Western Wisconsin

[mike z]

Any idea how long our open, bucket taps will continue to flow this year?? I've been tapped now for 4 weeks and it feels like the season is just about to begin. No warm days yet, but I fear things will start shutting down before the sap really starts flowing.

[markcasper]

Man what a screwed up year! Alot of stupid things happened in the woods while everything was froze up the first 9 days of April. I had -1 below on Sunday morning. Some taps pushed out, a few cv2's disconnected from their drops, 3/16" lines pulled apart, etc., etc., etc. I had a 1,000 feet of 1 1/4" mainline pipe froze up bad and backed up all the way into the woods. I pulled a drop nearer the bottom and it was like a fire hydrant, about 150psi! Spent some of yesterday and all afternoon today going around trying to get the vacuum up to steam. I think cuz I ran the vacuum on Monday with all those leaks is why it got so froze up, sucking too much outside air in. Took forever for things to thaw out on Tuesday, yet the trees were wanting to run. Had enough sap to boil tonight, but going to hold off and get some of tomorrows run hopefully. Make things more efficient.

I tapped 73 taps of 3/16" on Good Friday and they have been performing well, no pump, very impressed!

I have never changed vacation days at work as much as I have this year. That isn't going to fly anymore so am not sure what will happen after the middle of next week. Its going to suck if we get huge runs and no vacation time. Real problem, may as well quit. The latest I have ever made "table grade syrup" was about the 18th of April. Anything getting after that date was either off flavored or commercial. I'm thinking this year could go well past this for table grade if the current forecast is right.

My north side is a complete farce! I have never seen them run this little. This would have been a year to say the heck with the north side. I have never seen it freeze up solid for 9 straight days in April ever! I will cook on Wednesday, but that will have been 11 days without enough to boil. Amazing! The evaporator is nothing but a block of ice, I sure hope nothing is busted!I did put a light on the exterior flue pan drain, that was my biggest fear. I guess I failed to realize when I put the heater in the arch several weeks ago that your actually suppose to "turn" the heat switch on and not just have it on fan only. What an idiot! Every time I walked past it, heard it humming away and thought everything was cool until I noticed it today.

Looks like flooding rains may be coming the next few days, so I am moving my self loading retired manure spreader 1000 gallon tank out to the road because it is going to be a qaugmire trying to get it just 200 feet to the road from where it has always sat. Never did this before, but will find out tomorrow if it works or not. There is maybe a foot rise of elevation but am thinking it should go off without a hitch. If it works, then will probably try my 2500 gallon retired milk truck tank, its only 8" higher. That'll come in handy if it pours and I'm doing the back to back 12 hour shift thing in town. Now, I'll be able to be like the other big sappers and feel like I'll be catching the low hanging fruit, not to get any mud on my tires. Sure sucks to have 3200 feet of pipe laying across hay and corn fields to get the sap out. Its either that or nothing.

Tanks above the releaser need a good cleaning! Starting to get that not so good look on the sides and bottom, will have to try and get that done this weekend during our expected 8-16" snowstorm. That is if I can ever get all the ice out of them.

[motowbrowne]

The sap is running good in my woods today. Started early in the day for a change, which is great. We'll be cooking all afternoon and then probably again on Saturday. I'll be relying on the ice in my tanks to keep my sap fresh.

[markcasper]

Sap ran very well on Wednesday, (excluding the north woods). Was up for 46 hours straight having to do my real job on Thursday. Trees ran ok Thursday as well and dribbled on into Friday as the flow slowed down however.
I had over 4000 gallons of sap on Wednesday night. Was the first time I switched sides while cooking on the evaporator. The steam coming off is getting different smell however. Syrup still pretty light, but I popped a leftover can last night while unloading sap and the smell was noticeable. Not sure if its metabolism or pre - bud?? I noticed the smell immediately, but then through the night I checked it a few more times and then it seemed ok, so ? Course I am picky, and the average person on the street wouldn't know, but there is something changing with the sap, trees, syrup, what not.
Have about 2400 gallons to process this afternoon and tonight. Going to go shut the pumps off as they were still dribbling at 10pm last night. So far the blizzard that accuweather, weather channel, etc.. has turned out to be fake news. Is it just me, or are the weather people working overtime to scare the hell out of everybody with these boogey man storms? They turn it that it will be doomsday and that if you don't have a full bunker and pallet of ammunition you will likely perish.

Looks like after I process this, going to get the milkhouse cleaned up and will run concentrate into the live working bulk tank. Going to help during my work in town situation.

The sugar % jumped .4 - .5% on all which was amazing! I have never seen it jump that much during the season. Can be attributed to the 9 day freeze-up?

[ka9bxg]

Up here near Green Bay storm is in full swing . We have over 8 inches with 30 mph of wind . And we have another 8 inches coming every thing is shutting down in Green Bay

[Cody]

A day of sunshine yesterday,trees ran good with the new snow on ground.Some of our trees facing the north even started to run,didn't know if they ever would this year,only about two feet of snow on that side.Our one haul road is getting pretty nasty.Should get some good days after today,then next week looks iffy.Hauled in about 1200 gals yesterday and trees were running good at 6:00 pm last night.Today only going to get 36 for temp.

[motowbrowne]

Mine sure were slow to get going yesterday, but like you said Todd (Cody), they were running good into the evening. They said we were gonna get down to 24 last night, but I think we lucked out and only hit like 28. I'm hoping 36 and the low pressure makes a good run today.

[markcasper]

My 73 natural vacuum 3/16" taps ran just about 3 gallons per tap yesterday. I stopped there this morning to check after work and found the tank running over, I was in disbelief! The tank was virtually empty yesterday morning. My other woods with 450 taps and 600 gallon dump tank......I lost an estimated 500 gallons. The field line must not have thawed out enough to take it all down to the big tank even though I pulled it up out of the snow, so I lost alot of sap.

[motowbrowne]

Sorry to hear about the sap in the ground Mark. I hate it when that happens. I sure feel like I've been fighting frozen lines a lot this year!!

The sap ran good at my place this afternoon. Got started a little earlier than yesterday, which was nice. I had a strange thing happen to me, which was that both of my shurflo pumps which have been very consistent in how much vacuum they make, really dropped in vacuum. The one usually pulls 22-23 when it's running and the other is around 18. Both were at 10-11 when I got the leaks fixed yesterday. It turned out to be two different problems. On the one pump the little shurflo inline strainer was restricting the vacuum. On the other side of the woods one of the black cam-lock quick connects that hooks my pump to the PVC ice strainer was being pulled sideways a little and letting in air. Got those problems fixed and the sap flow definitely picked up. Glad I figured it out before tomorrow!!

Here's hoping that it runs till midnight and picks up early tomorrow.

[motowbrowne]

It was a great day here yesterday. Brought in 1.25 per tap or so. Didn't freeze as hard as they predicted, but I hope it gave us a decent recharge. I'm standing at the pump with more southern trees and it's just starting to run. Got a lot of sap to cook today!