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.
'12 15 jugs - Steam pans
'17 125 3/16 - 18" x 72" drop flue on homemade arch
'18 240 3/16 - Deer Run 125
'19 450 3/16 - Converted RO to electric/added a membrane
'20 600 3/16 - Maple Pro 2x6 Raised Flue, added AOF/AUF
'21 570 3/16 - Built steam hood, Smoky Lake filter press
'22 800 3/16 - Upgraded RO to 4 4x40
'23 500 3/16 - Re-plumbed RO, new "Guzzler"
'24 500 3/16 - Steam Away, DIY 8x40 RO