Started in Eastern Oh

[SevenCreeksSap]

Tapped into my yard trees as a test run on the Tuesday(Jan 7) and they are really dripping. So I couldnt resist and started some of my smaller bucket lines down at our bush. Time to start gathering. Our 10 day shows after this weekend of too warm nights, it will be perfect sapping weather through next week.

Our friend needed some $$ this summer so we bought their freezer. Just going to freeze what we get in buckets until we get a lot, or end up getting in all the taps. Coming on line slowly adding taps to the mainline we put up this year.

Got a 10 point buck during muzzleloader season so thats all done and in the other freezer. time to get busy.

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[Willis]

Glad to see I am not the only one with itch around here. I tapped a yard tree a few days ago and will probably put out some more taps today.

[J. Baker]

I live outside of Arcanum (about 30 min. NW of Dayton). This is my first year of sugaring. Curiosity got the best of me on the morning of 1-11-13, so I tapped a few trees. They were drip, drip, dripping. Tapped a few more trees. A lot more dripping. By noon I had 22 taps out. The next day I collected roughly 35 gallons of sap. I evaporated into the night and ended up finishing approximately a gallon of syrup. Then experienced the sugar sand dilemma when bottling. The next morning I figured out where I went wrong in the filtering/bottling process (too hot) and reconfigured my procedure. For the beginning of my rookie season I had a blast! Even though it was nearly 90 degrees in my sugar shack on Saturday.
I look forward to putting out more taps and processing more sap a little later. We're currently below freezing today.

[SevenCreeksSap]

Sounds like JBaker got the bug. Welcome.

It got cold here again so the sap slowed down today. didnt get enough to fire up the evaporator but its all in the freezer waiting until we get enough. Maybe when the weather changes again that will be the real season.

[SevenCreeksSap]

we've slowly been adding laterals to the top of the hill and have 170 tapped, and shooting for 200 this year instead of 300. I have a feeling that will be enough to handle. Had a good run this weekend and going to have the first boil today. time to empty the freezer.

[SevenCreeksSap]

with the first run we ended up with 3 1/2 gallons of nice grade A light, the stuff I love. Finished it at home over the weekend and still need to bottle it. last night I cleaned out the pans because there was frozen water in them from chasing the sweet out, and my caged tank was empty at 5:30. with the warm night I checked it today, and had 80 gallons of fresh sap. nice night time run I guess. Boiling that down now. got cold again today, so might be a little break to get ready for the weekend. forecast looks great after friday for the next week. I saved 2 weeks of vacation to make syrup, and it starts friday. looks like I couldn't have timed it better.

[Maple Bandit]

I live outside of Arcanum

Hello J. Baker, We are nearly neighbors. I am in West Milton. And I have a question. I have racoons nibbling the corners of all my sap saks and they have ruined them. New ones ordered and should be in today. Does anyone know how to deter these furry friends (or not so friends). We are trialing hot sauce sprayed on them, but with no sap remaining in the holey bags, no way to tell. I haven't read anything about other tappers having this trouble. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

[heus]

I have read on here that some place a length of duct tape along the bottom seam to deter squirrels. Maybe it would work on coons.

[garytapsmaples]

Completed my first boil last weekend 300 gal sap bottled 7 gal of nice light syrup. Not running real good this week too cold. Hoping for a good weekend.

[TerryEspo]

Nice 10 pointer.

Oh ya,,great to hear your getting sap.

Terry