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Sap was flowing well today here as well. Looks like a hard freeze tonight and the next several nights. The next couple of weeks look pretty ideal actually...hope everyone can keep up. I'm so glad this season turned around from the mild weather that we were having!
The beat goes on..........yesterday, 120 gal/sap & about 100 drown moths. Today 60 gal/sap on the tail end of this run. No moths. Need a freeze tonight to reset everything.
"But yes, I am curious too to see who is still there and who has quit. My money is on the sugar maples still being there."
I pulled out when my wife detected a bitter aftertaste. In hindsight I wonder if I had some spoiled sap and I should have dumped everything, cleaned, and restarted. On the flip side we got some great skiing in this last week.
On the Red vs Sugar debate: I tap three properties. The property with primarily sugars definitely out produced the property with primarily reds, both in sugar content (2.5% vs 1.5%) and sap quantity (over 3x). The reds did not like the unseasonably warm weather we had mid February.
It was a 7 hour boil today. My season total is over 12 gallons. I don't begin to know how it happened. This week looks good to push forward. I've given up on trying to make sense of this season.
Boiled 9 hours Saturday, season total about 14gal, still medium in color, and not a ton of niter. Good run over the weekend, 150gal still up at 3%. One moth in the collection barrel, a few flys coming into inspect the stinky fermented overflow around my collection tree. Let’s see how long it goes.
Just produced another 2.5 gallons.
I have 50 or so gal of sap in the tote. I'll see what I have after tomorrow and start the RO back up. Hoping for a good week.
I do notice the red maple buds starting to swell.
We shall see.
50 gal pickup for me today - I thought there'd be more, but a stiff wnw wind probably cut it back. The mud is back, for the 5th or 6th time this winter.
Going to find out today if 28 degrees and the wind blowing is a good enough freeze to start another run - Dead in the water otherwise.
i,m not even gonna check till tomorrow, between yesterdays cold temps and wicked wind and todays wind i cant imagine there will be much...i have a few gallons i drew off light yesterday to finish and bottle todayQuote:
Originally Posted by Mike Van
It was a late start today, but we're running again - I guess that was enough of a freeze. I had 14 second graders visit today, good time had by all -
Its been a great season for me so far. Up to my expected 12 gallons of syrup already and the end still seems a ways off. Great Syrup as well. Tired of working steam pans and my 4 150 RO membranes still function as they did out of the bag new 2 season ago, but processing 200 gallons of sap in one run on steam pans and the home-built RO is a lot of work. Sap has been cold and goes through RO slowly but have established a technique for getting cold sap up to and over 40 degrees a little more easily and quickly on its way into the RO.
I called it quits today as well. 95% solo work on 98 taps. I finished 10 gallons of syrup. Today's buckets were full but my "helper" is a freshman in college and out of state. I'm happy with the upgrades I did this year to maximize my production. Preheater and auto-draw worked as advertised. Good luck to the warriors of our trade to finish the season strongly!
I have thrown in the towel. I’m closer to the shore. A disappointing season. I have to remind myself it’s a hobby, and hope for better next year.
What a run today, picked up 150 gal/sap - Some from trees i thought done a week ago. I won't miss the wind when it stops blowing.
I'm jealous... I've picked 125 gallons over the past 4 days. I was hoping for 4X that amount. Seems my trees are done, and I will be too after this weekend unless to flood gates open up.
Kind of on a downward spiral here, last 3 days 80 - 75 - 40 today. Today's will run on into tonight, no freeze expected. About 2 dozen i'm going to take down in the AM, not doing much, and i don't want to have to plow the road in for a couple gallons of sap. Two weeks ago it looked pretty dismal, but now at just over 1800 gal/sap it's my 4th best [close to 3rd best]
i,m going to collect in the morning before the storm starts so i have something to do while its snowing, i,m hoping to get the rest of the week out of it before i pull the plug
Boiled off a hundred gallons this morning, glad i picked up yesterday. Took about half my buckets down too.
So here's where i'm at this season - Of the 100+ taps I put in Feb 6th or so, only 5 are left running. The 30+ I did 3 weeks ago this Sunday are running nice clear sap, 40 gallons today. What I thought to be a crappy year is 30 gallons/sap away from my second best [2002 gal/sap. ] The weather can make it or break it. So glad we only got 3" of snow the other day, and it's gone. I see the end for me next week.
think i,m going to be pulling most of mine this week, i have 20 i put in a couple weeks ago i'll leave because theyre running well still, but this 14 inches of snow we had sure makes it tough in the woods dumping buckets
Just to update anyone who is following. I think things are winding down and this weeks warm temperatures will probably mean the end of the season in the northeast corner of the state but we'll see. I'm not getting much from my CT River Valley trees but above 750-1000' they are still flowing well, especially in places where there is snow cover. I'm convinced that helps and I always joke about putting in a snow making system for years like this. I finished boiling what sap I had this weekend and we'll see what I get this week.
i,m pulling all mine tomorrow, tapped Feb6th on all buckets, now the clean up and get ready for next year
I did my last pickup today, took everything down as i went. There was one tap from Feb 6th still dripping, good tree. I wound up collecting 2080 gal/sap for the season, my second best out of almost 25 years. Those 3 hot days back in Feb really hurt, I had lower volume after that. The 30+ new ones i tapped just over 3 weeks ago really saved me. Like i said earlier, what a weird winter. Here anyway, hardly any snow, or mud, or ice. I did fall down in the woods one day, tripped on a vine, slipped on the snow & crash. Spilled a half pail of sap. I've found the older you get, the faster gravity acts on you.
Do you think if you had taped everything 3 weeks ago you would have done even better?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Van
Not sure about that - I do know i couldn't do 2000+ gal/sap in 3 weeks, not at my age.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sugar Bear
Good point! Then there is my equipment that just barely kept sap out of the ground the second week of March.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Van
Just to add to that line a little - I hate the warm weather syrup making, flies & mold, the syrup is all dark, in the shed can get pretty hot - I'm just a cold weather guy i guess. I pickup afternoons, takes me about 2 hours now, all on buckets. The following morning i'm up at the barn, 4 AM sometimes - Cold & dark, no traffic going by, sometimes i hear the coyotes or an owl. Million stars out - I burn a lot of pine in the evaporator, good dry wood, burns fast & hot. Always a stream of sparks going up out of the stack. And the smell inside the barn - whats not to like about this hobby / business?
Interestingly I saw almost no bugs this year. One moth the other day and that was it. A pair of hawks has built a nest in one of my Red Maples in New York and while flushing my lines yesterday the hawks were strafing me with claws extended. Pretty scary stuff.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Van
This was definitely my favorite season so far. On the sugaring front.
About the no bugs- same! I had some flies at the very very end but just a few houseflies. Saw maybe 1-2 sap flies, and yep, one moth got stuck in the pan. Thats it! Very weird. At least I heard the peepers last night as we shut down.
Ants from almost the beginning...only a couple moths near the end.