Well, I ran the calculations, and there just are not enough hours in the day to keep up with 100 taps on my 2x3 evaporator. I would be falling behind at a rate of 400 gallons per week, even if I boiled every night after work. And's that's using a conservative 1 gal per tap per day sap yield; last year my silvers ran sometimes 3x that.

I also cut the trail for the new woods I'm tapping this year, and discovered a cluster of about 50 trees I couldn't see before when the brush was leafed out. Hmmmm.

New drop-flue 2x6 is on the way. Feels like last year when I was rushing to get an evaporator set up, freezing sap until it arrived. This one needs a roof jack - no clue on how to do that - but everything needs to be bricked up, stack run, and humming here in about a week! I feel like I should already be tapping at 35 degrees this am.

Just a heads up - my Mason 2x3 is up for sale on the temporary classifieds if anyone is interested.

-Laz

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Thomas Ireland Smith Farm
Morrow, Ohio
Was 100 (now 150) taps for 2010, mostly silvers
New 2x6 on the way!