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LOL, hope you get the pump issues sorted out quickly....
I was going to post how great a day it is today to boil and how some of the trees are near steady streams of sap, but then I thought that might sound too much like rubbing it in hahah
Take care, hope the day improves for you....
LOL smartass ;-) well I am glad it's going well for you, but STILL SFA over here. A year ago I was swimming in the stuff, and was not prepared at all, and was run into the ground and then some. This year exactly the opposite: I'm all set and ready and there is no sap, or so little per run that it isn't worth getting the Shack fired up. BTW why do you think I called it Shack Whacky? :-)
So I'm going to go out back and buck up some deadfall. Normally I wouldn't have the time to do it this time of year, but not this year....
Oh, PM me your address so I can come visit and steal some sap when you're not looking hehe
Thanks for the thumbs up Fort Wisers. Like you, things are going well today. I have five propane burners going today and an electric element in the garage.
Galena, it is like the opposite of last year. I had ziltch and those of you east of here were going crazy. I am officially sending you sapping weather so get ready for tomorrow. Get some sleep tonight while you can.
Thanks Karen! It would be nice to have some decent tapping weather and output from all trees!
If it's of any consolation at all, I still have about six trees that still haven't awakened for the season. Weird.
It'd be a 7 hour drive each way, but come on over and get some sap. Please!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Galena
I had errands to run in town yesterday, and a fire meeting in the evening, so I didn't get much done at all. I filled the pots and let the two propane burners boil away while I was at the meeting. Not an efficient way to do it, but I can leave them basically unsupervised for a few hours that way. Dad looks out the door at them now and then.
This morning I had to take Dad to a doctors appointment. Didn't get home till early afternoon, so I've got stuff going full tilt now. Haven't even been out to the trees yet.
The sap is running out Bon Echo way. I'm hunkered down in the bush collecting and boiling. My second year trying it out, it's very addictive. I keep adding taps, but running out of containers. Good fun though, I love snowshoeing the sap line to collect. I've collected about 50 litres of sap now. Here's a photo of the first semi-finished jar...
Attachment 19861
Welcome to the sugaring madness Backcountry! I like the spile design - homemade?
Got 18l today. At least each tree had damp spiles. The little guys are still doing all the heavy lifting though early runners like #5 are pulling their weight too. Still haven't collected even 100l yet this season. Insane.
ETA: just googled Bon Echo - I just may come up that way on a day trip to the park during the summer. It looks amazing :-)
Madness indeed! Nothing like running around under a midnight full moon putting taps in! The spile in my avatar was a homemade one I did from a sumac branch. I used a few of these last year along with some plastic ones I bought from home hardware. I'm using some nice classic aluminum spiles this year, no messing around, they work great.
LOLOLQuote:
Originally Posted by Galena
Collected a total of 39 litres today, a decent run but not like last year, total sap collected this season is at 236 litres, all gone into the pan.
Burned through 84 litres of sap today then shut down.....
This year we're finding the trees are very quick to stop flowing as the sun goes down, even if the temperature is still above zero.
Welcome to the forum Backcountry
Ahha! I just walked the bush to check and say goodnight to the trees...they're all running, even though it's -5 outside. I've collected as late as 11:30pm and once they are finally running they can and will run all night. Looking promising. Maybe I actually will have a half-decent if nutso season if a sap tsunami happens.
At least I will be able to take a shower in the morning, B&C came through for me but final bill will be $$$...had to get new water pump. At least it'll have a warranty and is MUCH quieter than the old one, which was probably installed in March 92 going by the serial # on it. That's 27 yrs. Can't complain!!
Insanity!!!
I had to collect six times and got 146L from about 25 taps. Only one sugar maple in the bunch. All the rest are soft maples. They have never run this hard! I had the busiest day I can ever remember. I guess it's time for me to have my breakfast/lunch/dinner as I missed out on everything today.
To make things even better, the sugar content is through the roof!
I'm sending the tsunami to you Susan while I take a breather.
Send it on Karen, I'm ready for the tsunami! Just so long as the snow doesn't melt so I still have bunkers to bury the jugs in til the weekend!
Pulled in 1100 -1200 gallons of sap today,lit the match at 5:45 p.m,wife thought we were in for a long night,last fire at 10:00, need to get more containers now.
WOW! I just did a count and thought I was doing well at 120L on the trees since Saturday.. Is that all in one day???Quote:
Originally Posted by Run Forest Run!
Still have quite a few stubborn trees on my end.. one of them the few sugars I tap so I'm hopeful she'll wake up soon!
Sounds like the tsunami has headed your way!
I pulled 40 gallons/152 litres from 20 taps in one day. I was totally out of storage, so any thing beyond that had to stay in the buckets. Been going for 2 1/2 weeks now and I am so over boiling! I'll probably pull the taps this weekend.
Hey Paul. That tsunami was from 9am-7pm. After the sun went down the drips slowed down from the faucet style dripping that happened all day long. It's 0C here right now and I am hoping that they have completely stopped so that I can catch up. There is about 80L in storage already to greet me in the morning.
How's it going for you?
Holy wow Karen, Paul and Fanshawegirl, nice collections!
Our days have been decent but NOTHING like that.....as I mentioned in a previous post, our trees this year seem to be driven directly from the sun, somewhat regardless of temperature.
As I was cleaning up from yesterdays boil the sun was setting, I took a walk around and all the trees near the garage had basically stopped, but the outside temp was hovering around 3.
I went out again this morning, after reading these reports, and all our trees are sleeping, despite the 3 deg C outside temp.
Karen, what ever voodoo you're sending Galena, we'll take some as well if there's left overs haha.
Galena, I hope you got hit with a good run last night and hope it continues for the next few days!
Glad you got your water situation fixed up, we had something similar happen to us a few years ago, losing water is no fun.
Man Karen.. if that happened to me I wouldn't even know it as I'm at work all day..other than coming home to full buckets of course! LOL.. maybe ignorance would be bliss in this case..with the drop tubes, the buckets just stop once the tube is submersed in sap..so no overflows would happen except for the few I have on the trees.
Things are going well, Karen thank you. I've done one boil last weekend so far.. 125 L, and have about 120 on the trees. Weird weather this spring with all the ups and downs so quickly within a week. Will be interesting to see if I end up matching last year's sap even though I have 50% more buckets! Was out skimming the ice off the buckets and some were dripping already!
Yep there is this really weird thing with the weather...if Karen's getting piles of sap, we don't. And vice versa. Just completely the opposite pattern for whatever reason! Glad everyone is doing so well and now getting stuck in the situation of having almost too much sap. I've been known to negotiate days off with clients just so I could stay home and get caught up.
If you're running low on storage...Rubbermaid Brute garbage cans, which have never been used for anything else, are a gawdsend. I think mine holds around 70l. And yes they are food grade! Check the recycling symbol on the bottom and so long as it isn't the dreaded #7 (which means it's been made from all kinds of recycled plastics) you're pretty much good to go. You can google what the code is and what the various numbers mean.
My big trees ran a little last night but the little trees did quite a bit. Surprise 3.0 has been a little powerhouse, right now has more than Surprise and Surprise 2.0 combined, which is saying a lot! I may have to go put a fresh pail up, cause I don't have time to collect this morning but do have enough time to swap out one.
I have just looked outside and most are verging on half full or more. Oh man. :o Looks like another busy day could be possible. I'll be having an Aleve with my coffee this morning.
Fort Wisers, the sap voodoo has officially been cast upon your trees. Rest up!
Karen - you make me laugh. I'm sure you realize that if you only collect ONCE in a day - you'll still get the same 5.84l / tree. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Run Forest Run!
That's not to say we don't like "go visit the trees" a few times on good days, just to see how things are running. Nothing better than standing in the quiet of the woods, listening to a symphony of drips into pails all around you.
Thanks Karen!
Big Eddy.....your last sentence sure does sum it up nicely and rings home for the afternoon we had yesterday boiling......
After collection and the buckets were empty so that you get that dull bucket drip sound, I was standing just outside of the garage with the heat of the evaporator to my back, listening to the dripping buckets...suddenly a huge flock of geese flew overhead.
Hard to get much better than that.....
lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by Big_Eddy
Kids have been getting about 45-55Gal each night while I am boiling like crazy.. Last night was the first time we had over 55gal. I was expecting them to run all night but no dice and no frezze so quiet here so far today.
LOl well now I've got 45l in holding so good to go...unfrotunately I have running around to do, all the stuff I didn't get done yesterday due to water pump going toes up....and I saw MY birds of spring wheeling around in the air heralding the surefire coming of spring...turkey vultures! They only turn up when the running conditions are ideal, at least for my humble little bush :-)
I hear the weekend is going to be gross weather again so planning to boil Friday night and Saturday.
I've got 110Gal buried in snow. Expecting another 40 - 55Gal tonight.
Who needs this work crap. All I wanna do is boil :)
Hey BigE, I only have 4L jugs on the trees and I'd have lost 1.8L of sap per tap if I hadn't emptied them out. :lol: With the sap running that crazy I didn't know how much wiggle room I could leave in the jugs. Maybe I should hang some of my blue plastic pails on days like this and only go out once. Good thought Eddy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Big_Eddy
I have just finished my morning rounds and collected 75L. My two storage bins are almost full and the day is just starting. I saw a Great Blue Heron fly overhead. Boy will he be sorry when he gets to the pond. lol
Boiled down a big stock pot overnight, for a nice half jar of syrup. Guessing because it's so light and my taps are slow, the season is just getting started up here. Boiling down the next stock pot for the rest of that mason jar. Just doing my boil on the woodstove in my schoolbus. It's slow going, but the air is nicely humidified :) Slow drips today, but thinking it will pick up later this afternoon. Supposed to be nice out tomorrow, thinking I'll have to pull out another woodstove and get a bon fire going for a couple more boil stations if I'm ever going to catch up.
Attachment 19872
Tapped around 60 trees this year. Have about 875L in stock ready to run. Dad will start today and I'll finish it off tomorrow. Same story every spring. So busy with work and the young lads hockey that I haven't even dropped in the hydrometer to check the sap.
Hoping for a smooth first boil.
Drew.
875l in holding?! Holy sap tsunami Batman!!! I have just a titch over 100l total so far, but crazy sugar content. I should have about 60l sap by end of today to boil, and 2+l nearup to chuck in when it's time.
Strictly fwiw...reading Daniel H. Pink's book, When: The scientific secrets of perfect timing. Sez that it's better for you in all ways to take short, frequent walks during the course of a day than one long one. I know I far enjoy just going for a ten-minute walk around my bush to see the trees and check the pails, then if need be come back in, grab collection pails and go get sap. And tonight I plan to boil so there will a lot of going in and out of the house and Shack Whacky!
Well we decided to boil down and finish what we had last night.
Did one more collection in the afternoon that resulted in another 28 litres, so our total sap count was 264 litres.
Boiled, finished and bottled.
We're happy with the results, ~10.25 litres of finished product, so good sap sugar content again this year (although not as good as some of you are reporting!).
Nice looking lighter color than last years finish (last years finishing was mostly toward the end of the season so it made sense that it was darker).
Cleaned up the gravity tank, storage jugs and the finishing pan, the main pan is soaking and I'll clean it out this morning.
Not sure what next week is going to produce....we will see.
Attachment 19875
We boiled down 307 L yesterday to 18 L. which we pulled off the stove @ 215 degrees. Still a bit to go to finish and I am interested to see how much we get from it. Collected twice yesterday and only got to add the first pick-up into the evap. Still another 90 L on the back of the ATV. Will store that today and then head out again. Looks like many trees ran all night - so there's going to be enough to boil again on Sunday. They are saying 6 above now Saturday - but torrential rain. Better than -1 though.
Our wood was junk this boil. Not nearly as dry as the last boil and had a much harder time keeping the boil going. Started the fire at 6 AM and we pulled it off at 9 PM - lol not too efficient....
Attachment 19876
Hi guys,
I'm not from Eastern Ontario but have been following your posts and seeing how you've been making out with sap production out there. My little sugar bush is in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia by the water. The cool ocean tends to moderate the tempetature so I don't seem to get the Tsunamis you guys get as it stays closer to zero at night and just a bit above in the the day during a cooler snap. I did collect 100 litres from my 50 taps in the last four days so it's something I guess.
I haven't been tapping for that many years so am still learning the ropes. I have a question if anyone has a moment, since I see you are all in the thick of it now:
We had a nice colder spell the last few days (-4 or -5C at night and around zero in the day, until yesterday it reached +3C around noontime). All of the trees woke up which was great and I collected what was there. It only went to +1 or +2C last night and it's up to 7C today, so no freeze-up last night.
I'm trying to determine if it's worth going back down to my little sugar bush and see if there is anymore to collect, as I live over an hour away. I guess what I'm wondering, for future knowledge as well, is if anyone experiences sap flow for longer than a day if the temps don't dip below the freezing piont at night (ie, has anyone experienced sap starting to flow starting midday when it warms up and did it keep on going overnight and through to the next day even though the temps didn't go back below zero??).
I tried to research this online a bit and only really noticed info on why sap flows, but not so much on duration of the sap flow if the temps stay above zero.
Good luck to you all and I'm happy to see you are getting a pretty good year out there. I've made ~3L of syrup so far and hopefully 3 or 4 more with the next run...
Syrup by the Sea
Every time I think I understand it, Mother Nature proves me wrong, so round down my 2cents worth.
What I tend to find is that small trees will react very quickly to temperature swings turning on and turning off almost in synch with the temperature. Larger trees are more patient, but once they get going, they'll keep producing sap through a 2-3 day spell, even if the temps do not drop back below freezing.
I'm coming to the conclusion too, that it's twig temperature that matters, not trunk temperature. On a cold but still and sunny day - trees will open up even if the sap is freezing on the spile. But on a warmer but windy day, those same trees might not produce anything.
Thank you Big_Eddy!! Great 2 cents there.
A quick follow up then:
I have mostly 10" to 12" trees, and a few 8" as well. They grow in clumps of 4 or 5, so I pick up a few in each clump with my tubing, to get more bang for my buck(et).....sorry for that horrible pun :(
Anyway, I do see the smaller trees come alive soon after the sun shines for sure. In your observations, have you seen the smaller (~10") trees run for a night and into the next day even though the temps stay above the melting point, or do they tend to be 'tapped out' after a day if the temps don't swing.
Yesterday was disappointing for us. I had 1800 gallons in the sugar camp from M-W and only got another 1,000 gallons yesterday despite what I figured were good conditions. Thankfully the sugar content was close to 3.3% which is unheard of for us! Especially having gone through 2 years worth of caterpillar infestation. The auto runoff barely turned off for 3 hours once I fired up! The "easy" day meant I had time to drain and wash the flue pan and walk a few lines.
Hopefully we have more in front of us today to get our numbers up. I'm starting to get worried that if we don't get some big days soon I'll be in trouble.
Hi Syrup by Sea,Quote:
Originally Posted by Syrup By The Sea
In my limited (2 years) experience, there can be extended runs without a freeze, but there is a 'peak run' that gradually tapers off as more and more trees drop out and are unable to produce more without the freeze-thaw cycle. I am attaching a chart I made last year - its a bit jammed together and confusing - but kind of demonstrates what I mean. The High (red) line is the max temp reached that day and the Low (blue) is the low temperature the night before that day. So, backwards to what we see in the weather forecasts for daily high/low.
If you notice on the day of march 26 (towards the right side), we had a high of 9 with a low the night before of -3. That was a good day (42 G collected). The next day, even better (Hi 8 low +2) 52 G - even without a freeze. But then, on the following days, (with lows of +2 and +1, respectively), you can see it gradually tapering-off and no good bump again until after a re-freeze.
Last night it didn't freeze here and many of my larger trees ran all night. So it may be worthwhile to go check it out. The other thing I've done is swap out 2 and 3 gallon pails for 5 gallon pails for the taps I can't get to as frequently. Then, even if I can't get there for a few days, they won't run over.
M
Attachment 19878
+1 Eddy, that seems to be the case exactly with me. Just walked my bush and astonished at how little there was...sunny but windy day here but was running nicely with temperate rainy weather. Definitely the craziest season I've ever seen. (Yeah I know I say that each year...but this year actually seems to be true!)Quote:
Originally Posted by Big_Eddy
On and welcome, Syrup by the Sea :-)
Sap in the tank had a little cloudiness to it today,will get worse with this “ heat wave” we are getting today. Won’t be any more sap until next freeze,maybe Sunday night
Ok, thanks Mike. I see you still had a fairly good run at the end of March that year, even though three days remained above zero. That answers my question (nice chart by the way). I will certainly go down and take a look for sure, and maybe fire up the ol' WF Mason....hopefully she's not blown' a gale.
Thanks for the welcome Galena.
Good luck this weekend.