Its not really over is it? (NE Ohio)

[heus]

With the warm spell who thinks we are done in NE Ohio? What about you Geauga and Ashtabula county guys? I'm still making light amber syrup, sap that I am still getting is clear. Even the few reds I have are not buddy yet. Its supposed to get cold again next week. Hopefully that will save prolong our season.

[LEROY MILLER]

this could make for a very short season for me in ashtabula,if it dose not get cold again im afraid thats it, my spouts are dry . really lookin forward to some cold weather and soon.:cry:

[heus]

Next to worst case scenario if the weather turns cold again in a week or so and the trees haven't budded, I may tap several new trees. Fortunately my woods has the potential for about 1000 taps and Im only at 194 right now. Worst case scenario of course is that the warm weather stays and the trees bud early.

[maplehound]

Boiled the last of my sap from this week today. Went from a nice light syrup yeasterday to a border line med or dark today. The good thing is though that we finally got rid of most all the snow :). but it left us with a real muddy mess and now it is going to rain and make it worse. Long range forcast for us is on monday and Tues. NIght it will get down to 32 not sure if that is enough to get a run though.
Last year was my worst year at 70 gallons of syrup on 700 taps, this year I have 50 gallons made so far. Will this be worse than last year :(.

[WoodButcher]

know how you feel Hound ....

tapped in Munson twp this year. 30 buckets hanging for 3 days and only 8 gallons of sap . slightly clear yellowish color too, not as clear as it usually is . tasted fine though.

made 3 gallons so far, all light amber . last nights boil was medium amber .

gonna get cold though . hope it to get more. 30 taps , only 3 gallons so far? eekkk :cry: :cry:

[johnallin]

Heus, We're at the southern edge of Lake Co on Little Mountain and have only seen a quart or so in each our 105 taps over the past 3 days. What is out there is still clear as a bell and I did boil 70 gal on Thurs., but only made 4 gallons of light amber so far.
After working like crazy to finish a new sugar house and put in a new 2x6; I sure hope this isn't it. Still have lots of wood and ambition left if nothing else.

[maplehound]

Just got back from the woods. The tank had about 50 galons of ugly sap so I drained it out. Tonight is iffie at best for temp. getting below freezing. One forcast calls for 27 deg tonight another says 33 deg. whatever happens though I will start the vaccum tomorrow to see what I can get.

[Doc]

I'm with you MapleHound. There is some bad looking yellow, brown liquid in some of my buckets. A few have some nice looking sap but only an inch or two. I'm waiting to see what tonight does and if nothing good happens then I'm done. Let me know what you find.

[tom jr.]

guys, dont freak out just yet my trees have been running since yesterday (vac) the sap is as clear as can be and the bucets just started running two hours ago with the wind changing to the west. I think my trees have just enough time to make it till sunday when the deep freeze returns to ne ohio
it aint over yet!

[WoodButcher]

went back today, about 2 ounces in every bucket. :cry: oh well . . . gettin cold, should get one more good boil

[Jeffery G.]

Yay! frost on the ground this morning. We just might get one more run.

[maplehound]

Yes we had some frost on our windshields this morning. So I went to the woods and started the vaccum. Manged to get about 300 gallons of sap today off of 700 taps but I also found (about mid day) one of my main lines was seperated at a Y that caused about 40 taps to not flow and 200 taps not to have any vaccum at all. I also found 2 branchlines had seperated at T"s and where laying on the ground there was another 10 taps not producing anything. Manged to fix all of them but it has stoped flowing tonight. Hopefully we get a good run tomorrow, it is supposed to get down to 30 deg tonight.

[WoodButcher]

got about 15 gallons from 30 taps today . all crystal clear. not bad. just need a couple more days like this and ill boil this weekend .

[heus]

Due to the freezing temps last night we had a mini-run today. 70 gallons from 194 taps. I boiled this down tonight. Hopefully freezing again tonight and a better run tomorrow. I pulled my 7 red maple taps and tapped 12 more sugars. They were running like crazy when I drilled them. All on the north side. I realized that I put too many south facing taps in earlier in the season. My north side taps are the ones running today.

[WoodButcher]

decent run today . . about the same as yesterday . . .

funny thing is .... i have 30 taps: 15 on buckets 15 on clear bags...

found 3 bags with 3 huge moths in the bottom , just floating dead. they had a good , sweet death , but why only the bags? its weird. . .. buckets are normal, have standard lids... collected all sap 30 minutes before dusk , so there was maybe 2 ounces in each bag and bucket. .

so moths are addicted too eh? ;)

[bobsklarz]

Tapped 130 trees on March 4th in Medina. Collected 4 times and going out again tomorrow. Collected 120 gallons yesterday and will wait and add tomorrow's collection to that. I hope it's not over. Supposed to snow Sunday night! :confused:

[Doc]

Okay...I've been looking for this frost on my windshield that you all have been talking about and haven't found any in the last 2 mornings!!! What's up with that!!?? I give up.
The next time I walk out to my garage, I'm not even going to look at my car windshield!!! :lol:

Now that's funny!!! Well...maybe not. :)

[maplemat1]

just down the road from john allen and iv been boiling ever night from last tuesday on been making any where from 10 to 18 gallons a night made 46 gallons this week alone and its only wedsday .john i do check out youre bags every few days to see how there running .mine just wont quit running .vac has been running since last monday @ 7:00 am.Up to right at 200 gallonsand the buds stiil look tight but i did hear the peepers tonight wont be long now till its over

[maplehound]

bank thermometer said 25 this morning. Yeasterday we had a small run not as much as I would have liked though. When I got home from school around 3:00 I had 300 gallons waiting to boil at the sugar house and probably 15 in the woods. I started to boil and relized after I wa going good that my Marcland Drawoff said LLLL. I was shocked and worried (this was after rotating my front pans) Played with the probe awhile and finall called Marcland for assistance. He said that I had a red wire that was broken so I remade my connections at the box and still got LLLL. Long story short I am now waiting on another probe to come in the mail. It has been too long since I have drawn mannually and never have with my 3X8 rig so I shut down with almost 200 gallons of sap in the tank and more in the woods. I probably will get another run today and I won't be able to boil till tomorrow or Saturday.:(

[johnallin]

just down the road from john allen and iv been boiling ever night from last tuesday on been making any where from 10 to 18 gallons a night made 46 gallons this week alone and its only wedsday .john i do check out youre bags every few days to see how there running .mine just wont quit running .vac has been running since last monday @ 7:00 am.Up to right at 200 gallonsand the buds stiil look tight but i did hear the peepers tonight wont be long now till its over

Matt, that's a lot of syrup...I boiled 3 nights last week but nothing since. Cleaned the sap tank saturday hoping for a decent run this week but I've only collected twice this week - 15 gal last night and 10 tonight. From 100 taps that's pretty skimpy to say the least. Does vac make that much difference?

Busted my hump for 4 months for less than I made on the 1/2 pint. Go figure.

[wattwood1]

John: It must have gotten just a bit cooler here in Russell twnshp. this week. I had 33gal. Tuesday, 55g yesterday and 30 today off of 60 buckets. Nighttime temps were 29, 26 and 29. Yesterday was a pretty good run here after that 26deg night. What a difference a couple of degrees makes. I'm surprised that there is that much difference between here and Kirtland Hills. I had figured that all of us NE Ohioans were getting a good run this week. It is supposed to drop again this weekend so we may get another chance. Hang in there. Rob Morgan

[johnallin]

Rob and Matt..any of you have extra sap ???? :-|
Weather forcast for next week still shows night lows in the mid 30's. I think it's all but over.

[maplemat1]

Matt, that's a lot of syrup...I boiled 3 nights last week but nothing since. Cleaned the sap tank saturday hoping for a decent run this week but I've only collected twice this week - 15 gal last night and 10 tonight. From 100 taps that's pretty skimpy to say the least. Does vac make that much difference?

Busted my hump for 4 months for less than I made on the 1/2 pint. Go figure.

yes vac i think has made the difference this year .my brother has chardon square sugarhouse and has close to 1500 buckets and has hardly made any syrup.when i left the bush tonight sap was coming in at about 5 gallons every 3 minutes

[wattwood1]

John: We are going to finish boiling today so I don't anticipate any surplus sap. Would like to have helped you out though... The buckets and sap are starting to get a bit funky with the day temps we've been having so I'm guessing I'll pack it in this weekend. Rob

[jason grossman]

we are fairing ok, won't be a bumper crop but we are hoping for average. we have boiled everynight since last thursday, about 10-13gal of syrup a night. today maybe slow but i look forward to next week. i don't plan on stopping any time soon, and you guys are right good tubing and vaccum is keeping us going. good luck to everyone and good cold weather:)

[johnallin]

Well, 47 gallons collected and in the tank - hmmm, in the tank is a good description for this year. Sap is still pretty clear but have not gathered more than 15 gallons per round since Wed. Will boil what I have tommorow with the kids and grandkids all here.

Matt, sounds like you are really cooking over there but we are pretty darn dry here. Hoping for a cold snap next week to get things going again. You guys with vacumm are getting your money back this year for sure, 5 gal in 3 minutes! That's incredible.

Robb, I know surplus sap is not an option this year, thanks for the kind thought. I can't spell "quitt"....so I'm going to just hang on and wait it out.

[maplehound]

I finaly got my probe today for my marcland draw off. so I boiled today started with about 600 gal and finished with 13 gallons of dark syrup (good flavor) it would have made much better if It haddent sat around so long. Now I have dry tanks and am hoping for 1 more run. It maybe wishfull thinking though.

[Jeffery G.]

Done! Pulled taps and washed buckets today. The buds on the reds are going to pop any day now. I think any cold that is coming, is too little, too late.
It was not a banner year for me.
180 taps, 995 gallons sap, 5.5 gal per tap
23.5 gallons of finished syrup = 42.34 : 1

[WoodButcher]

had 30 gallons collected from a 5 day period and boiled it sunday , worked fine , got half gallon of grade a dark

[johnallin]

Just off the NOAA site, maybe there is hope yet!

Currently Weekend Extended Forecast Month Weather This Weekend
Friday Mar 26 Partly Sunny 41° Lo 22°
Saturday Mar 27 Partly Sunny 53° Lo 28°