2018 Season

[Paddymountain]

We ended up getting about 150 gallons today. Got it boiled and made 3 gallons of syrup.
We won't gather now until Thursday, high of 37 tomorrow, and only 40's Wednesday and Thursday.
Then one last collection on Sunday. We have boiled 4000 gallons as of Saturday. Still a little wood left.

[sticknstring]

One of my 3 trees, the one i tapped first about 5 weeks ago shut down. Hole healed up, no doubt. Only have two other trees tapped, one was tapped two weeks ago and is filling/overflowing a 5 gallon bucket twice a week, and the other is only giving about 4 gallons or so in a week and was just tapped about 10 days ago. Hindsight being 20/20, i wish i would have tapped a couple more trees up there. I just only have about 6 or so good maple trees there to tap and i didnt think the weather would be perfect for this long since the warm spell 2 weeks ago. Just didnt want to burn a few of my trees up for a week of good run and then have less to tap next year or two. A couple of my trees have big scars at the base on one side where trees rubbed against them when the ground was logged. So im assuming i cant tap above those scars? Reduces my future tapping abilities losing a side. All in all tho, was a good rookie season i think, we've boiled around 45-50 gallons into around 130 oz of syrup. The girls had fun, i had fun and we learned just enough about the process to be dangerous next year!! We still will give the two trees we have tapped until the weather turns and we have about 14 gallons of sap in the fridge now, so will still have another boil down before its over. Appreciate all the help and info from you all this year, its been super fun to ride along with yas. Here are a couple pics of my sappin' crew! Good luck the rest of the season



IMG_3141.jpg

IMG_3144.jpg a full bucket results in some celebration dancing...

IMG_3148.jpg my oldest like to taste the sap

IMG_3206.jpg

[Dennis H.]

One of my 3 trees, the one i tapped first about 5 weeks ago shut down. Hole healed up, no doubt. Only have two other trees tapped, one was tapped two weeks ago and is filling/overflowing a 5 gallon bucket twice a week, and the other is only giving about 4 gallons or so in a week and was just tapped about 10 days ago. Hindsight being 20/20, i wish i would have tapped a couple more trees up there. I just only have about 6 or so good maple trees there to tap and i didnt think the weather would be perfect for this long since the warm spell 2 weeks ago. Just didnt want to burn a few of my trees up for a week of good run and then have less to tap next year or two. A couple of my trees have big scars at the base on one side where trees rubbed against them when the ground was logged. So im assuming i cant tap above those scars? Reduces my future tapping abilities losing a side. All in all tho, was a good rookie season i think, we've boiled around 45-50 gallons into around 130 oz of syrup. The girls had fun, i had fun and we learned just enough about the process to be dangerous next year!! We still will give the two trees we have tapped until the weather turns and we have about 14 gallons of sap in the fridge now, so will still have another boil down before its over. Appreciate all the help and info from you all this year, its been super fun to ride along with yas. Here are a couple pics of my sappin' crew! Good luck the rest of the season



Attachment 18213

Attachment 18214 a full bucket results in some celebration dancing...

Attachment 18215 my oldest like to taste the sap

Attachment 18216

Looks like you did alright for being your first year, that syrup looks mighty good in the glass bottles.
I always like seeing when kids get involved, makes for a stronger family.

As for the scars on the trees, yeah they could be a problem eventually. I have found that around here loggers treat maples as weeds/trash. I have seen some just cut them down and leave lay on the ground because "maples are good for nothing" and they want to make room for "better" hardwoods like oak's.

[helptheold]

One of my 3 trees, the one i tapped first about 5 weeks ago shut down. Hole healed up, no doubt. Only have two other trees tapped, one was tapped two weeks ago and is filling/overflowing a 5 gallon bucket twice a week, and the other is only giving about 4 gallons or so in a week and was just tapped about 10 days ago. Hindsight being 20/20, i wish i would have tapped a couple more trees up there. I just only have about 6 or so good maple trees there to tap and i didnt think the weather would be perfect for this long since the warm spell 2 weeks ago. Just didnt want to burn a few of my trees up for a week of good run and then have less to tap next year or two. A couple of my trees have big scars at the base on one side where trees rubbed against them when the ground was logged. So im assuming i cant tap above those scars? Reduces my future tapping abilities losing a side. All in all tho, was a good rookie season i think, we've boiled around 45-50 gallons into around 130 oz of syrup. The girls had fun, i had fun and we learned just enough about the process to be dangerous next year!! We still will give the two trees we have tapped until the weather turns and we have about 14 gallons of sap in the fridge now, so will still have another boil down before its over. Appreciate all the help and info from you all this year, its been super fun to ride along with yas. Here are a couple pics of my sappin' crew! Good luck the rest of the season



Attachment 18213

Attachment 18214 a full bucket results in some celebration dancing...

Attachment 18215 my oldest like to taste the sap

Attachment 18216

Your girls are adorable!

[sticknstring]

Ha, thanks. I tried to replace the picture that ended up as a thumbnail? My oldest fell asleep as my youngest and I finished the syrup and was half sleeping when we took that picture. I wanted to put in the next picture that we took where she looks awake with her beautiful smile, but instead it just moved the original to the thumbnail thing. I can't take any credit for their good looks though, that's all from there beautiful momma.....

[Gary R]

Well you better call me crazy! I decided to boil again. Been getting yelled at for not making enough syrup! The neighbors are done so I'm putting more buckets up tomorrow. I'll only have 20 on sugars that I haven't tapped before. Tonight I cut a stainless plate to replace my flue pan. I also blocked off the ramp in the arch so that the fire will only be under my front pan. I'll use my syrup canning pot to send a steady stream (or drip) into the pan. Hope to boil about 5 gallons per hour and make 1-2 gallons of syrup. If I only would have stayed at it when the vacuum was on

[helptheold]

Well you better call me crazy! I decided to boil again. Been getting yelled at for not making enough syrup! The neighbors are done so I'm putting more buckets up tomorrow. I'll only have 20 on sugars that I haven't tapped before. Tonight I cut a stainless plate to replace my flue pan. I also blocked off the ramp in the arch so that the fire will only be under my front pan. I'll use my syrup canning pot to send a steady stream (or drip) into the pan. Hope to boil about 5 gallons per hour and make 1-2 gallons of syrup. If I only would have stayed at it when the vacuum was on

You're not crazy I've decided to stick it out through at least the weekend, we're headed out of town for Easter so as long as I have everything I collect boiled before then I'll be good. Only gotten about 12 gallons but I think it's high sugar (no way to test it) so I'm going to keep this bunch separate from the earlier batches to see if my theory is correct.

[HowardR]

Well you better call me crazy! I decided to boil again. Been getting yelled at for not making enough syrup! The neighbors are done so I'm putting more buckets up tomorrow. I'll only have 20 on sugars that I haven't tapped before.

You're not crazy. Monday's run was the biggest one day run of the year so far. I ended up waking up every 90 minutes or so all night last night just to keep my RO and evaporator running constantly. Any newish taps are simply pouring out sap. And the syrup is perfect and not as dark as end-of-season syrup.

Looking ahead, that run may be small compared to what is forecast for next week starting on Monday.

[sbedilion]

I wish I had more firewood/motivation. Looks like the season could drag on for another 2 wks. Crazy. I did my last boil last night....it was by far my fastest boil. I ran out of firewood so I was using heat treated (not chemical) pallet boards from work. It was nuts...my pan looked like a pan that had drop flues would have looked. Concentrated it down to about 8 gallons. Next year Im fab’ing up a 1x3 syrup pan so I can finish on the fire or get it close....limiting the longer stove top finishing time.

Should finish the season w a total around 13-14 gallons. Im pretty happy with that for being a driveway hobbiest! I have sold 1/3 of my stash to friends...covering all expense for the season . Not sure if i’ll shoot for more next yr or if ill just try and be more efficent (R.O.).

Good luck to everyone still plugging away!

[Sugarmaker]

Well you better call me crazy! I decided to boil again. Been getting yelled at for not making enough syrup! The neighbors are done so I'm putting more buckets up tomorrow. I'll only have 20 on sugars that I haven't tapped before. Tonight I cut a stainless plate to replace my flue pan. I also blocked off the ramp in the arch so that the fire will only be under my front pan. I'll use my syrup canning pot to send a steady stream (or drip) into the pan. Hope to boil about 5 gallons per hour and make 1-2 gallons of syrup. If I only would have stayed at it when the vacuum was on

Gary,
Yes you have gone completely bonkers. Have the wife rush you to the nut house. Helping all those other folks didn't help. Now look, you have gone back 10 years in technology! And buckets too! Wow!
Have fun! Put some pictures up!
Regards,
Chris