who's walked their lines in the off season/storm damage

Holy cow, I haven't been in my woods for about 6 weeks. About 3 weeks ago we had a bad storm that took some trees down along our road. So today I decided to take a walk and see what might have happened in my woods. I was not in a good mood when I came out. I have 7 trees down, three of them big sugar maples I have tapped. Then there are many limbs and parts of tops down. I have two of my 3/16 sap lines pretty much destroyed. Of course they were my best producers. It will take me weeks to clear my woods roads and cut tops off lines. I actually gave firewood away last year because it was 2 years old, then wondered if I made a mistake. Well I'll have plenty of new wood now. when I'm done with this I'll probably have wood for three years. I always try to stay about 1.5 to 2 years ahead. So if you've had some of the storms we've had in southern Ohio and haven't walked your woods you might want to.

I've walked one of my woods, very little damage. Have not been in the other woods yet, will try to by Aug 1.

I had a mainline come down at the end of sugaring season. Early last month I went out and got it rerouted and back up again. It took 2 days and there is still some work to do but after removing 25 ticks from my body and cloths I decided that the rest of the work will be done after the leaves are off of the trees. The winds haven't been that bad around here this year and my woods usually don't get that much damage when it does get bad.

Russ, I walked part of my lines yesterday. Got out at sunrise it was 43 degrees it felt great, the temp and raspberry chased me in about 8am, only 1 tick. No major issues That I could see. Next time the temp goes that low I will hit it again. Finished up my wood supply this morning, but I still have storm trees to bring in.

Jay