Hello from S.E. Indiana

[Ausable]

Howdy Murphy - Well - We are going through the strangest Winter - most of us have ever experienced. Watch the temperature forecasts from the Weather Information folks and You will notice the college trained experts - with all the latest equipment - are changing their forecasts almost hour by hour........ Normally in my area - tapping time is 01 March - but with the Spring like weather - I tapped half my trees on the 03 February (most years that would be insane). The other half I'll wait and see what happens. Boiling Sap - as You learned - is a funny thing - boil and noil for hours and not much happens ---but---once You get near surup - you really have to pay attention to business - lol- as you found out. Ha - half a gallon in 24 hours is not bad - some days. How many trees can you tap -- and why are you being so shy about tapping? ----Mike-----

[ahowes]

Welcome. I live straight across from you, near the Illinois border. You need to get your taps in now, the best looking forecast of the season is the next 7 days. You've missed some, but not a lot. Don't worry though - you have found a site with a lot of helpful people and you'll be making good syrup very soon with their help.

[Murphy's Law]

and why are you being so shy about tapping? ----Mike-----

I guess I'm being shy because I do not want to tap a tree after the sap run or too early. But I also do not know if tapping too soon would hurt anything. I have 9 very large mature maple trees to tap but I'm not 100% prepared to process large quantities of syrup yet. I have been very busy building bee hives for the past few weeks when I should have been getting ready with my maple processing stuff. I got my priorities mixed up. Can you tell that I'm new?

Thanks for the welcome, ahowes.