All done

[toquin]

Kept looking for the signs that the season was over,Peepers,geese pairing up, crocus flowers,daffodils,killdeers,millers,ants,flys, bees, butt the one that told us we were done was almost 40 day old taps on gravity. Quit running this last warm spell, drilled a new hole next to one drilled 2/11, 2 drops a second. Still a good season(butt strange) ended up with 129 gal.

[JBIV]

All done here in Jackson too. For the first time in my short sugaring career my holes have dried up. I was hopeful for a push at the end to get my gallons up, but not in the cards. Usually by now I am looking forward to it being over. This year I am still waiting to get after it!! Worst season for me since the big warm up 6-7 years ago.

[Jon Foster]

This is our first year tapping a couple of trees in our backyard. I think they are all red maple so I'm not sure how good the sap will be. We tapped the tree's Sunday night (3 days ago). So far we've been getting a couple of gallons of sap each day. Enough for an experiment... We are in White Lake...

Jon.

[Snappyssweets]

Welcome Jon,

Reds give a very nice tasting syrup.

Most of us are smiling at the thought of your future. We know it well.
Just an experiment.............
Spends the next ten months looking at all the trees in the area pondering how many taps, contemplates a new boiling method and means of gathering more and more sap each year. Envisions a future with acreage and a sugar house.

As for done. Friday will finish it here. I am out on Friday. Been a good year, a strange year and at least productive but its taken a lot of work over nearly six or seven weeks.

[Ed R]

Jon, if it gets cold after this week you could make syrup till the middle of April.

[pamelance]

I pulled all my reds today- still have 20 hard maples with life in them.
I noticed a funk in my red maple buckets, but it ended up being a sort of mildew (slightly pink/ slimy feeling). I never had that before. Gave em all a wipe with paper towel and got 2-3 more good days out of them. Anyone have this before?
I wonder if it's because it's been a long season for me? Next year I will clean / swap buckets about 3-4 weeks in to prevent this.

[wnybassman]

I pulled all my reds today- still have 20 hard maples with life in them.
I noticed a funk in my red maple buckets, but it ended up being a sort of mildew (slightly pink/ slimy feeling). I never had that before. Gave em all a wipe with paper towel and got 2-3 more good days out of them. Anyone have this before?
I wonder if it's because it's been a long season for me? Next year I will clean / swap buckets about 3-4 weeks in to prevent this.

I have pink in the bottom of one of my buckets right now, and a slightly slimy bottom in most of them. I've rinsed them out twice this season already. Doesn't seem to bother anything, I just try not to agitate things too much when dumping them. This upcoming run will be my last one anyway.

[Snappyssweets]

Collected 90 gallons today and on the afternoon pull we pulled all the spiles brought all the jugs and buckets in and put them in the porch for the washout.
Boiling now and will again tomorrow to finish the sap we have in storage. Total sap this year for us was 797 gallons of sap. Low sugar content has kept us between 70 and 100/1 so we have not produced as much syrup however its only for friends and family now anyhow. Well and my sugar production to feed me my maple sugar candy all year.

[Hertelbr]

Collected almost 3 gallons per tap on 5/16 today. Biggest collection this season. Will collect buckets and pull spiles this week. Heading to Carribbean next weekend for a week.

[Jewdave]

Welcome to the addiction Jon. We are close by in Farmington Hills just tapping the trees in our suburban lot. 3rd year in and loving it. I've gotten a lot of offers from my neighbors to tap their trees too so might expand a little next year.