I guess I'll start one of these after five years putzing and lurking around.

This is my third year on tubing, and I put up a new 900' branch of 3/4" mainline, for the first time paying more careful attention to a 5% slope. I used Google Earth to help me get a rough idea of the elevation profile, and a sight level for on-the-ground precision. Being out in the middle of the woods, there is never a chance I'll be on vacuum, so I'm trying to make the most of natural vac.

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Finished tapping the last of my 275 on tubing yesterday. Thinking about cleaning up some buckets and adding those to my efforts this year; primarily for the looks (who doesn't like to see buckets on trees?), but since it's a half-mile snowshoe hike to the sugarhouse I'm open to ideas for avoiding that haul!

As a teacher I'm on vacation this week so I was REALLY hoping for some warm weather and good sap flow when I can spend most of my day and night out there, but the forecast still looks like a tossup. Most days mid-to high 30s but midweek may not freeze solidly overnight.

Last year:
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