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just wondeing what yall are thinking. im in st clair county was thinking i would tap today but now im having second thoughts. now im kicking around waiting till the second week of march after looking at the extended forcast. just curious what others are thinking.
Only my second year and with only 10-15 trees I will have mine all in tonight for this weekend run :D
This is my 1st year so I am a newbie. Put 10 taps in on buckets last night and my last 10 taps go in tonight for a total of 20. Weather looks like we might have 3-4 days next week that might produce. Hoping to get enough to do my 1st boil on next Saturday (Feb 27th). After that I leave on a UP snowmobiling trip Feb 28th through March 5th. Hopefully we will have a good March this year as I would consider 3 to 4 gallons of syrup my 1st year a tremendous success. It would also help convince my wife of the improvements I want to make for next year (i.e., a new 2 x 4 or 2 x 5 arch/evaporator) as I want to expand to 35-40 taps next year. Clay in Almont, MI
I've got all 150 taps out, wrapped up this week. This Friday is supposed to be 52 degrees here north of Battle Creek and will have the sap flowing. I had some buckets in 2 weeks ago when we had that big thaw for about a week and had a few 5 gallon pails fill up. Friday is supposed to be followed by 2 days in the 40s. Friday nights low here is projected to be 40. No sense in waiting any longer.
I probably won't get my bag holders out until early March here in the Traverse City area. The early sap I collected last year after tapping in late February had a rather low sugar content as my 1 st boil ended up being 55-60/1! The end result was still really good syrup but just took a lot more work to get to the finished product. I am trying real hard to get my new Sugar Shack finished so I can move the "New to Me" evaporator in it so I can be out of the elements this year while boiling. Good luck everyone.
Dan W.
I intend to tap tomorrow - don't want to miss flow during the brief heat wave. Don't mind if its full on flow yet since I have repairs to make to my evaporator yet. Update - I tapped on 2/17 and 2/18. Will see when I get home today if this 56 degree weather resulted in any!
I would be going in this weekend, but a minor injury knocked me off my game a few weeks back.
Good health wise, just way behind the 8-ball now.
Taking a couple of vacation days in conjunction with this weekend to do a final push.
Tanks need to be cleaned, set and plumbed yet and a couple of little projects need to wrap up in the shack before I can pull the trigger.
Probably start setting buckets early next week after work and be all in by the weekend.
I am in western ST Clair county, put all my vacuum taps in today, will wait until the 1st of march for the buckets and bags
I wouldn't wait that long. You're much further south than me and even though the ground was much more frozen last year, I was making syrup by the second week of March. A warm winter might mean a short season, so you could miss some of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by austin357
Just put most of our 300 taps in tonight. Have a few stragglers out back to finish tapping later.
We have almost no firewood, pans are not ready, and haven't even had the tractor running yet. YIKES....
But no turning back now. Lol.....won't take long and we will be completely up and going. Cutting firewood Saturday.
thanks guys after reading all the input i think im goina go put most of mine in tonight after work of first chance i get tomorrow my youngest son is having surgery tomorrow morning so it all depends on how that goes
I put my four taps in around Feb 1st (yes I know, small potatoes). Actually had a few decent sap runs already.
15 taps in waiting for tomorrows start. Thats all this retired guy has to do. Tap Tap Tap Wait Wait Wait
The game has started! 40 taps in after work with a majority producing. Next week should be a good run with a good freeze/thaw cycle predicted. Good luck everyone for a productive season.
didnt get mine in last night going to get em in as soon as i have a chance today
I got my yard trees tapped after work last night. 33 of my 70ish taps. I will get my woodlot trees done tomorrow.
I am probably going to tap trees on Sunday. Next week looks like perfect sap running weather here outside Kalamazoo.
Put in 30 taps last night after work and will put in another 30 today. Amish neighbor filled sugar shack full of wood about 3 months ago, so that's taken care of. Pan is clean and ready to be put on cooker but our chimney pipe broke at the elbow (rusted out) so that'll get replaced today, too. Oh, and I can't find the hydrometer! it's 'always' somethin'!!
I have 141 of my 188 taps in. Today i had 40-45 gallons of sap.
It's running good today in Sand Lake. Was a little worried my barrels would blow over in this wind but luckily they were already 1/3 full.
Same here!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Too Tall
Put in 11 taps & buckets in my yard trees this afternoon, ended up with 7 gallons. All are running well except my red maple, which only gave a little yellowish cloudy sap. The wood shavings were nice and white when I drilled the hole - sap just looks a little strange. I've quarantined that tree and will keep an eye on it.
Tapped today,165 taps. Running so fast we had to put valves on some of the spiles. One tree we had to drill a vent hole, the sides of the tree was sucking in.
:lol::lol::lol: Wishing I had more than a trickle.Quote:
Originally Posted by dugit
Haven't collected yet. The tree in our yard the buckets are 3/4 full. Had 2 landowners call to tell us we had full pails at their house. Going to collect shortly, then set the pans on the arch and get to boiling this afternoon. Going to be behind before we start.
I thought we were in for a good run around here. Boy was I disappointed. It's just a trickle here. Out of 25 taps maybe I will have 5 gallons when I collect it. Some trees when I tapped them yesterday were running fairly well but when I checked them this morning they had shut right down and have not re-started today at all. Low last night was 39*. Right now 48*. I don't understand? My buckets should be running over!
Billy,
It didn't get cold enough last night...if it had gotten down to around 25 and then was now up to 48 your sap would be flowing. It will start up again once you have an overnight low in the mid 20's and the above freezing the next day.
Gary
I'm at about the 15 gallon mark since tapping around 1pm yesterday - the trees have all slowed down. My red maple's sap has cleared up but I'm still keeping an eye on it. We call that tree "Lazy Suzan" since she's always the last one to drop her leaves in the fall. Makes sense she'd take a while to get her sap going :) I took Monday off work and will do my first boil.
Ya.......I guess your right. I did my collection tonight and had 8 gallons total. I guess I expected better. Low tonight they say will be 29*. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Or the next day. It was fun just to get out into the woods again after being cooped up all winter. I really don't need the syrup as I still have some left from last year. I would give most of it away anyways. It's my first year of retirement and dang I need something to do.Quote:
Originally Posted by MISugarDaddy
Tapped yesterday, got done about 4pm. , 165 taps. Collected today from noon to 2pm, got 300 gallon of sap. Sugar content was only 2.2 . Good run, poor sugar. Boiled 200 gallons away, get up early tomarrow and get to boiling. Still running but slowed way down.
got 5 gallons from the 9 i put in yesterday around 1pm
Changed my mind.
Tapped everything on vacuum Friday, chased leaks yesterday.
Squirrels had gotten more than I feared; healthy winds didn’t make the job any easier.
Lines are all flushed, setting the releaser tank today and will start collecting.
Hoping to get in the first boil tomorrow. Plenty to get done today to make that happen.
Ice on the puddles this morning, I assume we went below freezing last night, but already 36* here at 8 A.M.
All 83 in Saturday, sap was dripping before the taps could get placed. Looks like an early year in Luther.
Attachment 13202Attachment 13203
First boil yesterday. Perfect day for it!
Tapped 13 more reds today. Decided to reuse some plastic taps from last year that we bleached and rinsed at the end of the season.
Collected 40 gallons today out of 20 taps (17 sugars, 1 red, 1 silver, and 2 Norways). This is sap that ran over the weekend. Boiled it down to 3-1/2 gallons this afternoon and put in refrigerator to finish some night this week after work. Got my new refractometer Saturday and checked Sugars were running 2-1/2 % and a bucket of the Silver/Red and Norways all mixed together was 2-1/2 % also which really suprised me. As a newbie, this was my 1st boil and everything went great. Clay in Almont, MI
I went all in Friday 2/19/16 40 deg. weather tapping 125 trees they are all on 3/16 gravity and most have 20-25 foot drop in elevation to the collection drums.
Collected this weekend close to 200 gallons sap and have to do the finish boil should end with a little over 2 gallons syrup. the sap was measuring with a hyd. 1.2 percent, low but I could not just dump it. February 19th 2015 it was 37 degrees below zero here.
Made 30 gals of syrup since Friday. Weather says were done for a while
Yesterday we gathered 65 gallons of sap off 30 taps, but started cooking around 2pm. Will finish off the syrup today and start tapping more trees this week. Outside of Cass City.
We tapped Feb. 17th, and we've collected 54 gallons of sap.