Willow Creek Sugarhouse 2019

[red maples]

I guess its time since I started tapping yesterday. wanted to start on Saturday but windy and cold not worth being that miserable in the woods. Only got in about 150 on Sunday but I knew that was all was gonna get in late start and then had to call it quits to grab a quick bite at lunch and get my son up to portsmouth for basketball. so the rest of my day was shot. Got right in the woods after work today and got in about 125 more. Could have done a few more but had a couple of fixes to do but getting there. Will hit it hard again after work tomorrow snow or no snow. then again on Wednesday should have the house woods done wednesday at dark hopefully I know I have a couple more fixes. get the vacuum running and releaser set up and stuff too. Hoping for a snow day but I don't think its gonna happen. would be nice though I could used a full day in the woods.

Woods across the street look pretty good except for the one end tree fell over Friday night from all the wind... GREAT. wasn't expecting that. Was a nice sugar maple too but the roots on the back side of the tree rotted out which I didn't notice when I installed it 2 years ago.... have to dig the mainline out of the ice too. oh well so have to fix that and fix a few laterals as well. then we'll get that on line.

Sugarhouse is in pretty good shape not much to do there. Just have to do a quick straighten up. Clean tanks and install the RO membranes when the sap runs.

Looks like the weather is gonna be kinda up and down the next couple of weeks we'll see, there is definitely PLENTY of moisture in the ground from this past year with all the rain we had. More ice in the swamp than I can ever remember having at this time of year. Hoping to get the first boil out of the way this weekend sometime. that is if we get some sap. looks like a little cool down to mid 30's for next week but you never know forecast could change tomorrow and probably will!!!

hopefully get buckets up the following weekend.

Looks like this year is gonna be a strong march season. Hope its a good one!!! good luck everybody.

[Russell Lampron]

Hey Brad, It's good to see that you've finally started your blog. I was thinking that you would have started tapping before yesterday to catch the early runs. Hopefully March will be a sap tsunami!

I tapped yesterday too. I concentrated on the harder stuff to get to so that the coming snow doesn't slow me down too much. I wanted to tap on Saturday too but didn't think that the tubing would slide onto the taps too good with it being as cold as it was. We missed a little sap last week and we're gonna miss a little more this week. If we don't get rained out on Saturday I think that I can finish tapping then.

Good luck and happy sugaring!

[red maples]

yeah you cant see the seem they are exactly the same spout just one has the insert with the ball and the seem is just at the tip. oh yeah I buy the stainless 5/16 tapping bits. anyway. the seam in far enough in the hole shouldnt be an issue. here is the next theory...

could there be frozen sap building up in the of the spout and pushing on the ball and pushing out the tap just enough to cause a leak?

[red maples]

ah yes the first boil out of the way. ended up with 444 gallons(nice round number). sugar is high too. averaging I think about 1.75%, bucket sap was 2.25% but there was only 45 gallons of that, across the street I collected 75 gallons and that was about 2% (that is about 66% sugar maples and the remaining are reds) and combine that with my 1.33 remaining vac sap on my reds over here. I wasn't expecting to draw off as it usually takes just over 500 gallons of raw sap to get a draw off and took off about 2 gallons. so that was very nice. looks like its dark but a lighter dark just about amber.

Even with early sap (which isn't always the best sap some line clean out stuff and holding it for a little longer) I got it up to 16% easy. which really made for a quick boil after filling the rig and sugar rinse I ended up with about 35 to 40ish gallons to boil. It does take a little bit longer to boil when you aren't really drawing off just the 2 gallons right at the end.

I was surprised how good that sap was coming especially with very little sun and since it got down to 22*F here the night before. I think the trees are just starting to wake up. Even some of the bigger roadside trees arent awake yet but when they run they run. This warm up should get things going for sure. Nice rings around the trees now. Guessing the the sugar will drop and syrup will darken by saturday but hoping for a good run!!!

Didn't freeze here last night it is bouncing around 32*F this morning. Left the vac pump on last night as it was still coming a little at 35*F last night. curious to see if it was worth it.

[Russell Lampron]

Similar situation here. I had 440 gallons for my first boil. Got it sweetened to 12% in one pass and boiled for an hour and 10 minutes. Drew off about a gallon of Amber which may be Golden when it's filtered.

It's showing 31* here this morning and like you I left the vacuum pump on last night. Went out at 12:45 to shut it off and found that the ground was still soft and the temp at 33*.

[red maples]

Yeah we missed a little but honestly I don't think it was too much maybe enough to sweeten the pans and a couple of gallons. not too worried. this only looks like about a 3 day warm up. but the ground is so frozen. even the warm up last week wasn't enough to melt the snow in the woods and not enough to melt the ice in the swamp it did a little but you could still walk on it. So not too worried. If the extended forecast holds true we aren't gonna make much syrup until the first week or so of march.

I didn't tap in earlier this year it didn't pay off last year so I figured I would go back to watching temps again. I am also working more hours now and hip is bothering me a little it runs in the family so been putting off going to the doc. got a little behind on house wood and stuff this year just no time. But all in for the season. We have winter break for the last week of Feb. So looking forward to that week to get a bunch of stuff done!!!

[Russell Lampron]

I was and still am a little behind on the wood for my OWB. I did the smart thing and filled the sugar house woodshed first so that I have plenty of dry wood for the evaporator. I have the oil furnace to heat the house when I run out of wood for the OWB. With as much rain as we had last fall I was lucky to get as much wood done as I did. I should have enough to get me through March though.

[red maples]

got about 75 gallons of sap yeaterday totaling 125 gallons. not enough to do anything with. today was nothing wind never broke past 36* it was generally line cleaning sap anyway. was pretty green and nasty. My woods are ready with the exception of a cracked sap ladder base but Its an easy fix with a little PVC Glue. can't get to it now until everything freezes up again. rain really made things WAY worse in my woods it was already flooded and is even worse now. no where for the water to go.

Might need an alternate tank and releaser spot if the water doesn't recede will have to run the line in a little more and make some something to set in the tank. so its out of the water. will also need to reconfigure vac to releaser line. I'll figure it out.

Doesn't matter anyway if the forecast stays the same doesn't look like a thaw until march 9th for here anyway.

just hope I have sap in time for maple weekend. Plenty to do between now and then anyway.

At least Josh got some sap!!! he has those crazy running trees.

[Russell Lampron]

I hope that the water recedes and that you don't have to do a lot of relocating to make things work. The sap didn't run very good here yesterday either. With my RO down I'd expect to be getting a sap tsunami but it ain't happening. I hope everything works out for you.

[Amber Gold]

Brad, there's always something. Hope you get things figured out without too much hassle.