Hop Kiln Road 2023

[Hop Kiln Road]

Didn’t get warm enough to unfreeze lines above ground, except for a couple of strings of 24”+ trees which ran while the temp was above 32F. Tanks have solid blocks of ice. But my driveway is completely clear because there’s no frost in the ground. We’ve got a snowpack without tree wells and more snow coming. Foreseeable temps look warm enough that I can take the SH out of the hard freeze lock mode. P, yeah, I called them and he knew the notice #’s. But their scan read the wrong initial and Hop Kiln as Hop Hill and now they’re not sure who I am. And if there is a Hop Kiln Road in MI then the only thing unique is this world are snowflakes and maple operations.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Felicity Where Art Thou?

Tapped out in carharts and gaiters,
Sugary kids all fidgety as idle waiters
While deep snows pile higher and higher
Awaiting Nature’s cherished sweet flyer.

Woodsheds stowed full in neat ranks
Where even the wee wash their big tanks,
And buckets and buckets galore,
Hung with Saint Nickolas pray and more.

Tubing spidered in webs snug so tight
By old and young a snowshoe all night,
On dark hillsides’ whine with a sucker’s hiss,
Headlamps twinkle and search fittings amiss.

Long they shoe and frozen evenings they toil,
Before torching stick wood for a roaring boil.
Til old timers doze with rhythmic wheezings
To the hum of new-fangled electric squeezings.

Each steam dream hopes tis Felicity they snag,
Even lest risk one scorches a sisterly hag.
Woe, many nary draw a frosted glimpse hoary,
Let alone the sought sweet kiss of their quarry.

For south of the border she so quietly wings,
The brightest light orb she so quickly brings.
Blink, aye, cause only a moment she tarries,
As it must be with all sweet flighty fairies.

And tis due north she so nymphfully scurries
While foolish forecasters still call cold flurries.
So sulks many a brave and heartly stoker forlorn,
Felicity’s hasty flight toward her mother’s horn.

[Amber Gold]

And there it is...

[Hop Kiln Road]

Lines started to let loose around 11AM yesterday morning. Pumped 1 gpt last night. Got it into the SH before the temperature dropped. Ice was still frozen to the bottom of the tanks. Sugar was up, which is nice. 30F this morning so it could have run part of the night. Some of the lines were running pretty hard when we were pumping. Going to boil in the snowstorm later this morning. Forecast for the rest of the week should put me close to an average season.

[Hop Kiln Road]

26F this AM. 10" of heavy snow yesterday. Had a 4 hour boil with several stranded tourist stopping by. Grade went up to 67. Going to finish plowing out this morning. Forecast is a little cold so probably light afternoon runs this week. With the snowpack, it really looks like the beginning of the season but we're at 60% of average.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Another GTP last night. Been getting short, heavy afternoon runs. One bush has a transfer line across 300’ of brushy swamp to get to the road. Shurflo had ground down to a halt. The overflow barrel was overflowing. Went out to find the problem. It was right in the middle where a bear had decimated about 3’ of line about 4 years ago and I had spliced in a section. Between the SS clamps, the splice, the wire sag the bear created, and the 9 day cold snap, there was long frozen jam. While I was contemplating what to do, in one foot goes in. Not so much water, but muck, over the top of my boot, and I’m stuck, nothing to grab onto. Long struggle short, I finally have to take my foot out of the boot in order to pull the boot free with my hands.

[Pdiamond]

That sucks. Not only a wet and cold foot, but a wet mucky cold foot.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Perfect sugaring weather yesterday except the wind came up and reduced the flow to about .6 gpt. Also took down a big pine that made a mess near a pump box. Have to cut the lines and restring. Sugar in March has gone up. Still low sand, but new evaporator has a niter trap that works really well. Grade has been constant in the upper 60's. Forecast says no problem hitting average and might even do better than last year. Going to be too cold today for a flow.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Upper 20's and blowing snow much of yesterday so any sap added to the ice blocks. Got more jugs in the morning and then fixed the blowdown. It had pulled one tap free and I couldn't reinsert it because the drillhole was full of ice and more ice running down the tree. I've been pumping the tanks later in the afternoon, ro-ing in the evening and boiling the next morning, producing 12 to 20 gal a boil.

[white mt]

Haven't boiled in over two weeks, just cold enough to keep things from opening up .