March journal

[Farmboy]

Finally found some time to get on the trader even if its 1230. The season is looking pretty good so far. I made just over 36 gallons so far off 183 taps. The next week looks decent for sap flow too. By the weekend I will probably have extra sap coming in from my friend. He tapped 375 great sugar maples with buckets and is boiling on a stock 2X6. As of tonight all his tanks were full so he's going to need some help boiling. I'm already looking for land to tap next year where I can set up a few hundred taps on vac and I'm looking into building an RO. Boiling until almost midnight after school most nights gets to you

[maple2]

gathered and boiled, yesterday. temps hovered around freezing. sometimes windy and snow.still managed to gather 2200gals. made 54gals. of lite

[lakeview maple]

Lakeview.jpgI got started at 630am and I had 750 gallons to boil,gonna be a really long day.I boiled for 11 hours ended with 6 and half gallons ,I really need to get an RO for next year.Had a great day tho had a ton of people show up and lend a hand .I guess after church tomorrow Ill jump right back into it.I checked 1 of the tanks on the way home and still have 175 there and 300 in the main tank at the sugar house.Hope everyone is having a great season so far and God Bless ,Al

[nymapleguy607]

Last few days have been driving me crazy, got 100 gals thursday night, and then windy friday hardly got any sap. Collected another 100 gallons yesterday and chased loose taps and vacuum leaks. Made about 1/2 gallon of light. Mother nature is just teasing now todays supposed to be in the 50's but its windy again so doesn't look like a good run today. Hopefully the snow melts in the woods and the bigger trees thaw, I would like to put the new arch to the test.

[heus]

The floodgates are open in northeast ohio!

[jimsudz]

Starting slow in western ny.Made about 25 gals of dark and light dark. the runs don't seem to great.230 on vac are doing good 1.8-1.9%.150 buckets have been sweet 2.8-2.9% but no runs over a 1 gal average.200 taps on gravity have been sweet 2-2.3% but no huge runs. Have sap to boil today!

[lakeview maple]

We started boiling after church today around 2pm,had around 500 gallons in the main tank and I had collected everywere else.We had a good boil going and ended with 3 and half gal of a nice medium amber,gives us 19 gallons for the year so far.Going to try and finish it all off tomorrow,it slowed way down this afternoon barely running by 5pm.Good luck to all and hope your all having a great year,God Bless,AlMarciandme.jpg

[nymapleguy607]

Ran better than I thought it would yesterday, 160 gallons collected at 2, and boiled. About 4-1/2 gallons of medium made tonight looks like another good boil.

[Yellzee]

Weird long break in the action in my area. Hasnt been warm enough and looks like it might stay that way another week. Going to take advantage of the cold and take out a bunch of iron wood trees in the one area of my woods. I hate dulling the chains on it but it does burn like crazy once its finally dry i guess. Kids just had fresh syrup on their pancakes and i didnt hear any complaints!

[Yellzee]

Awesome sunny day here. Too cold for sap so i cut down30-40 ironwood trees and dragged most of them out. Had a few hang up as i wAs being real Selective on drop zone to save the maples best i could. Worked out well. Will have to mix some other wood with all the ironwood next year or i'll melt the evaporator! Only touched a tiny area of the woods. Its scary how much ironwood is in there.

Sitting here finishing the batch from last weekend, almost done!