Pulled the plug

[briduhunt]

I finished off the final boil on Saturday night around 9:30 and all that is left to do is clean and clean and clean. I had the majority of my trees bud out early so I decide to pull the taps. After counting the tree that did not bud and remember which one's of them were good sap flow trees it only made sense to pull the taps. I made 29 1/2 gallons of syrup mostly medium amber I am pleases and tired. This working for a living is getting in my way. I am now trying to decide if I should tap the same amount (175) next year especially if we have a good sap year as I might not be able to keep up. May be I should get some sleep and decide on this later. Oh well still had a good time and looking forward to next year and having permanent electric and cable TV in the shack next year.

[3rdgen.maple]

Brian I used to keep an eye on which trees ran the best. I had 3 trees that were very poor producers 3 years in a row. I had no plans on tapping them as I have more trees than buckets but dad tapped them when I was at work this year. Guess what they were the strongest running trees this year. So no more claiming this one runs better than that one anymore for me. Everything changes from year to year. All I can say is tap them all if you can.
175 taps with little sap is better than 100 If you can't keep up next year if it is a good one sell the sap or pull some of them. Then again (maybe I need sleep) tap 100 if you can keep up tap the rest. I hope next year is better. I tapped 100 more this year in hopes of getting more sap. Well I got less so next year maybe 200 more. I would like to see 500.