Happy New Year to everyone!
Jim
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Happy New Year to everyone!
Jim
ah yes a new year of higher priced maple equipment and i HOPE the current price of syrup hold thru the new season to maybe match the sharp increase since september
Well,
my wife decided to come home a day early, so I didn't get as much done as I would have liked - I am glad she's back though. I cleared a 4-wheeler trail 150 yards long and gained access to about 40 more taps this morning, then I set my sap tank, and my evaporator pans this afternoon.
It actually snowed here this afternoon and the temperature is supposed to drop the rest of the day with a good 3-day freeze. I am looking forward to a good cold snap, just wish it was a week long instead of three days. Have fun everyone.
AKM
Happy New Year as I awake to 9 inches of the heaviest wet snow possible. Nine driveways later I'm back in the house. Only to get 50mph gust tonite to dry the snow and plug all those drives back up. And I have to go to work tommorrow. Rain and 40s for the weekend. That means all this snow and rain will be in the doorway of the barn. First set of lambs were born yesterday only 15 more ewes to go hopefully they get it done before we need to tap and boil, but oh I'm home anyway. Six weeks to sugar'n and more taps than I should have.
got all the tubing done and all the buckets cleaned and ready to go. i cant wait much longer i see all the sugarhouses prepping. ive seen the steam stacks in the cupolas and sugarmakers getting buckets out and putting tanks out. i hope i can pull off 20 gallons this year. im definantly going to be pulling some all nighters thats for sure.im still trying to get pictures i will post when i get some on the photobucket...
Just Got In The House From Plowing 16 Inches Of The White Stuff Since 4 Am This Morning. Weather Man Has Had 2 In A Row Right.
Rich
I just looked at accuweather and they were forecasting a bunch of warm weather and now it looks like its just warm the 5th through the 11th. Thats nothing. Just enough warm weather to finish up my outside work and wont even effect our record breaking sugar season. Therons spring forecast is coming true. Theron
...and by the time the 5th gets here, it will probably be all cold. No need to worry, it is much closer to normal this year.
Brandon- Your exactly rigtht. When they were first looking at the warm weather it was for quite a while. Changes every day. I do think this winter is way better. Only thing here is no frost in the ground but itll get cold here shortly with feb coming up. Theron
Theron,
That is called the January thaw. On a normal year the thaw will last for about 5 days, not the whole month like last year. Everything is looking good for a good season so far.
Russ
well up wear i am located there is frost. Today it was on of the coldest days so far -20 c and i had to clean some 6 50 gallon drums today that was fun
Started digging tanks out of the snow at the saphouse, even got a couple out in the woods. By the end of the day my pants were frozen solid from the knee down. I'm looking at the weather forecast with increased interest. I still have not decided to tap next week. Staying in by the woodstove tomorrow and adding everything up from last year.
Mountain where are you located??
well i woke up this morning and the temp - 27c that was at 7:30 now at 9:48 it is -22c i hope it gets a bit warmer i got to finish my main line i got so much to do
Monday we recived 10" of snow tuesday was a beutiful day wed. we recived 20"+ and today it -30 (-20F) dosen't look like i will be in woods or a couple of more days but the weather supposed to break next week and be above freezing. so hopefully i will get the rest of my main line run. Happy New year to all.
We have over 3 feet of snow on the ground, and I think it will stay around 35 or 40 for only a few days. That will give us a nice respite, and mels the banks a bit so we have some place to pile the snow. I hope we can get our taps in during February vacation and have a normal year this year. It would be nice.
Took the truck for repair work today, it was rattling and scrunching so that I could not stand it any longer. After 2 stabilizer links, and upper and lower ball joints, on the drivers side I escaped for just over $600. At 32,000 miles it seems like they should last longer than that!
I drove by some of the tubing lines that have been up for a week or so and they still look good, as far as condition. I have them set at 5% grade and it is quite a bit of slop that really shows the fall of the sap to the tote. I had some to flat last year.
(We were finishing up deer hunting early today and did a drive by the roadside sugarbush on the way home.)
Well we don't have to skin one tonight! But we will be out there bright and early again tomorrow in search of the Wiley whitetail.
I feel a little older today,56 years young and looking forward to maple and honey season, like a little kid:)
Like some one else mentioned I am doing the end of the year books for the maple and honey business while I have some time off.
Weather is supposed to hit mid 50 next week that will be great for the bees to get out and stretch their wings!
Last night I went to another local sugarmaker with Jim ( Father and Son) to get their maple products ready for the PA State farm show. All the product looked excellent and looked very deserving of prizes. We will let you know next week.
Regards,
Chris
Chris,
Is today the anniversary of the day you were born?
Jim
Sugarmaker; isn't 50 the new 40 or did I miss something?
VV I'm in the Catskill mountains, ulster county, NY. Spent today crunching numbers, not my cup of tea, but a farmer has to be businessman too. My sales last year were very good, over 3,000 containers of syrup sold. Still up min the air about tapping, I'm waiting to see what it will be like in 2 weeks. Got to go kick my wifes butt at guitar hero!!
like my dad said it is his 25th year of being 20
3rd of January was a good day to be born Chris. Hope it was a happy one.
My fathers father was born on yesterdays date 1898. He was quite the man. Not a sugar maker tho. I'm the first in my family.
I have all my droplines in except for a few stranded trees that i will work on next week. As I am off to the NY maple conference tomorrow about noon. If any of you folk would like to say howdy I will be the only Dave from Marienville Pa there. I plan on stopping on the way home sunday to look at some stainless to put in the woods. Six weeks till the season starts. I can smell the maple already.
Hey Chris are you taking anything to the Farm Show?
It looks like this is going to be the second year in a row that we will not have typical Farm Show weather(Rain, sleet, snow, ice, all the above).
If you are taking something to the show I will have to stop in to take a look, I work less than 1/2 mile form the show, and with working nights I can swing in right after work.
I was thinking of stopping by to look at a small grain auger to help speed up transfer of the coal from the pickup to the coal bin in the basement.
well we spent the hole day in the bush running main line we got 300 feet up today and we got the barrels in place so tomorrow we got 200 feet more to go then we got to go back and run 5/16th line so much to do and so little time till school starts again
patheron, theron and matt, royalmaple came to visit today stayed three hours and helped me a little THANK YOU. had a great visit!!! good luck on your season with your new vac systems. i think we all learned something today.
Eastern West Virginia,South of the Mason Dixon
Less than a month to syrup season, just a reminder. "There is only two seasons, Syrup Season and Getting Ready for Syrup Season". That is one of favorite quotes from a fellow syrupmaker who past away last year. Mr. Garnett Whetzel of Mathias, West Virginia.
Mark 220 Maple
Getting colder here in Central KY with a little warm up expected this coming week and then back colder again. I may tap next week, looks to be 4-6 days of good suagring weather ahead during next weekend. ONly problem is my wife is going away next weekend which leaves me with the kids (3 years and 16 months). I do not know how they would do collecting sap for three hours. I may enlist the help of some youth from our church to help for the weekend-I don't want to miss the first big run of the season.
ON another note, our local paper called (Jessamine County Journal) and they wanted to do a front page story on our syrup business. They are coming out to watch us tap one day, and then will come back another day when we're gathering and boiling. This will be great PR and free advertising - I'm hoping this will bolster our sales in the local area.
I love the anticipation - my drill is still charging.
Andrew
Andrew
I was reading somewhere,,,cant remember where,,mabey in the Nearing's book,,that quite a bit of syrup used to be made in the south,,,suprised me,,good that some are carring on the tradition,,(south of the Mason Dixion line),,is there much hard maple down there or is it very rare?
Bottled syrup yesterday, first batch for the new year, too bad I had to buy bulk. Cleaned out my tanks for the ro, and got my vacuum pumps sucking good. I've got two page list of fittings to get today from lowes and tsc. Going tomorrow to get another releaser, defoamer, filters, etc.. This time of year money goes out pretty quick. New tires for the truck, another gas engine and quick couplings from northern, money money money. Plus gas yesterday. Weather here looks sunday to next saturday for sap flow. Still thinking on that.... but after paying for syrup! If I get much syrup to sell bulk this year I'm holding on to it at least till fall.
Van,
Why would you want to sell bulk when you are selling so much in retail??
Parker,
I think many years ago, WV used to be one of the big producers back when they had little way of keeping track on all the statistics. I am in the southern part of the state and would be close to as far south as they make syrup. There are a few farther south than I am, but very few. Andrew Martin may be a little south of me in KY, I haven't checked his position and VA Maple Guy too. I am almost too far south, but the area where my sugarhouse is in sometimes 10 degrees or more difference this time of year from where I live 25 minutes away. 6 to 8 degrees difference is normal, and this little 10 to 15 square mile artic zone is great for syruping. Larry Harris' syrup operation is only about 2 miles from me the way the bird flies, so he can take advantage of it too.
There are not a lot of rock maples where I make syrup, but quite a few and small sections here and there that are mostly. I have about 225 taps in one bush and that is the most. There are some areas around that have a lot of maple trees and a bush to die for and they haven't been tapped for probably 50 to 100 years if they ever were and will never be tapped again. Up in higher elevations 4,000+ plus, there are some nice bushes. These are north of me and even colder. 220 would know where I am referring to in Pocohontas County.
Parker,
We have all hard maples where I live, some trees close to 150 years old, and a handful that are pushing 200+ years old. A large drought wiped out a bunch of maples 10 years ago, but there is still a viable bush where I live. I looked at a bush this summer that had about 250 trees on it. Potentially if I had all the time in the world, I could have about 600-700 taps here on four separate but adjoining bushes. There is a farmer down the road who has lived in the same house since he was seven years old, and he remembers a time when there was a viable sugarbush on his property. He has 125 tappable trees on his farm. THe problem in Jessamine County is that it is developing so fast that so many farms are getting plowed under in order to put in malls and movie theaters, and Jessamine County has been a hub of recent development - I am afraid that suagr maples may become an item of the past in this area if such rapied development continues.
I think KY is a viable syrup state, it just certainly is not marketed by the state or Extension services all that well. We have great soil composition with lots of minerals (they don't call it the Bluegrass State for nothing) that lend itself to great tasting maple syrup.
Another KY syrup maker contacted me this week, and I think he is by far the furthest south. He lives in Metcalf County, KY which is near Lake Cumberland , perhaps maybe 45 minutes from the TN border. He is part of MapleTrader, and maybe he will chime in here and share with us about his operation. He is already tapped and said it was running well.
Andrew
Just had a hot air balloon drop into the yard. It was filled with half frozen folks from Arizona. I tried to get them to hop a hedge row and put it right over the sugarhouse but once they got up 100 feet the wind shifted and it started to go to the power poles,so they set it down. Not one of them had boots or snow clothes so my wife and I and some guy that stopped towed them to a spot near the road. It would have made a good christmas card for next year had the wind cooperated. this is the third balloon in 3 years Now I am late for work but needed to thaw out myself have a good day all -SS
I tapped one tree today to use as a barometer for this week, the forecast is for 9 days of Syrup weather. i know its early but if it flows hard we could make some serious syrup early. We'll see how this one sucker pours out and i'll keep you posted on the volume and sugar content for this early around here. I just don't want to miss it i like i did last year. Van, did you decide to tap or not? I was in litchfield county, CT and i noticed a large producer there had all his taps in already.
Steve
Brandon, grade c is what I sell bulk. Tapping tomorrow, I'm leaning in that direction. Went to town and got all my fittings, vac. oil etc. Getting ready.
Van,
As good of an operation as you have and as fast as you boil and stay on top of it, I doubt you make much C unless it is when everyone else has quit.
Brandon,
I may tap next week as well, current forecast shows 5-6 days of good sugaring weather. A little early for me, but not by much. Like you, I don't want to miss the first good run, especially if it's going to be several days long.
AKM
Congratulations to all the local Northwest PA Maple producers that entered the PA Farm show, ( in progress in Harrisburg PA this coming week).
Special Kudos to Jim and Chase Bortles (Father and Son) from Linesville PA winning first place in the entire state of PA for Jim's maple sugar candy! I saw the product and tasted it, Awesome!
Jan Woods, Dennis Northrop and Burton Kimball also placed well in several classes.
The guy that bought Jim's evaporator take note, those pans are something special:)
We will be watching Jim and Chase as they break in that new shinny evaporator this season.
Finished the day deer hunting in the rain and drizzle. Don't have to skin one;)
Sat in my sons deer stand which faces into a young sugarbush, 70% reds, but probably could have 1000 + taps. (Should look into buying it) But after tallying up the sales vs expenses for 2007 I need to get serious about just making and selling product:o I put a lot back into the operation last year with all the tubing. Probably in the range of $4 to $5 per tap.
Should work on setting up more tubing tomorrow, since Monday will be back to the old grind:(
Chris
well we spent 8 hours in the bush to day we put up the last of the main line and almost got all of the 5/16th line up we also checked last years line and found some down trees but its all taken care of. we are up to 250 taps now 150 more than last year
Andrew,
You should be ok if the temps stay cool for the next 2 months. Very many warm days and you may miss most of the last 30 to 40 percent of the season tapping too early. I am not too familiar with your weather, good luck and go for whatever you decide. Might want to open up half of your trees now and the other half 3 weeks from now if you have trees in different locations. That way you can extend you season until the first of March and when the first half is slowing down, the second half is kicking into full gear.