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averaging 1.4 again and even sap sacks on big sugars are coming in under 2 now. sap has changed from the that rich slightly yellowish color to clear slightly cloudy water looking sap even from the big sugars. So I got a 2 day total of about 400 gallons so may only finish with about 6-7 gallons of syrup since the sugar is so low. but that will put me at last years total.
Scary how much this year is like last year except I didn;t make any Merch. and we will be done before the trees bud. but we will see how things go with vac on we did get the freeze up here @ 33* the releaser was full of slush last night shut it down. Didn't want any flappers sticking open or closed. but woke up to 31* this morning. roads are OK though.
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I shut my vacuum off at 9 pm Wednesday night because everything was frozen. The forecast had said that it wasn't going to freeze until 1 am! Last night I left the vacuum on and as far as I know it didn't freeze last night. It rained overnight and is sprinkling now. I hope I got a tank full.
Nothing darker than mid amber here this year with the last 2 boils being the lightest syrup that I have made in years. The flavor went with the color too. The maple flavor is all but gone now just the way that the yuppies like it.
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Who are these yuppies you speak of??? I get maybe a handful of people that are looking for light syrup. I tried to sell it one year and sat on it for ever. Ended up dumping the bottles and making candy out of it. it also darkened to medium.
Well its April 10 which was my last official boil last year. I am at 89 gallons for the season so far 1 gallon shy of what I did last year. I have sap in the tank sap in the buckets so I with 1 boil I will break last year if we can squeak out 1 more real boil after that, I will break 100 gallons and pass that with finishing out my pans. I also have a chance at some extra sap after noon time on saturday from a friend. so if its still running after that time and its not merch by then I can make some more. So a little better than last year, no bumper crop by any means, but we'll take it.
Sugar is 1.8 on buckets and 1.4 on vac. Starting to get an end of season smell to the evap. but syrup still tastes good. Went just hair into very dark yesterday its been teetering back and forth between the dark and Very dark all week. Syrup still going through the press pretty easy as well. Probably pulling buckets on monday or tuesday. we'll, see the bigger trees are really running good on buckets....finally surprising they haven't done that good the smaller and medium ones have been better.
Had a little trouble getting a good exact density draw off yesterday. I always like to draw 1/2 to 1 point over but I was like 3-4 points over couldn;t get it right no matter what I did even over drawing just couldn;t get it right. Had to thin it out at the end. I always draw a little over thats easy to fix. Its always harder to fix thinner than it is to fix heavier.
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Your syrup pan may be getting a lot of scale on it is why temp is climbing higher.
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no scale its clean as a whistle. I just couldn't get the temp correct. I think my cup was cold when I was setting the draw off temp then once my draw off bucket was full it was too thick. its all good. sometimes things just don;t smoothly.
Actually got alot of sap the last 2 days. doesn't smell that good kinda grey, I am thinking it might be metabolism. Hope it cooks out OK. low sugar too. it just keep dropping.
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saving everything for tomorrow. I have almost 800 gallons now(thats a couple of days worth). Getting some additional sap as well so that a huge help. I can't believe sap is still coming in as good as it is. Buckets are somehow still dripping too. I am guess what I am getting for sap is the trees in the back FINALLY waking up for the grand finnally....
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The sap has been running good here too. I boiled in 1000 gallons tonight and have 700 for tomorrow with more coming in. The buckets and gravity are done for now but we may get a frost tonight to get them flowing again.
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We got a frost..... although not much of one hit 31*F for about an hr. but it was 32* fro a while. What a surprise!!! not much sap on the over night, We'll see how things are today. might get a little more in the buckets today??? especially since the wind isn;t supposed to be as bad today.
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I think that the wind actually helped here yesterday. It kept the temperature down so that the sap would keep flowing. My tank in the woods was nutted at 2 pm and had another 175 gallons in it at 7:30. It got colder here than what was in the forecast overnight so the buckets and gravity should start running again today too.
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I hope so we just keep slugging along... I don't know how much longer it will last but if I can still keep on making syrup I will be happy, as will the rest of us... :)
