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Looks like we have a break in the action for at least two weeks, and it is welcome. Yesterday was another day of overflowing buckets!
In the last week, I’ve collected over 5000L, which is over half of what I collected all last season. Finished 80L so far, and I’m not done boiling down yet.
Now I’ll have time to fine tune my new DIY cold sap float box, make some RO system upgrades, shuffle around the totes, clean the pan, and get ready for round two in March. I might actually be ready for it by then!
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I've probably collected over 400L from my 19 bags. That's close to half of the normal year, depending on the year. Might decide to pull the taps early. We still have a bunch of bottles from last year.
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Got all my current lines run and tight sloped and ready to drill. I have a pretty easy to access 30-50 more trees I could run lines to buy waiting to see what this year brings. Got all my storage cleaned and ready. Sugar shack is cleaned up and stocked with wood. I just need the sapping weather to return and I’m in business. Looking at the weather I’m probably gonna start Monday after this cold snap provided the 14 day forecast isn’t showing another week of below freezing temps. Might just be another week still.
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Going to tap my trees tomorrow and get things all set for when the weather turns. Interestingly i was looking at pics from last season and my first boil was March 12th and looking ahead at this years 14 day forecast - I may be able to start boiling around the same time as last year - fingers crossed.
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Trees tapped, tanks in place and vacuum pumps at the ready for when temps climb above zero. Weather forecast this morning was showing plus 4 Tuesday and Wednesday but a quick check now shows those days to be only plus 2 and plus 1. Was hoping for a warmup this week so I could flush the lines and dump the first run.
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The 14 day forecast isn’t looking great atm but you just never know what might happen. I find it changes almost hourly some days. I kinda trust a day or two in advance but anything after that is just a guess. I’m gonna be tapping this week also. I don’t want to miss the next set of runs. I also let a bunch just drain out the first run to clean out anything that might have been left behind after the end of last seasons cleaning plus over summer months. I kinda have a feeling it’s gonna get warm and then stay warm this year or be a short sapping season. Mainly because I bought a new set of pans this year lol. That how my luck goes. Another reason is the lack of snow in the bush and the fact that this has been a warm winter for around me at least. I’m usually tapping in two feet of snow and this year it’s three inches at best. Couple weeks ago the bush was bare.
With enough taps I’ll get the sap. Is what I’m going with for this year. I’m ready to put in another 100 trees if needed so bring it on. The upgrade in pans was more about efficiency then production amounts so hopefully I won’t need that extra 100
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Just checked in with my remote sap monitoring systems and it is showing both pumps are running with vacuum ranging between 17 to 24 inches and temperatures of 38F.
There looks to be some sap running because my one tank is registering 2% full.
Weekend weather for South Bruce Peninsula is now showing +4 to +5
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Started putting the taps in today. What a beautiful day to be in the bush. Was calling for overcast and +1. It was full sun from about 1pm on. Felt like +10 although it wasn’t. Things were running ok but wasn’t warm enough to really get them flowing. Was perfect to give them a pre season flush. Got 3 lines to finish tomorrow and then it’s collection time. Hopefully maybe first boil Sunday or Monday. Gonna take more sap for me this year to start up this new rig.
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Things ran pretty ok today nothing crazy but ok. Actually tested @ 3% from the tree. That’s the highest I’ve seen my trees produce. It may have been I just didn’t check it at other high times but I can’t say I’ve ever had 3% before the ro in the past. I also have only been testing it since I started using an ro. Best I saw last year was 2.5%.
I was able to get enough sap through the lines to flush them out so I was able to collect from about 12:30-1pm on today. I’ll collect the back bush tomorrow but I might have close to enough to do a boil if we get another decent run tomorrow. Looking to have around 200-300gal before I start to boil.
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Good runs each of the last three days, averaging at 4.5L/1.2 G per bucket each day.
Today was the surprise, as it didn’t get much above freezing, but the trees in the sun sure produced.
I’m already at 80% of the most sap I’ve ever collected in a season, and we are only 2 days after the earliest I have ever tapped, until this year.
Nice to have the ground/snow freezing up after all that snow and slush and mud underneath on the weekend. Got everything stuck gathering sap!
