I have a 200 mile drive to get to my Price Co trees. Couldn’t access them last year (thanks beavers) so I’m wondering if this week’s coming warm weather will get things rolling. Anyone able to share some intel? :-)
Printable View
I have a 200 mile drive to get to my Price Co trees. Couldn’t access them last year (thanks beavers) so I’m wondering if this week’s coming warm weather will get things rolling. Anyone able to share some intel? :-)
Brother went up to start tapping today. About 2 feet of white stuff on the ground in western Vilas Co. Hope he digs nice trails to the trees, so I don't have to trudge through it. Hoping to start cooking Friday afternoon. At least the sap won't spoil.
I'm in central Lincoln county. 2" of new snow on top of the 12" already on the ground. The trees just started leaking about 3 this afternoon. Hoping to cook this weekend.
Just put in 22 taps this evening. Had to trudge around in snow shoes to avoid sinking in up past my knees, and didn't crash even once. However, no sap in any of the holes. Weird. Mrs. TwoSaps told me this morning that it was too early, don't jump at the first 40 degree day. The little lady apparently is right again. I hate that.
I snowshed into central Price County Camp BOB Wednesday evening (3/16). Tapped a handful of trees each day, Thurs thru Sat. Now 20 tapped and sap has flowed a little better each day as snow depth went from 16” to about 12”. Have about 10 gallons to start boiling today which is fine when you just have a 16 quart pot! Down below 20 last night and 50 predicted so today should be a great day! A Redpoll mob seems to have followed me from southern WI. (Oops! — Photo won’t upload.)
Drove 25 taps yesterday. Half of them dripped nicely the other half nothing. Roads are muddy already....................bummer. Another nice day today !!! Happy Tapping Jay
Friday collected only 12 gallons on the 31 taps this year. Saturday the trees were all dripping nicely when I decided to head home since I did not have enough to start up the evaporator. Hoping the warm temps this past weekend get the trees flowing. Will be back thursday to see how it has been doing.
Bryan
2022 - 31 taps (very slow start to the year)
2021 - 31 taps 9.7 gals, new SL Dauntless Evaportator
2020 - 25 taps 7 gals
2020 - 25 taps 7 gals
Neighbor of my sapping site called yesterday. All buckets full. Heading up right after work tomorrow. Hopefully I can get the sap collected before it freezes solid. Going to be a long day cooking Saturday. If everything is full, that's about 200 gallons of sap.
Went to the cabin to collect thursday and had 55.5 gallons on 31 taps for the week. Dripped some more friday but did not collected the 1 to 2 inches in the buckets. Will get that next weekend. Looking back, season is kind of acting similar to 2019 for where I am at for sap. And that year season ran till mid april. Also most of my sugar content was between 2.2 to 2.6% which I usually run in that range. I did have 2, 4 gallon buckets test at 3 and 3.2%.
Bryan
Sayner - Star Lake area......Collected 75 gallons + or - the ice we discarded from 80 taps on Friday the 25th. Boiled on Saturday netting 1.5 gallons of Amber. It was our 1st boil on our new W. F. Mason 2x4 XL continuous flow evaporator. We went from a 20 x 30 flat pan. Totally under estimated the steam that was produced. The low temp in the teens had to have been a factor. Can't wait to get back and boil the next run.
Collected 64 gallons on 31 taps this past weekend. Not going gang busters yet. Heard the southern half of the state had huge runs late this past week, guess mothern natures was making up for lost time for them.
Bryan
Disappointing week this past week. I was off, so I spent the week in Vilas Co, expecting to be cooking non-stop. Had 70 gallons when I got there, cooked about 2 gallons of beautiful liquid gold. Hardly a drip after that. Hopefully this week gets the juices flowing.
Things might finally be loosening up in the Great White North. Collected about 2.5 gallons per tap over the last 6 days. Of course had to pull everything from the woods because we'll have 48 hours below freezing. Just a temporary set back.
My dad collected 108+ gallons saturday for the week, and another 71 on sunday evening. Things are finally really moving. Sugar content was between 2.5 and 3.2%. Looks like it might slow up based on temps for a few days and then one week left to the season.
Bryan
Well, my season is over, hate to say. Was up this past weekend, collected about 160 gallons Thursday nite, not a drop for the rest of the weekend. Too cold. I'm betting it'll still go for a couple weeks, but I won't have time to make the drive up, so I pulled my gear. Cooked 4+ gallons Friday-Saturday, beautiful color, excellent flavor. Wish I could be going back this weekend, but I guess it's time to gear up for morel season.
Happy cooking everyone! I finished the year with only about 10.5 gallons. pretty low, even for us.
Well all done for the year. Collected and boiled 119 gallons of sap this past weekend. Now on to finishing and bottling it all. Think once we have it all bottled we will be in the 12+- gallon range on the 31 taps. Record year for us.
Bryan
Well we tapped March 4th as that is when we had the time to tap, thought it would be early to tap looking at the forcast as there was not many days of possible flow for 2 weeks. So we did not check buckets till March 17th as we live 3 hours from our cabin where we tap and was plesently surprised to collect 72 gallons on the 31 taps. Lots of snow on the ground, would go up to your knees when you stepped of the snowmobile trail. Some buckets were full and some only had a few inches in. Here we go weather looking good here on out for the season.
Bryan
7th season Making Syrup
Went sunday to collect and boil, collected 78 gallons on 31 taps for the week, boiled that down and had our first draw of syrup for the year. Collected another 31 gallons tuesday morning before leaving for home that will get boiled this coming weekend.
Bryan
Thanks for posting. (I wish more were doing it.) I need some inspiration to make the 4+ hour trip north and a half mile back in the woods east of Phillips. Snow map says it’s over 20 inches deep so I assume I still have time.
My dad went up friday to collect and only 28 gallons on 31 taps since tuesday. Slow week, he collected another 21 sunday morning. The snow depth does not seem to have much effect on the tree as they have been running. I can tell you the ground is not frozen under the snow so sure that is helping the trees produce sap.
Hi All,
I'm in Mercer and things are incredibly slow, very little dripping for my 75 taps. I make my route with my snowshoes on and get very little reward. Getting impatient, maybe things will improve this week.
I hope the weather forecast changes as looks like it might be over after this weekend for Merrill area. Was hoping for another 2 weeks. Only had 3 boils so far this year. Might be lucky to hit 8 gallons this year on 31 taps when I have done almost 12 gallons on that many taps the last couple years.
Bryan
I'm at zero boils. Many of my trees have not started to produce. Certainly worried about the "no freeze" at night conditions I am seeing in the 10 day forecast. Going to keep hanging in there and see what happens.
My 16 year old son went up and collected last night ahead of the busy easter weekend, he boiled some last night and will finished today boiling to get home before our exchange student from Germany comes tonight. He collected only 62 gallons on the 31 taps for the week. Nothing crazy yet for runs, but looks like things will be over after this weekend. Temps are going to rise into the 70's this next week and no freezing at night after saturday or very few days of freezing at night that it is not worth the hassel with the warm temps. Only at 293 gallons collected for the year usually we get about 450 to 475 gallons in a season on those taps. Guess we will see where we are at Monday when we go up to finish boiling from the weekend run and pull taps.
Bryan
Got a really late start here in Sugar Camp WI. Tapped 21 trees yesterday and about half dripped. Snow is still 2 feet deep so I had to blow the road open to get into the trees. Temps have been warm for over 3 weeks now and other tappers in my area are tapped in a few weeks ago and are boiling. Their trees are in more open parklike areas but our trees are in a more crowded shaded woodlot. Usually I don't get a good run until at least 2 weeks later than my friends. Hope the warm days coming don't shut things down too soon. Jay
Crazy year so far. We are in the snow pile around Winchester. Still 2.5 ft of snow in the woods as of 4/1 when we tapped. Had to shovel a 40 foot long corridor through a 5 foot deep snow bank just to get to our stove/shack. Mercer Maple, we feel your pain. We put in 57 taps, and as of 4/5, we had a scant 50 gallons of sap. Heading out tomorrow to see what squeezed out of the frozen ground over the last few days. Then it looks like we'll be done after only about 5 total days of sap flow for the whole season. Our friends and family are going to have to get used to dressing their waffles with jam and whipped cream. The good news - we'll have plenty of firewood ready for next year.
That's an awful season twosaps. I feel your pain but we had it a little better in the northeast. I am headed up to my woods tomorrow to try to save the couple of gallons i have hanging on pails before the 80's come on wednesday. I think there is still snow around tio pack around barrels i collect in. Crazy we had 6 inches of new snow fall saturday. It looks like it might dip back to freezing othis weekend but i am pulling taps on saturday anyways. We had 4 decent weeks and 1 week of frozed solid sap. Still got the 4wd atv stuck in the snow every week so far. I was supprised when i tapped in early march most trees were dripping even though the base was completely covered with snow. I think the warm january kept the frost in the ground to a minimum. I am still waiting to see what a "typical" spring is as every sap season for the past 3 years has been radicaly different.
Not sure there is a typical season.Quote:
Originally Posted by MajorWoodchuck
My dad went up yesterday morning to collect and boil what ran since friday and collected 88 gallons on the 31 taps. He said the trees were still dripping yesterday even though the last freeze was saturday night. He will do one final collection today while he pulls the taps for the year. Sugar content was mostly 2.5% in the buckets but he had one or 2 buckets that were 1.8%.
Bryan
Well the collection today was not much and my father decided to not boil it so finished the season at 381 gallons of sap collected, have not bottled yet so do not know the number of gallons of syrup made. Our sap content is usually higher than 2%, but if you just do quick math we should end up in the 9.5 gallon range. Taps are pulled and cleanup begins.
Bryan
Hard to resist these March like temperatures, but I'm not falling for this brief warm-up. Tentative plans are to tap some time around the second week of March. I have a week's vacation end of March, and hoping sap's flowing. I've had the same week off the last two years, and NOTHING!. Last year too cold, the year before too warm. I'm starting to feel like Goldilocks of the syrup world.
Thanks TwoSaps2 for sharing your plans. I have to drive about 4 hours to get to my Price County trees, so I have to plan my visits. I’m guessing sap is flowing now given this year’s February temperature swings.
Seeing that others aren’t posting I’m thinking this may be a supremely difficult year ( — especially for someone like me.) I’m wondering how the trees will fair with this short dormant season (so far). Hopefully this El Niño year is not the new normal.
Good luck to all, especially the commercial tappers who have a big stake in the seasons bounty.
Wondering. I'm in the same situation. I live in Oconomowoc area, tap at my property in Vilas County. I'm a teacher, I've been tapping for about 10 years now, just as a hobby. My brother and I joke it is the most expensive syrup on the planet, given drive time, and equipment investment for a few gallons a year. I typically go up 3-5 weekends a year, plus spring break. The last two years, spring break has been a bust. Last year, too cold. The year before, too warm. Hopefully this year will be just right. One of our first years, we tapped mid-end of February with a warm-up similar to this. Sap flowed, for a few days, then shut down again. We've agreed since then not to fall for these early warm-ups.
We are near Winchester. This is always too early, but with the tropical forecast, we caved in to FOMO and put in 51 taps on Sunday March 3. Most were immediately dripping furiously. Then the sun set, it snowed on Monday, and we ended up with a mere 22 gallons after the first day. Just starting to drip again on Tuesday noonish. Not the geysers we anticipated. We'll see. Latest working theory - since there is at least an hour less daylight in early March than when we usually tap, there is much less time for sun/warm to heat up the trees and internal sap before things shut down again for the night. Or maybe our trees are just cranky and uncooperative until after St. Patty's.
Update on the craziness in the far north. March 5-6 were great. About a gallon per tap per day. Some taps yielded 2 gallons per day. Then today, March 7, the weather seemed about the same, and 51 taps produced about 10 gallons. ??
Internet connections are getting a lot more common in the northwoods (including 1/2 mile from my trees!) so I’m hoping someone is gonna post something here in the coming days/weeks. (My motivation is mentioned below in my 2024 post.)
Happy Tapping! What’s happening?:D
Once again, we ignored rational judgment and suckered for the early warm up. Put in 44 taps on 3/12. About half started dripping right away. Will they keep running, or was this just the release of the sap stored in the trees?
Brother put in 44 taps on 3/12. 3/15, I collected & cooked 107 gallons. Nice run, but Saturday too warm, Sunday too cold. No sap flow. Planning to head up 3/21 for a week. Hopefuly the flow will kick back up.