Today was supposed to be a rainy day and the only thing on the maple chore list was installing 5 drops and cleaning a barrel. Early in the morning I received a text from a friend who was going to be installing his taps today on his lines. The weather forecast had changed slightly and there were three days above freezing later in the week and today was going to be +8 C (46° F).

I decided I would tap my lines as well. On the second tap, I could see the sap running in the lines. I installed all 75 taps on the lines today, plus the five drops. The snow was knee high to waist deep. There had been a crust on the snow, but with the warm weather, it did not support me, but was a hindrance to lifting my foot out of the snow. It was a real workout for my short legs and pudgy body. I few times I fell in the deep snow and I was like a beached whale trying to get out of the non supportive deep snow. There will be many leg cramps tonight.

I learnt a good way of drilling the holes. I would brace my left elbow against the tree, and that gave me a staple base to drill the hole and more importantly the power to pull the auger out.

Surprisingly although the sap was flowing in the lines, it really was not flowing well in the buckets. Not sure if the vacuum in the lines is the reason.

I am not overly impressed with the buckets and lids. It was a very windy day, the buckets did move. What I was disappointed with the most is although the lids protected the buckets, they do not protect the spouts and I could see water dripping from the trees, onto the spout and into the bucket. I might add some duct tape as a shield.

I did do a rookie mistake on two trees that had a lean to them, installing the bucket on the lean side. It allows the bucket to move more freely and allowed more water to drip on the spout from the trees.

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