Tapped in Central NH

[Mac]

Collected 70 gallons today, 60 of which made it into the holding tank. :cry: The trees that get the good sun are running good, the ones that dont are not running much ...some not at all.

[Mac_Muz]

Tamworth here, Thanks, as this is exacty what is happening now to me. I run a hobby rig for 35 buckets, and haven't got a gallon yet. I set the taps 2 days ago.

[Cardigan99]

Mac and Mac Muz, I'm just west of Newfound Lake. Yesterday got me psyched, but realistically next weekend will be the earliest I set taps. Just as well as I have another 40 taps worth of lats to run and few odds and ends to button up.

[Mac]

Cardigan99,
Guess you must live in the shadows of Mt. Cardigan... pretty area, we used to have a camp on Newfound when I was a little shaver. I should have tapped a day or two earlier here... a friend of mine collected 625 gallons on 675 taps (two day span).... Those pigs in the freezer,,, they gettin cold? I have a beagle I'd like to put in the freezer every now an then:lol:

[Cardigan99]

Mac, you guess correctly. About 2.5 miles west of the summit. Plenty of elevation. I'm glad to hear folks are getting sap out there, but I'm just as glad I haven't hit them yet. They're saying more snow coming in this week. Beautiful day today. Took it off to button up a bunch of stuff. I'll probably be going at it every free minute for the rest of the week. Mac, I've always got a freeze full of pig. We raise three every year.

[Mac_Muz]

Cardigan, You ain't missed much so far as i can tell. I still have a few dry taps, and a the rest except a few are slow comin'. 4 days since tappin' and none in the barrel yet. The only good thing is I ain't workin' to hard. My taps are all in the woods and a truck can only be used on about 1/2 of them. All the rest I must carry 2 buckets to a sled with a tank in it I will hand pull out.

Mac, I ain't neva' et beagle before just how is that? :D

[Mac]

Cardigan,
I have collected 130 gallons, so far... things starting to loosen up... boiled for the first time on my new evap last night..... all went well... no melt downs... one slight boil over.... defoamer was still congealed... was about ready to throw the whole **** container in! Managed to get some on my finger and flick it in...No syrup yet...... Mac Muz beagle taste alot like bald eagle:lol: Nice to raise your own food

[Mac_Muz]

Day 5 and no sap to collect. I use joint compound buckets, which self store, but none are close to half. Cloudy all day so far and my taps are shut down.

Looks grim in the forecast too, next 10 days appear to be El Zip. Maybe I'll go boil water :D

Hmmm I woulda thought beagle would be like spotted owl since there both small.

Raise food? naw can't be, food comes from the stowa'!

[KenWP]

Mac do those trees have wires running off of them by any chance. I tapped one tree just to see if anything happens. So far nothing. Me thinks maybe March 17 like last year.

[Mac_Muz]

No wires what so ever, never did either. Not sure even what you mean, but no fence wire, no power wire, no wires... Now the pines around here are loaded with dead fence wire, some barbed some not, and the ground in places is loaded with rusting out old items, more so by the brook, where there was a farm dump I suppose at one time, or the fair ground perhaps had it's own dump.

I never did get a decent run last year, with 35 taps. i was nervous about adding more than 22 to be total, since with 22 taps once I made 11 gallons.

My rig is too small for making more than 11 gallons. Now if i thought I wanted more than that and had another barrel and another pan, I would hook on to the other, on another steel saw buck with legs a few inches taller and feed them both from one fire, making the back barel a big pre heater, and having a copper line with a valve to feed the fired pan.

I feel that I tapped early, and for the first time in my life, as an experiment.

I have never drilled the same tree twice in a given season either, but might try that with 2 maybe 3 trees this time if it seems I must. As of late I am finding more trees in the swamp which has a lower over all water level i can access this year if and when the snow melts. Of course on the ice walking is easy.

Nearly all my trees are in shade a good part of the day and some are in shade most of the day. Most of these trees are 1 bucket trees too, and the ones big enough for 4 taps are only tapped twice. That type of larger tree seems to run best.

Some buckets will just be dumped in the AM I think as the sap in these is browing up, but I don't know why, and there isn't 2 table spoons in these.

Another tree leaks from a winter crack, and that sap is mighty fine tastin' I tapped below that crack, hoping to be in line with it, so the lost sap will be reverted into my bucket I hope. Still a amber bead of sap forms, and it is some sweet.

If you recall i found some trees down in the lower swamp last year i thought might be sheltered from the wind and get more sun, I tapped just 2 of them and that hunch seems to be working a little.

[Mac_Muz]

Oh you just wait a second! LOL Did you mean with wooden cross beams and a real tarry smelling bark? :D WAUGH!

[Cardigan99]

Yes, 10 day forecast isn't looking good. 10-14" over the next cpl days. Mac Muz, you're in that path too. Mac, we use a little corn oil for defoamer. A drop on the finger. Just like flicking a booger :). Knocks the foam right down.

[Mac_Muz]

Na nan nanananana I can't hear you! :D No more SNOW! I just want to collect my sap and live in peace! lol

I don't seem to have a foaming problem in the big flat pan, but have in finishing a few times on the kitchen range in past times.. The any seem to like it. I tend to use a pinch of real butter dabbed on a table knife, which I just poke in quick to save myself from more ants!

If the ants came at the same time I spilled, I might try ants with liquid gold. Hmmm, I wonder how the tax man would figure that?

[Mac]

Get ready........ cause it's coming thursday, friday, sat, sunday... make sure you have extra SAP storage!!!!!!!!!!
Added 25 more taps in the Ossipee Mountains, all sugars... what I'm I thinking

[PerryW]

Just hung 50 buckets today (in addition to the 750 tubing tapholes I bored Sunday & Monday.)

Sweetened the pans last night w/ 350 gallons of sap.

Ready for Bigsap. Hope the weathermen are right this time.

[Mac_Muz]

I am upset today that it was so nice and I got NO sap. March 3rd I collected all 35 buckets worth for around 24 gallons, and since then 0 sap.

I understand the swamp shaded trees can be slower, but this is nuts. My 4 best trees didn't make a half pint in these past days since i collected. The weather seems super good, with strong sun, a little breeze maybe, but not much. It has to be this location in Tamworth.

At any rate I will cook off what I have in the morning, which should cheer me up. If not, I will trailer my bike to a paved road and go ridin instead.

[HudsonHawk]

Hey Mac,same thing here in Hudson.....I thought with the sun today it might run a bit, but out of my 2 best trees, I got only a total of MAYBE 4 gals from 6 taps. My smaller trees had maybe a 1/2 gal each. It didn't get too cold last night (maybe 31-32 deg) so maybe that was it. Too much cloud cover......so maybe the next few days will be ok. Come on saaaaaapp!!!

[Cardigan99]

Nothing running yesterday (windy). Little bit today (little breezy). Big Sap coming tomorrow. 250 gallons in the head tank and whatever comes tomorrow. Be going for a cpl long nites.

[tuckermaple]

I think I might be close to done for the season. Seems like we should have got a couple of good runs the last couple of days but I had a handful run good, but some just didn't run at all. I've got couple hundred gallons in the tank will boil down tomorrow night and i guess see what happens from there. i tapped out feb. 20th i think i could have tapped a week earlier?

[Mac]

Tucker I haven't set any records this year either... Some trees not runnig hardly at all yet last year they were big producers.. Hoping next week it gets cold enough at night.... intellicast has temps for my area above freezing at night..... accuweather has temps below freezing at night... go figure..... this weekend looks bad.

[Mac]

Collected another 70 last night and boiled it down, one big draw and as it came to syrup in the pan again I was out of sap. Dumd my 5 gallons pail of sap in the back pan.. and opend the doors to the arch...... Still had clear sap yesterday but the weather is not looking good.

[tuckermaple]

Finished up over the weekend. We ended up with 28 gallons on 275 taps, not exactly the numbers I was looking for. We will make some improvements over the summer and try again next year.

[Cardigan99]

Going to hang in for at least this weekend here in Alexandria. Looks like conditions are going to turn around for a few days soon.