Eastern Ontario 2019

[paulslund]

Well, that 40l sap gave me 2.25l of light amber, marshmallowy stuff...typical first batch for me.

Man.. that's 17.77:1.. Did you end up tossing the ice or keeping it? If you tossed it that would explain a bit of the high sugar.. but man! What are you feeding those trees during the summer?

My trees are starting to give a bit more.. have about 3.5 L per tree, give or take since Sat. Still have 5 big ones that haven't woken up yet..

[Galena]

HI Paul, nope this batch of sap didn't have ice. It's the 22l out there in the snowbank that are all nicely frozen and waiting for more sap to join them so I can fire up the Shack. In terms of what am I feeding the trees? Actually now you mention it I have been spreading ashes from the woodstove around the bases of the trees cause I heard it's good for them. Apparently so!!! Big trees still not doing much, little trees being indecisive. About 2l in one pail, the rest is all dribs and drabs. What an aggravating year! And I was planning on spending Wed boiling. *sigh* guess I'll be doing my taxes instead...get THAT out of the way for the year.

ETA: decided, as before, to not wait on the next run but just get things in gear. Excavating the sap from outside, all nicely froze up, and going to RO off the sweet and evap it off on the woodstove. I feel that this season, if the weather ever cooperates, will be short and brutally hectic. So may as well make nearup while I can!

[Fort Wisers]

Collected again tonight, maybe 29 litres.
Same as Galena; our big trees are barely flowing, some small trees are full buckets almost every collection and others are hit and miss.
Collection total is at roughly 197 litres.
Tomorrow should prove to be a decent day....

[Run Forest Run!]

My trees were also hit and miss, but the ones that hit REALLY hit. I collected 65L today from approx. 25 taps.

[Galena]

My trees were also hit and miss, but the ones that hit REALLY hit....

That's what I'm hoping will happen tomorrow. That, finally, my 5 big trees will just GO. The 3 bush maples are doing most of the work. All I know is, I now have less than a month before I pull spiles, so if I'm going to have any kind of season it has to happen right.frickin.NOW.

ETA: someone was lookin for pics of my trees and Shack Whacky...go to the Gallery and look under Member Galleries for Galena.

[Fort Wisers]

Nice run Karen!
Agreed Galena, a good run would be nice....fingers crossed today we get something half decent!

Regardless of the hit and miss runs, and after all the work and aggravation sometimes inherent in this thing we do, it's pretty hard not to enjoy sitting on the old rocking chair and enjoying a good boil down on a clear blue sky day.
Sugarin 2019(1).jpg
Picture was from the boil on Monday. May not look like much steam but there certainly was a nice boil going on in the pan.
Cheers everyone......

[MikeC82]

Only 10 G yesterday - but it only ever made it to around 2. Anything that had good sun ran a bit. 1/2 my trees still doing nothing. Looks good next couple days though. This might be the push. Long range looks like one more decent freeze up early next week - then a warm spell and that might be it. If it is going to happen it needs to happen now. Still need to make 8 more gallons to make last year's total....and that with nearly 50% more taps this year....

Capture.JPG

[Galena]

I've got 19l of poor man's RO sitting on the woodstove quietly evaping down - NOT boiling. But going off at a slow rate andf the humidity level isn't going to go through the roof. Seems like Shack Whacky is going to be gathering dust this season :-/ No way am I even going to be close to getting last year's ridiculous amounts of sap. At least the sap is super-sweet so if that first batch is any indication, then I'll just boil down when it's around 50l of sap instead of the usual 100l.

[Big_Eddy]

Been too busy boiling to post. Bottled all syrup made so far on Saturday, volunteered Sunday at a local conservation area showing kids how to tap a tree (a perfect day for it - but got behind on sap), boiled all day Monday and Tuesday - finally hit the bottom of the tank in the wee hours last night. Was hoping for a breather today - but looks like it should be another good sap day.

[Galena]

Twiddling thumbs. Big trees doing nothing, little trees doing some but still not much. Fun fact: of the 22l I RO'd, 19l were sweet and 3l were pure ice, no sweet left. That 19l is now approx 14l and evaping slowwwwwwwwwwllly away on household woodstove at about 150 so it's a very low level of humidity being given off. And because it's under 190, no nitre forming :-)

Oh and my water pump for the house seems to be on its last legs - conked out on me during morning shower, then began going off every 5 min or so...then began making some gawdawful noise-of-death type noise. So waiting for them to call and set an appointment for later this afternoon or after hours. Too distracted and p.o.'d to tackle taxes. Isn't house ownership fun?