Tapping 2010

[Gary R]

Here's our community thread. As always, everyone welcome. An easy way for all of us to keep up on everyone's progress.

I couldn't take it anymore. Weather man has been wrong the last 2 day's. It was almost 40 today. I came home from work and put 76 taps in. All were running sap. If it makes it to mid 30's tomorrow I might be able to boil on Sunday:) I am attending a forestry seminar tomorrow. No time for maple:( I do have a bit of a problem. I want to put a few more taps in but I'm almost out of buckets. I don't know what happened. I thought I had 100 or so. Hope everyone is ready.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Well...I have 10 buckets I'm not using for this year! (I'm trying sap bags). I have no lids, though.

Yes, the weather could allow some sap to flow, but my trees are in a valley, so I'm always getting impatient.

I'm set to tap tomorrow, but my tanks aren't clean yet. :-( Hoping to squeeze that in too.

[Turtlecreek]

I tapped in on wed. Sap is running pretty well I'm not sure how many I have tapped, I lost count and for the last few days when I have bee collecting I wanted to count and I get to excited about seeing sap I forget to count. I think I have some where around 20-25, I have to remember to count tommrow!

[waysidemaple]

Cleaned the tanks tonight and im tapping tomorrow. Will see how it runs. Im shooting for 70 taps, see if I can juggle that many with college.

[The Dude]

I just did my first tapping ever today. Yesterday was the first day above freezing all month here. Since I am just starting out and have no idea how much of my time boiling is going to take up on my outdoor concrete block arch with 4 steam table pans, I am starting small, with only about a dozen trees. I figure I can always expand for the second batch. It took me a while to get my gallon milk jugs a good snug fit, so I only got 8 out of 12 tapped before I had to leave to run errands. Man, it was fun!

I have a question as a frist-timer...is it normal for some trees to be completely dry when you tap, while others are dripping quickly? These trees are all next to each other, in a semi-forested area without huge crowns. They are all sugar maples. Further, I can add that when I came back to the first trees tapped an hour later (4:00 PM), the flow seemed to have stopped. I have to assume that is normal since they were going at first, but please feel free to add any insight. I

[Gary R]

Great to see all you guy's jump on here!

First and most important, Brian, is that an offer to borrow those buckets? If so, I have plenty of coil stock to make lids:)

Dude, I think you'll do well with 4 steam pans and only 12 taps. On the good days you will need to empty those gallon jugs 2 or 3 times. It is still cold. I see that a lot when I first tap. I think there is a lot of pressure built up in the trees. When you first tap them they flow for a bit then stop. Once things thaw out better they will really flow. If your down in the bottom in Bellefonte, I think things should pick up for you soon.

[Paddymountain]

I'm tapped. As of last night I have about 115 in. I have 14 buckets left on the porch so I guess that's it. The sap really ran here in Union county Thur & Fri. I have one tree that filled 2 two gallon buckets. I'm going to collect this afternoon and tomorrow and hopefully start boiling tomorrow. I have a 30 x 8'
drop flue evaporator(my first real one) and I feel I should have about 150 gal on hand to get started.

[Jim Brown]

We put 30 buckets in the yard on Thursday evening and none of them ran yesterday! we went to our small bush(300 taps) and turned on the vac and only got two releasers full before the lines froze up. We are close but just not there YET!These 30 plus degree days are just thawing out the trees ,it is 12 degrees here this morning.Takes a lot of sun to warm them up.Need a couple of 40+days to get things rolling!

Jim

[FunnyFarm]

Last year i tapped 14 and made 3 gallons of syrup... This year I've got 58 tapped as of this morning and I'm heading out now to do another 42. Bought myself a 3x5 pan rigged it up on an old oil drum. So this yr will be a test of endurance we'll see how many get tapped next yr i can probably do another 2-300 before i run out of trees lol

[berry boy]

Put in 367 yesterday hope to double that today, sap was running on most of the ones I tapped hope it keeps up.

[umpwood1]

We tapped about 50 yesterday. All are running. Should be a great run tommorrow. I am in Central PA. State College area.
Umpwood1

[walkerpa]

i have 50 taps out in gettysburg pa. not seeing a lot of sap. did i do something wrong when i taped or is it just not time? monday through friday i only got 20 gal of sap from all 50 trees.

[slammer3364]

I am in St. Marys was going to tap today until I ran into a friend of mine who does over 400 taps and they are waiting, so am I Next weekend regardless

[Gary R]

I got home from the forestry seminar and threw in another 14. Up to 90. Things did not run well today. I'm with Jim B. Nights in the teens are not good. Add in a south wind and might as well go back into the house. One of these upcoming nights is only supposed to be 30. The next day hopefully will be good.

[Turtlecreek]

Today was a ok day weather was perfect but it was running kinda slow. I have a north facing bush so things tend to be a bit slow. I have about 40 gallons of sap in storage right now so I think I'm going to boil tommrow to get the pans sweet and maybe get some syrup, but I think it's just going to be a sweetening mission.

[Dennis H.]

I think the snow pack around here is what is keeping the sap flow low. It has been in the 40's the last few days but with mostly cloudy skies the snow isn't leaving fast enought.

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
Thanks for getting us going!
From NW PA (10 miles south of the lake) our roadside trees are still cold!
Bottom line - we have not tapped yet. It was tempting today, since the sun was out but there just has not been much of a thaw yet.
I did get the totes in place. So tapping will happen soon! I hate having things freeze up like Jim Brown mentioned. Its a lot of extra work to keep the sap gathered or dump the ice, or get thing thawed out.

I did get over to Keith's for the FIRE UP of the new arch. He was making steam and seemed to be boiling at a rate of about 25 GPH. All systems are GO!

Regards,
Chris

[SDURF]

Sugar house is cleaned, buckets ready to go, temp was 40 today but not expected to last long and a lot of snow still in the woods, anxiously waiting on mother nature....

[sweetwoodmaple]

Well, got 400 taps out today thanks to my Dad coming up and our two oldest (one helper for each of us!!)

The wrong weather forecast did allow us to tap unfrozen wood today, which is much better for seating the spiles. Tomorrow might be interesting, depending on whether the Weather Channel or Accuweather are correct. If Accuweather, we could get our first run for the season early next week...especially on Vacuum.

About 100 taps more to go tomorrow afternoon after church and then clean the tanks below the releaser. I also need to get the vacuum pump back online with the new cooler.

Won't hang the sap bags until the next run. Have fun everyone and don't burn out yet with work...the season hasn't even started yet!!!:-)

[berry boy]

well I ended up with 730 with 35 to go but will need to get another roll of tubbing to put online. Hope to add vac 1st or 2nd week of march. big jump from 125 buckets last year. We'll see how it goes. Got about 60 gallons of sap today in Reynoldsville.Good luck to all.

[Turtlecreek]

Just a quick update in between fireings. I got the half pint all firede up and we are boiling!!!!! This thing is much faster than the old evaprosink (sink evaporator I used the last 2 years), it really works great! Its burning so hot that there is no smoke comming out the stack with the blower on. I can't tell you how awsome it feels to be making syrup again WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Now I feel like theron

[Gary R]

Way to go Turtlecreek! It was a beautiful 40 today. Did not boil though. Some buckets only have a cup of sap. But others have a gal. Still running. I will be boiling tomorrow:)

[Dennis H.]

Congrats on the evap Turtlecreek. Now you will be using the 1/2pint for a year or two and want to upgrade again right??:lol:
I know after this season I am looking to upgrade to a real evap, I am not sure if it will be a new, used or homemade one.

The temps here are in the mid 40's and the sap is running, just not as good as it should. I am pretty sure the snow pack in the woods is what is slowing the down the sap. We are slowing getting rid of the white stuff though so in another week I am sure it will be alot better.

I will not be boiling today but I did last night. I had enough for 3 hours worth of boiling. It is to get cold tomorrow so I will boil what I got today tomorrow.

[farmall h]

Dennis H, how's the vacuum on the Bender's working. Are they helping with the slow run?

[Paddymountain]

Started boiling this evening,had about 150 gallon of sap collected. At 50 gal per hr evap rate it sure goes down quick. should be done in another hour.

[stifflej]

Well, I put my first ever taps in yesterday, maybe got a gallon of sap so far, but not much more running, and another storm coming tomorrow, so I don't expect much for at least another couple weeks.

[Turtlecreek]

Well the pan is sweet!! It was almost really sweet, but I caught it just in the Nick of time, I thought I had it taken care of before supper then I was thinking all of the time during supper I better check that pan. Good thing I did, it was down to about an inch or less and still boiling, there is syrup on the draw off side. The gradiant is good though sap on the left and syrup on the right. I put water on the remaining fire cleaned out the fire box and closed the devider between 2nd and 3rd channel. WOW THAT WAS CLOSE!!!

Now a question how do I start this thing up again? If I start to put sap back in the left side will the syrup and sap sort themselves out again?

[mapleack]

What a busy four day weekend! The snow slowed us down a lot. Right now we've got about 650 taps in, the rest will get done next weekend. Tanks are all washed and set, sap was running today but didn't gather to be sure of how much. we finished hooking up our first vacuum releaser in the dark at about 7pm. Now if my dad will finish plumbing the vacuum pump tomorrow we'll get vacuum on 316. Still have another releaser to get hooked up on a 220 tap woods that have check valve spiles. Left the sugar house at 9 tonight the head tank is washed and the stacks up. Still have to install pan gasket before firing. We spent way too much time today hauling out the years worth of accumulated junk. The weather forcast for tomorrow might mean a decent run and our first boil of the year, it'll take at least 300 gal to get going and sweeten the pans. Good luck to all!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Where's Matt Emerick???? Haven't heard from here for a long time.

[Dennis H.]

Yes the Vac is helping on these slow days, I don't think I would have any sap if I was on buckets. I don't think this season is ever going to get into full swing. Just when the weather is looking good they change the forecast and we get another spell of so-so weather. But atleast the vac is getting me some sap to boil down.

The Benders are working great I had to add a SS nut for added weight on the float now it is running smoooth.

[Gary R]

Well I'm finally boiling! Sap hasn't run that well. I think I need vacuum. I collected 45 gal. Many buckets had less than a cup in them. Some had 1-2 gal. I guess it's good it wasn't a lot of sap. First my transfer pump was froze up. I had to take the head off. The impeller had some rust on it. Working on how this thing wants to be fired. The air over has only moved my firing rate to 7 min.:( But it has made keeping a boil in the back easy. Going to have to try seal the door up better. Rooms full of smoke right now:o Should be done soon.

[Sugarmaker]

I like Andy's comment about hauling out a years worth of stuff from the sugar house:) That was me on Sunday afternoon when the weather was great. I did get the truck tank (325) and the 250 gal dump tank washed and ready too.
Need to wash the tanks in the sap loft and then give the evaporator the once over. Sweep and hose down the floors and get equipment moved around a little.
Feel kind of like I am rearranging chairs on a ship that's going down:)

I did get the totes scattered out in the county's.

Hope to tap this weekend. Not many folks have tapped yet in the area. This cold front with snow is holding most of us back a little.
I may try to get over to Heus 's place if he is boiling tomorrow.
Talked to Keith and he has his pumping station up into his holding tanks just about plumbed.
Chris

[Dan W]

Made some syrup today. The trees are confusing me. Some had about a gallon in the buckets while others had almost nothing. Got 100 gallons from 160 buckets and the next 2 days still look promising. Still playing around with the new rig. I have a lot of pine to get rid of befor I start using hardwood Then I hope my boiling rate will go up considerably.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yes, the trees were confusing today. Had many vacuum leaks and didn't really get my system online until about 12:30pm. I added the clear bowl whole house filter with the racquet ball for a water trap...works very well. Saved me once while trying to clear the lines that were full.

I also somehow missed a bunch of goop in my main tank...discovered it after I had about 60 gallons in the tank!!! Had to dump it, but that seemed to clear it out well. That is the only problem with 275 gallon totes...a total pain to clean.

Was going to shut the vac pump down just now...got another 50 gallons in the past 1-1/2 hours....guess I'll leave er run. I need sleep and the season hasn't really started!

Anyway...have about 300 gallons ready to boil after cleaning the evaporator tomorrow evening.

Hope everyone is doing well.

[sweetwoodmaple]

I have a split in my back pan! Drop flue...it's the cross bar that ties them all together next to the drain. Weird...it's about 1" long and almost 1/8" wide...you can see the seam of the two pieces of material...it must not have been welded very well and the frost got it???

Anyway, I'm desperate for someone to tig that shut. I could always mess around with solder, but I would prefer the original tig.

One guy I know close...and also my boss at work, but he is an hour+ away.

[Turtlecreek]

The sap is still running here. I thought the weather may put the brakes on it but I was wrong. I can't figure these trees out to save my butt, I had trees that Wern't producing anything today they were running great. I give up trying to figure these things out, I'll just stick to collecting and boiling.

Sweetmaewood, sorry to hear about that pan. At least it happened early and not when we were in full swing!

[The Dude]

Well it did stop running here right in the center of the state today, or at least in my patch of woods. Being that I am doing this for the first time and don't have any past experience to go by, I had high hopes with last night forecasted to be 33. But this morning there was nothing and then just now nothing still out of the 12 trees I have tapped, including the big guy that has been making much more than the others. This was the first day since the Friday tapping that it stopped.

Question...with these colder days coming up, is the sap safe from spoiling sitting in my translucent milk jugs for a couple days?

[Dennis H.]

Just got back in from turning off the vac for the day. I got about 20 gals today from my water trees!! The sugar content has been just plan and simple horrible. It is hovering right around 1%!!!!! :mad:

I am hoping that the sugar content will go up at some point.

I have a pan full of highly concentrated sap from boiling the past few days. not sure of its exact sugar content as my sap refractometer only goes to 10% and my syrup one starts at 45% so it is somewhere inbetween.

This weekend and next week are looking good temps wise but with the snow they are saying we are to get Fri it will be that much longer till the woods clears out and lets the trees stretch thier legs a little.

[wnybassman]

Question...with these colder days coming up, is the sap safe from spoiling sitting in my translucent milk jugs for a couple days?

Might be hard to get out once the sap freezes up.

[sweetwoodmaple]

After another 1/2 day vacation and help from my Dad and friend Dan, we have the pan back in place. I attached a photo of the split and tig repair.

I have seen on several forums the debate on whether or not to drain your pans during a cold spell. Looking at this cross over section that allows the pan to be drained, if anything freezes down there, it has no place to expand. This is proven by the baloon shape instead of a square section like it started life at D&G. It was almost perfectly round on the bottom from all the pressure.

So, it is drainage every time from now on. I'll keep 10 five gallon buckets for that task in the sugarhouse.

I just pray for no more leaks as I have 340 gallons waiting to be boiled.

[Gary R]

Dude, follow bassman's lead. I'd drain them and put the sap someplace it won't freeze. If those jugs freeze solid, it will be a week before they thaw.

[Paddymountain]

Went out to the evaporator this morning and saw some dripping, you guessed it flue pan leaking. It really wasn't that cold last night,didn't go below freezing
but anyway!!! I might as well take it apart and fix it now as to wait til next week when the saps really running. I didn't get to make any syrup yet just have the pans sweetened.

[The Dude]

Bassman and Gary R, thanks for the advice on not leaving my jugs out to freeze. I didn't consider that. If I do leave them, it would only be because they have a minimal amount of sap in them, say less than 1/10 full. That's how it was today, so I just left the sap sit in most of them. I guess I'm not as worried about that small amount getting stuck frozen in there as I am about it spoiling and ruining the rest that drips in when it starts back up.

I hope you all don't mind me asking questions in this thread like I did, instead of finding a more appropriate category in these forums. I ended up spending WAY too much time browsing from one thread to another on here, so I just started looking only at the PA section since the updates seem to be the most appropriate. Please do let me know if you'd rather not see any questions from me in here, but only updates.

Thanks again!
Tom

[Maplewalnut]

Tom- Keep asking. We have all been there at one time or another. I'll even tell you the orange juice containers work better than milk jugs because the 'neck' plastic is stronger and won't cave in on itself

Mike

[The Dude]

Great, thanks for the encouragement, Mike! I like the idea of the PA community thread. I wonder if there is any sort of small production community thread that would properly sort the little guys like me from the majority of the members that have big operations. I worry that I'm just getting in the way, and that you guys have your own, more sophisticated issues to deal with, like the cracks in the bottom of the pan or working with big, customized machinery.

As for the milk jugs, it was the first step I took in preparing last fall by saving the gallon jugs we drank, with the "little cost" idea in mind. $300 later with a list of about a dozen purchases of materials and supplies for the most basic setup I could picture, I realize I'd probably be better off just using 5 gallon buckets with lids next year. Aside from that change, I really hope I can keep it simple and cheap next year, without the desire to greatly expand that seems to be common. I feel the addictive quality to it!

[Turtlecreek]

Dude,

As a small time producer I can attest that the folks on here are always willing to help out no matter if you have 5 milk jugs or thousands of feet of mainline like Teron or Sugarmaster. I have even stopped by some shacks that I have passed along the road and if there is a common thread, besides the fact that we all make maple syrup, it is that we all like to talk about the process especially with fellow adicts. Of course there is the little horse play between different states like "Pa has better syrup that Vermont!!!" and we all know that is true.

As far a buckets, lots of times you can pick up 5 gallon ones for free just make sure they are foog grade, i have gone some spackeling in my day and I can't imagine that on my pancakes. I have some that I got from Dan W that work great he cut a hole in the side large enough to fit the Whole spout into so there was no need for a hook ( I loose those darn things anyway) then you can just put the lid on the bucket and there is no need to fabricate one for it.

One other thing to look into for christmas or something, have someone buy you the North american maple syrup handbook. This book is the bible of syrup as far as I'm concerned it tells you everything you will ever need to know. Of course Backyard sugaring by rink Mann is also a good starter book too.

Oh yeah and that $300.00 you spent, before long it will be $400, then $500 then $600..........

[Dennis H.]

Dude by all means do not feel like your questions are not important because you are a small producer.
This is my 3rd year now making syrup and I have to say that everyone here is more than willing to help anyone who may have a question no matter how big or small your operation is, because we all know how much we spend on this hobby/business and that any errors that we can bypass gives us that much more $$ to put back into our operation.

Anyway, milk jugs? I used milk jugs for 2 years and I liked them personnally. There was only a few times that they froze since I had extra jugs I just hung a new one and emptied the frozen ones once they thawed. I also used 5 gal buckets that I picked up free at bakeries. They had frostin and donut glaze in them. What I found that worked for me was using a short piece of 1/2" copper pipe heated to melt the hole in the side of the milkjugs and bucket.

Good luck and DO NOT think twice asking questions.

[farmall h]

[QUOTE=Turtlecreek;100522]Dude,

different states like "Pa has better syrup that Vermont!!!" and we all know that is true.

Dude, feel free to ask any question or use the site to search. I joined in Dec.2009 and find it very helpful. Been sugar'in for many years and learn something new everytime I get on the site. But, I didn't realize that PA syrup was better than Vermont's. I'll have to search that thread.:)

[Gary R]

I just talked to Dave Yeany. He is tapping this Saturday. I'm going to help. If anyone else is able to, I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

[Turtlecreek]

Gary, wish I could come up I'd be there in s second, but she who must be obayed reminded me of a previous commitment. Please send my condolances to Dave and his family.

[Turtlecreek]

I knew I could get those vermonters going!!

[emericksmaple]

Worked today at tapping. Very hard going , about 18-24'' of snow in the woods. Had 2 guys just to go ahead of us and dig lines out of the snow. Tapped about 700 and the pumped pulled in about 600 gallons of sap. We are going to try again tomarrow before it gets bad. We had to hire a dozer to plow into both of our bushes this past weekend, just to be able to start.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Hey Matt!! Good to hear from you.

Wow, sounds very difficult. I also saw your signature...congrats! I hope everyone is well. My two oldest love tapping with me and loading wood. Most of us would call that "work", but they love it.

[Sugarmaker]

Brian,
Glad to see your back and the kids are helping!
Matt,
Congratulations on the new family members and future sugar makers too.
GaryR,
That's great that you can help Dave Y! I am sure there is plenty of work in the bush for several folks. Tell Him I said Hi! I may be tapping that day also.

I have been working in the sugar house and can see light at the end of the tunnel. ( yea I hope its not a train)

Evaporator is washed, place is swept out. Most of the tanks are washed.
Daryl stopped by tonight and we talked maple for a hour or so.
Its almost GO time!

Regards,
Chris

[Dave Y]

After a couple of two of the hardest weeks in my life. I am finally getting some maple work done. My son and I got about 900 taps in the last two days. I am going to try to finish up the tubing bush today and tomorrow. Then on to buckets. I hope to have a crew together for Saturday the 27th to do those. There are only 1200 buckets. Anyone that has their work under control is welcome to come by and put a bucket on a tree if you would like.
Dave

[Paddymountain]

Finished some syrup on the stove tonight, got to try out our coffee pot
filter tank. What a breeze ,held temp right at 185-90, and the tap worked out well for filling bottles. We filled some 1/2 pint tins, for gifts that was a little tricky, because you couldn't see into them very well. Over all not too bad.

[Turtlecreek]

Paddy, well you beat me you got the first syrup in the county far as I know.
Trees have slowed down a bit the last two days, like they knew thatthere was a storm comming. I tapped 4 more trees today using milk jugs, these went on some of my better trees as a second tap. My son helped me it was a good time!

[Paddymountain]

Well, we tore the evaporator down yesterday and got the flue pan in the shop.
I wasn't sure how the soldering would go. I was really surprised that my first try was a winner,I shake way too much!!!, but I got it first time. This morning I
checked my buckets and found one had pulled the tap out of the tree, and another bucket must have blown east to turtlecreek. I guess not bad for how windy it was yesterday. Buckets have about 2 inches of sap in so I'm sure that helped. As cold as it is I probably won't gather til tomorrow. What do you guys do with your evaporators that are not in an honest to goodness sugarshack? do you drain every night , put a light in it,or what? With the temps going down so far this upcoming week I think I need to come up with a new plan

[sweetwoodmaple]

Draining the evaporator would be the safest. Otherwise, put a small electric heater in the arch to help keep from freezing.

If you drain and put into buckets or containers and you get ice, you take advantage of the natural R.O. process as ice has very low sugar.!

[Sugarmaker]

Holding on NWPA. Will work in the shop today and try to get dug out. At this point We made the right move not to tap. VERY cold and snowy! My totes are probably buried out there in the road side bush:)

If it is important, try drain it!

But I have seen the small amount of ice frozen in buckets help keep them on the spiles during a wind storm.

Regards
Chris C.

[Dennis H.]

I have to say that this has been the strangest year for weather for us here in PA. We didn't get anywhere near what they we saying we were to get this past storm, not that I am complaining.
The sun is out and the temps ae now in the low 40's and I cam almost watch the snow melting away!

I turned on the vac this morning and the trees are running nicely. I hope you guys up north soon get good tapping weather. I am just amazed that Feb is over and we really haven't any tapping weather.

[gomish]

Yes it may be nice today in your neck of the PA woods, but here in the west central PA mountains we got a foot or more over the last few days and it is still pilling up as I look out the window saturday afternoon. An there is no sun today! I can't keep the trail to the woods open to get to the maples!

[The Dude]

I just came back from checking my milk jugs. I hadn't checked them since Tuesday or Wednesday, given that the taps weren't running much even on the warmer day last weekend. Combining those several days, I only collected about a gallon right now from the 12 taps I have. It looks like the next few days will be high 30s here. Maybe then it will start for real?

Also, I just finished up my home made copper hydrometer cup today. My heavy base plate kicks the commercially sold cups' butts!

[Sugarmaker]

Keep digging out and waiting for the spring thaw.

Chris C.

[jrthe3]

i hope it come soon i don't know how much longer i can sit here idleing i going to run out of fuel real soon i spent a lot of money and did a lot of exspanding for this season and now no end to the snow in sight

[Gary R]

No ideling, digging or looking out windows here:) I got to use snowshoes for the first time yesterday. I helped Dave Y tap some of his bucket bushes. We put in 775. It was one of the most grueling days I've had in a long time. Very difficult carrying all those buckets into the woods. I'm refreshed and will probably cut trees today. Still no good weather for at least a week.:cry:

[Dave Y]

Thanks to GaryR and my son and daughter, a sister, and a brother, and one friend,we hung 775 buckets yesterday. It was tough going even with snow shoes.The snow was wet and stuck to the shoe. I'm sorry if I wore you out yesterday,Gary. Next time you come by I wont work to so hard. Many thanks for helping out. I was a very good day. i have some other people coming to help today. It shouldn't be as long of a day for them. Got snow to shovel and breakfast to cook.

[gomish]

No ideling, digging or looking out windows here:) I got to use snowshoes for the first time yesterday. I helped Dave Y tap some of his bucket bushes. We put in 775. It was one of the most grueling days I've had in a long time. Very difficult carrying all those buckets into the woods. I'm refreshed and will probably cut trees today. Still no good weather for at least a week.:cry:

Garry R- I see your signature says 90 buckets, Do you have then tapped yet?? Later this week Accuweather says for My location into the 37-38 degree range for a few days and I was wondering If I should tap maybe monday evening? We are up at 2000' and a lot of snow, but maybe it will run ?

[KenWP]

You guys can wax your snowshoes to stop the snow from sticking so bad just like skis.

[Gary R]

Dave, don't worry I recovered well. Remember your the one who said "NO MAS":lol: On my second liquid pain killer now;)

Gomish, I tapped mine two fridays ago. I got a small run and boiled on Monday. We aren't supposed to get temps like that until Sunday. I haven't been doing this long but hears my advice. Most will probably agree that the taps will run for 6 weeks (buckets). That takes you into the second week of April. I doubt that many are boiling after that. If they are, there probably making commercial grade syrup. Yuck! I'd tap them and hope the weather gets warmer soon. Your going to love it.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yes, I agree with Gary. It is so tough to predict and 35 degrees and cloudy vs. 35 degrees and sunny can be the difference. The weather guys are getting better, but they do miss. I only had one year in ten that I wished I would have tapped later. Usually the other way around.

I wish I could capture the extended forecasts and save them from the last few days. It looked like 10 runs in a row!

Our trees ran just a bit today when it was brighter out this afternoon. Then, the wind kicked up and went back to 32 degrees. Maybe got 15 gallons of sap! ;)

Accuweather vs. the weather channel. Next few days for us are either 32 degrees (WC) or 38 degrees (AW). We'll see.

[Maplewalnut]

Still can't believe all the snow we have. Probably got 40+inches since Wednesday. this isn't your lake effect either that condenses down to 4 inches. Its heavy wet snow and a bear to work in. Glad I am on tubing for the most part but have about 50 buckets in a nice little grove at the far end of a field that may have to wiat a few days.

I agree, the weather forecasts look very different. Oh well turn on the pump and see what you have when you get home from work!

Mike

[Sugarmaker]

We got about 20 inches of snow over the weekend. So I did not tap as planned. It did warm a little today and might have run for a hour or so?

Keith Talbot tapped about 30 trees and got 15 gallons of sap just prior to the storm.

Regards,
Chris C.

[Turtlecreek]

I made a gallon and a half today, it's all bottled and ready to go.

The trees ran real real good today, I collected about 30 gallons behind the house loaded it in a rubbermade bin and put it on a trailer behind my snowmobile. This is where the story gets bad. I was comming out of the woods and the sled slowed down real fast. I looks behind me and my makeshift sap hauler was on it's side and 30 gallons of sap all over the snow. At least I didn't get hurt, just my pride, all of that work for nothing!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I find accuweather is usually over optimistic at least where I am and have some off the wall forecast. www.Weather.com / weather channel is the most accurate I have found.

[Turtlecreek]

I made a gallon and a half today, it's all bottled and ready to go.

The trees ran real real good today, I collected about 30 gallons behind the house loaded it in a rubbermade bin and put it on a trailer behind my snowmobile. This is where the story gets bad. I was comming out of the woods and the sled slowed down real fast. I looks behind me and my makeshift sap hauler was on it's side and 30 gallons of sap all over the snow. At least I didn't get hurt, just my pride, all of that work for nothing!

[Jim Brown]

Well the temp was 34 here yesterday.I went to the woods about noon and turned the vac on to see if the sap ran. Pumps pulled down to 26 inches for 1 hour and no sap! I shut things down and went back to the house and took a nap. Is it ever going to warm up and stop snowing ! Unlike Chris we only got about 10 inches of snow over the weekend!
We just need to put the membrane in the RO and we are ready.
Waiting on the weather!

Jim

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

Put in about 2300 taps this weekend. Was really tough going in the snow. We had a lot of lines that were pulled down when we got 40" of snow and it made it real tough to pull them back up. Hoping to get another 1500 or so drilled tomorrow. Want to try and have the vacuum pumps turned on for the weekend. With low 40's it should really open up.

[tappin&sappin]

Hi all,

Was out of town last week, so didn't risk putting my taps in before I left. Doesn't look like I missed much (other than about 2 ft of snow).

Forecast does not look great for NW PA.

Maybe I'll put them in this weekend...?

At this rate, we may be boiling in may... :)

- Jake

[ELM_DALE_MAPLE]

Yep I'm going to hit it this weekend as well. Last night I was dreaming about tapping so this anticipation is killing me! Can't wait to get started.

[SDURF]

We put in 50 taps tonight would have done more but worked too late. The trees were running!! Planning to finish tapping tomorrow to be ready when this weather warms up! The worst part was 2 feet of snow in the woods but it made it interesting. Tomorrow will be easier we only have road trees to tap.

[Dennis H.]

Plugging along down here in the south part of PA.

The trees just keep making more and more. The weeks forecast is just plan and simple awsome. It is to get to 50 by the weekend!!

I just finished up this evenings 5 hour boil. I still have a little for tomorrow. Well ok alittle more than a little maybe 2-3 hours worth. I will have to take off work Thurs and Fri to catch up on my sap.

[Dave Y]

With lots of help we put out 1041 buckets over the weekend. I have a few more to do plus a a couple hundred tubing taps. the tap count is at 3100.
I just up loaded a bunch of photos my son and daughter took while we where tapping if you are interested ,click my Picasa account in my signature, it is Maple 2010. I feels good to get something accomplished!

[PATheron]

Dennis- How much sap per tap are you getting a day with that setup? Ive got things working in the sugarhouse pretty good now. Going to finish putting together a gas deleval 75 tonight for the Booy bush. Need to get the pickup tank in and the gas sap pump hooked up. Then need to hook up the dumping station at the road and should be ready. Looks like our weather is going to be great here after saturday. Hopefully I can get my vac up to 20 inches across the board this weekend and Ill be real happy. Looks like 5000 is the number for me this year and I think my buddy is going to be bringing me 1700 gravity taps I hope. Hopefully we all make some syrup. Theron

[Paddymountain]

boiled about 180 gal of sap last night, finaly got to draw off some syrup.
the week is looking good

[Sugarmaker]

Hope to tap in the evenings this week. Last night was spent shoveling 50% of the snow off the garage to avoid a potential colapse. Plus helped Nic mount the horns from his eight point he shot in rifle season last fall. Also did some soldering and welding on the WRU.

Chris

[Maplewalnut]

Man oh man did they run yesterday. Got almost 600 gallons from 265 taps on vacuum and even 1.5 gallons of sap per hole from buckets. This weekend looks like a full fledged sap emergency. First unplanned day off from work tomorrow and probably again on Monday. Boil Forest boil! See you next week

[tappin&sappin]

Waded through waist deep snow in many areas to get 40 taps in last night. Some of my lines were buried, now I know what it must be like to live in Vermont!

Will have the rest (approx 100) done in the next couple nights and should be ready for the run on Saturday.

- Jake

[Sugarmaker]

Neighbor boys tapped yesterday. I got started and tapped 175 last night after dark. I tapped the coldest portion of my sugarbush.

I broke off a tapping bit (I am glad! I never liked that bit any way) It pulled into the tree way to hard and fast.

Tapped (drilled) a lot of them left handed to avoid tappers elbow.

Snow along the roads was 4 feet deep and waist deep in some drifts near the trees. A few lines needed to be dug out but not bad. Most of the totes have a nice ammount of snow around then to keep the sap cold if we get a run.
Should get another 200 done tonight and finish the rest on Thursday. So we should be ready for first run this weekend.
Some folks in NWPA will be boiling tonight!

Do to the economic down trun we will be running with out air bags on the truck to start.:)
WRU not ready!

Regards

[sweetwoodmaple]

Ok, Brandon...if you are out there...our buds at Accuweather seem to have the better models. The Weather Channel has been more wrong than right over the past few weeks, at least for our area.

I do agree, I trusted the Weather channel in the past...but I think I'll weight each one 50/50. Be prepared for both forecasts.

Sap is running today for us. Just talked the wife through a start up procedure. The house filter/raquet ball thing saved us at least once as the lines were full and overwhelmed the vacuum line to the releaser.

Are we truly going to be 50 degrees and below freezing nights for several days next week???? I'll need to take vacation from work if that is the case.

[Gary R]

Just got done collecting. Haven't touched the buckets for a week and a half. Only got about 40 gal. I left just as much in the buckets as solid ice. It looks like the next few nights will be real cold. I don't want it all to be froze solid. The good thing was that it tested at 2.8%. The highest I've seen.

I am hosting a beginners backyard syrup making seminar on Saturday. Not sure if I'll have enough sap to boil. I'm holding what I collected tonight and anything else till then. Should be a beautiful day though.

Brian, I called you at work today. No answer. I figured you went home for some big sap:) Maybe I need vacuum?

[SDURF]

Looking forward to attending your back yard sugaring event! The weather looks good. What time does all the fun begin? and directions would be helpful too, email them to me please.
We are all tapped and ready to go!

[mapleack]

About 200 gal of sap today on an early collection, it was still running. Boiled that down, then filtered and bottled 17.5 gal of syrup, the total thus far. Syrup is on the light end of medium amber, and some of the tastiest smoothest maple I've ever had. Yesterday after I got home we put in 40 more taps, boiled 260 gal of sap. That was tough after working all day on snowshoes at work! I still have 200 plus taps to get in, next weeks lookin good for lots of sap!

[jrthe3]

i taped 300 today hope to finish the 400 or so tomorrow

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yes, indeed the sun made the difference in our area. I just got the oil cooler pump installed (after a 2nd round of mods) late last night on my vacuum pump. Of course, I was looking at the weather channel and thinking I was safe today.

Anyway, ended up with a little less than 250 gallons of sap. I missed about one hour of running (got the pump running at 2:30) and it got cold by 6 pm and the taps were already starting to freeze.

My oil cooler seems to be a success besides a loose belt heating up the pulley's a bit. After 4 hours of running the vacuum pump, the oil was a steady 110 degrees or so. It would normally be at least 140-150. It's just a small version of the bronze pump used to pump syrup, only instead of through the filter press, it pumps it through three aluminum transmission coolers.

Sorry I missed you Gary. It's been crazy at work AND home. I'll try and give you a call tomorrow.

I really like the looks of the weekend and next week's forecast!

[Jim Brown]

GaryR. I have a couple of extra vacuum pumps that I would be willing to donate to the cause if you go with vac!
We only pulled 200 gallon yesterday with the pumps on for 8 hours. They were froze soild by 7:00pm.
Going to start them around noon again today and see were that gets us.
Getting all the bugs worked out before the weekeknd.. Not crazy about the new CV they leak vacuum!!
Jim

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

Have almost 5000 taps in, should finish the rest on Saturday. Should be just in time for some good sugaring weather. Didn't get much out of the mid 30's so far this week in Somerset county. The trees did run, but not much sap so far. By the time the lines thaw out, it is starting to get cool again. I can't wait to taste the new 2010 syrup. Should be boiling real soon.

[Gary R]

Scott, looking forward to seeing you guys Saturday. I hope your bringing the family. For those who don't know, SDURF's daughter, Karissa is the reigning NWPA Maple Queen. Also, the runner up as state maple queen. If I get a case of stage fright, she can take over. Karissa is a great spokesperson for the maple world.

[Low budget maple]

120 taps in yesterday with a gallon in them today. Hope to get the last 40 in tomorrow. With any luck it will be boiling and beer for me Friday nite !!

[tapper]

I had 5 helpers this morning. We put up 210 buckets and 245 tubing taps in 3 hours. The snow was waist deep in places.

[ELM_DALE_MAPLE]

Got 25 buckets up tonight. Hopefully put a hurtin on it tomorrow and finish by Saturday. Tapped a new bush this year. It is gonna be a great addition with large road trees and an old treeline that are easy to get to. My dad couldn't believe how hard it was running tonight. Excited to be back sugaring again!!:D

[waysidemaple]

Got 84 taps in on tuesday. As of tonight i have around 100 gallons of sap waiting for me when I get home from school tomorrow night. Planning on putting in 16 more taps saturday to hit 100 even. Steam will be flying tommorrow thats for sure.

[emericksmaple]

We are getting some action now. We have 2800 tapped on vaccum and have boiled twice this week so far making 109 gal of nice super light syrup. They ran some today about 1800 gal came in. And the 15 day forcast looks great for us. Still have 400 to try to dig into this weekend. Happy sappin to all!!!!!

[slammer3364]

Got 15 in this afternoon 55 all together 37 more tommorrow Hope to keep the little 18x48 busy,lots of snow but getting much better in the woods since Monday Lots of luck to everyone. Located in St marys

[sweetwoodmaple]

I now have 500 waiting to boil in the tank, and that's with just a few hours of running per day since it has been clear and freezes up by 6 pm.

We are basically getting 1/2 gal per tap during these times. Probably not possible without vacuum. Plus, this year we are managing 22" or so even when fully thawed.

[danno]

Sweetwood - we are like twins. Have about the same number of taps and have been getting the same sap flow as you and sitting on about 500 gallons now, are weather must be pretty similar, although I've got a couple of inches less vacuum than you.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Ha...and one more, I've got a Dalaval 75 laying in pieces. Hope you get your pump problem figured out...I had a whale of a time getting all my stuff online in 2008 - Including a homemade releaser.

[tapper]

Worked on the last of the tubing taps today. Total tap count so far 600. Bright and sunny never above freezing today with a steady breeze out of the north and the sap is running.

[Sugarmaker]

To lazy to gather tonight. So will try to get the 400+ roadside trees picked up by 4:00 tomorrow should be about 200+ gallons of sap. Will begin first boil Sat night about 5:00 if things hold together. Runs have been very light. Finished tapping Thursday night (roadside short run tubing). Have about 30 bucket taps to put in the yard around the sugar house.
Modified the frame on the 325 gallon tank last night. The tail gates are 1 inch thicker on a 2009 Ford and had to cut and reweld the frame. Also straightened the frame for the dumping station, which had been crooked since I built it.
Jim Bortles came over and chewed the fat last night. He gave me some good ideas on solutions for the WRU air box.
Not worried about the sap quality that is out there it is very cold.

Regards,
Chris

[slammer3364]

Just got done collecting sap got about 90taps on milk-jugs I was lucky to get 15 gals. just to cold at nite ,going down in the teens again tonite. Lots of snow yet too.

[gomish]

tapped yesterday (mar-4). Sunny days but too cold yet. Trees on south edge side of wood ran some maybe 1/2 gal per tree, but trees down in woods gave next to nothing. Likely to get about 12 deg over night and really freeze things up.

[Daryl]

I wish it would not get SO COLD at night here. Been 6 - 8 Deg. last several mornings. It takes a long time for the trees to thaw.
Hope to get my homemade RO going today if the feed pump comes from a guy in Norristown that I bought it from on E-Bay on the 2-22.
We are still tapping and plan to have around 250 plus.

[Father & Son]

Chase and I tapped the new woods yesterday after he got home from school. Already running in the cage tank when we finished. Still have 2 short runs of tubing and buckets to get today after work. Tidy up the sugar house and should be ready for this coming week.

Jim

[Jim Brown]

Daryl; Like you I wish it didn't freeze SO HARD. 10 degrees again here this morning.Takes till 1:00pm for the trees to thaw out and then they are not running very well. Vacuum holding at 20 inches. We have about 300 gal in the stock tank to run through the RO today and sweeten the pans with and that will be it until it runs again.Had a valve freeze and break yesterday had to replace that . One of my vac pump died(broke a vane) and had to replace that yesterday.(had a spare pump) Hope things hold together when the sap really starts to run.
Nice piece in our paper(The news hareld) this morning about Gary Belik and his operation in Cranesville.


waiting!!!

Jim

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

The weather has been the same here in the higher parts of Somerset county. It takes untill afternoon for things to thaw out. I haven't been getting the water I should but at least I know I am not the only one. The pump has been at 24" but when everything thaws out, I have a feeling it might drop.

[Dennis H.]

Well I foresee another loooooong day boiling today. It is still just below 32 so I am waiting so I can turn the VACROOOM on but The past 2 days were just unbelievable!!

I boiled for 5 hours straight yesterday and 6 the day before. Today is going to be just as good if not better. Tomorrow is going to be just crazy, they are saying the temps will be in the low 50's and sunny!!!!

Don't worry guys it is coming your way, I am just being selfish and keeping to my self for just alittle longer!:D

[SDURF]

We didn't get much sap today but we did get down to see Gary R.'s operation. Great demonstration on back yard sugaring, good turn out, enjoyed seeing his evaporator, he and his wife were good maple hosts!

[Dennis H.]

Just finished up another 6 hour boil. All I have left now is 15-20 gals in the lower tank. I will work on that in the morning.

I also think that I may take off the batch that is in the pan right now and start a new batch. I light trying and to keep the syrup as light as I can but with out taking off really small batchs.

[Sugarmaker]

Cheryl and I gathered the sap from taps that were set Tuesday thru Thursday, We got 200 gal. of 3% sap, all very clear and cold! Most had ice in the pickup stations. Most things went well, but did have feed line frozen on the remote pump and had to go home and thaw that out. We boiled it in while visiting with Scott Durfee (SDURF) and family. Almost made syrup(looks to be light), then ran out of sap and shut down for the night. Will try to get to Keith Talbots tomorrow to visit with him and watch him boil a little.

Regards,
Chris

[Paddymountain]

Put in 9 more taps this morning at 8 o'clock, picked up 12 galons of sap at 4
gathered 90 gal total for the day and made about 5 gal of syrup

[Father & Son]

New woods with 85 taps on gravity only ran about 3" in the cage tank. I think that little piece of woods is going to be later warming up. Finished up the tubing taps and most of the buckets. A few more buckets today and should be right around 200 taps this year.

Jim

[Gary R]

I think the backyard seminar went pretty good. Had about 25 people here. We did boil 87 gal. of sap yesterday. We didn't start making syrup until everyone left:( My father wanted some maple pecans made, so we drew off what we could and finished just over 6 pints. The one thing I forgot to talk about was defoaming. Well I put the syrup on the stove to heat for the nuts. Left the burner on high and turned my back. Soon almost all that syrup was on the stove top:o Good thing my wife likes cleaning up after me.

[Gary R]

Everyone must be boiling? So am I. Collected only 45 gal. Should be done in a couple hours.

I have boiled in this shack for 3 years now. No problems with too much heat. Ive been making improvements to the evaporator all along. Well yesterday we were smelling something burning. It was the paint on the metal where my smoke stack goes out. Also my feed line was VERY hot. I didn't want to burn the place down so I put a big piece of blanket over my stack base and pipe. Now that base and pipe are red hot! A small piece of brick had fallen out. It got so hot it bent. I also use welding gloves to fire. One finger is already starting to melt. Not sure what to do about this. Any ideas would be helpful. Check out the pics:rolleyes:

[wnybassman]

Holy crap! That is one hot pipe!

[Dan W]

Gary, You saw my driveway and the trees running down both sides. I figured out why the trees were running erratically. They were drying up!!! 160 buckets yielded 75 gallons yersterday. Re-drilled all the holes as I collected yesterday afternoon and this morning and some were dripping 2 or 3 times a second. Tomorrow should be a 150+ gallon morning. Boiled off everything I had today with about 5 gallons ready to bottle. The next few days look great!! Although I way jumped the gun tapping in January, I learned a big lesson in waiting, but I have also had time to play with this new rig and get it under control.

[Daryl]

Got the evaporator up and running tonight. I started the fire about 6:30. and shut down at 9:30. Burned out the bottom fan, but the over fire air works great after some speed adjustment. It seems to run better with no forced air draft. We should be well into production tomarrow. The RO feed pump still isn't here yet. It should be in tomarrow. I'm looking forward to boiling concentrate.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Collected another 325 gallons yesterday. That makes just shy of 1500 gallons of sap so far. Drawing off at Light/Med.

Not the runs I expected, but I think we are all in the same boat...the trees and snow have kept things from really cutting lose.

We better hope our boys at Accuweather are smoking the drapes...no freezing nights for a week+ could spell disaster. The Weather Channel shows another cool down after 4 days, which we could survive.

I've heard of years from some of the old timers that all the sap ran in a matter of days. Hope I never see one of those years as it would kill me!

Fortunately, with my new vacuum flood oil cooler, I'm able to run 23" at the pump @45 degrees and sunny. I have two small leaks to fix on 1/2" mainlines...which could bump that up a bit more.

[tappin&sappin]

Sweetwoodmaple,

I agree w/ you. Just checked accuweather and warm nights don't look good. It seems to either be feast or famine this year and thus far its been mostly famine.

Collected 65 gals from 140 taps yesterday, just enough to sweeten the pan and work out a few bugs w/ equipment.

Hoping for some big runs this week. And certainly hoping for below freezing nights.

Good 'luck' to all.

- Jake

[Low budget maple]

Boiled last nite and pulled 2 gal of my little new/used rig. Haha not big enough !! The bug within me wants more rig

[mapleack]

Well, the forecasts arent showing a freeze until this sunday. Two days ago it looked like a great week, now it looks like disaster. Yesterday we found a mainline pulled apart at a coupler dumping 200 taps on the ground. This season has been nothing but an uphill battle of everything going wrong, if we don't even get an average syrup crop I may need ALOT of therapy. I.E. alot of boiling sodas with some peace and quiet. DA*& fickle weather.

[MahoskyBrosMapleFarm]

just when things seemed to be going well and starting to flow well, we pulled in about 200 gallon yesterday. It got down to 27 here last night, but for some reason we didnt get any sap at all today, i would have figured on it being a good day, i have no idea why it didnt flow at all? Maybe the trees stayed to warm last night, anyone else have a rough day? I tell ya this weather this year is unforgiving, from super cold and snowy to too hot and not even getting down to freezing, looks like things are gonna wind down here soon if the forcast doesnt change soon...

[Gary R]

Still not much sap here. collected 45 gal. over 22 hrs. I am shutting it down right now. I may have a leveling issue. It took almost 90 gal. onto a sweet pan to make syrup by the thermometer. Then I drew off over a gal. Very dark and a lot of sugar sand. Holding it until I get a few gal.

The weather is scary.

[molineutu]

Just when I thought I was going to have a really good run this week I had to come home and see the weather forcast. I have 72 taps- 37 buckets,35 on main line and so far have pulled in 95 gallons of sap since last wednesday. Was hoping to double that before the weekend. I still have a decent amount of snow hoping this helps pull the tempurature down some over these warmer nights.

[waysidemaple]

I ended up with 95 taps. Collected 85 gallons today and so far Im at 5 and 1/2 gallons made since 2/20, light amber. Sap has just started to flow, but its only 2.1 percent, not real good since there all sugar maples that I have tapped. I have 33 taps on buckets and 52 on tubing. The weather looks good till about friday/saturday, I think ill have some late nights coming real soon.

[SDURF]

only pulled in 42 gallons of sap today on 110 taps very disappointing, still managed to boil and draw off 1 gallon of syrup, it is nice light syrup and a good taste but not getting the sap runs I have been hoping for.we added 10 more taps tonight hoping it will help a little.

[Turtlecreek]

Gary, not real sure what would make a stack do that. At our cabin innpotter county we had the stove pipe do that a couple of times this year. I would check the stack to make sure it is clear of any blockage. If you figure it out please post something maybe it will help out at our cabin. Just a note we changed stove pipe and that seemed to helpmfor some reason.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Another 400 gallons today, but with the temps at almost 50 degrees, it should have been twice that...not sure what is going on. I'm running 23-24" of vacuum for crying out loud!

Tomorrow should be the indicator...either the mother load or the taps are already drying up after 2-1/2 weeks.

[slammer3364]

my taps are not running well either,still lots of snow in woods Trees that usally run a gallon a day thus far this year have not produced anything.Did manage to gather up about 50 gal. to sweeten pan Sun. nite.

[Z/MAN]

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one getting less then ideal runs.

[Jim Brown]

Holding 18-20 inches of vac on 1200taps and only pulled 400 gallons yesterday. Gary R stopped by to see if we were pulling so much vac it had shut his trees down 6 mile away!(LOL) Whats up with this weather? We should be swiming in sap at 50 degrees! Still a lot of snow in the woods, Hope it comes soon!

Waiting
Jim

[Maplewalnut]

Pulling in almost 600 gallons a day the last few days but taps seemed to have shutdown this am. Buckets are non-existent again this year. Collected maybe 200 gallons since Thursday from over 100 buckets and temps were close to 50 the last two days with freezing nights. Interestingly enough the only taps running are in the woods buried in probably 16 inches of snow still.?!?!? Looks like warm up (50 for next week) may shut them down for a while. Hopefully the woods can hold on a couple more days, still haven't seen a HUGE run

[Paddymountain]

I gathered about 30 gal from about 110 taps this morning, it sure doesn't look
good for the long range forecast. I've made about 12 gallon of syrup, far,far from my goal of 30. Let's hope we get a couple of cold nights. The trees aren't showing much sign of the buds swelling ,so that might be a good sign.

[tappin&sappin]

Ditto the poor sap runs in NW pa. I think we are a long ways from the hard maples budding in our area, even if we do get a few warm days w/o freezing nights... But - thats just my opinion.

Either way, I had better get some good sap soon, or I may not even get to make any syrup.

Crazy!

- Jake

[3rdgen.maple]

Seems like the norm this year is poor sap runs across the Trader. Same here been getting steady runs of about a half gallon per tap. Sure am glad that I got insane and stuck 800 on a 2x6. Not a single big run yet. You guys remember back when everyone was wondering what kinda season we were going to have with all the rain and no sun over the summer. Well me thinks we have our answer low sugar content and low sap flows. Hope it gets better but then again I can't keep up now. Boiling around the clock and as soon as the head tank gets close to empty here comes the tractor with the gathering tank to start the process all over again. Yeeeeeehaw gotta love it. Had to place another bottle order as I have already filled up a 100 sugarhill quarts, a 100 sugarhill pints, and 17 cases of 12 oz glass and 10 cases of 8 oz glass.

[Gary R]

Flow was even worse today. Only 40 gal. I'm with you Jake. After this warm spell next week looks real good. I think the trees are just thawing out. Last year we went through some multiple 60 degree days and still produced afterwards.

One thing I noticed was all the new guys on here. Great to hear about your mapling experiences!

Brian, how come those big sugars behind your house aren't tapped:o

[Maplewalnut]

Yikes... flow stopped even on vacuum and what is coming into the releaser is at just over 1%. Not even worth boiling at this point. Anyone elses sugar drop the last few days?

[Dennis H.]

I just did the math this eveening while boiling.

I collect 385 gallons so far from 71 Red Maples. The sugar content has been about 1.2% with a high of 1.7% and a low of 1%. The high came from the sap freezing and I threw out the ice. But the norm is on the lower end.

I have made 2 1/2 gals sofar with a batch ready to finish which will make another 1 1/2 gal and a batch still in the evap pan.

It has been slowing down since Sat when we had the last real good freeze at night. I looked in my lower tank for about 40 trees and I had maybe 17 gals, that was at 4pm. The sap is also starting to get a cloudy look to also. I haven't looked to see if the buds are swelling yet but I will lok in the morning.

I'll keep the vac running for the next few days to see how much more I will get. Before I call it an end.

Compared to last year this season was a short and sweet one. Almost like the 1st year I made syrup, 2 years ago.

[waysidemaple]

I gathered 65 gallons of sap today from 85 taps. Made a gallon and a half of syrup today which brings my total for the season up to 6 and a 1/2 gallons all light amber. im only runnning on a 2' X 4' flat pan so its long hours but it not bad considering its almost 55 out. Wish I could boil faster and longer that way I wouldn't have to sell sap and I could keep it all to myself. Tonight is the last night that it is suppose to freeze until sunday :cry:

[sweetwoodmaple]

Well, finally hit one gallon per tap...I would hope so after such a warm day and 11 hours of vacuum. Put 400 gallons in the tank with 100+ still in the woods. That takes my total to 2500 gallons. Drawn off about 30 gallons of syrup, all just over light amber. Sap is it's usual 1.7 to 1.8 percent.

Not sure if it's the wet summer or just a cold winter with no real warming since December. The trees have to produce the pressure some time in order to swell the buds...that can't change or there would be no leaves!

The mud in our woods is soft, but only down a couple inches, then it still seems frozen, even with a lot of the snow gone.

Yes, Gary...my work schedule and pan incident have prevented me from tapping those trees. Though, with the success from buckets so far, I may not have missed much. The same happened in 2006, I just never got to tapping those trees. I probably have to tube them and be done with it, like the good old days when I took my tubing down every year.

[Father & Son]

Monday collected 340 gallons off of 181 taps (still have a few to put in) lit the fire at 1830 sweetened the pans and made 3 1/2 gal of nice lite syrup and walked in the house at 0330 3/9, long night.
Tuesday collected only 180 gal. Short boil , only 3 hours. Expecting visitors Wednesday and held some sap incase of another small run. I agree with the poor runs and hopefully it's because there is still alot of snow on the ground. I guess we'll take what mother nature gives us.

Jim

[Jim Brown]

Trees started to open up Tuesday. Got 800 gallons of sap in 10 hours , at little over 1/2 gallon per tap. Shut pumps down at 9:00pm will start again today at 7:00am.and may not shut them down until trees stop again. No freeze in site until the weekend(maybe) Pulled off 12 gallon of ,just under light syrup yesterday. Great taste this year.
Got to go start pumps

Jim

[tappin&sappin]

Brought in 160 gallons of sap off of 140 taps last night (note that I didn't gather Monday, so this was 2 days worth of runs).

Made about 3 gallons - haven't confirmed grade, but looks to be a nice medium.

Found out my pan is still leaking in 2 places, despite my attempts at having the local fab shop patch it up. Think it's just too hard to solder on account of the joints being dirty from residual sugar sand, etc.

About all I can do at this point is hope the sugar sand clogs up the leaks a bit. Maybe if we get a cold snap, I'll see if I can get it repaired.

- Jake

[FunnyFarm]

Here in Hop Bottom, PA I have 80 taps in have collected about 250 gallons of sap and have made a little over 6 gallons of really sweet buttery tasting syrup.
What a difference from last year we boiled on the wood stove in stock pots this year we have a 3x5 pan and already figuring to build a pre heater for next year.
With the really warm nights sap has near stopped running last 2 days but we went down to about 29 degrees here last night so I'm hoping for a run today.
Having a great time here good luck to ya all.

[Gary R]

Only 28 gal. tonight. Will be done in a few minutes. I'll probably finish everything off tomorrow. Clean the pan and all the buckets this weekend. Then hope for cold weather next week.

[Turtlecreek]

Ok after that scorched pan incident, I'm boiling again. I found a burned out sodered joint so had to have the local menonote fix me up, 12 bucks later ad we're all good, so I think. I got the pan home tonight and fill it up and bam 3 more stinking leaks. I did my own gumball solder job and now I'm sweetening the pan again.

I did talk the the menonote at the welding shp and it appears that he has made pans foe some other guys out there. I asked him if he could make me another half pint and how much. He said he could make me one for about 200 bucks all welded with four dividers. After I told my wife I had three more leaks she asked if I needed a new pan!!!!!!! I have to think about that proposition but I think I may buy myself a new pan for next year!!!!!!

[tappin&sappin]

Well - only 50 gallons yesterday. Hmmm.

Will bottle what I have thus far, clean the pan and cross my fingers for some cold weather. If that doesn't happen, I'll get out the motorcycle...

- Jake

[BarrelBoiler]

Chasing solder leaks is uaually a losing battle some sugar over but they tend to get worse
there is some food safe RTV availible you could use to get you throgh the season don't remember anything about it the son used it when he borrowed the pan 3 years ago good luck

[Father & Son]

Collected 100 gallons last night. Had held 80 from the night before because Chase's FFA advisor was coming to see us boil. Fired up at 1700 and shut down at 2130. Made 4 gallons of nice medium. Trees have pretty much shut down. Hoping for a weather change like everyone else. we'll see what happens.

Very pleased with the new filter press. It's a 5" hand pump press made locally by a "Mapletrader". Thanks "Daryl"

Jim

[Daryl]

We only got about 45 gallon yesterday. I will boil that tonight. The over the fire air sure works great. The trees have shut down. We tapped a week ago, and some never started. We have about 5 gallons so far, and only boiled 3 days for a total of about 18 hours.
Father and Son, Glade to hear you like the filter press. On mine, using 1/2 of the plates, I ran 3gallons thru it in about 10 min. Sure better than felt filters!!!!!!!!!
This weather sure needs to get cold again.

Daryl

[mapleack]

420 gal today, though some was from yesterday. By 6 today the only trees running were my 224 taps on vac. The SP22 has been running non stop since 530 yesterday morning and the trees on vac are still running a steady stream tonight, so the pump is still running. Only have 15in at the releaser right now due to leaks, would be doing better I'm sure if I had time to fix the leaks, darn day job! I'm up to about 59 gal bottled, really need 100 plus to meet customer demand. I'm hoping that the freezing days next week will give us a little more, but I'm not too optimistic, been down this road before!

[sweetwoodmaple]

Well, on the bright side, I thought my season was over last night with no freezes for two days. But, the sunlight and May like temps caused enough change in temp for me to collect another 300 gallons. All syrup is now B grade, even with less than one day of storage. Not surprising as we are now into our 5th day with warm temps. I was out in a T-shirt just a bit ago...crazy.

Unless all forecasts are wrong and we get in the low 20's sometime soon, my season is done as I'm not into making commercial syrup. All snow is gone and the mud is thick. Peepers will be out soon I'm afraid.

A weird year to say the least. Hope things hang on for you all up north. Your snow pack was much deeper than ours.

Ended up with 3000 gallons and probably about 60 gallons of syrup. 2/3'rds of it light/med.

[SDURF]

we collected 55 gallons today, made 6 quarts syrup a nice med. grade, the sugarhouse has been busy each night we've boiled, several neighbors showed up tonight and so did ice cream for all to enjoy with warm syrup on top! always a neighborhood favorite.

[Gary R]

With 70 degrees and sun shine I drained the evaporator, cleaned it and all my tanks and preheater. Then it was time to finish off what I drained. It looked the best syrup so far, 2 gal. of light/medium. Fired up the finisher and went inside to watch the news in the easy chair (I did check the temp a few times). Next thing you know I smell something burning. Ran into the garage and all the syrup was on the floor:o There was about a quart left in the pan. I dumped that into a small pan and put it on the kitchen stove to finish. That one boiled over when I was 2 feet away rinsing the big pot:cry: By this time it is grade C and tastes burnt. I ran it through a prefilter only and put it in a jar.

So one might ask how do you clean up 2 gal. of syrup off the floor? We threw newspaper on it but that doesn't do much. I used a snow shovel. Scooped it up and dumped it into a wheelbarrel. Then hosed the floor down. As for the kitchen, good thing we have a flat top electric stove:emb: I'm still bummed. I better go back and read rule number 1.

[stifflej]

Well I made my first syrup ever. I had tapped 2 trees, collected about 40 gallons of sap and ended up with just over a half a gallon of almost syrup (I say almost because I am sure I should have boiled it a little longer, but was afraid I would burn it) it tastes very good, so for my first year I am pretty happy with it. Will try to find some more trees over the summer to tap next year (couldn't look this year with the 4 feet of snow on the ground). Thanks all on here for your help in teaching a newbie...

[Father & Son]

Gary R,
I don't know what it is this year but I have talked to others having problems with foam and boiling over. Wednesday night on start up we boiled over our second pan, not the syrup pan. Had never seen that pan even need defoamed and it was instantaneous. Chase and I were both standing right beside the rig and it still boiled over. Strangest thing I have seen.

Jim

[Paddymountain]

Drained my flue pan on Wednesday and boiled it off in the syrup pan, made about 3 gallon. Yesterday I boiled about 100 gallon just through the front
pan and finished it on the turkey fryer, made about 2 1/2 gallons. With the
warm weather and the rain for the next 3 days, I'm kind of wondering if this is it in central Pa.

[Jim Brown]

We are shut down like everyone else.Pulled 375 gallons yesterday in 16 hours with 22inches of vac. Didn't even start the pumps today no freeze. Finished off 20 gallons of really nice dark amber today. Clean all stock and transport tanks and going to the woods tomorrow to clean collection tanks and then wait!
A few week ago we all were wondering of the snow and cold would ever leave now we need some!!


Waiting along with the rest of you guys!
Jim

[Z/MAN]

With 70 degrees and sun shine I drained the evaporator, cleaned it and all my tanks and preheater. Then it was time to finish off what I drained. It looked the best syrup so far, 2 gal. of light/medium. Fired up the finisher and went inside to watch the news in the easy chair (I did check the temp a few times). Next thing you know I smell something burning. Ran into the garage and all the syrup was on the floor:o There was about a quart left in the pan. I dumped that into a small pan and put it on the kitchen stove to finish. That one boiled over when I was 2 feet away rinsing the big pot:cry: By this time it is grade C and tastes burnt. I ran it through a prefilter only and put it in a jar.

So one might ask how do you clean up 2 gal. of syrup off the floor? We threw newspaper on it but that doesn't do much. I used a snow shovel. Scooped it up and dumped it into a wheelbarrel. Then hosed the floor down. As for the kitchen, good thing we have a flat top electric stove:emb: I'm still bummed. I better go back and read rule number 1.

Bummer Gary! That sucks big time.:( Really hope the cold comes back so you can make some more.
Paul

[emericksmaple]

Still at it in Somerset county. We have not froze since tues, but the vac is pulling water every day. We are up to 490gal off of 2800 taps. We are leaving the vac run around the clock. We still have 400 to tap but don't know what to do???? Alot of guys just north of us have not made anything yet.
It don't look to good.

[Dennis H.]

I think this is it for me. I ran the vac all day today and only got 15 gals of 1% that was some of the cloudest stuff I have seen yet.

I got it all boiled done, it is making some really dark syrup. The flavor is really good though.

I have checked the weather forecast and the next 7 days has not one day or night anywhere near freezing temps. This rain is really going to get my trees to start to bud.

So I think this weekend will be a good time finishing all the syrup I had almost done and cleaing the tanks and evap pan. I am pondering on pulling the taps also we'll see.

Good luck everyone.

Oh by the way I only made 1/2 of what I made last year, so it has not been a great year for me down here.

[Turtlecreek]

Last night I boiled all I had left and chased the sweet out of the pand with water. I finished it tonight, got one gallon of dark amber. This is the darkest I've made this year, I'm sure it was due to the fact that I kept some of the sap longer than usual although I keep it cool it was still a bit cloudy.

I'm not sure if this year is over or not, si I'll leave the buckets in the trees and see what happens. The long range forecast is showing perfect weather starting next Saturday for a week, now if I can keep the buds from popping out I'll be good to go, but for now I'm shut down.

[Dan W]

Today I spent all day finishing what was left in the evaporator from yesterday and bottling. So far I have 19.5 gallons from a tad over 1100 gallons of sap. Works out to 60/1. Sure wish I had some sugars around here. Tomorrow I will clean all the pots and filter press and generally clean up the shack. Mid next week looks kind of promising, we'll see. It would be nice to get a few more gallons before the season is truely over, but it may be. This has been a screwy season. Last year my best day was 210 gallons on 110 buckets. This year my best day has been 140 gallons from 160 buckets. I sure planned on more sap than this by now. Even if it's over, I've had a great time learning the ins and outs of the new rig and already have several ideas for improvements for next year. Also located about 100 more trees that are bucket accessible.

[Paddymountain]

Filtered and bottled 6 1/2 gallons today in pints, 12oz and 1/2 pints.don't know if it's over, but I'm at about 17 gallons for the year

[Dennis H.]

I am done!! I just finished taking all syrup out of the evap and finish it. I even cleaned the evap pan.

If it wasn't raining and windy I would be out pullin the drop lies off the taps and flushing the system out.

Not a very good year for me down here.
Other than loosing 1 1/2gallons from an unforunate syruping accident I would have eneded up with about 6 gals. Last year I made 9 1/2.
I think if I wasn't on vac this year I would have a whole lot less!!

[Gary R]

I couldn't find any steam in western PA. We visited Father & Son, SDURF and Daryl today. It was a great time. We got to see the evaporators inside and out. Never singed a hair. I take notes on all these visits. Always finding good ideas to improve our operation. We'll rinse our buckets tomorrow and I plan on adding 20+ taps in a colder area of our woods. Then hope for cold weather.

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
Finally got through the PA posts and most folks are in the same boat as us. Nice to see Somerset making lots of syrup we may need to buy some of it:)
We have made 36.25 gallons of medium syrup. Sap has been from 3% to 2.2% Runs have been from 300 gallon to 90 gallon. Boiled 5 or 6 times. Evaporator is empty for cleaning and awaiting next freeze. We are preparing product for the Taste and Tour March 20 and 21.
Sales on syrup is very slow.
Mentoring Keith Talbot who is now officially a sugarmaker, he burnt up 3 gallons of syrup yesterday morning! He has it all cleaned up and ready to go again.

(Working on building a maple cream gear machine while I am resting)

Gary too bad about boiling that syrup over and loosing it. Glad it didn't catch on fire!

We are planning to keep the taps in as long as possible. Tap count is at about 530 for this year.
Regards,

Chris

[slammer3364]

Dont know if anyone is interested but I found a big old evap tody I think he said 4x10,I went to look @ buckets but they were pretty rusty. He says he has holding tanks and the whole works. Everything looks like a project,I dont know what he is asking,but I do know he wats to get rid of it.Its in Portville N.Y. Anyone wants to get in touch with him pm me and I will send you his name and no.

[mapleack]

We got another 310 gal of sap today, the only trees running are 224 on vac. The vac pump has been on since last Weds morning and the sap has been running steady non stop since then!!! I'm completely amazed that without a freeze for five days those trees are still running! We've got somewhere around 65 gal of syrup made, may have to try to buy some to make up the difference. Forecast looks like a couple freezes this week, hopefully that'll get us some more good runs from the vac trees if nothing else.

[Father & Son]

Everyone around here just sitting and waiting. No sap to boil so today I drained and cleaned the evaporator and rinsed all the tanks. Boiled the sweet in the turkey fryer but ran out of propane before it was finished. We have only boiled 4 times and hoping for a freeze this week. Had a visit from Gary R yesterday. Instead of everyone making maple, everyone is driving around and talking maple. WE NEED MORE SAP!!!!!!!!

Jim

[sweetwoodmaple]

Today before church I decided to go out and see what the buds look like. I broke one and it wasn't badly swolen, but did have some green in the center. After another sunny and 50 degree day, the buddy and metabolism flavor will be out of control.

So....decided to finish off the sweet in the evaporator. I boiled water in the flue pan and finished the syrup in the flue pan. The afternoon went something like this:

4:30 pm - Filled the flue pan and started the fire. Kids helped stack wood.
5:00 pm - Got filters ready to draw off...the fire was clipping pretty well.
5:30 pm - Kids continue to stack wood and I decide to split all the pieces to help the front pain boil.
5:40 pm - A nice piece of oak decides to smack me hard in the front teeth while using the thin splitting axe. Blood...so went to the house.
5:45 pm - looked at the large gash in my lip when in the house. While going up to the kitchen for ice...debated on going to the ER for a moment...felt light headed while talking to my wife...lights out.
5:46 pm - came to on the kitchen floor with my wife propping me up. fortunately she was there to catch me as I passed out and slammed my head off the kitchen cabinet.
5:50 pm - Wife got the super glue and used the kitchen floor as the operating table. glued my lip up good but had to wait a while for it to dry.
6:00 pm - back in the sugarhouse just in time to stoke the fire before it went out!

Well, there you go. Always fun sugaring.

[The Dude]

Whoa, that's intense! What caused you to pass out?

[tappin&sappin]

Sweetwood,

Nice! Super glue on the lip so you can keep boiling - I like it. :)

- Jake

[Jim Brown]

Now thats!! a sugar maker busted lip and still boiling

Hope you heal up Brian.

Jim

[Gary R]

I stopped and visited with Dave Y yesterday. He was cleaning collection tanks. He was surprised. he had about 800 gal. of sap in one tank. I helped walk some lines and fix some leaks. He has a real nice tubing system. He's only made about 165 gal. so far. Needs more sap like the rest of us.

I did pull 11 under achievers and tapped 17 new holes in new trees. I don't think it's going to help much. The weather keeps getting hotter. The next 4 days should be around 60 with sun. There's some frost on the ground right now, but I don't think it's going to get cold enough to make us smile.

[Jim Brown]

Pulled about 275 gallons of cloudy sap yesterday.Main northern bush was froze this morning.Pumps are on again this morning at 6:30am hope to get a decient run today if not in the next three days we are all in serious trouble.Weather is supposed to turn cold next week but I don't know weather the trees will last that long.Keeping our fingers crossed

Jim

[Maplewalnut]

Cleaned all the tanks, cleaned the evaporator and bottled some syrup this weekend. Trying to get ready if it gets cold next week but in all honesty it is not looking good. Have had no sap for a week now. Buckets are long dried up and vacuum was trickling in but at around 1% and 30 gallons a day it is not worth the electricity to run the pump or the wood to burn. Time will tell but defiinitely a dissappointing year.

Most customers are thnking we are having a banner year since it has been warm.... don't understand the freeze thaw concept. They are very surprised to hear there will be little syrup this year.

Mike

[The Dude]

My 13 taps produced about a gallon of sap combined over the last 5 days. Yet, I tapped a new tree last week, and that is flowing real well. I didn't get a gauge of exactly how well because some animals knocked the milk jug off the tree and even opened it up. But there was fresh sap running everywhere down that tree today at noon, while most other taps were dry.

I have two questions from this...
1. Does this mean I can benefit by tapping new trees right now...that they will produce more than the month old taps?
2. If any original taps are dry inside the tap, does that mean they are done for the year and will not produce even if the weather improves? Or is it possible for them to go dry when the trees shut off like they have? I tapped on February 19.

Thanks for any advice you can give. I am still encountering many facets of this hobby for the first time ever, and I have a lot to learn.

[Dan W]

I have officially called it a year. Cleaned the flue pan today and have the syrup pan soaking until tomorrow. Next is to gather and clean all the buckets and taps. Hope to have everything wrapped up by Thursday and get on to the other chores that winter has brought me. 20.5 gallons this year, half of what I expected!

[Dennis H.]

I was fooling myself by thinking that we would get a freeze up here tonight but it just isn't happening.

I haven't ran the vac for about 5 days. I already have the evap pan clean now it is to cleaning the tubing and pull the CV spouts.

[FunnyFarm]

Got down to 28 degrees here last night hope that's enough to recharge those trees

[The Dude]

Same here. Still 31º at 8:00 AM with a good frost. Let's hope.

[Father & Son]

Yesterday netted maybe 30-35 gallons in 3 tanks that was nice and clear. The buckets had 1-2 in inches of cloudy/mothy/bug floating scuz. That got dumped. Got alittle below freezing last night and hopefully there will be enough to boil after work.

Jim

[Jim Brown]

Our vacuum is saving the day right now. We pulled 500 gallons yesterday. Pumps are holding 22 inches. Had the pumps on again today at 6:30 hope we can pull that much again today. Sap was starting to get a little cloudy.Sugar buds are starting to swell and reds are the same. May get two or three more days!

Jim

[Gary R]

I got a whole 20 gal. yesterday. Boiled it only fireing 3 times. Got 33 gal. today. Should be done in less than an hour. Looks like a freeze again tonight. I plan on collecting tommorow and pulling all the reds. I am up to 97 taps, just under half are sugars. The reds are hardly running and the sugars are ok considering the weather. I will probably finish off whatever I have boiled tomorrow. It looks like a hard freeze either Sunday or Monday. I'm going to hold out and see if I can make anything off of it. Man this is a hard way to make syrup :mad: Gears have been turning and steam coming out my ears. I'm thinking of plans for next year. Just don't know if I'll get sucked into it;)

Dan W,

I know you are concerned you may have jumped the gun this year. But we probably had the coldest Feb. on record. We don't know what mother nature will bring us. I doubt if you have any sap down there now. When it's all said and done I bet you still out produced us other bucket guy's per tap.

[mapleack]

I hear we got 510 gal of sap today, with over two thirds coming from vacuum. Unfortunately I'm accross the state for work for three days so my dad and best friend are boiling! We're at about 70 gal bottled, hopefully make it to 80 or so. I'm calling it a night out here in Sayre, we surveyed 40 new gas wells in 30 hours, some kind of record I bet. Good luck to all!

[Father & Son]

Wednesday's run didn't turn out as expected after a frost Tuesday night. Only collected 90 gallons. The sap is still 2.2% but not enough of it.

While Chase and I were boiling we had a visit from the 2009-2010 PA Alternate Maple Sweetheart, Karisa Durfee along with her dad, mom, and brother. They have been visiting other sugarhouses and looking over different set-ups. They have plans to expand next season with some tubing and they are just itching to set up their new 2x6.

Jim

[Maplewalnut]

Well, my aggravation only continues day by day. This time of year it actually hurts being higher in elevation as the 'cold' air settles in the valleys. I have decided to throw in the towel, might get below freezing marginally one or two nights next week but definitely not enough to recharge the trees. Buds are swelling already and with three to four days in the mid 60's upcoming I have admitted defeat.

Final numbers looks like 38 gallons from 367 taps, almost 300 on vacuum. Minus out the 9 gallons I made in a three day run in January and you get the picture!

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

Yesterday and today have been the best runs of the season for me in Somerset county. Finally hit a gallon/tap each of the past two days. Still almost a foot of snow in my one woods, the other one is mostly bare. I think it will hold out for next weeks colder weather. No signs of slowing up yet.

[Paddymountain]

Tonight I pulled all my taps & buckets, tomorrow I'll try and get them washed up. The season was basically 3 weeks, I tapped Feb 18 and haven't gotten any sap since last Thur. Made 17 1/2 gallon of syrup. short of my goal, but
all that Mother Nature would allow!

[220 maple]

Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp,
I probably will visit Henrys this weekend to pick up my empty commercial barrel, Maybe Henry can give me directions to your camp, Don't you have a force 5 arch? I would like to see one in operation.

Mark 220 Maple

[Sugarmaker]

Sap quantity is down, sugar content still slightly above average.
We have made 53 gallons of syrup on 530 taps. And hope to reach 100 gallons if the season kicks in next week. Thanks to Jim and Chase Bortles I did not have to gravity filter our syrup tonight. They brought there new 5 inch press to the sugarhouse and did a nice on site demo. Nice clear dark A syrup was produces from the 300 gallon of 2.2% sap gathered this afternoon by Cheryl and I.
We made a batch of candy and some maple cream for the Taste and Tour.

Regards,
Chris

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

220- I have an oil fired arch I built years ago. Works great. There is one force 5 in the county owned by Friedlines. I haven't heard how its doing. If you are over this way, you are still welcome to stop in.

[Gary R]

The NWPA taste and tour is this weekend. There's no sap at my house. I'm going to spend the tomorrow at SDURF's (Our Lil' Sugarhouse). There on the tour and I'm hoping I can help out. I know Scott's been saving every drop of sap he can get a hold of.

I only gathered 19 gal. last night. I pulled all the reds and put the buckets for sugars on the ground. All the bugs and warm sap is nasty! 18 of my buckets are only 5 days old. 8 of them are reds. They may have produced a gal. of sap collectively in 5 days. Will finish tonight.

Chris, We saw that press in action also. I don't make enough syrup too warrant one. But you came to mind. I think I'd give Cheryl a hint on what to get you for christmas:)

[tapper]

We have not had a freeze here since coming out of the bitter cold almost 2 weeks ago. I have gathered a total of 850 gallons of sap and made 12 gallons of syrup on 600 taps. 75% of that sap came from 200 road tree buckets. I have 225 tubing taps on red maples and have gathered 60 gallons from that bush and 150 tubing taps on a small sugar maple bush with about 165 gallons coming from there. I have tapped too early many years and the only factor in ending the season for me in the last 15 years was warm weather. This year was the latest I have ever tapped which was 2 weeks ago.

[Daryl]

Thanks Jim, Father & Son, for the demos on the filter press. I plan to have the model done in several weeks, got busy in the shop.
My 4 year grandson is coming tonite and will see for the first time how maple syrup is made. He sure likes the finished product. When he was only 14 months old, he finished a whole maple milkshake from our booth at the fair -loved it. Too bad he lives over 6 hours away.
We may quit tonite as it doesn't look good weather in the next week. We will end with about 13 gallons for the year. Last year we had 12. We have more suger maples lined up for next year at a neighbors.

[Jim Brown]

Well we shut down our small bush yesterday. We had 22 inches of vac on 300 taps and pulled 75 gallons of 1% sap in 12 hours. Not worth the price of gasoline for the gen. Going to keep our main bush on line today to see what we can do. May shut it down tomorrow also.Collected 275 gallon of 1% sap from our main bush of 900taps yesterday in 12 hours. Vacuum was holding at 22 inches there as well.

Talked to folks in coudersport last evening and they are in the same boat as us down here. 3000 taps on high vac liquid ring pumps pulled less than 1000 gallons yesterday.

I think the robust lady is warming up and waiting in the wings!!

Jim

[waysidemaple]

The past 3 nights it has froze up good 21 deg, 24 deg, and last night was 26. I have a pretty good amount of sap. 126 gallons from 75 taps. They are all sugar maples but im only getting 2 percent my highest has been 2.1. Ill start boiling around 1 today and try to get it alll done. After last nights freeze the forcast doesnt show a freeze until tuesday and then nothin good after that.

[Sugarmaker]

Trying Cheryl's new lap top from the comfort of the lazy boy. All the kids and grand kids will be here for open house. Dorsey is here and doing great! We worked all day on maple for the Taste and Tour. Stacy went with me to gather after her and Dave drove from Columbus. We got 175 gallons of 2% sap that was just starting to get cloudy. It should make some B grade by the time we get it boiled Sunday.
Canned some dark grade syrup and made a gallon of crumb.
We need a freeze and some moisture.

Regards,
Chris

[Father & Son]

Only collected 75 gallons yesterday. Going to pull the buckets today but leave the tubing up and see if next week does anything. Oh well, have a good start on next year's firewood.

Jim

[FunnyFarm]

Couple of big maples down in town here... buds were open. Was hoping for a little more this season but i think it may be over. better luck next year.

[Jim Brown]

Well we pulled the plug yesterday. 22inches on 850 taps pulled 100 gallon of cloud smelly sap. We're throwing in the towel. VERY poor year hope some one some were made syrup because we didn't .
Now time to clean every thing up and hope for better years to come!

Jim

[SDURF]

We collect 15 gallons of sap today that will give us some to give a sweet smell in the sugarhouse for the tour tomorrow. We had a great day today and especially enjoyed having Gary R and wife help us with the backyard sugaring!! generated a lot of interest! We didn't have a good year as far as making a large quantitiy of syrup but our family had great time visiting other sugarmakers and learning from them which usually we don't have the time to do! Looking forward to next year!

[holstein]

finished pulling all my taps today. dumped about 80 gallons that took a week and a half to collect in the containers. I shut the vacuum pump off last wednesday after making 10 gal of comercial syrup. With no cold weather insight it was time to throw in the towel. If it had not been for the the vacuum pump i wouldn't have made the 50gal that i made.

[emericksmaple]

Well we quit today. As I write this dad is boiling out the pan. Not sure on totals at the moment I know we made over 1000 gal of syrup on 2800 taps, all on vacuum. The rest of the county is not doing good at all. Talked to a producer today that has 8000 taps and they have only run about 40,000 gals of sap through; we have run at least 52,000. Henry our dealer never even tapped. Without vaccum I would guess some guys are going to have the worst year in a while.
The Force 5 the Fredlines have; they are VERY VERY DISAPPOINTED IN IT. It has made bueatiful syrup but they can't get more than 180 gal an hr through it .
The sap tonight was soured and making a strong dark syrup. When i have all the info I'll post it.

[mapleack]

Yesterday was our last boil, finished the last 15 gal today into a drum. About 100 gal of syrup from 912 taps / 6500 gal of sap. What vacuum we had made a big difference, half the sap we got came from 224 of the taps. The last 30 gal of syrup was commercial. Quite a dissapointing year, but thats what you get depending on the weather. Still lots of tap pulling and washing to come, then planning for next year.

[Gary R]

It was a great time at SDURF's place on Saturday. I spent the day boiling on a small flat pan on cement blocks. I'd never done that. It boiled quite well. I did get sun burnt though standing outside on March20th.:o Thanks for the syrup.

By mid week it is supposed to get cold for 3-4 days. I still have the buckets out for the sugars. I don't know what it might bring.

[tappin&sappin]

Well all - I'm also throwing in the towel.

Cleaned the pan all up yesterday. Will pull the taps and clean the lines after work thoughout the week.

Very short and disappointing season, but still had fun and hey thats farming for you.

- Jake

[Maplewalnut]

Recap of the year:

Maple trees- 1 Most of PA-0

(must be watching too much basketball)

[molineutu]

boiled the last of the sap on saturday. cleaned out the pan and swept out the shack. as of now I have boiled 265 gal of sap and the last stuff was pretty milky. Yes it is to get cold at the end of the week but the trees have budded hear and all that is left is to pull taps and clean and get ready for next year.

[theschwarz1]

The amount of sap was not as good as last year but the quality was very good. All trees producing 3%-3.2%. So even with less sap, I got more syrup.
I see this week and weekend have some good freezes with highest in the sunny forties coming....I'm going to wait a Tad longer to pull my taps.

[Father & Son]

I might be just one of a few hold outs in the area. I'm going to rinse my buckets and tanks and see what this coming freeze does. If there is any sap I'm going to heat some in a small pan and see what it smells like. The buds aren't popped yet but we'll see what the sap smells like.

Jim

[gomish]

I'm only dealing with 20 bucket so, I am going to clean out the bugs and junk, and get ready for friday. Accuweather is calling for 23 deg friday night, and it always get colder at my place than they perdict, it could be in the teens! Predicting several night of below freezeing. Hope it runs again.

[Low budget maple]

As of Sunday the wife and I pulled the plug. Yanked the taps and clean up this week. Between the average 1.3 percent and slow runs I don't need the practice. Several improvements on set up for next year will begin soon. Overall we managed to drink more beer than make syrup but tWas a good time. Total of 15 gal of syrup

[springhills]

We're procrastinating on clean up. Its finally supposed to freeze well later this week, and 290 gallons from 2400 taps is just too hard to take. I just hope its not buddy, and we expect to do some "reaming" with a 21/64" bit the day it freezes. Usually we can get two days of sap flow from a previously dried out tap this way. Next year we'll get some vacuum up there in the woods.

[White Barn Farm]

I still haven't thrown in the towel. I set the buckets down and let the rain rinse them good. I will set them back up tonight and see what happens. I am not that far off the totals I usually get and the syrup has had excellent flavor. I tapped 28 more taps last Monday in a spot that is always late to run that I don't normally tap and they have been running well. I last gathered Saturday and the sap tested 2.5%. I still have wood left so would like to keep going.
Mapleack (Andy) I wish I knew you were in the area, I would have had you over. Gas well going in in the field next to me, perhaps you did some survey work there.
Ed

[Dave Y]

This season has been very disapointing! I got off to a late start and it looks to be an early finish. I have only made 300 gal of syrup. that is a little over half of last years total. I added 400 new taps and vacuum to 2100. thank God for the vacuum,as my 1100 buckets and 200 gravity taps have only produced1900 gal of sap. The new force 5 has been performing as excpected. I am getting 200gph and firing every 35-45 minutes as opposed to every 5 minutes. my syrup to wood ratio is very skewed do to some very poor wood in the begining and some very poor sap most of the season. all in all I am pleased with the new rig and would recomend it to any one looking to cut less wood. It is currently 24degs here maybe we will get sap today!

[Father & Son]

With the frost Tuesday night all taps were running again on Wednesday at about the same as they had been, maybe alittle better. Rinsed all the tanks, and dumped the buggy buckets. Took about a quart of fresh sap home from the tubing in the new woods and brought it to a boil on the stove. Smelled fine, no wet cardboard smell. My fingers are crossed that it is not too late. The forcast for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are for freezing nights so......

Jim

[Father & Son]

With the frost Tuesday night all taps were running again on Wednesday at about the same as they had been, maybe alittle better. Rinsed all the tanks, and dumped the buggy buckets. Took about a quart of fresh sap home from the tubing in the new woods and brought it to a boil on the stove. Smelled fine, no wet cardboard smell. My fingers are crossed that it is not too late. The forcast for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are for freezing nights so.......

Jim

Sorry for the double post, I couldn't find a way to delete it

[Gary R]

We're still trying to make something here. It may be pan cleaner:lol: Only 43 taps. I reamed my holes a 64th 2 days ago. I also replaced the taps and rehung the buckets. I got a whole 11 gal. today. I dumped it in the pan, lit a fire and left. This weekend is the end for me. I have plans to work out.

[gomish]

We're still trying to make something here. It may be pan cleaner:lol: Only 43 taps. I reamed my holes a 64th 2 days ago. I also replaced the taps and rehung the buckets. I got a whole 11 gal. today. I dumped it in the pan, lit a fire and left. This weekend is the end for me. I have plans to work out.

I am hoping for another run with the predicted temp firday night in the teens. I didn't mess with the spouts or tap holes, only cleaned the bucket out. Since the last run was over a week ago, will the tap holes be blocked? I noitice some say to re-drill a little larger.

[Maplewalnut]

Alright guys. I licked my wounds and am back in the game. Reamed 150 taps last night 1/64th bigger and 1/8inch deeper. Also added about 50 new roadside taps. Weather looks perfect the next few days and we should be making some syrup. Hopefully this will be the run to save the season

Couple things I am going to track and report back on:
----Reamed holes vs non-reamed (left about 20 non-reamed)
----same tree reamed vs unreamed
----virgin holes vs reamed holes
----sugar content before and after hard freeze tonight
----grade of syrup produced after 2-3 weeks of 60 degree days

Lots of good maple research going on in the Poconos. Anyone like to predict results?

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

The sap still seems to be flowing in Somerset county under vacuum. Supposed to freeze here tonight too so might really charge the trees up. Hoping to get another week of sugar season here, weather looks like it could hold out so we'll see. Boiled last night and its still making nice light syrup.

[Gary R]

Gomish, reaming, this is the first time I've done it. Some say it works others say it doesn't or not for long. I had nothing to do and looking at the weather only have 3 days to go.

Maplewalnut, I'll quess, same amount of sap from any type of hole. Increased grade after hard freeze. I'm hoping on the sap volume part, that way we won't have to bother with anything in years to come:) Looking forward to see your results

Tapper, if your reading, I stopped at your place today around lunch time. Must be a work day. I was working in Russel all day.

[gomish]

Gomish, reaming, this is the first time I've done it. Some say it works others say it doesn't or not for long. I had nothing to do and looking at the weather only have 3 days to go.

Maplewalnut, I'll quess, same amount of sap from any type of hole. Increased grade after hard freeze. I'm hoping on the sap volume part, that way we won't have to bother with anything in years to come:) Looking forward to see your results

Gary R, thanks for qualifing your take on reaming the tap holes. I think I will let mine alone and see what the 18 deg tonight does. It has not ran for several days now, the tap hole looked dry in the trees. I was concerned that the hole were so dry the cold temp tonight will not cause any flow.

Maplewalnut, cant wait to see your results.

[Sugarmaker]

Like Maple Walnut We are still in the game but I think the other team may be on there way home.
First time I ever reamed any tap holes; 500 in two evenings 1/64 larger and a little deeper. If you really only get two days run from reamed holes then I have already got that and it was not a even a good runs, 150 gallons off 500 taps on Thursday and 100 gallons on Friday. Sap may be getting borderline metabolic??
Some 2010 stats:
500 taps gravity tubing
2800 gallons of sap
12 runs, 12 boils
largest run 365 gallons smallest 80 gallons
finished about 70 gallons of syrup medium and dark
Wood consumed 4.5 cord of pallets
about 250 folks visited the sugar house for Maple taste and Tour weekend.
Shelves almost bare:)

Will we do it again next year. SURE

Regards,
Chris

OH yea forgot, hoping for a good run this weekend too:)

[220 maple]

Buffalo Creek,
My wife and I are coming to Somerset County today, hoping to take in some camps and go to Henry's for some glass. If we make it in to Meyersdale for the "Official Festival" I'll do my best to find your camp. I just missed you last Friday evening, Henry said you had just left right before I pulled in. I did visit Sue at Wagner's Camp she was busy preparing items for last Sat. and Sun. event. I also visited McKenzie's camp which located on River Road I believe? They are about one mile past the entrance to Milroy Farms. They as well as yourself have a High Vac. System. I believe they were filling their 17th barrel.
They was very confident of breaking the camp record because of High Vac.
No need to respond to this message I need to hit the road.

Mark 220 Maple

[FunnyFarm]

Welp that's it tapped 80 trees just collected 20 gallons and pulled all the taps. Cooking down the last right now i figure to end up with about 6 1/2 gallons of syrup.Was hoping for a little more but so it goes. Next year I'm hoping for tubing and vacuum. Had a blast now i'm moving on to the greenhouse, bees and garden. good luck to ya all

[Gary R]

I finally called it quits today. pulled all the taps and got the buckets washed. We only collected 44 gal. of sap over the last week. I would say reaming did nothing for us. Some of my taps have only been in for 3 weeks. We only got 1/2 gal. of syrup this last week. It does not taste right, although it is not offensive. Here are the totals for the year.

We tapped Feb. 19
409 gal. of sap
6 gal., 1 pint of syrup (2 gal. of that went on the floor:cry: )

Very disappointing year. I am seriously planning on the big suck next year. Hope to get a pump this week.:)

[waysidemaple]

All my taps are pulled and all the tubing, tanks and taps are clean. Im all packed up for the season.

Collected 605 gallons of sap
Made just under 13 gallons of syrup(prolly spilled and ate a gallon throughout the season).

Gearing up for next year already.

[Father & Son]

Still not quite ready to pack it in. Saturday gathered 100 gallons and made 2 gallon of dark amber with good flavor. Yesterday gathered 115 gallons and made 3 gallons. Same grade and flavor as Saturday. Friday and Saturday nights temps got into the 20's and the tubing taps ran pretty good, the buckets not so good. It might freeze tonight so maybe one more boil. No off flavor or smell yet.

Jim

[Turtlecreek]

I pulled everything and cleaned up two weeks ago. I had 35 taps out this year and made 3 gallons, I should have had a bit more if I hadn't burned the pan.

I tripled my taps this year, bought a new to me half pint and still here i sit with the same amount of syrup as I made last year on my evapro-sink.

I have plans for next year, maybe a shack and a new pan? Only time will tell heck if my gas lease works out maybe I be calling Iansons to get me a new force 5, I wonder if they make that in a half pint version?

Well until next year.... Turtlecreek.

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

Cleaned the tanks and evaporator over the weekend. Everything was getting dirty. Got about 7500 gallons of clear sap to boil so I am going to start to concentrate it down. It looks like things could start to wind down in Somerset county this week with 70 degree temps.

[Sugarmaker]

PA floks,
We kept our fingers crossed and kept the taps in place. With and all the reaming and cleaning we have made another 17 gallons of syrup. Some Dark Medium and just into the Light grade last night. Nice to see the grade come back this late in the season.

We had a good freeze on Friday night, sap did not start to run till about noon on Sat. We gathered 200 gallons of clear sap on Sat 3-27-10, plus 410 gallons of clear sap on 3-28-10, which was the largest run this year. Sap tasted a wee bit flat but the syrup seems to have a real good finished flavor.

Will gather tonight (probably 100 gallons?) and if we dont get a freeze that may be it!

We had fog today and there may be a chance of a freeze tonight.

Total gallons at this point = 80 on 500 taps, not great but we will take it.

Regards,
Chris

[Maplewalnut]

I to am still in the sap. Mind you I only reamed roadsides as an experiment but we have collected over 350 gallons from 150 taps since Saturday. Will post the final reaming results when they stop running. Still dripping pretty well at collection today around 2pm. It looks like no freeze now until October. Heck its supposed to be close to 80 on Friday:(

[Z/MAN]

I to am still in the sap. Mind you I only reamed roadsides as an experiment but we have collected over 350 gallons from 150 taps since Saturday. Will post the final reaming results when they stop running. Still dripping pretty well at collection today around 2pm. It looks like no freeze now until October. Heck its supposed to be close to 80 on Friday:(

Mike, I also reamed Saturday evening after no flow all day. I tapped late this year and put in all new spiles, adapters and droplines so I figured I was Ok. Not so. After reaming I'm having the best run of the year. Picked up 50+ gallons since then but like you said when it's done it's done. Will finally be boiling Tuesday evening.:D Now, I hope it's good sap!!
Paul

[theschwarz1]

My partner had the best run of the season Sunday to Monday. We were glad we kept the taps in! Its all grade b but I like that!

[Maplewalnut]

Picked up another 200 gallons of sap today from just over 100 taps. I did not collect yesterday since we had a SSE wind but was pleasantly surprised collecting today. I have started to pull some roadsides that are not longer dripping but still have one place along a creek that they were dripping like mad late this morning. We'll see what I have tomorrow. Believe it or not sap is still clear and sugar is ranging from 2.0 to 1.2 depending on location I'll take it. I have made almost 10 gallons of syrup from no more than 150 buckets in one week after reaming. I figure to boil again tomorrow, chase with water, finish sweet.

Mike

[tapper]

480 gallons from 240 bucket taps today. 400 tubing taps 0. Made nice grade a dark excellent flavor all day. Empty buckets and pull taps tomorrow.

[Sugarmaker]

Jon,
What happened to those tubing taps? Our buckets dried up way before the tubing?

Guys we are done for 2010:) You cant make syrup when its 84 degrees! Come ON!:) When we boiled April 1 for the last time, it must have been 120 degrees in the sugar house! I lost a couple LB's that night!

Final total is 104 gallons of syrup on 500 taps. So around .2 gallons of syrup per tap. I will get some more data posted.

We made 40 gallons after March 21. Never any great runs just small runs. We did have several nights when it froze and that helped a lot. I think we gathered 18 and boiled 18 times. Last sap was 1.5 % All previous runs were 2% sugar content or higher.

All the tubing is down and I have about 1/3 washed and ready for 2011. That $20 tubing washer really works well, I even found another squirrel chew threw area. ( Could be why that string did not produce great this year?)

Pans have vinegar/ water mix in them. then they need to come off the evaporator for some much needed repairs (rear of front pan leaks).

Canned 8 gallon of medium and dark syrup for restocking the shelves today.

Let the marketing begin!

Regards,
Chris

[jrthe3]

i will be all done tomorrow letting the rig cool down over night to drain what left to finish numbers are about i 130 gallons on 750 or so taps new pans worked great auto draw off i love and the filter press i will never boil with out again all money well spent