Tapped in Traverse City area

I finally was able to get out in my sugar bush and get my taps in yesterday and I would say that 95% of them started to flow heavily as soon as I drilled the hole. I normally would have taken advantage of some of the earlier runs but the doc had me on a 20 lb weight restriction so I figured I had better hold off as I know a full sap bag could weigh upwards of 30 lbs. Lifting those bags to chest height to pour sap into my collection tank would have been painful so I resisted the temptation. This week looks to have some crazy weather here in North West MI but I hope to be able to collect enough sap to start my 1st batch of the season for this my 12 th year of Maple Madness.

Yeah, that sounds great. I finally got my pump going today on 24 taps and I have 8 taps on 3/16's gravity. Not as many as I wanted to put out this year. I may do more yet, just have to wait and see.

I have been able to collect 100 gallons of 2% sap so far this week and have been keeping it cold with milk jugs full of ice. No problem today as the high temp so far is only "19" degrees. Probably won't collect again until Friday when I start up the RO Bucket I preparation for Saturday mornings 1st batch of the season.