Tapped another 30 or so today. A few holes dripping a bit. Can't believe how slow I am at getting these in. Good thing I've only got 100 or so to do and not 1000. Took a few smaller trees out of the line to give them a year off.
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Tapped another 30 or so today. A few holes dripping a bit. Can't believe how slow I am at getting these in. Good thing I've only got 100 or so to do and not 1000. Took a few smaller trees out of the line to give them a year off.
Hey all
I'm about 60 km SE of Ottawa. Been calling EnviroCan every day to make sure the weather was gonna hold. Sounded good, so I got all of my 18 spiles in yesterday including in my two *problem children* trees (2 big monsters side-by sides, full of burls)....and much to my surprise, 3 and 4 are the ones starting to produce, esp 4!! Even my proven super-producer, 2, isn't out of the gate yet!
So happy, esp as I had to resort to slightly unconventional means to tap 3 and 4...maybe it will prove to be worth it :-) Will post pics soon!
Ok, all my taps in. Down about 10 as I reduced the number in a couple trees. Observation of the day is that only the smaller trees were doing anything. Big trees totally dry......maybe still frozen?
My two biggest trees are the only ones producing so far, I think it's because they are multi-trunked and where I am tapping them, the trunks are splitting off from the bulk of the trunk and are relatively small. My other trees are good-sized single trunks and all either dry or producing only a few drops now. Not concerned. I know my trees. In a few days they'll start up.
I put in 25 today and most were running quite well. It's go time!!!! Yee-haw!!!!
Cvmaple, which town are you closest to? Trying to get an idea of where in southern ontario you are since you've got leakers.Quote:
Originally Posted by cvmaple
hey all:
tapped 440 taps in 4 hours in 2 bushes on Saturday, sap was slow, but 2.5 to 3.5%. Runs look promising Monday and Tuesday, chasing sap aftter that for a week. I think its worth the gamble, never tapped this early, we will see.
Darrell
Just a bit south of Belleville, Ontario. Forest
I'm jealous cvmaple. Enjoy your season and send some sap west.
Put 50 in on Friday (Blue Health spiles) and another 50 in Sunday (cast alu spiles) As we were tapping Sunday afternoon, the trees were dripping and the kids were racing to hang the buckets before they missed the first few drips( why do they do that - they fully understand 40:1 )
Funny thing though - none of the trees we tapped Friday were dripping even though the new holes were. We're doing a bit of an experiment this year, trying both types of spiles to see if there is any difference.
Expect it'll be a reasonable day today. Will see when I get home.
Hi all,
I tapped on Saturday 80 taps. 10 were going. yesterday half did start and this morning they all woke up and all are working hard to get me enough to do a boil tomorrow. I need a minimum of 40 but 60 gal would be best. Getting wood ready today and take the evaporator outside. I am so excited and looking forward to a full Gal of finished syrup by tomorrow night!!!
Dave
We got about 2700 taps in on the weekend. We saw very few moist tapholes but it was warm enough to get the vacuum pump on for a few minutes in one section of the woods to flush out the lines. One more day this coming weekend should get everything tapped.
I just got out at 1PM and about 20% of the buckets ad almost 1L in it!!! can't wait for the pick up at 5PM. I noticed this morning that I did pick up last night at 5 and this morning the was quite a lot in the buckets. I guess it keeps running after dark some times.
By the way most my big ones are getting wet and producing since today.
Dave
We hung 50 buckets on Sunday and most of them are dripping, first boil tomorrow, spent Sunday cutting a bunch of dead elm to use for the boil. New chimney for the evaporator, here's hoping for a good year.
Got thirty taps in now but its calling for some cold weather this next week. Should I pull the taps out a slight bit so the wood around the spile doesn't split? any ideas?
Dropped a big old dead maple that was leaning over the mainline and new dry line,quite a pull to change direction on the tree but we did it to avoid extra work.Broke off 1 small maple about 3" diameter,didn't hardly wet up so I guess we are not missing much sap yet
I tapped in mid January, have 2 gal of syrup already canned. I am getting very low sap flow the last couple of days but have about 40 gal of sap in my 72 pails. Hopefully I will have enough for a boil this weekend.
Tapped 170 yesterday all were running will pick tonight hopefully boil tomorrow
Tapped the first 100 just before lunch today,some were running.This after the morning school bus run,then farm chores,then running 800' of mainline wire for the dry line
About 60 gallons from 110 taps over past 2 days. Just gravity suction from the hillside, no vacuum
Not great but a start. On the plus side my new set up out in the woods to transfer sap to my sled worked great
Just picked our 170 buckets tonight got about 90 gallons of sap a pleasant surprise.
Have sixty taps in and got about 35 gallons of sap in the first pick up today. The long term forecast doesnt look so good though about a week cold streak comin up. How long will the taps give out sap before drying up? Tap too early?
Going to boil again tonight!!!!!!!
Finished my boil last night. I collected a total of 141 Gal of sap in the 3 days run out of 80 taps. I have 3.5 gal of finished liquid gold in total.
Now I am welcoming the break of cold weather for the next couple of day. I need a rest.
I see a few other guys have been lucky like me on this forum.
Dave
80 gallons of extra light and light syrup so far. Next week looks good.
Good for you with the light syrup, i havn't got any light this year for some reason, all medium and last year the last boil of the season i got some real nice light stuff.
Boiled down my first 3.5 gallons yesterday down to approc 500ml of beautiful pale gold, but still a bit thin so may reduce a bit more. Just don't want to get sugar crystals! *note to self...buy a candy thermometer*
Good to see that most of you are also getting light syrup at this time. I usually get it approx halfway through my tapping season. 1st batch normally a medium amber.
BTW...am I the only person here who is using Imperial (aka British 4.5 l) gallons? Or is the US gallon measure of what 3.75 l what most of us Canucks are using?
First boil still underway as kids hockey tournaments are making things very difficult. Battle to thaw out the evaporator feed lines. Couldnt get them empty of sap last night so they froze solid, but rolling now. Wife hopefully taking control while i go back to the rink this morn!
I tend to talk litres, if i mention gallons on here i'd go U.S. gallons
Wow, weather forecast looking scary good for most of the coming week here. Bets it wont turn out that way?
That's what I'm wondering. The forecasted temperatures have improved since yesterday's forecast, but I'm kind of tired of counting my chickens before they've hatched. There have been a lot of chickens vaporizing over the past month. None of which are landing in my empty sap buckets.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yellzee
First boil on Saturday. I had 120 gals (CDN) in the tank collected over the week. Boiled 80 gals on Saturday in 4 hours flat to sweeten the evaporator and drew off maybe 6 litres of syrup. After an hour thawing lines, the kids boiled the other 40 gals on Sunday afternoon, but no more draws.
No sap Saturday or Sunday but expecting that tomorrow and the rest of the week should be good. Having an open house over the weekend so hope the weather cooperates.
I'm off work next week for March break, so the forecast for then will surely change.
(I mix CDN gallons and litres. Gallons for sap, litres for syrup. 10 gals sap ~= 1 litre syrup. Or a 5 gal pail fits in a 500ml bottle. My collecting tanks are marked in CDN gallons so I use those to record how much sap I collect each day. My head tank is marked in US gals so I record the boils in US gals and convert as needed)
I am no where near as big as a operation as allot of you , I don't have the time to be putting in a big system due to work , I do it just for fun and enjoy being in the outdoors, just started doing the maple syrup thing last year , right now I only have 5 buckets , and going to be putting in another 10 on Thurs or Fri , the 5 buckets I have I collected 25 ltr's this past Friday and boiled it down , got 3 cups of light syrup , it is yummy tasty good !
26 taps up near Jasper and Merrickville ON. Nothing yet, but we'll see when I get home from work. Should be a good week.
36 buckets up collected 35l tonight and test boiled on my 24x36 pan in the new shack. Let the sap roll.
wino
35l off of 36 buckets today? thats better than I got. I had some run but I'll wait until after tomorrow before I collect. It wasnt worth the effort today. Here's hoping for tomorrow ;)
Right now still doing more toe-tapping than anything else, but I just remember what 2011 was like. Then I go and peek in the pails and give the trees a pat on the trunk and a few words of encouragement. Doesn't seem to hurt.
Pretty slow start for me. Then a buddy 10 minutes away got almost 35 gallons in the last 2 days with only 4 more taps than me.
Come on trees!
I collected about 50 gallons today on 100 taps a few trees still not doing much but some were very good to me I now have around 90 to boil all burried in the snow
hopefully will double it up and have a big boil Saturday!
Hey, no need to go so hard on yourself...buddy may have bigger trees with longer taproots, more access to sun, better location etc etc...I know it can be frustrating but if it's in any solace, I got no sap from last Friday on to Tuesday...then this evening I brought in almost 2 Imperial gallons so I'm happy, happy enough to toss it in the hotel pan and fire up the woodstove!Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyle Baker
Not as good as i hoped for, say 50 gallons but with all the ice there was in the tank its hard to be certain. Havent been home till well after dark so havent been able to check lines.
Modified pan hopefully good to go tomorrow.