Quote Originally Posted by Russell Lampron View Post
My woods tank had 125 gallons in it this morning and I tried to pump it out but the low temp of around 20* had everything frozen solid. I had to work all day and Richard couldn't come over either. I came home to a tank that had been overflowing for quite awhile. I don't know how much sap I lost and I'm pissed because I couldn't get home to keep it from happening.

On a lighter note I'm now at 141 gallons of syrup made which is 34 gallons shy of my goal. My bulk tank is nutted and the sap was still coming in good at 7:00 tonight. If it keeps coming in all night which it should, I'll have another long boil tomorrow night.
i can relate. the maplegods smiled and the last two days were my best sap runs this year. then the maplegods frowned, and i lost 150 of the 200 gallons i collected. the driveway up to the sugar house was still packed with dense compacted snow, even though i plowed it. could not get the truck up. so, put on tire chains. tire chains were on the headboard, and needed to remove the ratchet strap to get them. ratchet strap is there to hold the barrels in place... put the chains on, and forgot to replace the ratchet strap. on the eighth attempt to get up the drive, all four barrels went off the side. two broke in half, one had a cover come off, and the last remained intact, but leaking. salvaged 50 gallons between the two intact barrels.

tough for me, as that was 4 or 5 gallons of syrup. i average 17 gallons a rear. not this year. that was not a highlight of my day. the day ended better, as my youngest came down to help boil in the evening, and my wife brought us a pizza.

wally