Tapping 2011

[sweetwoodmaple]

ya know...I would have been ok with ending this season WITHOUT burning my pan.

Got talking to dad and forgot to remove the plug. ARGH.

soaking in acid for the night...at least it was the puckered one that I burnt the last time.

[Jim Brown]

Welcome to the "Burn't pan club" of the year Brian!!

We finished off 35 gallon today and collected about 550 gallons of 1.5% - boiled 7.5 gallon this evening. Going tomorrow morning and checking lines after the snow storm...got about 8-10 inches here today.Will refuel the gens and get ready for the next one

Jim

[Sugarmaker]

Man you folks have been busy!
We get to rest tonight. I did not even look in a sap container
We have made 96 gallons of syrup mostly light grade. Much better on qty and grade this year.
Burnt 4 cord of wood and keeping our fingers crossed that the front pan holds. Maybe getting 100+ gph.
I agree with Brian. A break sounds real good. I hope to make syrup, weather permitting, for another 3 weeks if we get the weather and the taps stay open.
We have our Taste and Tour, Maple Open House March 19 and 20 so we are also making product for that event. Usually have 200 to 300 folks come thru and visit that weekend. We made crumb, maple mustard, BBQ and cream so far. {cream machine will be for another thread}
Plowed 8 inches of partly cloud from the drive tonight.

Keith Talbot also did the flaming pan thing on Wed and now has a new front pan in place. I need to go see it in the morning.
I boiled 100 gallons of sap for him so he would have room to gather, while the pan was being built.
Regards,
Chris

[mapleack]

I took the day off work today, we had 15 kindergartners in for a tour and pancakes in the sugarhouse at 9 am, then 35 highschoolers in for a tour at 1 pm. Got another 700 gal of sap, total over 14,000 and we hit the 200 gal of syrup milestone tonight. Sugar content is still terrible, hoping for another week at least of sap.

[Turtlecreek]

Just plugging along here. I'm boiling now. I made an adjustment to the firebox tonight that seems to be working. I took out my air under fire manifold I made and am just pumping the air right in the front the way Dan W sold it to me, and that was the ticket, I guess don't fix it if it ain't broke would apply here!

Anyway last night I made another gallon, tonight I have made about that much so far and I'm going to be out here for a while yet. I collected about 50 gallons of sap and tested it it came out to 1.5 so i guess I didn't get as much rain in the buckets as I thought, so I'm going to boil it.

I'm with Paddy mountain I think the first few days of this week will be about it for me too, unless I run out of wood before then.

[waysidemaple]

Made almost 8 gallons between yesterday and today. Still have about 200 gallons of sap in the bulk tank but just to tired to keep going. It will be there tomorrow. That puts me at 21 gallons so far of mostly med amber. The new tractor is working well so far. Tonight is the first night I was able to get to all the buckets and barrels when I was collecting. Looks like it will just get below freezing tonight so maybe a run tomorrow.

[Dennis H.]

As of 3pm yesterday I had 2 buckets UNDERWATER!

If I can and if they still are I will get a pic in the morning.

We got so much rain down here that yesterday morning I went to check on the buckets for missing lids and found that I couldn't see buckets from the road, Then I looked more closely and saw the one bucket UPSIDE DOWN still on the tap!

The other was floating nearby. That means that hole is somewhere around 6' deep! This is in the middle of the woods, it is a small depression. It just filled up with water from all the rain. Not sure when I will be able to get to them, may JUNE!

[Gary R]

Well, you guys are keeping us reminded to pay attention Brian, If your hanging it up soon stop by. I'm going to boil for a least another week. We should have a couple of weeks of sap weather. I may sell sap to Jim.

I stopped at Old State Farms yesterday. Joe was boiling. Sounds like the season is going good for him. I also stopped at Jim's and sponged some more DE. Looking forward to a decent run today. I should be boiling this afternoon and most of tomorrow.

[Dennis H.]

Here are the pics of my buckets under water. I took the pic this morning. I see that the water has gone down a little. The buckets was hang completely upside down now it is on it's side.
Ok maybe I will be able to get at it some time in April not June!

These buckets were put at about 3' above the ground!

[andyp]

We finally got caught up yesterday bottled 6 more gallons. We now have a total of 37 gallons. That is a lot of boiling on a 30x60 flat pan. Went through tons of wood may run out before the season is over. It sure has been a hetic season. Taking a well deserved rest to day.

Andyp