Willow Creek Sugarhouse 2015

Well this week was kind of a blurrrrrrr!!! :) made some syrup had tours almost everyday. lots of sap. still way down on syrup numbers though. only around 65 gallons total not happy with that but better than nothing. If we get freezes and my estimates are close we willbreak 100 gallons this year... I hope.. Lots of hoping in Maple sugaring... I hope the temps are good, I hope I get sap, I hope the sugar content is good. I hope... well you get it.

I was really dialed in yesterday sap as been really nice to process made a little over 10 gallons, been making Dark pretty consistently since last weekend's Very dark simmering weekend. With the pans really lightening up and almost into Amber but ran out of sap, dam. Was able to get the machine to get sugar up to 15% its been running great. The RO is still amazing to me to see how much water comes out just magical. Evap was running great. had a nice steady drawoff. I have finally got the fan blowing just right that I can add wood without turning off the blower and adding wood and not blowing ash and coal all over the place. So I get a more consistant boil. just a good boiling day I guess.

Didn't get much sap yesterday. was good in the morning the sun came out for a few minutes trees were dripping pretty good but once it clouded up everything slowed. and I went out about 11:00 and there was pretty much nothing comng in the releaser shut off the Vac. Trees have been running in sun this year I don't know why except for Thursday night trees just don;t wanna run in cloudy skies or at night. ??? I don;t know. Sugar has been steady over 2% all year thursday it dropped to about 1.75% and by Friday sap started crystal clear but by the end of the day pretty cloudy and coming at 1.4%.

Just have to see how the real temps play out this week might be done by mid to late week. just need 40 gallons I just wanna be over 100 Gals gotta beat last year. and need to find some sugar maples for next season Reds give you syrup but sugars give you ALOT of syrup!!! Right Josh!!!

You turned the vacuum off??? Even when I have just a trickle coming in I have it on.

Looks like you found the sweet spot with your blower. I found that sweet spot with mine and it is nice to be able to fire without losing your boil.

Is your Dark tasting like Dark? If I don't start getting an improvement in my grade soon I may have to trade some of my Amber for some dark. I'm at 101 gallons now and it has all been Amber.

Flavor is a little lighter than dark. not quite a true dark but good none the less. went a shade darker today today into some very dark but thats a bit expected since we have lack of freezes. I made 7 more gallons today so that put over the 70 gallon mark today. Wish I had more saved up though blew through everything I made up to maple weekend. blew through everything I made over maple weekend into monday. and its just flying outta here. I can't keep the little very dark I made on the shelves its just going as fast I can bottle it and I only have a little bit.

With some freezes coming over the next several days I should break 100 by maybe tues/wed.

I turned the vac off because there wasn't even a trickle coming out have about 65 gallons so far today though. Buckets and gravity are done for now... but they should be going again tomorrow.

No boiling tomorrow, gotta save everything until monday AM.

Nice being open today though made alittle bit of money in 2 hrs.

The vacuum is still pulling in some sap here. I've got 500+ gallons to run through the RO and boil tomorrow. Taking a much needed night off tonight.

I got about 90 gallons today. and we are frozen up at 9:00. just shut everything down. Coloring Eggs with the kiddos!!!!

Sap ran great today, got about 375-400 + the whopping 80 gallons from yesterday. to boil out tomorrow looks like another freeze tonight so that will help things along.

Still slugging along. When the sap is running good I think big roadsides I have on buckets are running about the same as my reds on vacuum. but Vac still far ahead as GPT's go from night runs and no freeze days. but its nice to see full bags none the less.

I took a walk back into the woods today which I haven't done in some time. would you believe I still have 1-1.5 feet of snow in some places and even a few trees with rings of friggin' ice. and trees that aren't running. CRAZY!!! now I know why my GPT is down. I think some of the dam trees are still frozen back there. you can feel the temp drop by at least 5+*F as you get back there too!!!

I can feel the temp difference when I go down the hill to my releaser too. It's always colder down there.

I can't get over the amount of snow that's still on the ground in the woods. Unless we get the kind of rain they had been calling for its not disappearing in the next couple days. And that rain in the forecast seems to have been reduced. Gravity taps have slowed right down here too. All that messing with vac seems to be worth it all of sudden.

buckets are still going good. Probably not so much from here on out, with freezes only to 30*...maybe for the next few days then none. Gravity tubing really not doing much. Average Sugar was way down the end of last week to 1.4 lowest of the season so far but back up to 1.9 as of this morning. but guessing that will drop drastically over today and the next several days. Praying for freezing nights!!! Come on maple gods do us a solid here we can use it!!!