The sap is flowing through the lines and I’m getting ready to boil this weekend. I cleaned up and prepared the shack. Looks like the weather is going to cooperate and set up for a decent haul of sap...
Type: Posts; User: thecabinguy
The sap is flowing through the lines and I’m getting ready to boil this weekend. I cleaned up and prepared the shack. Looks like the weather is going to cooperate and set up for a decent haul of sap...
Well, when I have one long 3/16 line running downhill to my collection barrels, that’s my mainline. I might have 25 trees on it. Each tree obviously has a tap, drop and t. For my purposes, a lateral...
Last year was my first year doing some 3/16 gravity lines. It worked out great. I have just enough slope to make it function pretty well. This year I will be trying to improve from last year. In a...
Just an update. My first attempt at 3/16 tubing has worked out better than I expected. I have been amazed at how much more sap I am getting from my lines vs the bags. Sap has run for several days...
The RI forum has been as quiet as the sap flow this year. Well, up in the nw, things are improving. This season I began using 3/16 gravity lines on half of my trees. It’s trial and error but so far...
I’m partially giving up my bags this season after a couple of bad seasons with the bags. I’m going to try my hand at some tubing this season. I have had bag failures caused by multiple factors. I am...
The sap traps are all set. They started flowing a bit on Monday. I hope it keeps going for a few days, but I may not get a good flow until after the next deep freeze later in the week. I tap all red...
Well that's a good sign. I was afraid to tap too early. I've done that before and caught a good flow only to have it freeze solid on me before I could collect it. That complicates things for a...
I’m locked and loaded. I’m holding off until after this rainy cool weather moves out. Maybe this weekend I will tap.
I've been out west for over a week and came back to the deep freeze. I've got full bags everywhere, frozen solid. Not to mention the knee deep snow in the woods. I have a lot of work to do...
I tapped a little early too. (2 weekends ago) It was the only time I could do it though. There was one decent run last week, then the deep freeze hit and froze everything up. I started trying to...
Yes, I boil at night until I need to sleep. I just let the fire go out and start it back up early in the morning. I have a home made wood fired 2x6 arch with two connected pans. I boiled all...
The last couple days have allowed some thawing. Still some ice, but I was able to start collecting last night. After today I should be mostly thawed out. Most of the trees I got to were running last...
Looks like boiling is cancelled for this weekend. The extremely cold nights we have had, have frozen the sap solid. I have some giant sapcicles. I'm going to have to wait until they thaw out now. ...
Yup, your story sounds familiar. I now have a sugar shack, wood fired double pan boiler, and 160 taps. Started with 15 experimental taps and a big pot over an open fire. Took me all weekend to boil...
That's good news. I've finally got a boil going today. Still some more to go collect. Most of the trees are running today. I've got some decent ice blocks in the bags still.
This is only my...
My trees were finally flowing good today. Should be some more flow this week. I boiled one weekend, about a month ago. Not much since. I was concerned that all that warmth we had, had dried up the...
Yeah, this was a tough year. Seems like we only got a couple of good sap runs here in RI. I only got to collect sap twice. The entire process was complicated by the deep snow. I put in much more...
Looks like I've got about 100 gallons or so frozen solid on the trees. I guess that's about the best way of keeping the sap fresh until I can collect it. My only problem is that some of my bags are...
I donned the snowshoes and got most of my taps in and bags hung over the weekend. Looks like we got some good flow today. I could only see a few as I drove by in the dark, but the bags were bulging....
Won"t be tapping anytime soon with 3 feet of snow on the ground. This may be quite a problem once it finally warms. This snow isn't going anywhere for a while.
I tapped just before the freeze. Now I have, from my estimation, about 200 gallons of frozen sap cubes in my sacks. I guess it's preserved well until it thaws. It will eventually warm up......
FYI. I tried the birch tapping experiment last season due to my frustration with the poor maple season. Mine were mostly black with some yellow. It's hard to keep up with the sap flow as they...
I thought myself maybe a little foolish as I was drilling holes in trees this past weekend. I just didn't want to miss anything like last year's disaster. I scurried to hang all the sacks up, just...
Do to the horrendous maple season I had last year, I tried tapping some birch trees after maple season ended. I won't do that again. Birch sap is not sweet. I thought that it might have some of...