Eastern Ontario 2015

OK. So it's March and I didn't see a local 2015 thread yet so here it is!

Can't believe the cold. Calling for around -20*C for 3 of the next 4 nights. Looking at the extended forecast makes me think 3 more weeks at least before our little operation taps in. I'm not sure what to think about the snow pack though. We have not had any thaws this winter. The snow has no base at all. I was out with the sled breaking trails and found that in some places I was spinning up leaves. So does this mean that when it starts it's going to go really fast? Frost seems to be deep. My front porch is heaved almost 4". Has never moved before. I really don't know what to think.

Anyway, Just spent 10+ hours in the groomer making baby bottom smooth trails for any lucky snowmobilers who don't have to work tomorrow. Sled trails will die fast as soon as the temps get up during the day. The sun already seems strong. Base is really thin.

Good luck to everyone. I think we're in for an interesting season...........

Yes definitely going to be a tough year. I got my bush roads plowed out this weekend and started tapping yesterday. Hard work i was in snow anywhere from knees to hips all afternoon.Looks like the weather has finally turned but your right still may be two weeks before it breaks.

Same situation here in Sturgeon Falls. Maybe 2ft of loose snow. Can't wait to start tapping figure 3,4th week of march.

Finished my roads yesterday. About 2 - 4ft of powder. I scraped down to the field grass with ease.

Too cold at night.

We got vacuum pumps out and the sugar camp mostly ready on the weekend. It warmed enough for us to get 500 taps in between Saturday and Sunday afternoon. We've got almost 3km of roads to open up so we've got a dozer coming later this week to plow for us. What would take the tractor several days will take the dozer a few hours.

Well I did inventory of all my pails, put aside old spiles cause I now have new shiny plastic blue spiles which will need a smaller hole, have everything all set to go, even snowshoes...but of course the weather ain't cooperating in my neck of the woods! I was a little astonished and dismayed to see someone has already hung up buckets on their trees...probably city folk just moved out to the country and they don't know better :-/

It got up to 0 here today. Put in 60 taps on pipelines today. A couple were dripping a little.....was sure nice to see. Plan on putting the rest of my taps in this weekend. If you put any stock in the long range forecast then weather looks very promising

Starting Saturday morning. 4 guys with gas drills should get them done in a reasonable amount of time.

Going to hold off til next early next week, want to make sure that the forecast really does pan out to be as good as it sounds. Meantime, not liking the sunny but frickin frigid -23 (-32 with windchill) Friday we have!!

I'm planning on blowing the snow out of my trails on Saturday and tapping Sunday. The next 2 weeks look good for the Quinte area. Given the late start, not sure how long the season will last. I don't want to miss the early runs and it's unlikely now the holes will dry out before it gets too mild for good runs.

This definitely seems to be the weekend for it!

I bought a homemade 2x2 evaporator in the fall, spent some of this morning getting the chimney pipe hooked up. Just need to pickup some firebrick to finish it off. Yes, I moved indoors this year. Gave the lawnmower the boot from the shed and setup the evap there. Lots of room!

I'd like to get most of the taps in, but this'll mean pulling out the snowshoes for the 2+ feet of snow in the back. Not looking forward to walking those buckets back, at least until the snow is gone.

I plan to tap Sunday, don't want to miss Tuesday and Wednesday's +temps, but was talking to an old timer syrup producer this am who said he heard the trees are froze solid! Suggested to hold off. I guess I'll know by Friday if that's true or not!

Game on near Almonte!

Can't wait to sip some whiskey and half sap!

Cheers

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Originally Posted by hillbillybee

I plan to tap Sunday, don't want to miss Tuesday and Wednesday's +temps, but was talking to an old timer syrup producer this am who said he heard the trees are froze solid!....

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Hmm maybe he's just trying to psyche you a little? Though whenever I hear a frostquake like I did last night at bedtime, kinda makes you stop and wonder...besides, I'm going to wrap all my trees in electric blankets ;-) Hey, I only have 6 of em!

Thinking now of upping tapping date to this Sunday, if this week, Wed in particular, is as good as it's meant to be I don't want to be caught out. Will check with EnviroCan forescast shortly.

This year I am also going to try tapping a friend's virgin bush (gawd that sounds so wrong!) of, if I remember correctly, reds and sugars, try to keep her sap and syrup separate from my trees' output. I will double-check dimensions before I drill, but pretty sure most of them can take 2 spiles.

I'll be tapping this sunday as well. Seems as good a time as any.

I am sad to say, this year I will be not doing the maple syrup thing. I have no time, my wife and I are in the process of adopting to little boys and that is taking up all our spare time, they move in with us April 2nd and with everything going on over the next few weeks getting everything ready for when they come and going to see them and spending as much time with them till they come to live with us, I just don't have the time to do the Tap em and Sap em thing this year. Also have to go to Montreal for 4 days April 7th for training for my job, so that is thrown in there also.

I will miss doing it this year, I was looking forward to it, but have to put it on the back burner till next year.I will be checking in to see how everyone is making out this season and probably get jealous from hearing everyones stories. Sucks because I am almost of my Syrup from last year.

Al
My hat is off to you on the 2 boys. Great news there and all the best. If you're in need of a maple fix this spring drop me a line and maybe you can pop by. Hopefully be lots of steam to share :).

Today is the day! We are heading back this morning to get the shack cleaned up, ready the evap/bluk tank and and tap trees. Thank goodness for tracks on the four wheeler, been keeping the trails packed down when getting my firewood out,

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Originally Posted by BrutemanAl

I am sad to say, this year I will be not doing the maple syrup thing. I have no time, my wife and I are in the process of adopting to little boys and that is taking up all our spare time, they move in with us April 2nd and with everything going on over the next few weeks getting everything ready for when they come and going to see them and spending as much time with them till they come to live with us, I just don't have the time to do the Tap em and Sap em thing this year. Also have to go to Montreal for 4 days April 7th for training for my job, so that is thrown in there also.

I will miss doing it this year, I was looking forward to it, but have to put it on the back burner till next year.I will be checking in to see how everyone is making out this season and probably get jealous from hearing everyones stories. Sucks because I am almost of my Syrup from last year.

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Al, sad to hear you won't be tapping...but I bet those two little boys will be getting a whole lot of love and attention! Get them hooked on sirop d'erable ASAP so they will WANT to help out when they're old enough. Teach them that lugging a full 2g pail through waist-deep snow without spilling it is a manly thing to do! ;-)

Still, glad you'll be around to vicariously enjoy our exploits, triumphs and tragedies. Will do my best to help keep you amused :-)

Hello all,
It's that time again, I just got my shiny new evaporater home and am currently working on fire bricking it! Very excited to test it out. I had a few hours this morning were I wasn't on daddy daycare and I tried to get back to the Bush on the tractor but the blower was having trouble with the four to five foot drifts on the trail. Hopefully tommorow I will be able to get the rest of the way back and get the taps in. It seems there is more snow than last year... Didn't think that was possible.
Well I'm off to clean buckets so good luck everyone I'll keep you all posted.
Keith

Attachment 10894Here's the view from the seat this morning. Was pretty easy blowing where the snow had not been packed down but tough where our ski trails run. All the trails are clear and 95 trees tapped today. Will do the rest tomorrow. Some of the smaller trees were damp but not really dripping

Hi fellow maple lovers. This is our 1st year tapping our maple trees. We started tapping this morning, total of 20 taps with buckets to start. We brought our 2 boys out with us, it was fun watching them get involved (actually they watched from the sleds - they are 20 months and 4 months old). We are excited and optimistic for our first batch of liquid gold.

Will keep you posted on progress and looking forward to hearing how everyone else does!

Lesley

Hi Lesley! Welcome to the hobby! I am sure you will enjoy! All the best!

Dave

Welcome to the craziness of sugaring, Lesley! You may want to read the *advice* I gave BrutemanAl a few posts down, so those boys can be useful during this season in the future :-) Looking forward to your posts!

Well I put up about 100 pails today before I ran out of battery in the drill, so it's a start. Nothing was dripping yet but hopefull for this week. I had to work on the trail to get to the Bush for about eight or so hours with the tractor but for the first time this year I can drive my truck from door to Bush. Still have lots to do for this week maybe anouther twenty pails and I have to get my new boiler ready, (which reminds me I have a 2x4 flat evaporater for sale of anybody knows any one). All in all a good day and had good fun with the whole family in the Bush three generations for the first time this year and that's really what it's all about!

Hi guys,
So.. No sap yet... Well actually that's not true because about 3 of my buckets had drops in them. It did get up to +1 today but only for like half an hour... Hope I didn't get over eager and tap too early; supposed to have higher temps this week.. I am nervous as I'm a virgin to this art! Will keep u posted.

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Originally Posted by Lespetras

Hi guys,
So.. No sap yet... Well actually that's not true because about 3 of my buckets had drops in them. It did get up to +1 today but only for like half an hour... Hope I didn't get over eager and tap too early; supposed to have higher temps this week.. I am nervous as I'm a virgin to this art! Will keep u posted.

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LOL rekax, you've just got noobieitis, the anxiety that comes with the first time you do anything and worry that you might be doing things wrong. The weather will warm, the sap will flow (and may flow like crazy) and you may soon be posting 'Ahhhh! I have boatloads of sap! Help!'

I also set my spiles yesterday, as I wanted to make sure this warming trend was here to stay. At least you didn't tap last week, which I saw some people had done, when it was still far, far too cold to get anything yet....and not too good for the tree either :-/

Also something you may want to consider as you have a small bush too (ignore my puns)...I've found it invaluable to put my OCD to work and keep track of how much sap I get from each tree each time I collect. Thanks to having done this for a few years now, I know which trees are going to start producing first, and which may take a little longer to start, but REALLY produce once they do.

So relax, while you can...I think this could be another crazy year...last year I got had 3 days where I got 33l of sap!!

Well have fun

Thanks for the advice Galena, it's reassuring to hear this from experienced tapper; supposed to be good weather for sap production all week in Inverary so I am pumped!
Lesley

I have 150 trees tapped now. 95 with 5/16 blue taps, and 55 with 7/16 cast. I've been phasing over to the health spiles.
I had one hole where the blue spile just would not stay in, even after replacing it with a second, so drilled that out to 7/16".

Went back around later and had a few sapsicles, but nothing to speak of in any pails. I'm expecting there will be some flow today and more each day over the week.

Sugar Shack is organized (emptied of bicycles, lawn mowers, summer tires etc - thank goodness we emptied several bays in the woodshed over the winter), smoke stack is up, tanks are washed and ready. I still need to build a new grate for the arch - last year's had a melt down. Other than that - I'm ready for sap. Bring it on.

Happy i was able to tap 109 trees yesterday with my kids. It was -5 and had about 10 trees running so should be a good mild week. So happy the season is started.

With just my brother and I drilling and a hammer-man with each of us, we got 3000+ taps done in 2 days. I feel like I've been driven over by a truck today!

Only a few tapholes were even semi-moist yesterday and our one 400 tap woods that's been tapped for a week didn't produce a drop out of the mainline yesterday. Lots of deer damage to fix (I have a .308 solution I'll use in November) plus a lot of branches and limbs down on laterals and mainlines. Walking is tough because the snow is so deep but it's light and fluffy so the snowshoes are useless. I don't expect it will run much this week as a lot of our taps are north facing. Should be enough to flush the lines so we're ready to go when the weather is right.

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Originally Posted by Lespetras

Thanks for the advice Galena, it's reassuring to hear this from experienced tapper; supposed to be good weather for sap production all week in Inverary so I am pumped!
Lesley

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Glad to be of help! BTW are there any big sugaring operations in your area, or even a local farmer whom you've seen tap trees for as long as you can remember? That's how I learned, from just knocking on this farmer's door and asking if I could hang around and help out and learn the basics of how to sugar from them. (Of course that was before I found this site)

They even loaned me some spiles and buckets; in return I helped collect sap and drive the sap truck to the sugar shack. Even now, now that I know what I'm doing (I think) it's still nice to drive by their place and see that they also put up their 120 pails yesterday.

Mind, I'm single, so I have the luxury of a little more spare time than you might, but most sugarers are generous with their knowledge. You can also ask at the local co-op who in the area sugars each year and is approachable. Doesn't hurt to at least ask! :-)

ETA: Remember I said I keep records...well just saw a teeny tiny itty bit like 1 tbsp in one pail, tasted it to ensure it was sap and not snowmelt (we had a little blizzard here yesterday right after I put pails up). Checked my records from last year and eh wala, same tree, same pail, probably same amount too :-)

Put in 200+ taps late this afternoon after getting home from bus runs, not flowing enough to even get the lines cleaned out, went back to the tank expecting maybe a little dribble out of the end, but didn't see a drop

100+ taps yesterday late afternoon. Only 5 wet holes...

Hey Folks,

TurkeyJohn here in Kingston, first dribble of sap in one of 20 buckets yesterday afternoon. Big hopes for today with high of plus 7 forecasted. Let you know how we do...

Good luck to all of us crazy sappers...

TurkeyJohn

some 1/4 pails from 4pm yesterday till this am. Lots more starting to drip at 9am.. Very good sign. I had better clean my pan and setup my gravity drip..

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Originally Posted by Vandy

some 1/4 pails from 4pm yesterday till this am. Lots more starting to drip at 9am.. Very good sign. I had better clean my pan and setup my gravity drip..

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That's promising Vandy! After seeing empty buckets yesterday afternoon I was wondering if it was coming or the trees were still on winter strike!

i have 50 out of 110 buckets out maybe tomorrow i will get the rest out. i am not close to being ready yet. Still quite a bit of scrubbing to be ready.

Mark

Everyone, remember that this was a brutally cold winter, so if the trees aren't going much yet, they probably are still froze up. FWIW I have only 4 going spiles out of my 18 spiles here at home, nothing so far from the virgin bush of only 6 spiles. I will probably collect that grand total of about 1l sap from my home trees later today and let it evaporate down to about 1cup on the woodstove, just to get it out of the way.

Midday check and I estimate I may have 30 - 40L from 97 taps. Some are still dry. Might as well light a fire tonight :)

Evaporating all of 2l tonight, just cause I don't want to let it sit in the pails...and the virgin bush gave me a nice surprise, 5 of 6 spiles over there are active. Glad I chose to tap really conservatively so I don't drown in sap!