Thanks for the advice on tapping branched trunks. I'll probably skip that tree as I'm not desperate. After the quick warm up last year and a shortened season, I'm adding trees I haven't tapped previously, mainly reds, to get more sap early in the event of a repeat season. The weather, to me, remains wacky.

To answer turnerburner, I'm tapping tomorrow and Thursday. It's a convenient time and in line with past seasons, at least for me. Two cooler days followed by what could be a good first run next week. Maybe some sap Thursday/Friday but we'll see. Canterbuy Maple 's got some flow going on southern Maine, so maybe central Maine can join in.