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Spent about 4 hours this afternoon trying to plow out a half decent road to each of the 3 sugarbushes. Snow was too deep for tractor in several places but kept moving it out with bucket. Trying to get it out of the way before next 12" or more tomorrow and maybe more next week. The ground was so full of moisture before all the snow hit, we got a couple of extremely cold days and nights and the ground is like a big chunk of ice under the snow and tractor wanted to spin on almost level ground. Going to take forever to get ground thawed with all the snow on it.
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Those are all good signs that the sap is going to flow once we get some decent weather as long as it doesn't get warm and stay warm. The cold in the woods will make for some good runs with marginal freezes.
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Hey Brandon ,
You did another one of your scientific post with exact times , dates , facts and figures , not the product of a (Little mind) as you posted
Mental note ( be careful playing poker with Brandon ,( he is a sandbagger )
In ohio what you struggling with was every day , I do not miss tapping on Snowshoes ! Or taking the tractor with the snowblower on the front to get to the sugarhouse
Or pulling the canner on a sled to the sugarhouse , maybe the global warming will turn Quebec to the arctic region and we will be the new sugar central :o
ED
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Ed,
You are funny. They changed the 8 to 12 inches today to 1 to 3 inches and we probably got 8 to 12 already today and still pouring. 10 day into first 2 days of March shows no warming, just more cold and snow. Never seen this in my 25 years since I started making syrup for the last 2 weeks in February. 3 years ago when we have over 150 inches of snow, it stayed cold until March 6th it was 10 degrees and on the 8th it was 60 degrees with 3' snow on the ground and we got one run and that lasted about 3 days and that was it just about it. Similar back in 2004 too when first 8 days of March were 60+ every day with no freezing at night.
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We ended up getting somewhere around 16 to 18 inches where I live and a little less than that at the farm. Actually got above freezing today for first time in 11 days and back cold tonight. Shows a little warmup next weekend if it holds true. Hope to get in another 270 taps on north side this week likely with snow shoes and hopefully I can get roads open enough to be able to get to tanks to pump sap. With sun this week and couple days about 33, hopefully at least the south side will settle and melt some.
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Brandon ,
If the forecast holds looks like we may have a little sap monday . was -8 here last nite . The woods is freezing cold !
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Took close to 2.5 hours to put in 126 taps on north side with snowshoes. It is really steep and snow drifted. Had to pull lot lines out of snow so really slow going. Not much of crust so still sinking 8 to 12 inches every step. So steep it is difficult to stand when there is no snow. Still not much sign of any sap in next 10 days here. Going to take several days to get things thawed out because everyone froze deep.
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Things were starting to thaw here today. I little sap moving And I mean a very little sap. supposed to freeze back up the next couple of days. Still snow covering our access road up the hill to the woods almost couldn't get a kabato up it to check lines and barrels this evening. Looks like the start of a warming trend early next week with rain.
We are looking forward to boiling on our new used evaporator if we ever get some sap. We waited to long and got our taps in at the end of the last run right before temps went south and froze everything up.
This will be our second season and first running tubing
Good luck and be safe.. let's hope for some good weather and big runs!!
Rich
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Rich,
Good to hear from you and will be following your post. Managed to get in another 137 taps on north side this evening so we are all tapped except a few buckets. Extremely difficult tapping on the very steep faces with 2 to 3 feet of snow on the ground and snowshoes. Did see a few drips come out of the taps, but that was it. More snow tonight and supposed to start warming up a little this weekend with 3 to 4 days of rain starting sunday, so I guess now we will have a big flood. Couldn't get the Kubota up the north side road due to the ground being like a big ice cube, so hoping the thaw will also thaw out the road so the sap won't run on the ground. We have 965 taps in on tubing, aprox 400 are on 3/16. Few buckets to come once snow gets down some. Hoping to be able to walk the other 700+ taps on the 2 south bushes and pull the lines out of the snow between now and weekend.
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Brandon,
If that forecast holds looks like sugaring weather next week. Time to catch up!
Mark 220 Maple
