Deja vu

[huxta]

Is anyone else experiencing Deja Vu when looking at the forecast? I'm seeing the same thing as last year. No long deep freeze (other than the past week) and warm weather coming already. Jan 17 & 18 are supposed to be in the 50's in southern Indiana. Anyone pulling the trigger soon?

[Mitchell tapper.]

Yes I will be tapping mine in the Mitchell,IN area this weekend. The weather looks better than last year. Not as warm for the extended forecast. Probably take a few days to thaw out. Overall the season in this area is generally short so I get while the gettings good. I do use tubing and change my taps every year and drops every two. I only have 30-40 taps so every drop counts.

[jmayerl]

Your weather might be a bit different down there, but here it looks nothing like last year. Last year no real frost and decent snow cover. This year we have almost 5 feet of frost and avg snow. Going to take a lot of days in the 40's just to thaw them out.

[PoseyCoMark]

Huxta, what part of IN are you tapping? I'm around Mt. Vernon and not sure if tapping is happening yet. Will be running lines over the next week though.

[Andrew Franklin]

I've learned the last few years it seems smart to get tapped early, but I'm also no fan of spending the day in 0 degree weather putting in 100 or more taps by myself on my hill that rises 300' over the course of 700' (6 runs running from the top of the hill to the bottom). I am also hopeful the serious cold will allow me a couple of days in the 40's to tap while things thaw...I'm going to need it to replace all my taps and many sections of my 3/16th tubing that has mold in it. Wishful thinking...

[Russell Lampron]

I've learned the last few years it seems smart to get tapped early, but I'm also no fan of spending the day in 0 degree weather putting in 100 or more taps by myself on my hill that rises 300' over the course of 700' (6 runs running from the top of the hill to the bottom). I am also hopeful the serious cold will allow me a couple of days in the 40's to tap while things thaw...I'm going to need it to replace all my taps and many sections of my 3/16th tubing that has mold in it. Wishful thinking...

I don't replace tubing that has mold in it. I let the first run go on the ground to flush the lines and then start saving the sap. The heat from boiling will kill any mold spores in the sap and filtering gets the dead mold spores out of the finished syrup.

[huxta]

PoseyCoMark, I am outside of corydon.

[Andrew Franklin]

Thanks Russ! That will save me some time!

[TonyL]

I put out 50 taps this afternoon, will hang buckets tomorrow. Will probably put another 30-40 on 3/16” tubing next weekend. If the forecast holds, I think we may get a run mid week. This is the earliest we have ever tapped, but only been sugaring 4 years, so not exactly a wealth of experience under our belts. Here’s to hoping Indiana has a great season.

[dsaw]

I'm heading out to my patch this weekend; but I'm not remotely ready for the season. I'm planning on adding about 5 more gravity runs; but don't have the tubing for them yet. I did finally get my homemade RO working for the last run last year; but don't really have much experiance running it yet. I have other issues to deal with at my bush (1:20 from home, Crawford Co.) in that my water was frozen last weekend and I may need to dig up and repair a line; so I'm not sure what I'll get done. That said, goal will be to get one gravity run installed. My plan is no buckets this year (to which my 5 kids are extremely happy to be off bucket washing detail).