Western Wisconsin

[lpakiz]

Buddy showed up at my place yesterday also. Too bad, as I got 265 gallons, clear as well water, on about 150 taps, 27 inches vacuum. Sure destroyed my enthusiasim.
Is the ANY market for off-tasting syrup?

[markcasper]

Buddy showed up at my place yesterday also. Too bad, as I got 265 gallons, clear as well water, on about 150 taps, 27 inches vacuum. Sure destroyed my enthusiasim.
Is the ANY market for off-tasting syrup?

Yeh I know what you mean.....seen some of the nicest sap yesterday, thought it was day one! You can sell as commercial but it isn't worth nearly as much.

[Cody]

Pulled taps today still running good.Sap nice and clear but doesn't make good syrup.real light colored but a lingering taste and not maple taste.

[markcasper]

Looks like one more small cook late tonight. Trees are running from the hard freeze today. Picked up 2340 gallons since Friday off and down to 750 taps and boiled it last night. Trees ran really good this past Saturday night after the 14 degree morning low and the sugar went up about 2/10". The syrup has somewhat of a off taste, DA in color but it definately was worth the effort. It boiled really nice. It did start to filter harder however, time to quit and looks like the weatherman will take care of that. Season turned out much better than I thought it would.

[Cody]

Well it's that time of year again.Been out in the woods checking for any damage,few blow downs here and there at least they weren't maples.Funny thing though,out of all our laterals the light green colored ones have the less deer chews or squirrel chews on them.Was worried about that light green tubing getting hit harder than the light blue tubing.

[AKsyrup]

Looking at the 10 day forecast here for SW WI and I'm having a real hard time talking myself out of tapping on Friday.

[Irish Ridge]

I agree. I am in Crawford County and I will start tapping Friday afternoon. I follow Intellicast weather and their 10 day is usually pretty reliable.

[motowbrowne]

Anyone else getting itchy trigger fingers?

I briefly entertained the notion of tapping next week, but I'm nowhere near ready to cook sap, so I guess I'd better wait.

Only gotta finish my thinning project, run a few more 3/16 lines, make 350 drops, install drop lines, set up my Shurflo pumps, move my pump line, finish bricking my cooker, install pans, plumb in a new feed line, and then I think I'm good to go.

So, next week probably won't work for me...

[markcasper]

I am not liking the forecast for next week. There is no way I will be ready to tap next week. With conditions much the same as last year it is concerning, but not a whole lot can be done about it. They are saying 50 degrees by next Sunday, and that is after much of the week above freezing except for one or two days. After last year I said never again would I be late to the game and here we sit yet again

[motowbrowne]

Well, I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone Mark. Last year sure was weird. Hopefully this is a short fluke and we don't miss much.

Question though, if you were all ready to go, and had the weekend free, would you tap?