Tapping in the Golden Horseshoe

[Maplesapper]

I'm with you longbeard.
We are boiling in Parry Sound.
One great flow and then a 2 week freezin' pause ??
Weekend looks excellent and then a pause midweek with maybe one more flow.
We will wrap up next weekend if all goes well

[naturenitwit]

I am heading back up to Minden where I have 150 gallons waiting for me to boil. My northern neighbor says that they are sill running hard and finally my big tree are pulling their weight. By tomorrow afternoon I should have another 50 gallons. This has been a pretty good run the last 5 days. I better check my red maples, they might need to be dropped out. I gotta go I have a pile of wood to split tonight.

Happy Easter

[Run Forest Run!]

The few trees that I tap deep in the forest are doing OK today, but the ones out in the open have locked up tight. I'm kind of surprised at this. I thought I'd be flooded out today. For this I turned down dinner? Not such a 'Good Friday' after all . . . maybe 'Decent Friday' at best.

[argohauler]

Well of course it didn't freeze last night because of the cloud cover. Small trees are done, big ones running a bit, lines barely running.

Too warm today, though nice to see the sun. More snakes out and heard my first peepers, though all the swamps in the bush still have ice in them. Ennis, heard my first gobble today.

Well it's clear out tonight, so is it going to freeze? If it doesn't I'll be able to enjoy a couple Easter dinners.

+13 tomorrow, too friggin warm, but Monday/Tuesday gets cold.

Half way to what I'd like to make.

[Run Forest Run!]

Argohauler DO NOT tell us that you heard peepers! I'm just getting going!

After boiling all my stored sap today I have gained enough breathing room to accept a lovely Easter dinner tomorrow. It better get colder during the nights or we'll be drying up.

[Run Forest Run!]

I have 8 taps in a forest down the street. It's cold and sheltered in there. I collected 15 gallons from them today and every single one had been running over the top of the pail for who knows how long. The most sap I've ever seen in one day.

However.....the 10 taps in soft maples at my house were major duds. Not even a gallon in total. Most of them have been in since mid February and aren't worth the effort. Maybe they've dried up. I think it would be a good idea to take a bunch of them out and tap some additional sugars in my other location.

The box elders here have finally started to drip in the past day. If they ever give me enough to try a separate batch I'd be anxious to see what the taste difference is.

I'll be making a trip first thing in the morning to empty the pails down the street and they were still dripping like mad when I emptied them at 6 p.m.

[Ren]

Good Run yesterday! I am down to 115 taps and picked up 175 gal of sap yesterday afternoon by 4:30pm. Taps were still running strong then and even some buckets overflowing. It is really getting muddy in the bush. I have the evaporator running now and 235 gal of sap to boil down! Happy Easter Everyone!

[Revi]

I see you tap Freeman maples Run Forest Run. How do they do? We just planted a bunch of them. They are a great tree. I would like to know how they will work for sugaring, since they will be the maples of the future. I have tapped Norways and they are great.

[Run Forest Run!]

Revi, I'd say that I've been pretty happy with all my trees. They each have their own "personality" and one day they'll all be running and another day one will refuse.

As an experiment, after I've finished my coffee I'll go and test a Silver, a Freeman and a Norway and give you an unscientific sneak peak into what each is doing today.

One nice thing about Freemans is that they have a much nicer fall colour display than the Silvers and Norways. BTW, I planted all my maples as tiny whips 25 years ago. They are what I am tapping, well that and a few of my friends' sugars at their home down the road.

[Run Forest Run!]

As an experiment, after I've finished my coffee I'll go and test a Silver, a Freeman and a Norway and give you an unscientific sneak peak into what each is doing today.

Well that didn't work too well. Because I have had next to no flow on those trees today, the sap that was on the spiles and in the buckets must have had a lot of the water naturally evaporate because the sugar levels were way too high to be just sap. I'll take some readings the next time the trees wake up.