Vernon County

Well we got our top hill woods all tapped on Saturday afternoon,it was sunny and about 28 degrees with a light west breeze.Worked until 5:30 then supper a movie and bunk time. Sunday morning the 2nd was sunny after a low of 6 degrees we waited until 9:30 to go back into the valley,took the main line up top for the guys to roll down the steep hillside to the sugar house.With that done it was time to pull out the flu pan and clean out the ash filled flues,we call that job the Big Dirty.
Then lunch at the cabin and back to the valley to repair and tap our gravity taps on tubing. The squirrels sure made extra work for us. Was very quiet in the woods no deer seen no squirrels just loud coyotes both nights. Sunday nights low was 29 degrees with a cloudy Monday morning, time to head back home and wait for the trees to do their thing. On a funny note when we drilled into a maple thats been tapped in the past, and put the tap in, a coffee colored sap came running out.
My son said its coming from the tree so must be ok and gave it a taste from the flowing tap.He then made a bad face because it tasted like gasoline.upon further inspection the tree had part of its side missing and must have filled up with bad gross water.Guess he learned something on that one.God Bless.

Returned from a one night stay at the sugar bush to gather for the first time,upon getting up top we saw the trees were still at a slow run. Our total from 250 trees on buckets was only 170 gal so stored the sap in tanks with snow around them.will return soon we need more sap for the RO its our first season with it. The weather forecast is for 50s and 60s this week and warm nights.so will have to see what happens Saw nine deer on Saturday all laying together along our top field,geese were flying and cardinals and robins were singing up a storm.God Bless.

Wednesday March 12th my son and I hauled the new RO over to the sugar house along with all our needs for cooking and staying three nights.Wednesday afternoon we gathered 240 gal sap for a total of 410 gallons.Thursday the 13th we installed the RO and power- tubing- tanks for Fridays startup. We took a drive up to Country Maple Supplies by Cashton Wi, I needed more labels. They were finishing their run cooking its a Amish operation with 5000 taps, David said the season so far is down for them. Friday morning got the sap reduced by 50% so our cook time was 6 hrs instead of 12. Syrup was dark amber with a great taste, we made 9,5 gal. Sugar House temps were a bit warm with a 76 degree outside temp. Then sugar house clean up and RO rinse de sugar wash rinse. Saturday March 15th the weather was colder with rain showers and lots of wind,we did more things in the sugar house.then went up top to check the pails for wind knock offs. back to the cabin for lunch and packing up for home. Our new RO is a Leader Micro 2, it worked super nice for us using a generator. Saw 8 deer,squirrels,geese small birds. Heard sand hill cranes. The woods had a soft slippery surface with frost coming out and our valley road was the muddiest ever. God Bless

3-17-25 Nice reports Mr. SM. What a crazy spring this has been. We returned late from the south and decided this was the year that we would take a break. Each day that goes by we agree that we made the right decision. Actually catching up on things. Still enjoying the spring but loving the fact that we aren't tied down to a fire from sun up to well past sun down. Actually, it sounds like a typical season for you. Still like reading all of the entries across the state. Best wishes for a good season. I'll check back in later.

Hi Folks! Reading all these with envy. One more year to "settle in" to homesteading - got goats a year ago, and some new Katahdin lambs coming in a few weeks, and add in my retirement on 3/31,....well no time to tap! Still addicted to the maple and will build a rain/snow shelter soon for next year. Tracking all you guys so keep posting and God Bless.
Tom

Congrats on the retirement. Now you'll have more work to do than when you worked.

Tom Moore Hope you have a relaxing retirement I retired this last March and been going ever since but remember you don't have to do it on the weekend.

Hi all, my son and I just returned from a 5 day stay at sugar camp. We went there on Thursday March 20th after getting things to the sugar house and the cabin we went up top and gathered 370 gal of sap with about 20% overflowing and 40 gal from the valley tubing tank.there was about 2 inches of snow but was melting fast.high 38 low 25 saw a rabbit and 2 deer Friday March 21st pt cloudy low was 20 Had coyotes barking very close to the cabin. Went to the sugar house and RO the 405 gal into 200 gal concentrate ,we cooked for about 5 hours made 12.5 gal of syrup. Some clean up then went back up top for more sap worked until darkness and rain made us quit. 8:00 supper and bunk time saw 4 deer. Saturday March 22nd sunny light breeze nice day, we went back up and finished gathering for a total of 420 gal of sap.then RO to 200 gal of concentrate. this season has been a battle with mud in the woods and valley road never had it so bad. Decided to RO the sap but took a while so a 9:30 supper and hit the bunks. Saw 1 rabbit 8 deer Sunday March 23rd rain all day so was a good day to cook up that concentrate into 12.3 gal syrup its all been dark amber with a great maple taste. After clean up we went to Culvers for supper,was a welcome change from two guys with zero cooking skills.Monday March 24th after a night of crazy wind the morning was cloudy windy 29 degrees we decided to gather one more time and collected 135 gal of sap put it into storage tanks then came home. God Bless.