2017 Western Wisconsin

[Cody]

Looks like we should be back into it by the end of the week.Tree's should be all charged up and ready to roll.Hopefully the deer and squirrels didn't cause to much damage.Got lucky from the wind storm,only had four lines that got knocked down.Got about 2" of fresh snow last night.

[motowbrowne]

Things are picking back up today. Got some good sap yesterday afternoon and evening. Slow to start today, but once the sun came out it sure got warm in a hurry. Sap is coming in good now. Got my buckets hung right around the shack yesterday too, which makes things look good. They are running really good also. Some have 2 gallons of sap in them, mostly from today.

I plan on cooking tomorrow afternoon. After that i should have about 30-35% of what I hope to make this year. It feels good to start seeing buckets full of syrup this early and have a good-looking forecast.

[markcasper]

I was going to tap my buckets/bags today and ended up gathering instead. Trees on my south slopes ran hard after 2 pm Saturday. About a gallon per tap in 7 hours. Got it all hauled in and am heading to bed, I expect they will run crazy Sunday and all night Sunday night by the looks of things.

[Twisted Minds]

Trees finally let loose, had 40 bags that were near full or overflowing. Good clear sap.

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[Cody]

Cold again,had some great runs.Maybe with this warm up coming get a little rain to get frost out of woods.

[motowbrowne]

It'd sure be nice to get a couple more freezing nights. I'm not sure if that's gonna happen, but it'd make me very happy. So far I'm right around a third of a gallon of syrup per tap, so obviously I can't complain.

For me, putting most of my taps on vacuum this year has been the only reason that I had a successful season. After getting lured into putting out my buckets too early twice in the last five years and ending up with dry taps during great sap weather, I am certain that I would have missed the ideal tapping window this year. From the 50 buckets i hung near my shack I've only collected about 250 gallons of sap. The bucket sap was a little stronger, but still, that means that the remaining 5000+ gallons that I've processed came from the other 325 taps. That's about 3X the sap per tap. Maybe more. A good portion of that may be because i didn't tap my buckets early enough, but that's just it: because I knew I had new tubing with new spouts and it'd be under vacuum, I wasn't afraid to tap early.

Anyways, gonna cook tomorrow. Sap has been trickling in for the last couple days and really poured in this afternoon when the sun came out. I'll probably have about 700 gallons to cook tomorrow, maybe a little more. Maybe it'll be the last time we cook, but maybe not. We started making some really nice dark syrup when we cooked on Wednesday, so I hope that keeps up. Another 40-50 gallons would really make me smile.

[markcasper]

Yes the vacuum is sure a game changer isn't it?, but it also becomes a headache to "babysit" releasers, motors and the list goes on (had a float fall off a releaser today) (yesterday a farm animal unplugged the electric cord). You earn that extra syrup with all the time it takes to monitor everything, knowing well if you don't you won't be cooking the next day....especially this year.

My trees poured this afternoon AND must have ran good overnight last night. They also ran real well in the night Wednesday night. Syrup just got to dark amber on Thursday and Friday morning it was so very close to medium. Real happy with the quality this year. I have 1600 gallons sitting at the shack from today and will take care of it tomorrow as well. Probably with the heat will turn right around and gather again and cook a 2nd time tomorrow.

Sap is getting pretty cloudy but does not stink. My south sides really go to pot in a hurry when it gets in the 50's and sun, comes into the releaser looking like crap.

As of Friday morning not one eyota of bud or off taste yet. That will probably change. Considering all that I missed in February, I can't complain about my yield so far.

I also was checking intently tonight for frogs and nothing yet. I have always made syrup yet after I have heard the frogs by the creek.

[motowbrowne]

Hey Mark,

Nice to hear from you! Glad you've been getting sap. I'm also encouraged to hear that you think we'll be making syrup a while longer.

You are 100% right about earning that extra sap (though hauling buckets is hard work too). I've been fortunate in that I have had zero problems with my Shurflo pumps, mainline, power supply, ice strainer, etc. I have, however had a big issue with squirrels chewing up my lines. I finally got my cast off a week ago yesterday and was able to walk my lines myself instead of trying to explain how to find and fix leaks to other folks. When I started Sunday morning, the Shurflo was pulling 3" in the mainline, and I'm sure there was only 100 out of 265 taps hooked up. The other ones were running on the ground through squirrel holes. A few hours later, and the mainline was up to 20" and sap has been coming in good ever since. Gotta shoot me some squirrels...

[markcasper]

Glad you got your cast off I bet, that is good. Don't know how long we'll be making syrup....its on a day to day basis at this point. Gotta keep it gathered up and not let it sit around, especially today. All of the end of season nasty's are showing up in and around the releasers. As long as it doesn't go stringy, I'll cook it.

[motowbrowne]

We lucked out and got a surprise freeze last night. I haven't been to the tank since 9:00, but I think it's gonna run good today!