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Well it took me from about 10:00 this morning till 1:30 this aft to get yesterdays great run in. Ended up at 690 USG.
The real surprise was I just brought in another 70 USG on what had to be a really lousy day. All of it came from the vac. The buckets were dry.
Ice on the pool already. There's still hope.
Not a drop here today. Cool wind today but no frost last night. Finished what I got from the run wed thurs of last week today. Whewww, got a whole 7 litres finished syrup. A strong amber. I'm happy to get that but... I'll hold out with the taps for monday tuesday to run again. What a different season.:cry:
Ken, no I never tapped white birch before. Always wanted to try, but a couple years ago when my son bought the place, he trimmed the birches
a lot and they bled sap for weeks. So I would assume like maples, they should be trimmed in late summer or early fall. Still above freezing here tonight at 11PM, could freeze up by morning and get the maple sap running
again, there I go dreaming again.
Ice in the garden hose this morning and a thin layer on the kiddie pool duck pond but now the opposite problem. Daytime high for today is only 1 degree. Had to cancel all but one family this weekend because all my sap was from earlier in the week and it clouded too much with the high temps. Going to have to build a small ice house of sorts for better storage during warm spells because if I can improve sap management a little more I'll have this "make your own" deal working very smoothly. It can be tough doing battle against mother nature when I have plans. :rolleyes:
On another note, this week is looking very good with solid hard frosts and warmer days. I'll get chores done this weekend and plan to boil again next week sometime. Looks to me like I'll have to start cutting grass in April this year - yuck!
Temp dipped just below 0 last night here too, and the forecast looks cold for the rest of the week. I shifted some buckets to trees without buds and we'll see what happens. Most of the trees are too far gone now, but further into the bush is cooler. This is my last kick at it for the season, then I'll pack it in. I can now see all of the yard work from last year that the snow was covering up...
Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness! Just checked my tapes and they are all flowing strong. Big surprise for today and if it keeps up for a while I'll be changing my plans right quick. Chores can always wait for another day. :lol: Game on - me hopes. I figure I've got two weeks left to play Maple.
CastorMaple: you said
How much colder can I expect the interior of my woods to be? I noticed the silvers on the edge of my woods are starting to bud out. I'm wondering if it would be worth it to move the taps to trees further in and how much further I would have to move them. I have no roads so I'm hiking 4USG pails. I have 45 acres of woods so I could go in quite a bit further than I have but am curious about what I could gain out of doing so. After more than 200-300 ft two full pails get awfully heavy for me. Any input would be greatly appreciated.Quote:
Most of the trees are too far gone now, but further into the bush is cooler.
Christina
mklarenbeek,
Seems to me (and I am a small time producer) that for my area, the part of the bush that has the higher air temps and higher soil moisture content is further ahead in the development of buds. Perhaps the roots thawed out faster. This is just by observation though, and I discovered it when walking through the 'back 40'. I've only been tapping the trees close to where I boil which are in full 'bloom' now. It's one big experiment for me. I too am concerned about carrying buckets a longer distance...something for me to figure out next year perhaps. Good luck!
Christina
Our bush has a small slope facing more or less south the trees on that face start to run 7-10 days before the trees on over the hill. I'm not talking Blue Mountain kind of hills. The rise is only maybe 15 feet. At the end of the season the trees on the front stop first and we only collect from over the hill.
Don't give up on the deep woods, move a few taps and see what happens.
The trees are running really hard here in the valley some will need to be gathered twice today and hopefully tomorow also. Soft maple budded, pulled those taps yesterday found more sugars to tap. Going to boil hard the next few days:o :o :o