Got all my gear out and plan to tap next weekend. A few friends of mine in Clayton county tapped some trees yesterday and were running. The weather forecast made me decide to wait another week.
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Got all my gear out and plan to tap next weekend. A few friends of mine in Clayton county tapped some trees yesterday and were running. The weather forecast made me decide to wait another week.
I agree with you Millvilletapper. Hopefully the weather report is correct. We plan on tapping Monday or Tuesday (March 1st). With the temperature not getting above 30 until Tuesday it doesn't look like much will be running at our place until then. Most of our taps are on north facing slopes so that certainly doesn't help get things started early either. Good luck to all of you this year.
Greetings Iowa, each season I enjoy seeing what is going on across the river. Usually I am just a few days behind Milleville. Now I am hearing about wet taps due east of me. Since we got very little snow and simply a good crust of ice yesterday, today is going to be the day I head out to the woods with supplies, maybe drill a few sample holes. My prediction is that the season will start for us in Crawford County, WI this Sunday or Monday. Also blessed with north facing slopes. Have a good season.
Tapped a silver maple yesterday. The flow is slow but it is there. Looking forward to it really dripping in the next day or so.
Tapped about 50 sugar maples today and all were running. South facing Sloap with know snow on it. The north faces still have about 4-6 inches on them and will tap them in the next few days.
Tapped 206 sugar maples today. About half started to drip right away. We'll see what the next couple of days do. Hope everyone has a good season.
Got my 7 taps in this past Sunday. Has anyone else had luck with red maple?
Put in 70 feb 28th. Most ran, averaged a half gallon a piece by the looks of it the 1st. May collect this evening. Good luck everyone
SW Nebraska here but you guys are the closest tappers to me. Started tapping my box elders 7 Feb and got 11 gallons, and a week later 50 gallons. Sugar percentage was 3. But add the ice after melting and got 2%. Boiling 40 gallons tonite and still getting 2% so the season is still going. 75 buckets. We aren't getting a lot of sap because we are in a severe drought.
Jim
Very slow here in southeast Iowa.125 taps on vacuum and the biggest run so far was 90 gallons in 36 hrs.I'm afraid the dry fall and winter has hurt us. Hopefully the rain Saturday will help a little.
Gathered yesterday (March 5th). A little over 150 gallons of sap. Not much to brag about for having 200+ taps out for 5 days. Cold today (~35 deg.). Afraid it doesn't look too promising for big runs the next couple of days. Incidently Irish Ridge, I assume you live on or near Irish Ridge Road. We go past it often when going thru Wisconsin. Hope you're doing better than we are.
I hit this link by accident. I had no idea that there were sugar makers in Iowa, but I am glad to hear it. I used to travel to Iowa every year to hunt pheasants and we usually based ourselves in Montezuma. I have wonderful memories of knocking on doors and meeting some awfully kind and generous folks. I love Iowa. My guess is that most farms are leased out for hunting now. Anyhow, greetings from Northern New Hampshire where I just finished tapping my 300 yesterday. I have about 100 gallons of sap in the bulk tank which isn't quite enough to fire up the arch yet, but it's still running. Have a great season.
Checked yesterday PM and the pails were pretty well frozen. The spiles were dripping a little and we had not gathered since Saturday (March 5th) so decided to gather today even though I didn't think there was going to be too much sap. With the warm temperatures it must have run all night. We ended up gathering about 300 gallons of sap, so tomorrow is going to be a long day boiling. Enjoy what there is out there everybody.
Hey Everybody,
Im late to the party but wanted to say we made 16+ gallons of really fine syrup this year. Collected 350 gallons of sap between the 14th and 15th, on 105 taps on buckets. Needless to say, it was a busy week! Ted
Pulled our buckets Monday (April 4th). Had a good collection on April 1st and again on April 3rd. The sap was surprisingly clear for so late in the season. Overall ended up with ~54 gallons of syrup from 206 buckets. Wasn't the greatest syrup we ever produced but none of it was bad syrup either. For a while we were afraid the year would be a bust, but we were able to gather later than we usually can.
Time to wash up, pack-up and store everything until next February. Hope everyone enjoyed the year.