Western New York

[BristolHills]

Urban, great photos, mine in the Bristol Hills are still tight as of yesterday. Hope this cold will slow them down. New 3/16 tubing on hill side really working well. Didn't loose any lines in the wind storm. Lost a big sugar maple on the hill though. It gave its self up to fuel the fire for next year.

Id like to stop up to your facility one day and pick up an idea or two. I make around 6-10 gallons a year

[bowtie]

The spring peepers may have been out earlier but they are surely going to be wishing they would had stayed in the mud after tonite and tomorrow night , lows in the single digits. Hell I only 2-3 nights below zero all year, so this qualifies as cold this year.

[mudr]

Yeah, I had those peepers on Monday or Tuesday. Forget which day. They will be reasonably ok, as spring peepers are able to concentrate solutes into their blood stream to act like antifreeze and allow their body temperature to go below freezing without breaking any cell walls. That said, I'm not sure how well they do with fluctuating temps. As in, if they come out of hibernation are they able to re-concentrate solutes. That drastic swing might hurt them. I know the leopard frogs probably got hit, too.

[Aa2tn]

If they were in the water, unless it froze all the way to the bottom they should be fine anyway, correct? .......

[bowtie]

They should be out tomorrow night with the warmer temps, but I hit -2 at 6:30 this morning.

[wnybassman]

Made use of the day to get ready for the next round. Started the morning by heading out with a hot bucket of water to clean all the frozen spoiled sap pucks out of the buckets. That was almost as much fun as it sounds. lol Then cleaned up the shack, made up a tool to clean the areas of the flues I can't get to with the flue brush, then finished cleaning the front pan that has been soaking in vinegar for a few days now. Left the evaporator with the stack of kindling already in it, ready to light.

Bring it on!

[MapleMark753]

Never did see zero last night and this morning. Did see 1 and minus 1 though, lol... Permeate tank was a challenge today. The lightbulb hanging in front of the valve did do its job, still water not ice there. The rest of the tank did freeze pretty good though. Using a radiator next to it tonight n hopefully it'll thaw by tomorrow.
Shoveled some ash out, put some puck lights where I've noticed just a bit more light is necessary in the shack, and got the wood ready. We'll see tomorrow.
For those of you who are on either bags or buckets, whats YOUR indicator that sap may have spoiled hanging on the tree? I've just gone by visual and smell test and dumped or not dumped by that. May be some dumping tomorrow, but I'd rather do that than try to boil bad sap. Dunno yet, stayed frozen today.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Never did see zero last night and this morning. Did see 1 and minus 1 though, lol... Permeate tank was a challenge today. The lightbulb hanging in front of the valve did do its job, still water not ice there. The rest of the tank did freeze pretty good though. Using a radiator next to it tonight n hopefully it'll thaw by tomorrow.
Shoveled some ash out, put some puck lights where I've noticed just a bit more light is necessary in the shack, and got the wood ready. We'll see tomorrow.
For those of you who are on either bags or buckets, whats YOUR indicator that sap may have spoiled hanging on the tree? I've just gone by visual and smell test and dumped or not dumped by that. May be some dumping tomorrow, but I'd rather do that than try to boil bad sap. Dunno yet, stayed frozen today.

I go by color and smell. If it smells sour and/or looks cloudy and yellow I dump it. My buckets were frozen solid so I think they are okay. The tubing tank is frozen solid so hopefully that will thaw a bit tomorrow.

I didn't get around to cleaning my pan with vinegar. Will need to do that this week for sure, but I have been reversing direction every boil and it helps out a lot. Other than that, everything is bottled, and all other equipment clean.

[wnybassman]

For those of you who are on either bags or buckets, whats YOUR indicator that sap may have spoiled hanging on the tree? I've just gone by visual and smell test and dumped or not dumped by that. May be some dumping tomorrow, but I'd rather do that than try to boil bad sap. Dunno yet, stayed frozen today.

Before work on Wednesday I collected everything and came up with about 20 gals of marginal sap. Got home from work that afternoon and that 20 gals looked and smelled horrible, and a half dozen or so buckets I checked just before that wind moved through were extremely cloudy and nasty looking as well. As that front was moving through I was able to drain out all my tanks, but not the buckets. So, basically I knew what most my buckets looked like just before they froze solid.

[lyford]

I think smell and taste are your best indicators. Sap that is cloudy or just a little yellow will make fine syrup so long as it tastes and smells alright. Syrup made from this sap may be a bit darker, but it'll taste good.