Well, after driving home from work yesterday and seeing virtually every maple trunk literally drenched with sap from any little wound or branch cut, I couldn't take it anymore. It just seemed like there was way too much sap a-flowin' for me not to be partaking, so I drilled a test tap this morning before work to get some "hard data". The result from today (a perfect sap day with a high of 42 degrees)? about 1 cup of sap. Much lower than I expected, given how much sap was coming out of the trees, plus the fact that I really don't think we have any frost in the ground. But I wanted to share with you all the good news that it suggests that we're all still on the right track with the "wait and see" approach.
I'm kind of expecting the trees to wake up in SW MN before most of the rest of the state. Our daily highs have been consistently 5+ degrees warmer than Minneapolis. Not sure what this might mean for you though SDDave....
Dan
-15 years sugaring and counting - hoping to create a tradition my kids will always remember
-400 taps, mostly buckets (Silver Maples + a few Boxelders just for the heck of it)
-Custom-built 2x6 evap with Smoky Lake Maple raised flue, boiling in dad's old farm granary, now converted to sugar shack
-Cobbled-together RO with XLE4040 membrane
-New in 2021: experimenting with 3/16 tubing & a Shurflo pump.