Western New York

[Chickenman]

Only lost 1 bag out of 60 on the trees. The rubber band broke. No lost of life or limb so all is good.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

I was pleasantly surprised early this morning collecting sap. I got around 300 gallons and it didn't freeze enough to prevent pumping. Today was the first real boil. After working struggling with the wind and freezing temps, the RO is running and the new oil rig did very well. Drew off a few gallons of very light syrup. Sap was at 2.4% but that might be skewed by some ice formation. I didn't notice any downed trees either. A good day.

[Userj8670]

I was pleasantly surprised early this morning collecting sap. I got around 300 gallons and it didn't freeze enough to prevent pumping. Today was the first real boil. After working struggling with the wind and freezing temps, the RO is running and the new oil rig did very well. Drew off a few gallons of very light syrup. Sap was at 2.4% but that might be skewed by some ice formation. I didn't notice any downed trees either. A good day.

Do you have any vids of your oil fired Smoky Lake evap? I would really love to see it!

Where abouts in Rochester are ya?


I was SHOCKED to find all my buckets and lines exactly where I left them prior to the wind. Collected some sap tonight as well. All in all not a bad night!

[wnybassman]

I will be checking the woods tomorrow afternoon for damage.

This afternoon I finished processing the sap I collected just before the freeze up yesterday evening. It was a clown fest. Permeate line froze, permeate tank valve froze, head tank plumbing froze, RO pressure gauge froze. It was the most difficult two or three gallons of syrup I've ever made. lol

[Urban Sugarmaker]

I will be checking the woods tomorrow afternoon for damage.

This afternoon I finished processing the sap I collected just before the freeze up yesterday evening. It was a clown fest. Permeate line froze, permeate tank valve froze, head tank plumbing froze, RO pressure gauge froze. It was the most difficult two or three gallons of syrup I've ever made. lol

I second this. Ice chunks kept freezing the RO feed so we set up a tarp and a space heater next to the tank valve and ran it down into the basement from there. I also had frozen permeate return line so I had to do something different there too. A long uphill battle that ended well with syrup.

[stewardsdairy]

Gathered sap in blizzard like conditions Sunday night so I wouldn't have a solid tank of sap. Three hours of freezing fun! Boiled last night. First issue was frozen permeate line that had to be cut out and spliced back together to thaw. Delayed start up by an hour with the plumbing work. Boiling went pretty good for first time. Almost had a disaster when feed to syrup pan from flue pan clogged. Five gallon pail of water made good save. Ended up with ten gallons of syrup probably pushing golden. Now to the woods this evening to see what kind of disaster I'm up against. Hopefully nothing too major. Crossing my fingers. Looks like I'll have plenty of time to fix it with cold spell coming.

[Waynehere]

We had some problems this month getting things ready, but all of our lines are up on the trees, tanks are washed, ready to go. Just waiting for a warmer day to tap. Was thinking this weekend, but last time we had a really cold week, had to go around and tap on the spouts again to tighten them up. Might wait a while yet. We have to put up and take our lines down every season as they are mostly yard trees. Big PITA.

[wnybassman]

Walked the woods lines and yard buckets today. Two lids blew off buckets and one line pulled apart at a T although I am not sure anything fell on it. Didn't see any fresh trees or anything that came down anywhere. Not too bad all things considered!

[mudr]

At this point, not sure if I will be able to boil again for another week and a half based on weather. Don't really expect much to loosen up this weekend at 36 degrees for one day.

Really hoping things don't finally open up in mid March when I am out of town from the 12-15th. Had I known that there is always a 3.5 day trip in mid march I would have never accepted this gig!

[Tonk8it]

Spent Monday afternoon in the woods collecting sap. 70 taps and every 5 gallon pale was full but only 3 gallons avg in each bucket after the ice it was actually to much to handle and I stopped after 70 gallons as my gloves froze straight and the valves on my tanks started to freeze. I still have lots of frozen buckets out there. I did get a chance to run my RO Bucket and I can say for a little guy like myself I was very pleased with the outcome. Turned 75 gallons into 25 gallons with two passes. But now everything is frozen in the garage. I am at a standstill. With work this week I cant boil kind of stuck till tomorrow.