Northern Ontario 2021

Well over a month to wait in the north but getting stuff ready in case an early thaw, it's been a much warmer winter compared to the last five, hope we don't go from winter to summer again

Above freezing here in North Bay for today and tomorrow but I don't expect any sap to flow for at least a week or so. Over 4 ft of snow in the bush. Trees will take a while to thaw.
Agreed. Last year was wild. Had a very extended season of near perfect conditions then all of a sudden it was 25c.

Just a heads up for anyone looking for the glass 500ml Kent bottles. They are impossible to find this year. CDL just doesn't have any. The Gateway Home Hardware in North Bay still has 10 cases left. They are my best sellers. My neighbours buy that size by the case to give as gifts to family.
The price of the 1L glass "Grand" style bottles have nearly doubled in price this year. Was 1.26 per and now is 2.08$. Glass must have gotten expensive.

Hello, new to the forum here. This is my first year at trying the maple syrup. My sugar bush is just outside of troutcreek in the nipissing township. I built a small A frame shanty out of 2x4s and vapor barrier this winter to keep my boil out of the elements. Im planning on tapping 60 trees. I have been packing the trail down all winter so it should be fairly easy to access the trees. and I bought a 2x3 evaporator from CDL with a homemade stove under it. Please post when you are planning on tapping. And yes the snow is crazy deep.

I looked at the weather last night and it looks like our area is in the pluses next week. I plan on tapping on Sunday and see what happens. I know of someone that tapped last weekend and has a few start to run a little.

Going to put about 30 taps in today, I know somebody on Manitoulin Island tapped this weekend and said sap was slowly dripping and the temperature didn't go above -4c around here, but the sun was sure hot
Not a whole lot of snow in the bush here and some good crust, also south facing hills are showing a lot of ground
May get some good runs this week by the looks of our forecast, maybe even some 24 hr runs before the next freeze. The long range is changing daily to our advantage yet still not great daytime temperatures after this week. I'm hoping the sun for 2 days then the 20mm of rain opens the flood gates for a couple days.
I guess I have an itch to try my new evaporator and pan
My records show my taps were in on March 2 and March 9 last year and pulled the last of my 51 taps on April 25

200 Taps in and 130 to go. Looks like it is going to be near perfect weather this week in the North Bay Area. I am expecting Light flow Tuesday then a more significant flow to start and continue Wednesday. Some minor improvements this year include a Sap shack down by the lake with the option to keep the pump heated. I also rigged the pump and pump heater controlled by smart plugs so I can turn them on and off from my phone while in the sugar shack. Should save me a couple of hundred trips up and down the hill to the collection point.
I did notice a lot of damage from the winds last week. Lots of branches down from the maples. Hopefully the trees send the sap to the spiles and not to the damaged limbs.

I started tapping yesterday (March 15) Had my 4 year old grandaughter helping so we only got the first 15 buckets in. I'll drill another 25 today. Trees are starting to thaw and my guess is Wednesday will be the first real drips. At least one week early for me. North end of North Bay. Here's hoping for a good season.

I tapped 15 trees on the 7th and collected 3.5l as of last Friday. Only a couple of my trees were thawed out. The fun should start this week.

I got my 72 taps in on the weekend. I'm excited to see how much I get once I go this saturday or sunday. I'm on an unmaintained road and have been using my sled. But Have a feeling there will be a couple weeks where I will have to walk in before I can take my truck. I timed it last weekend its a 1.5km walk and it took me about 20 minutes, not too bad.