We tapped!

[Sugar]

I have about a dozen sacks around the sugar house that the kids are in charge of collecting. Of course they only collect on weekends cause won't do it in the dark! Haha

Mine think it is all the better to empty saks in the dark. They have 300 lumen headlamps and off they go. They have memorized the spot of each precious maple tree.

We have 50 taps and saks and today we got 80 gallons. This year is so much better than last year, and the forecast, other than a brief warm-up looks great for about a month. I am so glad we tapped early! Good luck to you!

[Sugar]

We are finishing up this run. I have 70 twelve oz. jars of syrup. Almost all of it is very light and pretty. I have some on the cook top to finish and the evaporator is still full and boiling. We will have a break until next Wednesday. We are planning on putting new bags up Tuesday, so we won't get any bacteria in our sap. We started tapping Dec. 23, and so far we have had a great season.

[Logan Cabin]

We are finishing up this run. I have 70 twelve oz. jars of syrup. Almost all of it is very light and pretty. I have some on the cook top to finish and the evaporator is still full and boiling. We will have a break until next Wednesday. We are planning on putting new bags up Tuesday, so we won't get any bacteria in our sap. We started tapping Dec. 23, and so far we have had a great season.

Good to hear you're off to a good start. Been watching the weather at home here in Southern Indiana, and thinking about heading down to our cabin next week. Long term forecast looks good, hope it holds up. Cabin is in Butler County, outside of Morgantown on the Green River. Last year managed to squeeze in about 4-5 days of sap collecting there during what seemed like the only cold snap. Hoping all the snow we had here in Bloomington after Christmas is a good omen for the rest of the season.

[Dennis H.]

Great to hear you are having a good year. Hope your season continues on for you.

[spud]

That's great you guys down south are doing well. Please send some of that good weather to us up north. Wish you all the best.

Spud

[Sugar]

I wish for good maple weather for you all! We are having a much different winter than last year. It looks like starting the middle of next week we will have about a month, at least, of just the right weather. We are so excited! We already have 93 jars, of syrup, almost all of it very light. We hadn't even started this time last year. I am using mostly 12 oz. jars. Last year we got about 75, so we are already ahead.

[Dennis H.]

Wow, very impressive that you made that much more than last year and you still have more season to go.
Hopefully you have enough firewood?

[Sugar]

Wow, very impressive that you made that much more than last year and you still have more season to go.
Hopefully you have enough firewood?

Well....I buy most of my firewood, but have some Mennonite friends that are going to help us with more. We are like family, so try to help each other.

We are thrilled with what we have received this year. I don't think we had tapped this time last year, and the weather looks favorable for the next 25 days. We feel so lucky!