This is not looking good

[buckeye gold]

6+ inches of snow this morning, but that keeps the ground from freezing. This will be the longest stretch I have ever shutdown after tapping. I did drain all my sweet and finish it on the finisher. I cleaned and starting over whenever it runs. I even sold every bottle I had made....mid February and sold out LOL

[gbeneke]

I usually have 10-15 gallons by now, This year it looks like a late run, maybe the end of February. I won't be boiling for long because we are going on vacation March 19th. Could be a short exciting season with a lot of sap going on the ground March 20. This year is going to be closer to the normal and my early tapping just won't work.
Come to think of it, you are one of the forum members that got me tapping early, Buckeye Gold, so I have you to blame.HaHa

[buckeye gold]

I have been blamed for worse things,

[buckeye gold]

This certainly is an odd year. I wish I'd of put all my taps put earlier. I boiled 16 times between December 16th and January 16th and made almost half my seasons goal. The runs in mid January were really good. I would have still held my main bush off until January, but I wish I had tapped those 100 the first of January. If it warms up, like it's prone to do in March here I'm done with a very short regular season. I have a big order yet to fill. I'm hoping this is the year I boil well into March.

[buckeye gold]

I think it's about to be a wild and crazy week. It may take a couple days, but I sense an absolute sap tsunami coming. It's forecast to be in the 40s and up to 55 wed. with below freezing nights. I have a 40 gallon size block of ice in my collection tank to keep things cool, not intentionally. First I have to plow a path to the tank as I took the tank cart loose and had to put the plow on the tractor. So Now I have 15-18" of snow to remove first so I can hook back up. Of course I have a doctors appt one day and am scheduled for my covid vaccine Thursday. The boss retired the 1st of January and she says she'll run the evaporator so I don't have to shut down for those things. Probably 10 days of madness and done

[Ocelotsden]

I'm just hobby and only collect 50 -55 gallons of sap and usually do that over one solid week each year and boil it all at once. that way I don't go over 7 or 8 days holding sap, depending on weather anyway. Last year I was boiling and finished up this very weekend, but it's been really cold and there's a foot and a half of snow still on the ground. Looking at the weather, I think I'm going to start tapping today or tomorrow and see how it goes. Even if I don't keep any of the sap from this coming week, it should flow really well the following week.
I'm thinking with all the snow on the ground, I can bury my 5 gallon jugs in it and it should be fine for up to 10-12 days maybe? Any thoughts?

[buckeye gold]

I think you'll be fine. It's going to take a few days to get going good, but buried in the snow should help.

[buckeye gold]

I walked my lines this morning because I hadn't even looked at them in a month. Found and fixed 4 minor chews and one bad one out of 150 taps. Sap running but real slow. I need more sap to thaw the 40 gallon block of ice in my collection tank. Snow is getting real soft now and pulling away from trees, so it's about to gush. Plowed the road to my tank and hooked it back on the tractor while I was at it. Maybe tomorrow I'll build a fire. Starting over from scratch now.

[buckeye gold]

Sap just started to run big yesterday and boom it got to 61 and and everything slowed drastically. If i don't get some cold my lines will funk up and my trees quit and I'm done. Just what I feared. Glad I made a fair amount of early syrup.

[bmbmkr]

Hidy Buckeye, haven't talked to you in a while. We tapped 20-24 Jan, somethin like that. Had one good run then froze up, had a small run & my sap froze in the 900' pumpline while I was pumpin it to the sugar house. I spent too much time on the hill chasin leaks that day. It gets colder faster down in the holler where my collection tank is than up on the hillside where the majority of my trees are. I ended up dumpin that sap a week later when it thawed out, it didnt smell or taste good. Washed out the tanks then we got the ice storm 2 weeks ago. We lost a few trees, some uprooted, some snapped off between chest hight & 10 or 12' up, lost a few of tree tops and had some minor damage to tubing, mainlines and pump lines, mostly from these spindly red pines we have down here. Red oak limbs took a toll too. Then 4 days later we got ANOTHER ice storm, the other one hadn't thawed, and we had snow in between. Same lost a few more trees & more line damage. Fortunately, we were better off than some neighbors, some a my WV & KY buddies lost their entire sugarbush & tubing systems. We were very fortunate we didn't have much wind, it could have been much worse. After it thawed out, we got a few good runs, i boiled 750 gallon Wed & near 900 gallons Saturday. Saturday night through Sunday night we got a little over 3" of rain. My driveway is currently under 2 1/2 feet of water-since Sunday night @ midnight. It went down about 6" today. I have near 300 gallons of sap in my tank a mile up the road that I can't get to. I had a decent run today & yesterday, & the forecast looks good through No freeze or light freeze tonight, then the next 4 nights are supposed to be in the low to mid 20's 58F Monday though, that will be the last for us for sure. I've got 350 gallons circulating through the UV light right now, about to finish eatin & got fire up the Ro & Evaporator. I'll be washin out my tanks tomorrow and gettin ready for the weekend runs. Hope you've had a better year than us! We're at about 40% of what we had last year & year before. I'm happy to be boiling in March, this is only the 2nd year we've been able to.