Eastern Ontario 2020

[Fort Wisers]

All total we processed about 6800 gallons yesterday....

Holy wow! That's amazing, your operation must be something to see running.......glad you're off to a great start.

[PaulRenaud]

No sap flowing today. Yesterday was 14 C and the overnight was 2C.

To-date have collected 415 L over 7 days. Brix is up slightly from 2.3 to 2.6 as I seem to have added taps in a sweeter area of my bush. These are trees that have not been tapped in at least 5 years, so the carb content might be higher in the sapwood.

4 days ago, I had a lot of slushy ice in the buckets, so I strained out the slush and discarded the ice - result was a raised Brix level by 1%. A poor man's RO!!

[Galena]

Very glad the sap isn't flowing today, I still am not quite done with cleanup from renos and sick of drywall dust turning up everywhere. Sure don't want it in the sugaring equipment which I will be pulling out and at least getting washed and ready to go, maybe tomorrow...this will be the latest I have ever tapped in a season.

[ennismaple]

Holy wow! That's amazing, your operation must be something to see running.......glad you're off to a great start.

Thanks. It's intimidating at times because you know from the time you fire up until the last fire has died down that you will be on your feet at a fast walk - no sitting! This is still a part time endeavor for us so we don't have time to watch pans simmer.

My brother got through the remaining 6000 gallons of sap on Tuesday. RO on at 9am, fired up at noon and RO off before 5pm, out of the camp by 8pm. Not a bad half day's work!

It's looking like I'll need to boil tomorrow night or Saturday depending on what happens today and overnight.

[Galena]

Hey, everyone who uses RO....is that best for big volume operations like Ennis and other commercial producers? As I can't count on a freeze-up to help out as the poor woman's RO, I am starting to think if that might be an option for the future. In the past I've boiled off thousands of litres of sap all on my own. Nobody I know (around here anyway) wants to come sit in Shack Whacky and tend the fire and add sap for hours on end. I still love sugaring but am trying to streamline things a bit.

[Bruce L]

Marty,as of 1:00 barely started here yet,figure probably late today and run all night for a long boil Friday

[argohauler]

Finally finished tapping the tubing this morning,feeling like we’re behind the eight ball again. Decided next year will take the month of March off from driving school bus so we don’t miss the first runs,many have made syrup around us already.

My uncle was in the same boat as you. Drove bus, milked cows, made syrup. He had some kids to help though

[Galena]

Finally got the spiles in my big trees - taking a quick break to warm up and get dry socks on before visiting the bush maples - and every single one of them is running hot as soon as the spiles are in. Certainly making up for lost time!

[Bruce L]

My uncle was in the same boat as you. Drove bus, milked cows, made syrup. He had some kids to help though

Kids used to help when they were younger,looked forward to their paycheque end of season,unfortunately they aged and found that there’s no app to do the manual labour for you

[Galena]

Kids used to help when they were younger,looked forward to their paycheque end of season,unfortunately they aged and found that there’s no app to do the manual labour for you

Yeah exactly...I just finished telling a friend who was interested in helping, that 20% of it is the *fun stuff* like tapping, collecting sap and finishing the syrup....but 80% of it is boiling. Once I saw their eyes glaze over as I explained how I needed my woodstove to be run, and at what temp and how to add fresh sap so as to not kill the boil...yeah. There isn't an app for that. So I will probably be doing it all by myself again this year, though at least the woodstove in Shack Whacky is all gasketed and refractory-cemented up. Should do a test fire to make sure it all holds!