2/3 crop in after last week. weather looks great for the next week at least. Back to tapping Monday morning to get a couple hundred in before the sap starts in the afternoon.
2/3 crop in after last week. weather looks great for the next week at least. Back to tapping Monday morning to get a couple hundred in before the sap starts in the afternoon.
4,000 gals sap in this morning. Going to boil it down then go get more sap!
81% of my normal crop is in. Still pulling a gallon or more of sap per tap in a day from trees tapped in January. Cold and snow till next weekend, which means I'll be getting cabin fever by Sunday.
You deserve a rest. Enjoy it.
Gary / Zena Crossroads / 42˚ 00' 24" N / Hobby in Early '70s, Addiction since 2014
175+ taps on 3/16 (60 of which are on two Lunchbox Vac/Releasers)
12x34 timber framed sap house w/attached 10x34 shed roof for storage
2 x 6 Smoky Lake hybrid pan on Corsair arch with AUF/steam hood/preheater/concentric exhaust
7.0 KW Sun Power PV System, Smokey Lake Filter Press/Steam Bottler, Modified NGMP RO - 2 4x40 posts 200 gph
Bottling syrup Monday, bent over to pick something up..... Big boom goes my back. Just in time for the blizzard. Cleared snow in Woodstock yesterday and at the farm today. Still have to dig out all my tanks. No pain no gain. 3 ft of snow at the farm, maybe 4ft in the upper sugarbushes. This snow should keep me going into April.
Sap started back up today, bushes tapped in January ran the best. Took a couple hours to fix leaks, but got everything over 20". Tanks at the saphouse are clean, tanks in the woods are pretty much buried snow. Tomorrow clean the evaporator and get sap in the evening.
Tapped President's Day 2/20 - 200 taps on the Mountaintop. Same tap date as in 2015, and 2016 when we got 4 colors. This year all dark. In a deep freeze right now with all buckets under 3-4 feet of snow. Can't even get to the buckets, even with snowshoes. Hoping the next week will bring another run. Thinking maybe we needed to tap very early Feb. if we were to get lighter product.
Still going strong in the Oliverea valley. Freezing rain today kept the upper trees frozen, but lower bushes ran well enough for 1,250 gals of sap. Only 150 gals from best year, looks like this year will take the prize.
Another 3,000 + gals of sap since yesterday late morning. Sugar is still 1.7% in the sap and syrup is a nice dark Amber. Freezing rain in the upper bushes so not much going on today other than boiling. Antimicrobial spiles are doing their job well this year. Still getting sap from trees tapped in January.
Where'd you get your antimicrobial spiles, or what kind are they? I wanted to get some but couldn't find anything that seemed right.
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