Ridgerunner are you sure? I'd bet you've got another two weeks of good sap weather ahead of you. Things are just getting going for us.
Unfortunately Karen, I am dependant on a good toboggan trail to get to my trees and then pull the buckets out (about 1.5km) when I get a couple of days of rain it turns my hillside into a mud slide.... so although I agree there is still some good potential ahead my days are numbered. No complaints though I am over my annual 4 gal and anything else is bonus for me :{)
Hopefully the -1 c and last nights -5 c here allows me to continue to collect. I still have close to 30+ gal of sap on hand so all is not lost!!! Every time I return to the bush I see more signs of the fast approaching spring, had a pair of blue birds on one of my nesting boxes on Saturday and Gobblers singing along the hardwood ridges every morning.DSCF0379.jpg
The maples
Stood uniform in buckets, and the steam
Of sap and snow rolled off the sugarhouse.
Robert Frost
2013 12 taps - turkey deep fryer = 4 gal
2014 20 taps - new 16" x 36" mild steel pan on a Denali 3 burner stove!
2015 25 taps - 6 gal
2016 25 taps - 7 gal
2017 27 taps - 4 gal (short tap season Feb 17 to March 11)
2018 28 taps - 6 gal syrup