tapping in R.I. 2010

[unclebuck]

started tapping today after work got about 65 taps in and the sunny side of the trees were pouring sap. The other side just driping slowly. Will have all taps in by Saturday. Then boiling Sunday night.I hope
Tom

[Mike N RI]

Hey Uncle Buck!

Good to see you tapping--good luck!

Gibby at Spring Hill in Exeter tapped about 600 on 2/8/10 and will tap another 600 this weekend.

Norm at Kingston Sugar Shack tapped 209 on 2/6/10.

Wayne & I plan to tap 400-600 tomorrow.

Hope you have a great season.

Mike

[unclebuck]

good to hear from you wondered when you would post. We got all taps out yesterday over 200 this year 90% sugars put 24 on tubing and i've got some sap sacs this year see how they work being how inexpensive they are.don't forget to call or email channel 10 and 12 on march 1st with the weather temps want to see the state weather map covered with sugar house's. Can you get me phone numbers to any of the other sugar house's in ri

thanks
Uncle buck

[Mike N RI]

We tapped about 350 today, 38 F sunny. Sunny trees were dripdripdripdrip...
Shaded trees were drip...drip... We tapped an even mix of Norways, Sugars and Reds. Need to get RO out of hibernation and clean up shack. We hope to tap another 100 tomorrow and finish clean-up. Boil Tue?!!

[Mike N RI]

We are having leaky taps--see post on "Buckets, Brix & Basics"

We collected 110 gals from 150 trees tonight. Many trees actually flowed today with 34F and light snow!

Hope to boil tomorrow or Thursday.

Mike

[urisail]

Put out 209 taps on 2/6/10, all on Norways. No sap until 2/15, everything frozen solid. Collected 140 gals on 2/15 and had our first boil. Weather looks good for sap next 5 days or so. Should be boiling each night. RI sugar makers come visit. NORM

[unclebuck]

well it started went to pump 130 gal of sap into the storage tank and heard water inside the sugar house.When i got inside their was sap spewing outof the ultra violet light fixture,(nice mess)so went to the back-up pumpjng line.
collected today and got 150 gal.boiled for the first time tonight 100 gallons left did about145 gal. in 4 hrs boy do I like this new steam-away looks like great weather for the next week

Uncle Buck

[unclebuck]

urisail
good to see you posting .I stopped by your place on monday but you were working I'll be calling soon to talk

Uncle buck

[unclebuck]

well we broke down the evaporator today and cleaned it spotless again while waiting for this strange weather to co-opperate with us a little better. Only made about 12 1/2 gallons of syrup last batch was a light medium all others light.
Our first open house is this weekend Sat.&Sun from 11a.m.-4p.m. busy making maple cream ,candy,and maple Kettle Korn. hope to get some jelly made later tonight
Hope other ri sappers are fairing better

Uncle Buck

[unclebuck]

well we boiled what we had collected the last few days after all the rain and warm temps boy did this stuff come out dark BUT IT SURE TASTES GOOD

[foursapssyrup]

we are located right on the border of ri, and this past week has been horrible for runs. i collected 45 gals on monday and haven't collected since. we probably have about 20 gallons total to collect for tomorrow's boil. hope the weather changes this week!!

happy boiling!

[Mike N RI]

I feel like we are in slow motion this season. We boiled 310 gals last Sunday and 250 yesterday. We bottled 6.75 gals of Light yesterday finally! We haven't seen the sun in a week--hoping for better weather this week.

[Mike N RI]

With the 48F-50F temps yesterday the sap finally arrived... We collected 120gallons Sunday and 180 gallons last night. The REDS are at 1.6% and the SUGARS & NORWAYS are at 2%---we will boil 300 tonight. Next 5-7 days look good then a warm up next week...

[Mike N RI]

Looks like a very short season... We boiled 180 Gals yesterday, which brings the season total to roughly 1090 gallons sap, poured off about 17+ gals, 3-4 in evaporator still. No sub freezing temps in sight for next 2 weeks... This could be our shortest season in the last 4 years. Only 2 weeks of boiling---

[unclebuck]

mike,
I've been doing this for 14 years and this is by far the worst season ever. This will go in the books for sure.we have made 1/2 the amount of syrup as last year we even added 60 more buckets. I was really looking to push the new steam-a-way. We only boiled 41/2 hrs in anyone boil. Very disapointed.I pulled my buckets today time to clean things up and put away for next year.Hope to add more taps on tubing next year. One more thing my sap was at 1.3% to 1.9% this year.

Uncle Buck

[Mike N RI]

Uncle Buck,

We pulled all taps yesterday--not much ran Sat & Sun even though we had a freeze...Some taps were wet & dripping but the next 10 days have no sugaring weather. We ended up with about 25 gals on 200-300 decent trees.
We are adding about 50 more Sugar Maple taps next year and 100 Norways on tubing...
Al from Fairgrounds Rd/West Kingston stopped by yesterday... he made 30 gals on about 400 taps... He has a Leader 2x8 and bought a new steamaway for this year.

We have 75% of the wood ready for 2011!!!

Mike