March Journal...

[Mike]

Half of my trees are tapped. Getting hit with a storm !!!! :evil: ....Hope this is a good sign for a good season.....

[syrupmaker]

:roll: Yaaawwwwwnnnn.....Is it spring yet? Feel like a darn groundhog wakeing up every morning looking to see if it's time to tap? Heck with my shadow,i can find that later.

Rick

[Dropflue]

No trees tapped yet. When the long range weather forecast predicts temps in the upper thirties, then will go into the woods. I installed a Marcland automatic drawoff last week, hope it works out good. Put chains on the 4-wheeler this weekend, but with the snow coming down, I think the sled or the tractor will be the vehicle of choice for a while. I think I’ll give Syrupmaker & MapleKing a call, to see if they want to drink a few beers and tell stories of maple sugarin (past, present & future). Nothing else to do I guess!

:?
Dropflue

[backyardsugarer]

Drop Flue,

Where and when on the beer? I continue to watch the forecast and hate what I see and hear right through March 15th. It looks like I will be boiling water for maple weekend. All tapped, ready to go, nothing to do now except wait.

Chris

[Dropflue]

Chris,
Seriously, Let's pick a time and a central location for everyone. Send out the e-mails!
We can all get together at my place, and stare at the new auto drawoff!!

Any suggestions?

Dropflue

[backyardsugarer]

Drop Flue,

I would be willing to drive an hour or so on Saturday Afternoon to have some brew with some fellow maplers. Let me know and I will be there with a cold 12. How far is Aurora from Rochester? I would love to see your set up.

Chris

[mapleman3]

heck I may have to do another NY roadtrip just to lookat Maple stuff, nutin happening here :? I did turn on the Vacuum today hoping that as the storm moves out the pressure will goof up the trees into giving sap.. it's aroud 33-34 deg now... Praying for a few drops!!!

[syrupmaker]

Dropflue....I've spoken to Chris and pm'd Joe. Anybody else out there interested? Sugarn42long? Seems like your place would be the most central,besides i would hate to have you take of the auto drawer to bring with you. :idea: Joe has 50 gallon and Chris has some ice chuncks, should we sweeten the pans while where there? 12 or 1PM sounds good to me,other input is welcome.Bring your freinds also :?: Drop flues shack has plenty of room.

Rick

[Parker]

Anyone bored around the central N.H area there is always something to do and a cold 12 at my sugar house,,still a lot of sap lines to run and some plumbing to do..probably should put that other section of stack up too...

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[Parker]

KeviN-Dont get me wrong,,,your a real nice guy in person and I do appricate all the help,,and like I said Id be happy to return the favor with the same ammount of labor at your place,,,,,BUT IF YOU THINK I AM GOING TO PAY YOU $40 AN HOUR YOUR SMOKING CRACK!!!!!!!!

[mapleman3]

Well anyday now :cry: trying to tap the rest on Sat , hoping the small break in the cold(maybe 37deg) will help me get motivated enough to get them done... still wont be another week that things may get going...

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[Al]

Looks like I'll tap the 13th. Looks like a warm up starting the 14th. Still have to redo my counters and plumb up the lines to the rear pan. No pressure yet!
Take care

[syrupmaker]

Parker,Kevin....You boys got it all wrong. Couple guys working together,talking maple,BS'N and some eats = PRICELESS :wink:

Rick

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

It is great to see you trader members helping each other. Wish I could help some of you, but 1000 miles one way is a touch to far to drive at this time. Maybe someday I will get to meet some more of you, but it was enjoyable meeting the ones I did get to meet.

Let's work together to help each other in any way we can and to build up others and not tear each other down. That's what made this website and this country great!!!!!!!!!! :D :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[syrupmaker]

YEE-HAWWWWWW....a southern YA"LL COME. Let me know when.

Rick

[sweetwoodmaple]

Here we go...our own Amish community! :D

(a compliment to all you Amish out there!)

Brian

[mapleman3]

SWEET!! I'll get the tools together!!!Can we bring the dirt bikes down? you gotta see Joe on a 49cc.. TOO FUNNY!!! :wink: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[themapleking]

At least Brandon's made syrup. Maple weekend is 3 weeks away and I'm already getting emails and phone calls and have nothing made. On top of all that stress I now got the flue. Somebody just shoot me :cry:

[mapleman3]

Joe don't feel bad, Today we had our Mass Maple Producers annual ceremonial tapping at one of our local sugarhouses. I talked with alot of sugarers and not one of them have tapped yet or if they did no sap yet, so everyones in the same boat. but on a good note, when they tapped the sacred tree... IT RAN !!!! whew good thing, with the press there you want it to drip. we had a good time ate some goodies.. Pomeroys Sugar House has a beautiful place. tomoorow is my day for roadsides.. it will be 40 out, some may run, sure would be nice to sugar the pans

[themapleking]

The temp is at 35 so I ran the vacuum for 1 1/2 hrs. Total of 2 gals of sap out of 700 taps. Good ratio.
The wind is 20-30 mph I just checked my weather system and the wind chill is 15 degrees. Very depressing up here in NY.

[mapleman3]

wow 2 gallons... gonna boil that on the stove?? :wink: I here ya joe, I don't even know why I'm bothering run the vac except to get the water out and get some sap in the lines so they thaw quicker in the future.

[backyardsugarer]

Maple King


Don't feel bad, I was just in the woods for about 2 hours collecting chunks of Ice. I ahve about 60 gallons of ICE :twisted: Not a bad yield for 200 taps over 10 days. The long range forecast is only worse :cry:

Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Joe,

The good thing is that you have the flue now and not when you have 2000 gallon of sap to boil! :D

[mapleman3]

Joe, I read back abit, didn't realize you had the flu.. get well, like Brandon said.. better now than durring the run!!
As of right now I have 234 tapped, 100 of that on vac, I still have a bunch more to do, we are getting a bit of a run.. I mean just a bit, I'm exhausted from cleaning more buckets to use, still running out. I will take tomorrow off and setup the tank and pump on the truck, make up some more drops and do more tapping... when done I should be a bit over 300 total... should be warm the next 2 days and possibly 1 night..should get sap then!!maybe I'll get to sugar the pans by Wednesday before the cool down again :D :D :wink:

[themapleking]

Went back out in the woods fired up the pump again. Dug out all of the lines snow is over nee deep. Checked vacuum at the lines and spouts alot of them were frozen with ice and also the holes had ice in them. Started to get some run.
Temp should be around 45-50 with rain monday, so maybe it'll kick in. until tuesday cold spell again.

[wdchuck]

Finished up all my maintenance work on pipeline today- except for some really minor stuff, I'm ready to tap, but I'm in no great hurry. Really cold on Wednesday, somewhat of a warm-up after that, but no real sap run weather in sight. Despite all the warm weather earlier in the winter, It's still going to take a really good thaw to get things moving this far north. I may start tapping on Thursday- that would have me done Monday if all goes well, which it usually doesn't. Accuweather shows next Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in the high 30's and thats it! I really dont think that will be enough for any kind of a run in my woods though, so until then I'll be content with being really ready when it does happen!

[mapleman3]

Dang it's 9:30pm and it's still 34 deg. although I did just shut the vacuum off, I have to wire in another pump.. plastic instead of steel(rust) so I don't want it to have to pump the releaser out. I bet I got 11-12 gallons sap today.. maybe double that tomorrow if it runs for a while, the lines will be full! and supposed to be in the 40's tomorrow and mild thru tomorrow night.. may run all night tomorrow... My buckets that I checked were half full :D

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jim,

Sure is great to see you have sap. Maybe you will have 600 gallons by Tues morning. Sure will be hard on the anti-depressent drug manufactures. :(

[backyardsugarer]

I went hog wild Sunday and put up another 35 taps. I figure it is going to be a short season so I better make hay while the sun shines. I scrounged up every extra tap and bucket that Icould find and even bought some new 5 gallon buckets. I plan to get a good run today as the trees were already awake at 6:30. The only problem is the next 2 weeks of weather. I may have to save all of this sap for maple weekend and a boiling demo so I do not have to boil water.

Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Chris,

It won't stay cold for the next two weeks straight. You will get at least a couple of sap days. Too late in the year and the weather is very unpredictable this time of year. :D

[backyardsugarer]

I am not taking a chance. I collected about 150 gallons yesturday and put it all on ICE. Anything I get from now on I will boil. I was tempted last night to fire up in a big way. I hope to sugar the pans by maple weekend on March 19th. All of the forecaster around here say we are in for a 10 day cold spell.

Chris

[mapleman3]

I don't know about you but I would boil it, better syrup that way.... I am hoping for close to 300 again today, I went to put rocks on the pail covers so they wouldn't blow off, and most of the buckets were full.

Boiling tonight. :D I was going to wait, but figure do it now while it's fresh.

[mapleman3]

I was testing sap yesterday with my new refractometer... love the thing THANKS KEVIN :wink: I was getting just over 1.5% from the reds on Vacuum, but almost 3.75% 8O from the sugars on roadside(love them road trees) so the tank with all mixed was at 3% which gives a nice percentage for me, 28.6 gallons of sap to 1 gal syrup.. heck, cant beat that!!! it will be interesting to see how they all hold up thru the next several weeks.

[Belshee Creek]

Just thought I would let all know how things are going in Iowa.

So far collected 73 gallons on the first run last week, made two gallons of light amber.

Second run, 62 gallons collected, made one and a half gallons of light -med amber.

GBM evaporator works great. Plan for next year to house this puppy!

Brush Cutter stopped by yesterday later in the afternoon, nice guy, got to visit with Brush Cutter while my helper ("Wife" ) watched over the second batch in the turkey fryer.

Brush Cutter took a few pictures of the back yard operation, then had to head out. Thanks Denny for stopping by.

Nice to know another Iowegian is as crazy as we are. :D

Hope the weather warms soon, found my valve frozen on the storage tank yesterday morning, had to use the old hair dryer trick to thaw the darn thing out, did the trick, canned 6 quarts last night.

Good luck to all! :wink:

[mapleman3]

as long as I have higher % from the sugars to mix in yes I do like to boil it, folks loved my syrup last year, may have been the reds mixed in giving it a special flavor, ... plus 100 taps is 100 taps, beggers can't be choosers. if I had 100 sugars on vac also... maybe not..

[brookledge]

Jeremy,
I say as long as it makes good syrup, boil anything over mid 1%. Lower than say 1.3 or 1.4 I agree atlot of time and fuel to make anything. But if you are making b grade or comercial and are only going to get .75 to 1.00 per pound then I would probably dump the sap and call it quits. Especially If I used oil or gas for fuel. With oil running at 1.75 to 2.00 per gallon I would dump it. Six to eight dollars of oil to make one gal of syrup that is worth ten bucks.
Keith

[mapleman3]

Old man winter still coating us with snow, not letting us have an easy time getting buckets, the neighbors son and my daughter will be helping me get frozen buckets today, hopefully it will warm enough that the ice will just slide out. then stick the de icer in and voila!! boiling tomorrow.

[themapleking]

Got my maple weekend signs ready to go for next weekend. Bottled up the syrup I made tuseday 14 gals. to the drop. Med-light amber and great tasting too.
Now if the trees would run this week. Another 1000-1500 gal would save me for the weekend. Would get me close to 40 agl of syrup.
We're paying for the nice January weather thats for sure :evil:

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

You guys up north are spoiled. I wouldn't know what to do with 2% sugar content. Mine is always around 1.7 to 1.8% and I tap 98% sugars. It seems the further south you go, the lower the sugar content. I always have to boil off around 50 gallons to get 1 gallon of syrup, but taste wise, I would put my syrup up against anyones. I have heard it said several times in the past, the further south you go, the better the flavor and I have people tell me that all the time, but who knows. I just enjoy making syrup even if I have to boil and boil and boil and boil and............ :D

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[brookledge]

Brandon,
What I was saying was that if the sugar content was real low and you were making B or C grade and were only going to wholesale it, why spend more time and money than you can get for selling it. It is depressing to only be able to get $6.00 to $8.00 per gallon when it is comercial grade. That is the point where I would dump it. Maybe with the higher cost of oil and gas the wholesale prices will go up to. I keep some grade B for retail but don't need as much as I can make. But if I can make Grade A I would boil sap that had a lower content.
Keith

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Keith,

I understand and totally agree with what you are saying. Just giving you a hard time! :wink: :wink:

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Kevin,

As far as another guy in WV, he must have been up in the northern part of the the state. Most of my trees are big sugars and they are well spaced with not much competition from other trees and big healthy crowns and I still only get 1.7 to 1.8 in sugar content.

There are people 4 to 5 hours north of me that make a lot of syrup in the northern part of the state and their sugar content is probably significantly higher. :?

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Kevin,

Thanks for the offer and the info. About 40% of my trees have good water access, so I know that probably lowers the sugar content some.

You did send me an old sap hydrometer you found a few months ago and I have used it a couple of times, but it seemed a touch low. I will continue to play with it and see what happens. :wink:

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

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[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Kevin,

It was the 4th week down here before the trees gave very much sap and the best run of the season is this week, the 5th week. :D

[backyardsugarer]

I collected 40 gallons of slush sap last night. The roadsides in full sun are doing ok but the ones in the woods have not had a decent run yet. I am hoping for another 40 gallons today and then 40 on Friday so I have some more sap for the weekend open house.

Chris