2012 Ontario Tapping

[argohauler]

Almost stripped down to my t shirt this morning splitting wood. 46F. Sun feels hot on the face.

[kdawger]

Im in southern ontario (windsor area) and starting saturday its looks like a perfect storm to be tapping allready. Might pop some in today
Thursday
Feb 2 5 0 Cloudy with sunny breaks
Friday
Feb 3 5 1 Mainly cloudy
Saturday
Feb 4 3 -2 Variable cloudiness
Sunday
Feb 5 5 -2 Cloudy with sunny breaks
Monday
Feb 6 5 1 Isolated showers
Tuesday
Feb 7 2 -2 Variable cloudiness
Wednesday
Feb 8 1 -2 Cloudy with sunny breaks
Thursday
Feb 9 3 -2 Snow-rain showers
Friday
Feb 10 3 -1 Few flurries
Saturday
Feb 11 2 -1 Variable cloudiness
Sunday
Feb 12 2 -2 Sunny
Monday
Feb 13 2 -3 Cloudy periods
Tuesday
Feb 14 2 -3 Cloudy periods
Wednesday
Feb 15 2 -2 Sunny

[kdawger]

stuck in 4 taps in 2 trees around 1 pm, got about 5 gallons of sap allready. Looking pretty decent. I dont have any tools to test how much sugar, but should get a good idea when i boil it off.

[TexTheDog]

We are in Napanee area and there are guys in Picton that put their taps in on Wednesday from what I hear...they are getting a half decent amount. I might start looking at getting some taps into some trees tomorrow.

[Brent]

Well I think this season is going to be messy. Lots of stop / start cycles. Extra work cleaning. But if we wait for the normal tap time, the trees may be budding.

So .... I put in the first 125 taps today. More going in tomorrow. All on the warmest section of the bush. Dry frozen chips this morning, moist this aft, flowing well
by evening. The pipelines are full. Hope to flush the RO with it tomorrow night.

With check valves, I think the risk / reward senario has swing in favour of tapping earlier ... especially this year.

Cha ching 2 cents worth

[longbeard]

Holy Smokes Brent - now you got me all excited! I haven't been on these forums for a while and just catching up and note you have started tapping! I wasn't even thinking about it for another couple of weeks up here in Simcoe Co. but now you have got me thinking about it and realize I still have some pre-tapping things to do, so will get myself in gear and put my "inside" jobs aside for a while.
Hoping it will start slowly with the new evaporator this year and will have a bit of a learning curve to overcome.
Would appreciate it if you keep us informed as to how the run is going in your area - will help with the planning in our area.

Cheers

[ennismaple]

Still too early for us in Lanark County. We've got lots of snow on the ground and the lake is frozen solid so we're getting colder weather than most. We'll be ready to rock earlier than normal but we still don't plan to start tapping until the Feb 18-20 weekend. I assume that anyone near the Great Lakes will have an early start because there's no ice on them this winter.

I'm looking forward to seeing the steam fly in southwestern Ontario soon! Post pics to help tide us over!

[Bruce L]

Strung out some tubing yesterday in a section of bush where we take it down to get access to wood cutting,etc.Sun felt warm on the face,but still pretty raw wind,but the feeling and anticipation is there

[Brent]

280 taps in by the end of Sunday. Good flow. No vac yet, but there should be 100 gallons by the time I write this. Warm enough tomorrow for more flow. I'll wrap the
tote Monday night to minimize the freeze and hope that buy Wed we've got enough to flush the RO.

An interesting observation. Last spring I got a hernia just as I was assembling the evaporator at the beginning of the season and when it ended, I did not get back into the bush for
months to pull the taps. While tapping this weekend, I kept reducing the stepover and height from last years holes until I got down to a 1" horizontal and 2" vertical move. I never drilled
out stained wood, and they all gushed initially from hydyraulic pressure. I am wondering if leaving the check valves in so late ( not gospel I know ) has somehow changed the staining and
healing process. It just seems like there might be the potential to end up with more tap sites is the holes are closer. Not science here, just an observation. I've got about 400 more
taps and I may push it on a few trees and see how much I can reduce the spacing before there is no flow.

Edit: Monday night. Brought in 350 gallons today. More than enough to flush the RO.

[Yellzee]

put this in the wrong forum... sorry if you are reading it twice..

all this tapping talk is stressing me out. Hate to say it but I don't even feel like making syrup yet.

Looking at the 14 day forecast here in Belleville... there is a week of plus 2 minus 3 weather coming.

I might upgrade to the check valves and tap family day weekend, gotta think the season will be at least a week shorter than normal, so why not tap a week or so earlier I guess.