Maybe I'll get to use my new Tubbs snowshoes this year.....
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Maybe I'll get to use my new Tubbs snowshoes this year.....
Brandon,
I got back in Harrisonburg late last Night, too late to get on the Net. My maples somehow survived the ice storm, The Big Man above slapped Mother Natures fingers and told her to behave, That's the only explanation I have, anyhow Open about half of my taps, Needless to say, after that 23 degree Sat. nite they ran, They didn't stop Sunday night, They ran Monday pretty good, then they ran all day Tuesday, I kept the vacuum pump running all day Tue. And the water kept coming, So we fired the the beast up Monday night and was at full boil by 7:30, at 9:42 the auto-draw opened up and the season was on. It took 175 gallon of water before we got any syrup off. We boiled Tuesday Night also. I have three milk can to finish down already, It looked pretty lite, after it's finished I'll see were it ranks in the Breneman Hall of Fame, You probably know what I'm talking about, the glass leafs of syrup the people bring in and leave at his store there in Salisbury. I left one of my best and it's not close to the others that have been left there. Hopefully I can get more trees open this weekend, I'm off Friday thru Sunday, We have another cold wave coming and then it's going too run hard again.
Mark 220 Maple
Mark,
Glad to know you are up and running. Sure glad your trees survived, it is discouraging when an ice storm hits for sure.
I picked up aprox another 100 gallons of sap yesterday morning that had ran since I collect on Monday evening and boiled off 350 gallons total that had ran from Sat evening. I drew off about 3 gallons and it doesn't appear to be any more runs in sight for a few days as it has gotten cold again.
Brandon you are a early bird this year, but it is paying off for you.. sounds like your getting some sap ...I'l be tapping soon..Just about ready, but holding back...only need about 3-4 gallons for personal use...Gues the sweeter stuff should be coming with these earlyer runs?? been out of sink with tapping, gonna be like starting all over again..
Talk to you again soon..
Charlie
Thanks to NH maplemaker, I was able to possibly catch the victim today, or at least one of them. It was a flying tree rat. He went for the peanut butter and that was all she wrote. I have one trap pointing up the tree and another one pointing down the tree, so will see what works best. I had not seen a flying squirrel in probably 20 years or more. An old time sugarmaker told me many times they always played terrible havoc on his tubing. I am sure I had fox squirrel problems too as I saw one last year visiting my taps when I was driving up to collect, but I just thought he was curious and didn't think much about it until a day or two later and I wasn't getting much sap. Then I found all the damage.
Hope this takes care of problem and will keep the traps in place probably until the season is over.
Walked the bush today and found a little damage, but very minimal, only 2 or 3 spots since I tapped and they were very minor places. Sap was running good this afternoon and hopefully will tommorrow before it gets down cold tommorrow night and close to 10 on Sunday. Probably leave everything and let it freeze up in the tanks until it starts running again next week if it does.
Brandon, glade to hear that the trap worked for you !! But I don't think one little flying squirrel will make much of a stew!! LOL But it's a start. Keep us posted on your trapping. Jim L
Brandon-has it been runn at all down there?
Not much going on, been too cold for the most part. I boiled off 350 gallons last Wed and then it ran about 200+ more from Fri thru Sunday that is still in the woods tanks as it got cold and froze it up some. I will probably gather that later today and put in about 115 more taps and hopefully will get a little run today thru Sat. Boil off what I have and what I will get on Saturday hopefully and go from there. Next week looks better, but the forecast may not hold out. This season is looking like it was 3 years ago which was a really good year at least in this area.
I am hoping to hold out until close to March 1st to tap the north side bush which has 170+ taps in it and runs really good.
I put in 113 more taps yesterday which puts me at 350 so far. I have another aprox 170 taps that I hope to wait another 10 to 15 days to tap them.
It got to low 40's yesteray with nothing but sunshine and it got the holes thawed and they were starting to run a little. Lots of sun so far today with 47 as high and clouds this afternoon. Hopefully get a little sap today and tommorrow so I will have a good boil tommorrow. 200+ gallon still in woods tanks with ice in them from last weekend waiting to be picked up.