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Well 2 nights in a row without a freeze. Thought we'd get a bit of a run yesterday as it froze Tuesday night and didn't get very warm that day. It warmed up over night a couple degrees and yesterday they didn't run.
Now we're going to get a windstorm and no freeze tonight, but then getting too cold and freezing highs for 2 days. So we might get a run Tuesday and Wednesday and then more rain moves in and no freezing nights.
Ya it is definitley not looking good for us here in the golden horseshoe. I sure hope the weatherman is wrong like they are usually. I have not had a run since tues.
Tapped 45 last weekend. Hardly any sap to date. Tapping another 55 today in advance of the milder spell predicted next week.
The way the weather looks right now we should have a big sap warning on Wednesday.
I'm almost afraid to go into the bush with these winds. I remember boiling one night quite a few years ago and it was windy. All of a sudden we heard a crack and crash. Looked the next morning and a beech tree snapped off about 40 yards from the shanty.
I just turned on the vac and the gauge won't go up past 5".
Time to go the the woods ........ with the chainsaw.
Be careful out there today guys. Lots of widow makers, or in my case widower makers. :lol:
We had a tree crash at the bottom of our driveway, either last night or early this morning.
But I had to go out to empty buckets. Most of them were overflowing.
Not too much damage as of 1 PM. Some of the tin I cover my outside woodpiles came off. A few plastic buckets came off, a lid worked it's way off, found a dead limb that knocked the the lid/spile off and surprised it didn't break the plastic health spile.
Had a big white pine lift and lodge into a maple. It'll likely stay put and I'll have to yank it down with the tractor if it freezes up next winter.
Over 40 gallons of sap from 70 taps in the last 24 hours. Lost a few gallons to the storm.
But I'm a happy camper. I'll have a nice 2 day break and then start boiling and boiling...
Well too cold for 2 days and then warm on Tuesday and not going to freeze till possibly Thursday night. It's either too cold to run or run well or too warm. Can't we have any nice weather? My wife still thinks that we're in a marginal syrup producing area.
Pretty good weekend here, I dumped the buckets Saturday morning and ended up with around 60 gallons then went and dumped them again at 5p.m. and got another 40 or so, not to much today but lots of boiling going on. Looks like the next couple of days are cold but hold on till Wednesday we should all be swimming in sap.
A few producers to the west of us near Lake Huron have taken off small batches of syrup. Still too cold to run in our area. Tapping another 55 today in anticipation of runs beginning tomorrow.
It was raining in the bush today.....raining sap from all the broken twigs and limbs from Saturdays wind storm.
Well the sap didn't run worth a hoot today. Didn't start till after noon. Came up around 6:45 and the laneway to the bush was starting to freeze. They said it was supposed to be about 5 all night.
I sure hope they run really well tomorrow.
Ya not much happening here today either. I went out with my son around 5pm to check the buckets and found most were empty. I thought maybe it was because they were some of the first that I put up and the holes may be drying up but when I checked on some I just drilled a couple days a go, they were empty too. Some were just starting to drip. I sure hope we get a better run tomorrow. Not suppose to freeze tonight but I sure hope it does!
I guess it took a while for the trees to thaw from the last 2 days of frigid temps.
Some of the trees started to drip late this afternoon, so I'm hoping there'll be something to look forward to tomorrow.
It'll be an extra early morning for me - need to get a head-start on boiling (still have a little from Friday/Saturday's run)
My storage is a 55gallon drum for 70 taps. If there's a big run a couple of days in a row, I'm going to run out of storage.
Yeah, I'm being optimistic. :)
Where's the sap??? :o
I'm speechless.
Its just starting now in the belleville area. It wasnt running at 9am (after about 11 hours of above freezing temps), but it is now at 11 (when its 12 degrees out) :) flowing the best it has been all year now.
I was very disappointed in today's run. It started running at noon yesterday, it was cool, but it didn't freeze all night. I thought the buckets should of been full by this afternoon.
Anybody got a theory as to why it was a poor run?
One thing I will say is the sap is super sweet right now. I took a drink this afternoon while we were gathering and it was almost half way to kool aid sweet.
The barometric pressure was high this morning with the nice weather. We had a very good run this past Friday into Saturday with the cloud covered sky and warmer temps and a lower barometric pressure, much better than today anyways. I think it may pick up over night as the low pressure system moves in, hopefully they don't stop too soon with the temps staying above freezing. Just saying,....any other ideas?
Argohauler - could wind be a factor? I noticed a few days ago when things should've been running, I got pretty much nothing - and that day was sunny & windy.
My taps started dripping late Tuesday afternoon. Thought for sure that I'd wake up to full buckets on Wednesday morning, since it didn't go below freezing.
At 7am this morning with temps at approx 6C, the trees were still sleeping. Quite depressing.
By 10am it was 10C, with a warm breeze. Some taps started a slow drip. Things finally picked up at about noon. And it hasn't stopped. We've already collected 3 times since 2:30pm. Last collection was at 9pm in the dark. Me carrying the lantern, and my husband carrying the 5 gallon buckets. At 12:30am some of my buckets are already half full again.
My 55 gallon drum is almost full. I might have a storage issue tomorrow. It'll be an extra early start to boiling tomorrow to keep up.
I haven't tallied up my total collection today, but it's easily my best ever day. Still making light syrup.
Checked buckets a 2pm yesterday afternoon and things were running good. I collected 130 gal sap of 120 buckets. I emptied some of my yard maple buckets last night at 9pm and when I checked them before going to work this morning, they were half full(3 gal bucket) and still dripping. Unfortunately I can't get over to the bush till tomorrow morning, as I am working a 24 hr shift today. Does not look like I will get up to 200 taps this year. I was holding off to see if the weather trend would change but looks like we are done after this weekend. Looks like its time to start getting my bee yards in order! Oh ya argohauler, I had a drink yesterday too and it sure did taste sweet. I can't check the sugar content because I dropped my sap hydrometer.
my taps were running like crazy yesterday. I probably got about 100 gallons off of 65 taps since Wednesday night. Looks like Saturday will be big again and maybe that will be it for me? Next week's weather looks to be ending it for us. I guess it will have been 4 weeks and I'll have made about 45-50 litres of syrup off 65 taps if my guess is correct. That's not too bad.
Chris
This weather is bologna! While I'm glad that it froze last night, today is only supposed to be 2 here. Tonight is supposed to be between -8 and -11, a little too cold thanks. We all thought Saturday was going to be great, now it's only 2 and the crappy part is it won't likely freeze Saturday night, even though it's going to be clear and then go up to 16 on Sunday! I bet I'll have another crappy run like I did Wednesday.
The 2 week sucks also. No freezing for that period. No lows below 4.
Still making medium, though it might go to amber today.
Just got back from the bush. Taps are running good right now. Hopefully they continue into this afternoon but the winds are starting to pick up. It sure is getting pretty muddy on the trails! Collected another 115 gal today.
I'll second that...the weather we're getting is beyond crazy. Yesterday I was slipping on leftover ice and making mud holes in sloshy ground.
Today everything has frozen up and we got a layer of snow. Taps are frozen again till Sunday...maybe.
And you'd think we're in different provinces, with the wildly varied weather we're getting on the same days.
All I can say is I'm very disappointed in today's run. I think the trees have given up. I had a short mainline of around 40 taps yet to tap and I finally had a chance last Tuesday. They even ran poorly. I think the trees are giving up and the sap is somewhat cloudy. The taps were slowing down towards dark, so they'll not likely give much more.
Well I am officially done. I started pulling buckets down today and will finish getting the rest tomorrow. Yesterday's run was one of the better ones that I had. I collected around 160 gal and things were still dripping at dark. I noticed that the silvers buds have popped. This year has been disappointing. I was hoping to get 200 taps in but only ended up with 130 or so. I have not bottled everything yet but I am thinking I will end up with around 80 liters. I guess there is not much we can do about the weather. Just have to hope next year will be better
Good luck to everyone who is still tapped!
Shawn
Sounds like you did well Ren;
we had 110 taps out , have had one boil yielding 2 gallins.
110 gallons of sap to boil tomorrow, say we get 3 gallons, I have sweet trees.
Then the weather is going to be hot hot hot....
We still have 2 feet of snow in the bush in PS but it wont last with this rain and that 7 day heat.
We might be done with 40% of our crop
Heard first peeper frogs tonight. Trees hardly ran over night last night.
I pulled my taps yesterday. They were still dripping a bit but very slowly. The week's weather looks too warm anyway and I don't have time to boil this week.
I think I'm going to end up with almost 60 litres from 65 taps which I think is good this year. The last 25 litres from last week and this weekend is quite dark. The sap was probably a bit buddy on some of the trees. Taste is still pretty good though.
I need to upgrade my evaporator if I do that much again next year!
Chris