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happy Spring I think.... doesn't seem like it. Got some syrup bottled (need alot more) and jelly made. Got a whopping 26 gallons of sap. dam. a little shy of my 50 gal goal. Hoping we at least get a little today, not expecting too much with no sun but fingers crossed. then another freeze up $%%#@@%$^^&$%%........
Anybody get anything yesterday? Got a little but not really much. Not thinking there would be I didn't check sap sacks but they are 1/2 full and frozen... OH well at least they won't blow away!!!
I turned the vacuum on at noon yesterday and my releaser that holds 25 gallons dumped for the first time at 3:00. At 6:00 I had 100 gallons. I turned the vacuum off at 2:30 this morning and had 175 gallons of ice in the tank this morning. The gravity lines and buckets ran a little bit too.
Well took forever for everything to thaw. I had 150 gallons of sitting around so I decided to squeeze that and cook it down to refresh the evap which has been sitting for way too long. made a few more gallons of syrup. not even the buckets ran today. perfect sap weather but thigs need to re-thaw again. Guessing there will be no boiling until thursday. tomorrow looks good as well should be able to get some sap tomorrow. That didn't take long cleaned out the wood shed a little, did the big spring cleaning on the chicken coop things were still a bit frosty so it was a little tough to peel up but got it all out.
Don't think I will have enough syrup we'll know shortly I guess.
Did make alot of candy, cream, lollipops, maple drops. still more stuff to make but getting low on the main ingredient!!! :(
For those who sell them what are you charging for lollipops?
just try to get geared up for maple weekend still alot todo and time is running low!!!
I'm pretty much ready for maple weekend. I'm not boiling tonight so I can move the canner out of the RO room tomorrow and set up the sample table. Now to find a solution for mud at the bottom of the stairs to the sugar house. The piece of plywood that I want to put there is frozen into the snow that slid off of the woodshed roof.
get a few bags of stone from lowes or home depot or what ever I do it every year. stairs ways etc. drop a bag of stone and it will usually get walked into the mud. keep a few bags on hand for when the mud getts too soft again.
wood chips hold up better than stone. Some loggers use them on woods roads to fill in mud holes.
I was thinking of putting a piece of plywood down as a temporary bridge. When the season is over I can store it in my woodshed and use it again next season. It is about 8' from the stairs to the RO room door. The plan eventually is to haul in gravel and build up the area to fill in the low spot. I have to do an engine swap and some rust repair to my dump truck first though. The area is too small to get a 10 wheeler into.
Well ended up with about an hour of sleep on Friday night, but I made it though. Saturday wasn't the best turnout but Sunday was excellent. Sold my last pint of syrup at 2:50 on sunday we closed at 3. athough everyone was gone by 4:00. Great weekend over all. broke my single day sales record on Sunday which doubled what I sold on saturday. Broke the record for my weekend sales as well. Everyone had a great time regardless of Saturday's weather.
Only 1 issue my cashier called out on Friday night. My great neighbors bailed us out!!! couldn't have done the weekend without them. my Kids were great my son was in charge of the tasting table He knows all about the different grades of syrup now and how the jelly, cream, mustard, and BBQ sauce is made.
My daughter sold 200 hotdogs cooked in sweetened maple sap. Overall She made over $400 to donate to the 3rd grade(my son's class) for their 5th grade class trip to camp sargent and some of that will go to the NHSPCA.
My Wife had her studio open and broke her maple weekend sales record as well.
Made about 15 gallons of syrup over the weekend. It was nice to get some sleep. Now to clean the kitchen its trashed and then get ready for my maple tours this week.
Glad to hear everyone else had a successful weekend as well. Its always a ton of work but worth it in the end.