proud father

[maplehound]

My son has just tapped his first trees. He has been anxsiously awaiting tapping time and today I let him finally put in some taps. After tapping 10 of them together he returned to the house to grab some more bags and spiles and then headed out on his own. He thinks that later when I get home from school we may have to go out and gather what is running in now.
On another note. Today my father and I flushed all my main lines and while my son is in school tomorow we will probably get most of the taps in. Probably lost alot of sap by not tapping them today but after seeing the crud that flushed out of those mainlines I am glad we spent the day doing that.
Good luck to everyone, I believe the big run is coming soon.

[maplehound]

My son put out about 25 taps yeasterday. Late last night we went out and gathered around 12 gallons of sap. he was excited to have that much in just 4 hours after tapping. This morning I see that the bags in the neighbors yard are overflowing, so he should have plenty in the woods when he gets home.
For me on the other hand, here I sit waiting out the ran and the wind. Ihope to get some taps in this afterrnoon if it clears up some.

[Buckeye mapler]

i got another ten gollans from my 16 taps today. we have a pretty good freeze thaw trend for the next 5 days so hopefully we get alot more. I will be boiling here in about an hour. i have 7 kids that are going to be big helpers later. the three younger ones will learn. now i just have to get enough drills and hammers???:confused:

[maplehound]

I told my son yeasterday that come hell or high water I will be tapping on Saturday. Well this morning I felt like the high water must have come. I pulled my back sometime while working in the woods and this morning instead of heading to the woods to tap I headed to the doctors office for some drugs. Have you ever felt like someone doesn't want you to make syrup this year, Well that is how I feel right now. Only good news is that the sap won't be flowing for several days anyhow so I will put off tapping till mid week. :(

[Buckeye mapler]

i dont understand this weather. one minute they say it will reach 37 then they change it. it is freezing out. no sap today. boiled all i had down last night. i am not going to finish it until i add more sap and boil it down some more. sounds like you better take it easy for a few days. let the boy tap some if you really feel like some need done. what he does will be better than nothing while you rest. sounds like he has the opportunity to make a real impact this year and it being his first, well it will only get better!

[maplehound]

yea I am taking it easy for a while. Ryder did put out another 10 taps in the wodds behind us but I have 700 to put out in the woods down the road. It will have to wait till mid week at least til it warms up again by the I should feel better. I hope.

[Buckeye mapler]

maple hound, the link to your photos is messed up. anyway, 700 taps is a good task, but i am sure you will forget the pain once you get started. is he going to be able to help tap the 700? or are they on vacuum and you dont trust his drilling skills to keep a round hole for good seal? i can understand that though. i hope to get some more sap soon. i am going to trade my minivan for a utility four wheeler today so hauling sap will be alot easier!!! now i just need the sap to haul. always an issue with this sugaring thing aint there! take some ibuprofen for its anti inflammatory effect and plus mild pain killer.

[maplehound]

Buckeye,
I am in the prosess of adopting my son at this time. He has never tapped a tree before now and doesn't feel he wants to tap the main woods without me nor do I want him to. I expect him to be a big help this year but I do want him to be just help not take it all over ( at least for now). I did go see the doctor and he gave me some anti inflamitories and steriodes as well as some Vikoden. I feel some better now but still not 100%. Thursday is now my target day for tapping. Wish me luck.

[KenWP]

I suffer the same problem and some mornings are pretty rough. I allways forget to take my meds before bed time.

[maplehound]

I have a history of back problems. 2 1/2 years ago I had a double fusion done on my lower back and missed that syrup season all togther. So when I have problems now I am sure to get it checked out and take it easy for a few days.

[Buckeye mapler]

Thursday i hope to be collecting another boat load of sap. good luck and hope you feel better.

[maplehound]

I wish I could be collecting a boat load with you. I believe that between Thursday and Friday i will get tapped. I am not sur though if it will be worth tapping or not. the Long Range forcast is for 50-60 deg weather the next several days with no freezing nights in site after tonight. :(

[parsissn]

Yep, it's been too hot or too cold so far. Just can't seem to get the right swing of temps to really make it run. In central OH we've only really had two runs and for the whole season so far have an average of 4 gals of sap per tap. Just may turn out to be a bad season here if the weather doesn't start to help out.

Mark

[shawk]

Anyone have a guess as to how much longer we have. I am still learning and watching the buds on the trees. Just don't have the experience yet as to when I should pull the taps.

[butch361]

I hope we have a couple more weeks left. This is my first year and I'm hooked!!!! I put in 5 taps the Feb 6. I have already made a 1 gal of syrup and screwed up 2 batches of candy. 30 taps next year....

[Buckeye mapler]

i only got 5 gallons out of my 16 taps today. I believe it will be better tomorrow.

[maplehound]

put out about half my taps today and hope to get the rest in tomorrow. the flow seemed good in the afternoon.

[Buckeye mapler]

glad to hear you were able to get it started. i got another 20 gallons out of my modest 16 taps today.

[maplehound]

Went to check on things in the woods around 7 pm. With only half my taps on (if even that many) the tank was full. So I had to go back home and get a tank a gas so I could start the generator to pump the tank down and restart the vacuum. Then I went with my son at about 8 pm to check his bags and wiht just less than 30 bags out he brought in 27 gallons of sap. I am sure that this morning there is at least that much more out there to be gathered. hope to get the rest of mine tapped this afternoon and should have plenty of sap tomorrow to boil till I drop.

[Buckeye mapler]

well alright! you aint wastin no time are you? i am getting ready to go check on mine now.

[maplekid]

i dont know about this wheather looks like its not going to cool down till next week. i think the season might be over. and i havent made anywhere near what i shouldve made. hope this isnt the end. ive only made 1.5-2.5 gallons

[maplehound]

Maple kid,
this isn't the end!!!!!!!! It is just the begining. I will do my first boil tomorrow and will probably have 1500 gallons of sap waiting for me in the morning. It is going to stay warm for a few days but by mid week it is going to get back down to freezing and the weather looks perfect for next weekend.

[newman_maple]

I believe it is about over in the deep south of Ohio. This my sixth weekend of boiling so I cannot see much more. The forecast for me shows a few nights in the high 20's late next week. I hope the trees can hold off the buds till then, but some are showing signs now. I can live with making some dark stuff for us to use at home. I would like to get to 2,000 gallons of sap for the year. I have something over 1700 gallons now. Good luck!

[Buckeye mapler]

I can see that too in alot of the trees i am tapping. if it was only a few warm days we may be okay. maybe an unseen cold front will move in and stop the budding trees. we can only hope.

[maplehound]

the weather forcast is chaning, Looks like some good runs ahead. I boiled off about 1,000 gallons of sap today. Finished with about 17 gallons of syrup and a fully sweetend pan. I will probably start up again tomorrow morning. will try to end the day with dry tanks, right now I have about 500- 600 gallons of sap waiting for me. Unfortanitly I am making dark A syrup insstead of light. I am hopefull that I can turn that around next weekend and make some lighter stuff as I do have several orders for light syrup.
GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE

[maplehound]

tanks are all empty now. finished off 26 gallons of syrup this weekend. It looks like next weekend could be a good run as well. After making all dark syrup this week I am hopefull that it will turn around and let me get some lighter syrup, to help things along we will have to drain our syrup pans and cleand them before we boil again.

[fred]

looks good the end of the week.it should bring up to at least med. with fresh sap every day and colder temps

[emo]

I pulled my taps on Saturday. Only 3 trees out of 11 were still dripping and they were really slow. 3 of the trees were really starting to bud; ends of the branches getting really fuzzy. Made about 4 gallons of syrup, all fairly dark due to batch boiling, still tasty.

[maplekid]

how come you pulled the taps? this cold spell were going to get will shut them down real quick

[emo]

I've debated about cleaning out the buckets and storage containers, the storage containers were starting to get some mold, and putting the taps back out. It hasn't been below freezing since last Thursday and not going back under till Wednesday. Odd weather patterns during March and I wasn't sure how much the budding would effect the sap/syrup.

[MFarmall]

I think may get some sap this weekend but if it warms up again next week will probably put end to this season. Buds are getting green at bottom, when break them off. Have only had 2 times with good runs for couple days each. Guess last Friday was best got 345 gallons of sap, 130 Thursday. Have gotten up to 20 gallons either bottled or in the freezer, have 3 1/2 gallon to bottle tomorrow. This batch is a little darker but a lot sweeter than last batch. Hope get enough sap end of this week for another 4-5 gallon of syrup. Started dumping buckets Sat., was way to warm, 70 degrees, it was already going cloudy with some having a little brown in the buckets by noon. Rather not take the chance with it till it cools off. Hopefully Thursday Morning, supposed to be 70 again tomorrow. At least finished flushing all the barrells and containers tonight hope to use them by this weekend. Hope everyone up north of Columbus has a few weeks to go with more than a few good run days.
Mel

[maplehound]

Father and son went to the woods today and found about 75 gallons in our tank. They opened the valve and dumped it, it was too sour for us to add in at this time. If I had the time I would haul a load of water to the woods and vacuum some down the lines just to clean out the soured sap that is in them. However that would mean my school work would suffer ( all A's at the mid term) right now school has t be more important than the syrup. Hopefully this weekend will bring a big run and we will boil through the day on Saturday and Sunday.

[Buckeye mapler]

i am going out today to collect the buckets and clean them out, but i am going to put them back out tomorrow evening since it is going to get cool this weekend. I am also going to pull any taps that have budded trees. hopefully that wont be all of them!

[tyrod2]

I pulled my lines out of my toats because it was running cloudy.I was thinking if I clean out my toates and let the sap run for a awhile it will flush out the lines when it starts running then I will put the lines back in the toats.Will this work or should I find a way to wash the lines out with water?

[Buckeye mapler]

i would think they wont be tainted to bad, but i am no expert. i should let the other guys answer. half of my trees had open buds so i pulled them. had alot of spoiled sap. hopefully i will get more good sap this weekend.

[fred]

a good freeze will knock those buds right off , but reds will grow back just as fast in this warm weather

[maplekid]

yah the buds really popped this week. kinda had me scared. i moved all my taps to the back of the woods were there are some big big trees
i have one tree that fell and it could of managed at least 7-8 buckets.most were dripping as i tapped. mabey ill finallly make some syrup. i got to pay off my debts for those things you have to have

[parsissn]

dumped all the buckets today - most were pretty spoiled and needed to go. Didn't look like the trees ran at all today. It froze good last night and didn't really get above freezing today so I'm not surprised - most of the buckets were about half frozen. Looks like the next few days will be excellent days for sap run and I think for me will be about the last run of the season. I've had about as much fun as I need for the year and time to move on to some other hobbys that are waiting.

[maplehound]

I know it looks good for this weekend. I have about 350 gallons of sour looking stuff in my tanks from yeasterday and I will boil that in tomorrow, then clean the syrup pans while I am waiting for the fresh stuff. Hope to make something lighter by Saturday.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Newman,

Are you tapping bleeder trees?? 2000 gallon of sap off of 65 taps, that is incredible!!!!!!!!!

[newman_maple]

WestVirginiaMapler, I had 1,000 gallons from 65 taps last year, but the 2,000 I hope for this year is from 149 taps. Still was a decent year I suppose, but down in volume per tap and sugar content from last year. I hope to get some sap tomorrow, but it will be the last of the year.

[maplehound]

Looks like a good weekend coming today and next weekend looks good as well here. It sure helps me with getting my school work done when it only runs at the end of the week, but it will probably make for a poor syrup year.

[maplehound]

Fairly good run today still nothing like last year. Evenn after cleaning my front syrup pans I am still making dark syrup, great flavor just very dark. I will have over 7oo gallons of sap waiting on me in the morning and will start boiling as soon as possible.

[newman_maple]

It is all over here. The trees are budding, the taps stopped flowing so I pulled the taps today. I boiled 40 gallons of cloudy sap today to see what I get. I haven't finished it yet.

I hope you all north of me (everyone else in Ohio) still have some boiling to do. Good luck!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Newman,

Sorry, I wasn't paying good attention and now I see it say 149 for 2009. Still, 1750 gallons+ from 149 taps is really good. An average year is 10 gallons of sap per tap and you were well above that and above quart per tap, so I would say that is a good year.

[maplehound]

I now have 60 gallons finished off. It even went to a slightly lighter grade fo dark A, maybe even a medium. will be warm for a few days now then it should run again next weekend

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

One thing seems pretty certain in maple, it is close to impossible to have two banner years in a row. Ohio had one for the ages last year and would have been unlikely to have another one like that.

Either way, I know it is very frustrating and good luck for next year. Great to have someone there by your side to teach things like this to and have to enjoy with.