Got 1 g/tap Thursday and Friday. Should get more sap this weekend and maybe even some next week. Should hit my 20 average for sap production by Sunday night. Pretty surprised. But syrup production is...
Type: Posts; User: Hop Kiln Road
Got 1 g/tap Thursday and Friday. Should get more sap this weekend and maybe even some next week. Should hit my 20 average for sap production by Sunday night. Pretty surprised. But syrup production is...
Pumped the field tanks dry to sit out the no freeze spell. So far it has been cloudy with drizzle, but warmer weather with heavy rain is forecast for two days before a freeze. I think the trees will...
Very little sap by yesterday afternoon. Boiled the sap from the day before and the grade was still in the 60s. However, the season is definitely in trouble.
13F this morning so things won't get started until after lunch. Put a third solar panel on a remote pump system yesterday. Now have 300w feeding two 100 amp deep cells. It runs a 4008 pulling 120...
Ok, frozen back up for two days. Just over 50% of last year, which was slightly over average volumes. Sugar has been mostly a tad lower and also the grade, steady in the mid 60's instead of low 70's....
Yup, head to chisel a couple holes to pump the field tanks Monday morning. Sap was fine and boiled out to a 65. Ran okay Monday but 3/4s of the early February speed and even though the temp hit the...
So even the short-term forecasts are imprecise. Wasn't enough mid afternoon Friday to pump but then it ran a little until 1AM so I let 700 gal freeze over the weekend in the field tanks. Then, the...
Temps got up to 38F again yesterday but it wasn't enough to unthaw the trees. This is actually more typical weather for late February, slightly too warm but far more typical than what we've been...
A couple spots got to 38F yesterday and the sap dripped, a little. trees still frozen. Should unthaw by noon today. Big week coming up! Got to clean the syrup pans once the sugarhouse warms up a...
Going to tap the last 200 today for the 2nd run coming up. The heavy 1st run, 2/9-2/12 was 25% of an average season, and from only 3/4 of my taps. Pretty happy to have that since the season feels a...
Using this freeze time to redo and simplify several sap pump stations. I also tapped a new section after several years of thinning and fertilizing. It runs down along a brook and then the (3) 3/16...
20F and a windchill of 0F this morning so that officially ends the first run. 2500 gal from 600 taps. No sap weather in the forecast for 8 days. Drained all the pumps and opened all the valves. A...
Thanks guys. One start up glitch. Membrane canisters had lost all their fluid. New MES membranes last year and built new canisters and kept the older H2Os. Guess I didn't get the endcaps glued very...
Brad, good to hear you're back and able to pull your weight! Kind of curious where the doctors found the after market parts. Perhaps the Boston & Maine, or is that defunct? With little snowpack or...
Perfect mid March day, in February! Brilliant blue sky, mid 40's and sap's running well. Trying to crunch the 700 gal into the sugarhouse before the pipe freezes. Then boil during the storm tomorrow.
Nailed it. Tapped about 600 on 2/8 and 2/9. As of last night I'm at 3 gal/tap and have filled a keg with light. Today looks perfect. Will tap out the rest during the break in the weather.
Brad, I found this disappointing scar was I was untapping the other day. It's a couple years old but only visible now because the bark is falling off the wound. No insect tracks. 13" dbh tree with...
Hard to believe we're pulling taps when it looks like this!23106
Got another 200 gal of drips by Sunday and raw boiled for some visitors to chase out the sweet. Sap was pretty cloudy but not murky and made a 28 but tasted dark. Going to use some old Grade B...
I live on a hilltop that looks mostly east while the maple trees slope away more toward the south. In the summer I enjoy sitting on the patio and watching the contrails as the first appear over the...
Pumped 162 gal from 800 taps, which was 3 days of production. Sap ranged from clear to milky. Despite perfect conditions, the trees aren't recharging, which I attribute to the warm ground trapped...
Cold and blustery Sunday. Fire pit and S-O-S were popular with the guests! Overall, more folks than last year but their spending was down. Now for the rest of the season? A couple warm days coming...
Thought the first day of Maple Weekend was a hair slower than previous years. Sensing the consumers don't have as much to spend. The boil went okay and the cloudy sap dropped the grade to 64. Canner...
Only pumped .6 gpt last night, backlog from a couple days. One tank was murky and two cloudy, the others pretty clear. But typical looking end of season stuff despite some ice in the tanks, snow...
Got the road to the sugarhouse open, need to sand it before maple weekend. Dug out (down to) the field tanks. Jugged Tuesday's storm boil. Pretty surprised it was still in the 70's. The ground under...