Tapping Madison county

[maple flats]

I've been working the woods for 6 weeks now. The most repairs I've ever had to do by far. I started the same time as usual and this is the first time in 5 years I wasn't tapped by Jan 20-21. So far I only have about 600 taps in, and Saturday was my first real sap flow. I got 800 gal off the 600 taps ant it was boil time. The pans are sweet and I drew about maybe 10 gal of syrup into my draw tank. Back at it, into the woods soon, but I'll then need to pump my tanks and boil again after lunch. Yesterday's haul only tested 1.8% from both woods, I usually get 2.3-2.4 early season and it then drops to 1.9-1.7 near the end. I hope it comes up. The % was likely off because some of that sap ran several days ago, then sat there frozen solid so I couldn't pump it. What I drew looks like it will likely be Amber. Hopefully it goes a little lighter for a while, but in reality, by far my biggest sales are in Dark and I often blend golden to make Amber or even Dark to fill orders before the next season.

[Zagman]

Small timer, first timer. I tapped Friday Feb 17th and it was about 25 degrees, with the entire woods covered in snow. I tapped 50 trees, mostly single buckets, maybe 4-5 doubles. While I was drilling, I did not see ONE drop of sap follow my drill out. 24 hours later, I tapped 20 more trees, it was nearly 60 degrees, and my drill bit was wet the whole time. Collected the next day, and already was beyond my capacity! As expected, the trees in the sun have been doing great and the ones down by the swamp covered in hemlocks are producing FAR less...

Snow 99% gone but looks like Sunday that'll change...I am OK with that......I could use a break as I've already finished twice as much as planned, and I still have two days of boiling ahead of me.....lovin' every second, learning as I go, making mistakes as expected..........

MZ

Still, I have more than I could ever handle and my cup overfloweth!

[maple flats]

Before I got my R.O. (Reverse Osmosis) I had 1 period of time when I had to sell sap. I contacted Mathew Critz and he bought it. He's just a short ways down Rt 13 from Caz. I don't know what his minimum might be for him to buy it, I sold him 3 batches of 395 gal ea.

[maple flats]

I forgot to update my posts. I finally finished tapping on 2/26/17. Because of repairs needed it took me 7 weeks and I only ended up with 750 taps total. Back when I had 1320 taps one season I finished repairs and tapping in under 3 weeks. Never needed as many repairs as this year. Too many wind storms and loads of trees or branches down on lines. Once pushed to the ground, it seems every critter has to get a taste.