2015 tapping

[Flatlander]

Hows everyone doing? Ready for the season? Talked to a friend the other night. He tapped some last weekend and was wondering about tapping more. I have thought about tapping this weekend. Anyone else considering it? This January thaw has lasted longer than I thought it would, wish the weather predictions were a little more accurate for the 10 day forecasts! Might have tapped some last weekend.

I built two new lines and added 58 taps on those. I want to build one more line using 3/16 line to see how that does. That won't happen for two more weeks when I make the run to Roth's sugar bush for their open house to pick up supplies.

Hope everyone has a great season and look forward to hearing how things are going across the state!

[dogpatch]

I'm north of you but I too have been looking at the weather.It's probably a good thing I'm going good to be gone for a couple of weeks or I would be feeling the need to start.This will be my second year.I have added about 40 taps of 3/16 tubing on gravity.I also spread out any purchases of materials to keep chief financial officer unaware of this expensive hobby.😈

[Flatlander]

Finally season is here. 90 gals of sap on Saturday. 200 on Sunday. Only 1.8% though. Hoping my 3/16 tubing run kicks in, so far no different than 5/16 tubing. May be due to "laterals" feeding some of the trees into the run. Bubbles are moving about 1 foot every three seconds. Most of the lines are full but don't seem to generate vacuum. Put gauge at the end of the line which is about four feet uphill of the first taps and get no reading on the gauge.

Fired up the evaporator this morning. Had a boil within 7 minutes of striking the match. I thought that was fast compared to years past.

Hows everyone else doing?

[RiverSap]

Over here in Missouri most all of us have tapped and many have already cooked up batches. I have 35 trees tapped and am looking for enough sap to cook up this weekend. I live just north of St Louis.

[Flatlander]

Dogpatch - I understand the CFO but mine is all in now. It will take a little time but she'll come around!! Decided not to tap last weekend. Thinking next weekend now. keep us posted how your 3/16ths tubing works out.

Riversap - hope things continued well this week. I know you had good weather.

[dogpatch]

My 3/16 tubing has been averaging about 1 gal a day and my buckets hardly dripping. Still not much happening in my lower shaded areas. Now my problem will be trying to cross a stream that's turning into a river with all the snow melt.

[Flatlander]

Slow, slow, slow and then it stopped! I wish it would stay slow.

Bottled 5 gals today and I'm now boiling down all the sweet from the evaporator in my old LP fryer. Might have it done by midnight. It will never survive the 70's that are predicted for the coming week. Looks like my season may be over before it ever got started.

I need to move north. I keep telling the boss we are going to retire and move to northern Wis. She ignores me. Warm weather sucks! Hope you guys up in northern part of the state find some cold nights.

[MapleMounder]

Tapped Saturday & Sunday. Collected a little yesterday and today. Fired up the evaporator about an hour ago and have a nice boil going but not enough sap for more than a few hours. At least I can get the pan good and sweet.

Nice to finally get going but up North here the weatherman is telling me might be a short season. Packed snow around the bulk tank in an attempt to keep things cool.
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Good luck everybody!

[Flatlander]

I collected about 60 gals the other day, nothing yesterday at all. It got done to 29 this morning, surprise , surprise! It'll probably run today since I emptied out the sweet again yesterday to cook it down. Have to finish it out this morning. Maybe thats the key this year. never keep the sweet in the pans!!

Suposed to hit the freezing mark Tues, Weds and Fri this week. Maybe we will all luck out and still get a decent season yet.

[dogpatch]

Will do flatlander. I would love to see your Sugarbush someday