Willow Creek Sugarhouse 2013

Time to get this going!!!
Went to the regional meeting in Henniker last night everyone seems to be excited about the season and why not after the less than exciting season last year. Good to see Russ

"TO DO" list is getting smaller. woods are 98% done. sugarhouse is 90% done. a few odds and ends to finish up. Cleaning, organizing looking forward to using the forced air this year. had to modify a few things to make sure everything is sealed up.

Had to get the hood to work that I made last year making as tight fitting as possible it won't be perfect but it should direct more steam to the cupola, as there is QUITE alot more steam than there was with out the air in the past. I wanted to try to get some sort of preheater in there but there just won't be time.

Excited about the new wood shed as well no more running wheelbarrow after wheel after wheel barrow in the dark, still have to cut in a quick door and install a light in but that should go quickly. I made tall carts to haul in wood so that should help.

Weather is a little tricky but decided to start tapping Saturday after the Blizzard is done and try to get as many in as I can by sunday night. The only question that won't be answered until saturday is will I need snow shoes. We''ll see I guess they have been wrong more than they have been right this year. Monday & tuesday look like 40's and then a little cool down but the sun is getting higher in the sky and warmer so the trees will be running a little under vacuum even in the cooler temps. I hope I will be able to start the fires Wednesday!!!!

Happy tapping everybody!!! And good luck!!!

Well its 1 am and just finished up round 1 of driveway clearing!!! Thank good ness for light fluffy snow!!! if this were heavy snow I'd be in trouble!!!

actually got out in the woods for a few hours today to work on a wet dry side connection. I think thats gonna be the last one for this year.
fixed 1 lateral.

I have 1 mor lateral to fix and the vacuum woods are done. Well at least until we get tapped in and I turn on the vac and have to go fix leaks and squirrel chews!!!

Enjoy the snow everybody....its nasty out there!!! and WIND SUCKS!!!

It looks fairly unpleasant out there. I also thought about clearing my driveway half way through the storm and even this morning but that wind is still blowing some fierce. I may have to wait until early afternoon. It looks like this is one storm the weatherman got right.

Man if you don't check the trader in our busy season for a few days and you click whats new and get 140 new posts geez!!
The other thing is don't walk in snow in crocs you WILL FALL!! hard!!!

Anyhow... after digging out from under 27ish inches of snow for a few days, wittling down the maple TODO list. a monday full appointments in Boston, and meeting with the Accountant for taxes this morning I finally got enough stuff done that I can start tapping I got in 50 taps and let me tell you it is slow going and very wet had to come in and dry out!

It was a quick warmup today and got up to 42* by 10am then it got cloudy and cooled off already back to to 37* sap not really running that good yet, trees are still sleeping!! but its enough sap to clean things out of the lines.

looks like we are gonna get 3-4 days at low 40's then back down to a decient freeze and some more snow maybe for the following 6 days. I guess that will be enough time for me to finish up the Maple todo list and be really ready to go!!

Off to pick daughter then to basketball and will get back to tapping at first light tomorrow!!!

I'm glad you tapped. Cause I've been kicking myself that I don't even have a test tree going right now. Good to know its not really running yet. Back to procrastinating for me.

its running today!!! have about 125 taps in so far. had to come change legs wet!!! see how many I can get in before lunch headed back out now!!! The trees in direct sun are running really hard!!! I ran out of spouts and had to run back (yeah run in deep snow!) to the sugarhouse to get another bag and got back and it the drip line was all the way down the tree!!!

Sap running a little better today. My legs are shot!!! got all 260 existing taps on vacuum in. and let it dump clean the lines it was the nastiest green, chunky stuff yummy!!! I let it dump on the ground and keeping it from here on out.

Tomorrow morning I am tapping in the new 80-90 taps I added on should finish that sometime tomorrow morning. I am not tapping the Gravity stuff yet feeze up coming soon besides I might put in a line to pick up maybe 10-15 more??? we'll see!!

Squirrel chews were not as bad this year. I had to replace drop yesterday and a whole length of tubing yesterday and was worried about the rest of the woods but it was OK. it was only that section thank goodness!!!

hopefully I'll have something to boil by Friday!!!

Hi Brad,

How's the sap running down there. Sounds like you need bigger pockets. I had to go back to the house and get a battery for my drill. Left my snow shoes on and rode the 4 wheeler up and back to save time.

Richard and I tapped 450 of our taps on vacuum yesterday. It was slow going with snow shoes but we made good progress. Only have one mainline left to tap and then find and fix leaks. I had 22" at the pump tonight so there aren't too many leaks at this point. Not sure how much sap we got today but it was so slow yesterday that the releaser, which holds 25 gals, didn't dump once.

I got all of my 150 taps in over the last two days, vac pump pulling 22", and watched the nasty stuff flowing in. If nothing else the lines will be cleaned and I will be ready.

Hey, Russ good to see you back! I tapped all day yesterday and never saw as much as a damp hole! also ten day forecast doesn't look all that great! I guess the up side is well be ready when It comes.