Willowcreek Sugarhouse 2018

[red maples]

Well its getting close I think. So many different forecasts out there. Every app., news station, and website has something different and they change hourly. welcome to New England right? but at least a little consistency would be helpful.

Had quite a bit of damage in the woods from storms this fall. all of that is cleaned up and trees and branches off the lines, had a few snap as well but all fixed.

No school today, snow day, so heading out to finishing changing out some old drops, about 50 to 60 to go. then hopefully start tapping maybe get done this weekend so I can get some sap flowing and start chasing leaks and get things tightened up.

Pretty cold winter so far hopefully we can get some good sugar content to the sap this year but we will see what temps we'll get.

Good luck everybody and have a great season!!!

[BlueberryHill]

I was hoping to hold off until February before I drill any holes but comments like this are making ma want to go out and start this weekend. Planning to keep an eye on it and see how the extended outlook is on Sat. AM.

[Russell Lampron]

It's nice to see you back Brad. I still have too much to do before I can tap. I wish I had gotten my new arch a couple of months sooner than I did. I do have it all bricked and the pans are on it so I am close to finished with that project. I have some repairs to do to my releaser which won't take to long and I've got to fix my RO from when it froze up on me. I hope it only needs the prefilter housing and not any of the pumps.

Good luck with the new season.

[red maples]

Well it depends on what you have for taps. I never tap my buckets this early. but since the majority of my taps are vacuum its a closed system and they will run even after the season is over.

[red maples]

I was hoping to hold off until February before I drill any holes but comments like this are making ma want to go out and start this weekend. Planning to keep an eye on it and see how the extended outlook is on Sat. AM.

Well it depends on what you have for taps. I never tap my buckets this early. but since the majority of my taps are vacuum its a closed system and they will run even after the season is over. Not sure why it did that twice... whatever!!!

[red maples]

ah... kids and sports and house stuff and work... so much gets in the way for maple!!!

managed about 65 taps yesterday morning but everything was frozen up tight so no drippy holes yet!!! Had few things to do this morning about to head out and get to it. 1 kid has basketball game around lunch time then after that back to it. hoping for 2 to 300 by days end. then finish up tomorrow get the vac turned on and see how tight things are!!! gotta get it done before the Pats game!!!! but recording to make the best out of the daylight. and to fast forward through dumb stuff.

[red maples]

well the weather reports lied again for last week. but when are ever really correct anyway. especially when you are talking about 0-5 degrees, but in our passion that can make a crappy run be a mega run or 1% sugar to 2% sugar. So anyway....

back at it this weekend, I have 420 taps in had a few little fixes here and there that I missed, Got the RO put together was hoping to clean it but everything froze up and never defrosted to so water to clean the machine!!!! there is water in it so no worries of drying things out.

hoping to finish tapping today and get RO finished and collect some sap over the next couple days. we'll see what the weather does and if the trees can get thawed enough to let a little sap come through. and maybe just maybe I can get a little January syrup if I am lucky!!!!

[Russell Lampron]

It's good to hear that you are making progress Brad. Things are starting to come together here too.

[red maples]

Well I got tapped in early since the last few years had some pretty good Jan. thaws. but not this year.

So here we are creeping up on mid February and still no syrup. I got about 50+ gallons of sap but that was line cleaning nasty sap that ended up dumping. Smelled like metabolism from the end of last season. this weekend never got going after the cold temps. got the last 75 taps in across the street I haven't turned them on yet still have to put in the releaser.

So today on the 500+ on my side of the street, I was hoping for a good day today but got home from work and vacuum was at 15"..... **** and only about 25 gallons in the tank. big leaks somewhere after I have been working to get good high Vacuum this year and it was at 25.25 yesterday. So took a walk and and found some smaller stuff then found 3 big chews must have been from today. Got things back up to just shy of 26" still gonna spend some more time in the woods see how high I can get it. Managed another 50 gallons before it cooled down. we are just about frozen here and hopefully things will get back to defrosting on Wednesday. maybe 50 on thursday. and 7 day looks pretty good. with maybe 1 or 2 cooler days in there.

2 weeks ago according to the long range forecast the whole month of February was too cold for sap. but how quickly things change!!! But I am ready!!! for when it comes.

[Russell Lampron]

As early as you tapped I thought that you would be making syrup by now. I started tapping Saturday afternoon after I got out of work and again until noon yesterday when it started to rain hard. I've still got about 200 taps to drill. If I can get an afternoon off from work I may be able to get them done. If not I'll finish them Saturday then when it warms up enough I will be able to turn on the vacuum.

Other than that I'm ready too. With all that I had to do I didn't think that I would ever be ready.