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I am only a small time sapper lol , I have 10 buckets in right now,all but 1 are dripping, collected 5 gallons early evening last night, I boiled it down,got 1 cup of yummy love.I plan on putting in another 5 or 6 this weekend and go from there.The sugar content in the sap was around the 3 mark on my fancy new refractometer.
Way to go Al, so jealous of your run and the resulting syrup....
Had to retrieve my pails, wind blowing them around like crazy with this STUPID storm, nothing running anyway,
TurkeyJohn
Well here in Ottawa we collected 55litres of sap on 107 pails, so nothing really. I'm a little disappointed after the warm day yesterday, but I guess spring isn't ready yet. We have a week of cold and then hopefully some more warm weather. I'm going to boil what I have as a batch in my evaporater, and hope not to burn anything, wish me luck!
Keith
Nothing really?:lol: Trust me, you're doing fine!!! My woodstove has been sloowwly evaporating off the measly one gallon I've collected so far. Now it's down to about 1.5 l. Certainly not enough to make syrup yet, but just want to reduce it to a manageable amount til more sap comes.Quote:
Originally Posted by keith
I have all of 6 trees going, 18 taps. One tree is producing about 80% of all the sap so far, and all but two of them are producing. But not too worried, one of them is #6 who traditionally takes a little more time to get going. The other dry one is a little more of a dark horse, but I did tap #9 in 2011 and it sure pulled its weight then!
So for those of you who are worried cause of the weather...relax. Even though I have been entertaining the idea of buying a few dozen electric blankets, and a whole lot of extension cords so I could hypothetically warm up my trees...nah, and I don't really want a gazillion-dollar hydro bill!!!
None of us can do anything about the crapadelic weather. So my advice is to just be patient, and when Da Last(?) Big Freeze is over, check that your spiles are all still in (may need to tap them back in if the freeze pushes em out) and let your trees do their thing.
I finished to boil last night. 40 gallons and ended up with 3L. I do not think the sap is at 3% yet for me this year. Not unusual to have less sugar on the first runs. Now frozen solid for the rest of the week. The long range does not look good for over a week. What a strange spring... Starting to wonder that when it will warm up it will be too quick and it will not freeze at night and cutting the season. I'll try to keep a positive attitude.
2 years ago I was done at the end of February and last year I was done by march 20th. did not really start yet! For many of us this is a hobby but I feel bad for those that are doing it for a living!
GO AWAY old Man Winter! Lol!
On 50 taps I might have 5 gallons of sap from the other day. Not even enough to wet my new pans. I guess it's not time for my old trees to thaw out quite yet. I probably should have waited another week to tap. Oh well!
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well, being totally unprepared and making a horrible decision which roads to try to take home in yesterday's storm I almost got to miss the syrup season. Back road in my little car and I got stuck at the bottom of a hill in a 3 foot drift that went completely across the road. I was in the middle of the road still but quite stuck. Complete whiteout conditions so no way anyone would see me. I was wearing a coat with a broken zipper and had no hat, only a pair of work gloves... likely a mile walk to the closest farmhouse in gale force winds. By miracle a snow plow showed up about 5 minutes into the panic of figuring out whether to sit in the car until someone smashed into me, or walk to a house and lose my ears and hands..... Big Eddy I was stuck on Rose road... so you were going to be my next call for help!!! You'd think after this winter I'd be a bit better prepared. All this to avoid the 401 since I was worried it was closed and I'd be stuck out there for hours.
Hey Yellzee,
Take better care next time, close call for sure and glad you lived to see another season.
As a former Stirling boy, would hate to read about you in the Intell today,
TurkeyJohn
Attachment 9170
From a total of 90 taps we made our first syrup Wednesday am.
Friday I put in 10 test taps, 9/10 flowed a bit right away.
Saturday I put in 25 more, not much flow.
Monday afternoon we tapped the rest, starting to flow a bit.
Tuesday at 6pm after not very much flow again, I surprisingly collected around 35 gallons, stayed up all night and made 4.5 liters of the best tasting maple syrup I’ve ever had! A bit heavy as my hydrotherm seems lazy but that's OK.. Now back to 5 foot snow drifts and no sign of sap flow for weeks…
Thanks to this site for so much great info!
I haven't used a hydrotherm before but I was told they are slow to get a reading off as you have to wait for the thermometer to come up on it. Hydrometers are quicker, but they are only calibrated to work at a set temperature so it may not be 100%. Awesome haul for your first go Vandy! I guess my welds on your arch all held up to the heat! Lol
I think I need a deeper cup also as it seemed to take longer to float also - only a few mm off the bottom of test cup when floating. I know next time to let it sit a bit longer..
Yep, welds were perfect!
Anyone not stuck at work today please feel free to update us if any sap starts flowing this aft when it warms up
Going home at lunch, I'll take a look see then and check in from Kingston anyway,
TurkeyJohn
I'm going out later this afternoon to check my saks and empty out any snow in the buckets.. Already had one sak fall off from the high winds..
Ya... I picked up a few buckets and emptied the snow out last night.
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Ditto. Dumped snow. Seeing that only 1 tree is doing the bulk of the work at the moment, and that the sap is frozen to the bottom, just had to shake out the snow. Surprised none of my empty pails got loose and went rolling all over the bush!Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyle Baker
OMG OMG OMG it's starting! :o I actually have sap dripping from my test taps!
Too much wind and still frozen here in Kingston, maybe later,
WTG Karen!!
TurkeyJohn
+1, but starting to think about it in Portland. May run over night and into Sat...Quote:
Originally Posted by TurkeyJohn
Good thing I had real nice trails for those 4 -5 foot drifts to land on:o
Hope so for you Vandy, if you're running in Portland, we should be here too!! Yeah, drifts are nice, tired of winter. Wish someone would tell old man Winter Spring is official in less than a week and that Christmas was almost 3 months ago already!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Vandy
TurkeyJohn
Getting a few taps running here on my big trees this afternoon! They've been bone dry up till now so I'm about ready to click my heels together :)
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We had taps running late this afternoon in the Belleville area. Some of the five gallon buckets had about 1-2 gallons just from today. Hope tomorrow they will be nearing full. We have 300 buckets out and have only collected 110 gallons of sap from last weekend. Come out time is running out! April is starting to look a lot warmer on the long range forecast
My taps started to run yesterday again,not enough to collect though,hopefully it ran through the night and i will be able to boil some this afternoon, time will tell, I dont plan on going into the bush this morning because i have to go get my wife a bday gift this morning, not sure what i will get her yet,was thinking of snow shoes so she can go collect the sap for me lol.... just kidding
Got to the bush this morning and collected 40 gallons of sap out of 80 taps. Got boiling right away as the temps will turn cold for the next few days. With this batch |I should have about 2 gallons of liquid gold so far this year. Hope you guys have fun! Now I need to go to the beer store to get maple syrup supplies! LOL!
Hey Al....you can always get me a pair of snowshoes, those little teeny ones...sick already of punching through rotten snow on my trails! And Dave, get some bottles of Sleeman Brown. Then you can put some light amber syrup in the bottles and fool your friends, just make sure they don't actually swig your syrup!
Now going out to collect a couple litres or so...and #6 still has not started yet, and even #9 is going now...c'mon, #6!!! Please! ;-)
I've had to empty a few pails this am! Slow drip all night and day here. Will do another small batch tonight..
Down to 10 gallons already. boiling good today. 30 gallons vaporized in 3 hours! Sorry did not get the beer you suggested! Good idea to fool a friend! Got to go watch the syrup now so I do not damage my pan!....Pancakes for dinner! Hummmmmm.....
I collected 6 gallons right now, going to boil it tomorrow, tree's were running good today,got a video of one of the lines i use and it is a constant steam of sap. Galena .... I ended up just going the fresh cut flower route, didnt think the snow shoes would go over to well lol
I didn't do nearly as well as some of you. Maybe 40 gallons on 120ish taps. Think I will boil the 70 or so total gallons tomorrow. Looking at the temps I will have to take it all out of the pan though. Had a lot of loose taps so tapped them all in again.
Boiled today, whole 3.5 liters. Well it's a start.
Yesterday I put in some more taps and such and it was sunny out while I was doing it, as soon as I got the hole drilled the sap started running out,I only put in 5 more taps,not allot but it took me over an hour to do because of the snow and ice.... anyhow, figured I would wait till later in the afternoon/early evening to come back and collect what sap there was,went back a few hrs later and by this time it was snowing and getting colder, all my taps had stopped running. I said to myself.... this stupid winter needs to end !!! While collecting the sap it stopped snowing but stayed cloudy, then all of a sudden the sun came out and what i heard was.... drip drip drip drip,then the sun went away and everything went silent again,then the sun came out a few minutes later and the drip drip drip drip started all over again.
Not sure where I was going with this,it is just something I noticed and remember noticing it last year also.
I love being in the forest !!!
Was a good day yesterday indeed. About a gallon in total from the 8 of 12 buckets that are running. Just in time for the freeze last night and next day or so. I think after we're on like Donkey Kong. Wishing anyway....
TurkeyJohn
I'm getting anxious. Boiled down what little sap I had on the kitchen stove last night... Maybe made an eighth of a liter of yummy silver maple syrup. Very low sugar content. Not overly sweet. My wife will love it!
And the fire is lit... Man its cold in the shack. Can't wait for it to warm up!Attachment 9210Attachment 9211
It's sooo frickin stoopid cold!!!! Haven't bothered to try and make syrup yet, have only about 500ml of condensed sap from the last few days. Nice amount of sap out there, a few litres anyway, but frozen in the spiles and bottoms of pails. Crappy forecast for today in terms of run, but maybe the sun will warm the pails enough to warm the bottoms so I can shake out the frozen sap, then bring it in and let it thaw and evaporate.
Really hope it warms up, I want to do a photoshoot in the woodshed for a challenge and in order for the shot to be effective I can't be bundled up.
Boiled 5-6 hrs to get through what I had. Felt great to get started. Forgot what a pain it is to empty one of these continuous flow pans to avoid damage from the deep freeze coming.....had to wait forever for everything to cool down so I could drain it and by then the shack was really cold. Problems getting a good front pan boil today. At least I have sweet for the pans!
I did another 35 gals including the rain and snow..
Talk about cold, my gravity feed 1/8 brass fittings were freezing up. Had to periodically get the hair dryer and venture out into the cold.
I'm in Kinburn just west of Ottawa and I'm officially tapping my trees tomorrow. This is the latest I've started and I don't have high hopes of amazing sap run. I don't think I will have enough sap to fire up the evaporator this weekend, but I'm finally starting.
I know exactly where you were. Would not be the first extraction there. Would have come pulled you out. We were around. I took march break off to do syrup with the kids. By Thursday we were looking for things to do! Had all the boys home on the weekend to help. We collected 150 trees in about 10 mins there was so little sap.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yellzee
I have about 90 gallons of ice in my tank now. Almost enough to sweeten my pans if it ever thaws out. I haven't lit a fire yet. Hopefully later this week will be better.
I tapped on Friday (14th) at 5:00PM with all 20 spiles running well (sunny, air temp 5-6 deg. C) and it stayed warm all night where I am. Set up my evaporator with friends Saturday (15th), collected the sap at 6:00PM that day as the temp. nose dived (some 2 gallon buckets were even full by then), and we boiled that night after a snow storm ended (now that was cold out in the open!). Got a litre of syrup filtered Sunday morning (16th). For me a successful weekend as I got the ball rolling, made more than enough syrup for a big pancake brunch on Sunday, taffy for the kids and their friends, as well as some bottles for my stash and give-aways. The only down side was that one of the little haulers tripped in the rough snow and dumped an entire 2 gallon bucket full of sap all over themselves. I am going to put in 5 more spiles this week. Good luck everyone.