons of all light. Syrup is a nice color and a light flavor. Hopefully the rest of the season will be at least Med or Dark A, but with all these 10 to 15 degree nights, may be more light on the way. Most everyone wants dark syrup, but they will have to take whatever comes out. Supposed to be in mid 40's tomorrow with lots of sun, but doubt we will get any sap flow since the lows have been around 10 last night and again tonight and a lot of below zero wind chills.

If the season last for 6 weeks, I am 1/3 of the way thru it and been kinda slow so far with only 18 gallon of syrup off of 350 taps and aprox 3 more in the evaporator. Hopefully things will pick up, but we'll see. It's either been too cold or too warm so far, but we'll see what happens. Either way, just have fun and enjoy whatever God sends my way.

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Hi Brandon, good to see things are flowing for you..I just wanted to stop in and say hi to y'all on here.. I will be back at it next season, still got some left over from last season.

So i get to watch and read about you all doing the deed this year and love being able to.. Turning out to be an interesting season this year..the weather is very different this year compared to last season..

Best of luck to everybody in there golden maple forests
Charlie

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Charlie,

Great to hear from you. Hate to hear you are not making syrup this year, but enjoy keeping up with everyone else!

Brandon

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/24/09

Tapped the remaining 175 taps today as I was planning on waiting until 1st of the month, but we are just over 3 weeks from season being over down here and the next 3 days looks like too much of a good run to miss. It got up to close to 40 today after being in single digits last 2 nights.

Here's the 10 day forecast. Good luck to my other sap brothers.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/health/coldandflu/tenday/25976?from=36hr_topnav_flu

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Thanks Brandon, Ya i just had to at least stop by here in your post and say howdy...looks to be an OK season after all.

My weather has been fluky this year..but never the less Ive seen the tree's running from cracks on limbs and a few nibbled off buds dripping from the deer nipping the tips off some of the new growth....

Charlie

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/26/09

Picked up about 540 gallon of sap this evening that ran from Wed afternoon thru the night until this afternoon. No freezing tonight until it gets cold Sat night and then appears too cold most of next week. Left about 75 gallon of sap in the woods this evening and hopefully it will continue to run thru the night into tomorrow before the wind picks up sometime tonight or tomorrow.

Appears will be a good boil off tomorrow and hopefully can collect what is in the woods tomorrow afternoon and get it boiled off too. Nothing exciting with sap flow this year, but slow and steady a couple of days each week.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/27/09
Collected aprox 400 more gallons of sap and boiled off 650 gallons. Aprox 300 more to boil off tomorrow and whatever runs from time collected today until I collect tomorrow morning. It hasn't frozen since it started running, so the sap has been running since Wed without a freeze.

Canned off 12.5 more gallons yesterday and hopefully can off another 10 to 12 today. Thru yesterday, at 30.5 canned off and a couple of gallons that I drew off yesterday didn't get canned. Supposed to get down to about 10 again and then start warming back up Tues and Wed. Next week looks like good sap weather for a huge run end of next week. So far staying pretty cool and cold and other than first week of warm weather, tap holes should be in good shape for another 3 weeks. Most of the taps I tapped on 02/07 have new Leader spout adapters in the holes, so I will hopefully be able to see the benefits of them.

Everything is light so far and sugarsand is the least I have ever seen.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/28/09
Collected another 200 gallon of sap today. Pretty amazing sap was still running some this afternoon which was over 72 hours since it started running without a freeze. I got 1150 gallon of sap from this run and made nearly 25 gallon of syrup. Canned 12.25 gallon this evening which puts it at 42.75 for the season and with what is in evaporator and flushed from press, it should put it at 46 to 47 gallon for season. Definitely best Feb I have had if memory serves me correctly. Boiled right at 2,200 gallon of sap so far, so sugar content is very good for me this year. Can't make anything but light syrup so far and drained the evaporator for a good cleaning next week which will likely contribute to more light syrup. Appears we have used about 33% of our wood and likely enough wood for 4,000 more gallon of sap and tons more laying already cut for next year in the woods, but I don't anticipate needing any of that.

Cold again this weekend and down to 6 on Monday and then start warming back up next week and end of next week looks about like this week. We had 2 nights in single digits and then it went to 50+ for nearly four days and next weeks looks like the same. Good thing this week and next week looks the same is that the sun was out nearly all day on Wed thawing out the trees and got up to 50 even though it didn't run much on Wed from the tremendous freeze we had, after Wed afternoon, the sun has stayed hid almost the entire time other than a few minutes which kept the trees running and kept the sap nice, cool and fresh.

[JohnM]

Go Brandon!

Looks like you will have a great season in WV this year.

Best wishes to you and your family.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

John,

Thanks and how are things going with you. Haven't been on here much to keep up with things. Too early to tell yet, but season usually runs until around March 21 and I usually make most of my syrup in March. Key word is USUALLY! lol

[JohnM]

Great season so far in Indiana. Still backyarding on your old pan.

Freezing now, will run big sap toward the end of this week!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

03/05/09

Collected aprox 380 gallon of sap this evening. Was down to 3 a couple of nights ago, so it took all day yesterday and half of today to get the sap going. It was running as hard as I have ever seen it this evening at dark and after dark when I was collecting. I have never seen sap run that fast thru 5/16" tubing and would guess it was running at 50 to 60 gph. Supposed to get down close to freezing tonight and 58 and sunny tomorrow. No freezing tomorrow night and 65 on Sat. We have an open house on Saturday and are planning for 150, so we'll see what happens. Appears we will have plenty of sap to boil. Saturday will make 4 full weeks, so the end is in sight. Supposed to be 65 on Sunday also and no more freezing until Thurs, so the tap holes are going to take a beating. Hopefully get another decent run or two after this week and hoping for 1500 gallon from this run before it quits on Sat.

Good luck, looks like great maple weather everywhere this weekend!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

03/06/09

Collected 400 to 500 more gallon of sap today and boiled off 510 gallons and made 12.875 gallon of syrup from 510 gallons of sap which equates to 40 to 1 ratio or 2.5% sugar content. Best I have ever had in 1 day to my knowledge. Hope to get another 400+ gallon by time it quits running tomorrow PM and hoping to be able to boil 700 to 800 gallon of sap for open house tomorrow on Sat. Supposed to be 69 degrees next two days, so not going to be good for any holes as it is going to be Thurs before the next freeze. At 55.75 gallons thru yesterday and the 12.875 was a borderline light/med on color with a definite light taste. Labeled it as med so I would have something besides light to sell for the open house.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

03/07/09 Saturday

Big day at the sugarhouse in more ways than one and a big praise item in more ways than one. We had 70 degree temps for the open house, so that was good and bad but a beautiful day and a turnout of 100+ for the open house and hopefully educated many on how syrup is made and they enjoyed free syrup and pancakes and sap to taste. No one got hurt and seemed everyone enjoyed themselve and while all of this was going on, we managed to boil off 930 gallons of sap which was by far the most sap we had boiled off in one day. Canned off another 13.75 gallons of light syrup which put us at 69.5 gallons of syrup so far this season with all of it being light syrup. Amazing as that is aprox 80% of a normal crop and it is all light.

The last 5 gallon we drew off appeared to be a Dark A grade, so finally good to get some of that but that's what happens when you are boiling sap that has been sitting for 36 hours in 60 to 70 degrees other than when it cooled at night.

50's and 60's for about 6 or 7 straight days and up to 70 two of the days, so I am hopeful that this won't kill the season. If I drained the evaporator and finished canning everything we have, we would be at aprox 78 gallons of syrup, so a good year for 4 weeks if it does end. Supposed to get colder on Wed and hopefully we can pull another 1000 to 1200 gallon of sap before the season ends which is about how much sap we would need to get to 100 gallon of syrup.

Interesting side note in two days last weekend we made almost 25 gallon of syrup and this weekend in 2 days we made aprox 32 gallon of syrup. The entire 4 weeks so far has been from the cold extreme of single digits and close to zero to 60 or warmer. We have basically no sap days of freezing at night and 40+ during the day. It froze last on Wed night and after being 50's on Thurs, 60 and sun on Friday and 70 and all sun yesterday,the sap was still running amazing strong yesterday evening when I pulled the lines from the tanks and sanitized all the tanks.

[wvsugarshak]

Sounds like a good time was had by all. Are you still collecting this week in hopes of better weather for the rest of the week? I sanitized by bags but left the taps in. I was going to put my bags back out tomorrow in hopes of getting more sap. Do you still collect sap from trees that have started budding? Or should I just use the ones that have not really budded yet? If I use all my trees I have tapped then I can collect enough to get my rig up and running again. If I have to just pick and chose the ones that have not definitely budded then I may not even get enough to warrant firing up my rig again.

[220 maple]

WV Sugarshak,
Have your sugars started to bud? I'm located in Grant County which is much closer than Brandon's trees in Greenbrier County. My sugars appear to be ok. My red maples are finished they can not stand the heat that we just went thru. I live in Harrisonburg Va. which is south of your location in the Eastern Panhandle, the silver maple in my yard opened up last week, a couple days after it was 10 above zero, go figure? I'm going to pull my Reds off line today and see if we get anything from the sugars off this next freeze. Some of my sugars are getting near the end of a productive taps life, If the long range forecast looked promissing (which it doesn't) I would fix them to get a couple more weeks from them. To answer your question. you can boil sap from a budding tree however it smells very bad and tastes even worse. I usually try to make as much as possible, I have a buyer and then I take that money and expand my operation every year. If you make some bud sap syrup don't throw it out turn it into cash.

Mark 220 Maple

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Appears to be about over here. Today is the 7th day in a row of temps in the 50's and 60's without any freezing and warm nights when this should be about the 2nd best week of the season behind the first week of March. Supposed to get around 24 to 25 the next 2 nights, so I am hoping for a little more. We have had less than .25 inches of precipitation all month, so the ground is getting really dry too which makes it more difficult.

My hope is that 250 of the first 350 taps I put in on Feb 6th and 7th have new Leader tree saver sanitary extensions in them and the last 175 taps were sterilized with alcohol and not tapped until around Feb 25th. We'll see what happens as it has been a good year but tough year. Sugar content has been better than I have ever seen it but we have had basically 4 runs and each time it has went from single digits to 50's or 60's within 2 to 3 days and we have had basically no 20's at nights and 40's during the day the entire season. God has blessed us with good sugar content and 3 days of continuous sap flow the end of 2 weeks ago and again last weekend without any freezing and those 6 days and 4 weekend days of boiling yielded close to 57 gallon. 2 years in a row with very strange sap weather. Last year turned out to be a good year due to fact we got 50% of the entire seasons sap 2400 gallon in a 5 day run not including what ran on the ground. Either way, I have been doing this long enough to know that it is difficult to have 2 good seasons in a row, it seems to alternate about every year. I would guess we are at 77 to 78 gallon this year so far with 69.5 gallon of all light already canned.

Hopefully over the next week or so we can get a little more sap to trickle in and maybe get up to 90 gallons. Been one of the coldest winters on record this year and basically no warmups other than when sap season started.

[wvsugarshak]

Hey, 220 Maple, I really appreciation you getting back to me. My silver and red and sugars are doing the same as yours are. Maybe we can stop by for a vist when we are done your way. I might see what this week brings and then call it a season. Got a good bit this year with the new taps I put in. I have not bottled everything yet but it looks good so far.

[Homestead Maple]

Appears to be about over here. Today is the 7th day in a row of temps in the 50's and 60's without any freezing and warm nights when this should be about the 2nd best week of the season behind the first week of March. Supposed to get around 24 to 25 the next 2 nights, so I am hoping for a little more. We have had less than .25 inches of precipitation all month, so the ground is getting really dry too which makes it more difficult.

My hope is that 250 of the first 350 taps I put in on Feb 6th and 7th have new Leader tree saver sanitary extensions in them and the last 175 taps were sterilized with alcohol and not tapped until around Feb 25th. We'll see what happens as it has been a good year but tough year. Sugar content has been better than I have ever seen it but we have had basically 4 runs and each time it has went from single digits to 50's or 60's within 2 to 3 days and we have had basically no 20's at nights and 40's during the day the entire season. God has blessed us with good sugar content and 3 days of continuous sap flow the end of 2 weeks ago and again last weekend without any freezing and those 6 days and 4 weekend days of boiling yielded close to 57 gallon. 2 years in a row with very strange sap weather. Last year turned out to be a good year due to fact we got 50% of the entire seasons sap 2400 gallon in a 5 day run not including what ran on the ground. Either way, I have been doing this long enough to know that it is difficult to have 2 good seasons in a row, it seems to alternate about every year. I would guess we are at 77 to 78 gallon this year so far with 69.5 gallon of all light already canned.

Hopefully over the next week or so we can get a little more sap to trickle in and maybe get up to 90 gallons. Been one of the coldest winters on record this year and basically no warmups other than when sap season started.

Those 20 degree temps will turn things around for you. It will be interesting to see what grade you make after that kind of a warm up. I'm guessing, dark.

[Jax]

Looks like I'm about finished as well. The little sap I am getting is a little cloudy and, at least the past couple days, doesn't have a particularly pleasant smell. Since I've been freezing it all season, I don't want to contaminate the good sap I have, so I've been tossing what I get the past 2 days. Hopefully we'll get a mini-run this weekend, but I'm not hopeful.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

03/16/09

Collected about 240 gallons of sap this evening and left aprox 100 more in the woods as I ran out of time. The 350 taps on the south side only yielded aprox 50 gallons and the 175 on the north side that were tapped aprox 2.5 weeks later yielded close to 300 gallons. Just a couple of very light freezed towards end of last week and it warmed up a little on Sat and started raining and has been raining the majority of the time since and the sap had been running slow and stead. Supposed to get to 24 a couple of nights towards the end of the week, so may get a touch more of sap, but we'll wait and see. It was still running a little this evening and I will gather what I left out this evening along with whatever runs between now and then tomorrow afternoon and boil off everything.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

03/17/09

Gathered another 150 gallon of sap this evening and pulled the lines out of the tanks and sanitized tanks and buckets in the woods as I try to do at least once every week. Supposed to get to 22 on night and to 26 and 27 the other two nights end of week, so hoping for one more run end of week thru Monday as I am heading out of town for a few days the middle of next week it appears.

Boiled off 390 gallons today and made about 7 or so gallons of B. Hope to get another 300 to 500 gallons this weekend and might push us past the 90 gallon mark for the season as I am at aprox 85 gallons so far.

[tapper]

Brandon,
Happy to see you are still at it. With that forcast you may reach 100+ gallons for the season. Good luck!!!

[markcasper]

Go Brandon, GO BRANDON!!!!! GO!!!! 100 gallons here you come!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Mark,

Would be cool to reach 100 gallon as I haven't ever made that much. 97.5 gallon last year and about a gallon that came out of the press that I boiled down to candy, but that was as close as I have been. Last three years have been 92.5, 92.5 & 97.5.

Wish the weather we have had this season, I never expected to get to 90 gallons so if I get above 90, it would be tremendous.

Forecast still showing 27, 22, 28 for Thurs thru Sat nights, so hopefully a few hundred more gallon and we are about 250 gallon of sap to reach 90 and at 50 to 1 ratio, anything above 250 gallons will push the number higher.

[Sugarmaker]

Brandon,
Hope you hit the 100 gallon mark!

Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

03/21/09(Saturday)

Collected 190+ gallon of sap today as we have hit the perfect sap weather now that the season is over. Today is day # 44 since I tapped first 237 taps. Got to 27 Thurs night and low 40's on Friday, 19 Friday night and close to 50 today and supposed to get to low 20's tonight and 57 on Sunday and monday and upper 20's Sunday night. Go figure, been waiting for that kind of weather for 6 weeks, LOL. Sap quality was good and hope to get another 200 to 300 gallon by Monday evening and boil it all off on Monday. Canned 12.125 gallons of Dark A which I thought would be B but had so much sludge in it I had to change papers 3 times to get the stuff filtered. Had a light flavor and very good syrup, but finally figured out I had to load it full of filter aid and the third time I still only got aprox 7 gallon thru the press. Appears with what is in the evaporator and what I haven't canned yet, we are at about 85 gallon and hope to make a few more tomorrow, depending on how much sap we get. I would imagine sugar content will be low, but we'll wait and see. So far, I have canned 81.625 gallons of syrup with 69.5 being light and the remainer being Dark. I can't believe we are still making syrup with all of the warm days in the 50's and 60's we have had over the past 6+ weeks, but the sap is still running. Most of my sap is coming from the north side bush and the were tapped less than 4 weeks ago and we still running good this past weekend. I did refresh some of the taps on Thurs and Friday to keep them fresh for this one last run. My smaller south bush with 115 taps was shutdown Wed morning when I pulled all the taps and flushed all the lines.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

03/23/09(Monday)

Today is day # 46 and collected another 295 gallon of sap that ran from Saturday evening thru about 1 pm today. Boiled off 490 gallon and sugar content appeared to be really low and probably only got 7.5 gallon of syrup max. Canned off another 7.875 gallon of Dark which puts it at 89.5 gallon canned so far this year and hopefully boil another 100 or so gallon tomorrow and that will be it for the year. Appears year end totals will be somewhere around 95 gallon for year.

[Tomahawk]

Congrats Brandon on a successful year, I enjoyed following your updates all season, thanks.

http://msp521.photobucket.com/albums/w334/autumnkalliope/congrats/congrats1.gif

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

03/24/09(Tues)

Day # 47 and it ended today. Collected another 75 gallon of sap and boiled it down and chased out sap in flue pan with about 40 gallon of condensate off of evaporator from yesterdays boiling. Canned off 4 gallon of extra dark/Grade B and probably another gallon from what came out of filter press and pans once I get it boiled down and canned at home in a few days which should put season total at 94.5.

Been a tremendous year especially considering drastic swings in temps nearly every week. Made aprox 57 gallon of sap from two basically 3 day runs Thurs thru Sat the last week of Feb and the same the first week of March and made aprox 37 gallon the other 5 weeks combined.

Appears we made 69.5 gallon of light, 20 gallon Dark A and 5 gallon of Extra Dark Syrup. Second highest total I have ever made behind last year which was 97.5 gallon and by far the most light syrup I have ever made. I have calculated sugar content, but it is even better than last year, so the best yet. I keep tweaking tubing every year and it seems to get a little better each year.

Good luck to every up north still going!

[220 maple]

Brandon,
Congrats' 92.5-92.5-97.5 and now 94.5. I'm placing my vote now for you and your trees as the most consistant producer on the Mapletrader.com web site. If we all could keep a average like that we would have something to crow about. I'm sure you want to make more each year, but to be that consistant for the past 4 years is something to be very proud of. Next season I hope you make over 100 gallons, because when that happens and it will, you will probably start a streak of several years where you avg. 100 plus.
Again congrat's

Mark 220 Maple

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Mark,

Thanks and over 100 would be good, but I am pretty happy with what I am averaging. My biggest south side bush has 237 taps on it and they only run about 1/2 of what normal taps do because they are on hillside with lot of slope and all woodland trees and a lot of smaller trees, so they only run about 50 to 60% of what normal trees do, so considering that, I am running closer to 400 taps in terms of production than 500. I have access to probably 300 more taps and may add a few more before next year, but just debating it at this time. It's fun to walk around in the woods and put orange flagging tape on the trees.

With a 2x8, living 30 minutes away and working full time, only so much I can do. I couldn't do as much as I do if I didn't have some good helpers. I got to thinking about what I posted about my production and in 2006 was the first year in the new sugarhouse and I made 73 gallons off of 425 taps. 2007 thru 2009 was 92.5, 97.5 and 94.5, so very consistent the last 3 years.