Hop Kiln Road 2023

[red maples]

holding out 1 or 2 more days. still getting a little sap on my buckets. same thing down here. I have no snow but sap just aint coming. gonna call it probably saturday. get eh Evaporator boiled out and start pulling taps!!! I think you are right on the no frost in the ground in february but also no frost in the trees either. the trees really just didn't freeze this year either. except for that deep freeze we had for that 1 or 2 days I actually had 2 trees crack about 10 to 15 feet vertically never seen that before.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Brad, I found this disappointing scar was I was untapping the other day. It's a couple years old but only visible now because the bark is falling off the wound. No insect tracks. 13" dbh tree with rough bark, not smooth like a young sugar maple. Wound is south facing in an area that was thinned 5 years ago. I suspect it is sun scald, but I have never seen it before on such a large diameter tree.Scar.jpg

[red maples]

yeah I would say sun scald too. thats too bad.