Never say never!

[Louis]

Guess i better watch the weather. I havent paid much attention to it lately. A snow like that would really shut things down here in calhoun.

[MapleMounder]

Well they are finally calling for 4” to 8” of snow here tomorrow afternoon into Friday. Far cry from a “significant snow event”. The 7 day has the temps back up in the high 30’s and low 40’s by first of the week so we’ll be back at it. Hopefully the weather will average out and we can get some nice big runs and the ever popular all night boils!

[Flatlander]

Mounder

How did you fair with the snow up your way? We managed here 4 -5 inches. But now the weather forecast has only one day above 32 for the first part of the week. Looks like I'm down for the rest of this week and most of next.

Hope it dosn't go to 60 overnight and then stay there. I'm still hoping for that elusive 40 gallons/season but I am really hoping to hit 50 since I added another 55 taps this year.

[MapleMounder]

Flat,

We ended up with about 4” last night and probably another 1” today so sounds like we got about the same as you. As for the forecast, who knows, one station says every day next week above 32. Another says only one above and rest in the upper 20’s. I have to say I thought last season was frustrating but this one is getting up there. I guess if it was easy everyone would be doing it.

We’ve only made a couple gallons so far so we need to make a lot more. Hopefully we can get a couple good runs in early March. My birthday is the 19th and we are usually finishing up up here around then. I do have some sap I am going to run this afternoon, maybe even finish off since I don’t have clue when we’ll get more.

[Flatlander]

Mounder

I know the frustration of the weather forecasts. Everyones different and it changes from day to day.

I decided Sunday night to empty the cooker completely and cook all the sweet down, I'm going to pull all the pans and clean them up. Hope to get it done before the weekend ends but it takes two to get the piggy back down. I have to set up a hoist when I get a real sugar house built this year. Too many other things that keep popping up on the schedule. Its always next season around here!!

Looks as if I didn't put up enough fire wood this year. Hadn't planned on the additional taps when I did that last winter. Already started pulling blow downs out of the woods so I can get started with that now too.

Hang in there. Winter ain't done yet.

[MapleMounder]

Flat

We’re hanging in there, just frustrating. They are calling for another snow I believe Monday and it looks like heavier accumulations down near you.

We emptied the evaporator and finished and cleaned the pans the other night

We ran short of woo last year so we over compensated this year. We figured what would it hurt to have extra wood. Since we have no sap today we actually dropped a big pin oak that got struck by lightning last spring and died. We got it all cut up and stacked, we’ll split it later this spring.

[Flatlander]

Well

did everyone survive the big storms. Had a total of 10 - 11 inches of snow and a little rain in between.

Sap ran again. Fired up this morning at 5A. We have about 400 gals to cook down, about 2.3%.
Really need to invest in an RO unit for next year and then the big jump to vacuum.

Louis, did you get more rain than snow? Monder, how much snow did you get?

[MapleMounder]

Flat,

Glad to hear sap is running good down South. Trees ran decent up here yesterday, We collected about 60 gals at 1.9%. Fired the evaporator about 2:30 today and we are running through the sap now. Wife and kids are getting supper together and well all eat in the sugarhouse tonight, kind of a Friday night tradition during the season. As far as snow we ended up with about 8” all said and done over the last 48 hrs. It sure is blowing around a lot today, I have already plowed our ¼ mile lane three times!

Not sure what late next week looks like for you but they are calling for high 40’s and sun up here.

Best of luck,

[Mapler Jim]

Maplemounder;

I'm glad someone is doing well. We tapped a week after you did and except for a few days at the start its been lousy here. I have 13 taps on 4 trees. They are all white maples. One is about 1 1/2 foot across and the other 3 are hugh. Can't get your arms half way around them. When we tapped them only one tap ran and it ran at about 2 drips a second. Since then we collected only 3 times. Thats 1 gallon, 4 gallons and 3 gallons of sap. I boiled them down in the kitchen to a point where I had a quart of semi- syrup each. They are now in the frig. waiting to be added to the first big batch that I cook down. I never did this before, hope its ok. I usually use a turkey fryer on the porch but haven't had the volumn this year. Even last year, a real bad year, I collected enough to use the fryer. My first year I made 3 quarts of syrup from 3 tapps on 1 tree. Last year I made 4 quarts from 14 tapps The trees are right near the house which is real conveniant as I am 73 years old and walk with a wheeled walker. Not very good with the snow right now. I feel humbled next to you guys with your large setup but what the hay its a hobby and a darn sweet one at that. Our weather report shows the temps to be in the low to mid 30's to next Thursday. I think that will kind of suck. They say snow again on Tuesday.

I never thought of it but I guess the real old timer had to hand make all their equipment. I never heard of carving the tap out of Sumac. I sure would like to see them. If you ever get around to haveing that open house let me know, I would like to see your setup. It also gives us a reason to travel around. You know, cabin fever and all.

Have a nice maple run. Jim

[MapleMounder]

Jim,

Proportionately your sap collection isn’t too horribly far off ours. It has been frustrating because just as the trees get running the temps drop and they freeze up. Late next weeks weather is looking good for us and your not that far away. I bet yours will start running good too. As far as storing your sweet in the fridge you should be fine, if you are starting to get worried pull it out and bring it back up to a boil for a few minutes and then cool and put it back in the fridge. Our operation might be big compared to you but there are many out there that boil my annual sap collection in an hour. As far as being humbled, I believe we are the ones who should be humbled, your are out collecting sap with a walker, that is awesome, shows what an addicting hobby this is, hats off to you sir.

Old timers had to be pretty inventive, I used to do machineing at one of my jobs years ago. I would start think while running a Bridgeport or lathe…… What type of machines did they use to make the first Bridgeports or lathes?............. because they didn’t have Bridgeports and lathes yet!

I think my generation and younger should take a cue from our past. We have become such a wasteful and unappreciative society. We throw everything away and don’t even try to fix it. There is a fine line between frugal and cheap but that is a post for a different thread.

Anyways be safe and good luck, if you are ever heading out this way throw me a PM and feel free to stop by.