Another year and back at it again! Definitely missed the early runs, but I can only tap when I have time, and I take the same week off every year, so it is what it is I guess!

Got the sugar house cleaned up, things back in order and got the pans back on the arch. The arch is looking like it needs some brick work in the off season this year. Had a couple pieces of ceramic insulation to replace. I'm going to try blocking off the area behind the drop flues a little this year. See if it makes any difference. Seems like with a little bit of an obstacle in the way maybe the heat will stay under the pans more. The aof blower seems to really push it up the stack quickly.

Got the woods section all tapped yesterday, only a couple trees were dripping when I was drilling. Man what a mess after the big storm. Limbs down everywhere. Im pretty sure I didn't miss a ton of sap with the early warm up, my woods is pretty cold. 92 taps in, when to hook up the vacuum pump, no electricity. Got the voltage meter out and had a bad breaker. Never had that happen before... sent the wife out with a picture and description of what I need. Got the wrong one, she tried though! After i got the right one everything fired up. 25" right off the bat, not bad. Still going to walk the lines for a final check.

Got the tank and releaser set up for the house section this morning. Got the pump hooked up, turned it on, seized solid... wtf. Get it to the shop, take it all apart, full of birdseed. Frigging mice packed it full, full! I'm not even sure how they got in there! Got everything out, cleaned it and put it all back together. It's a oil less vane pump, one of the vanes had a chip on the edge but it seems to be pulling vacuum ok. It will get a full rebuild after the season.

So after that fiasco, I didn't get to drill any more holes today. Still have another +-150 to do. Luckily it looks like a big freeze coming so at least time is on my side for once.