Tapping 2024

[darkmachine]

So far so good, my sap has been a steady 1.5, but we have had a steady flow. Looks like we will have a few more days like it. Glad to hear your season is going well...One day i'll have to get over your way, when i get ahead of the sap maybe?

[220 maple]

Got another 900 gallons ROed an ounce cooked in, I’ve had a great season got these last two good freezes coming, hopefully that should put me right around 300 gallon produced, for an old sick boy I’m loving life.
Mark220maple

[canaanmaple]

Good to here Mark! Been hard at it up here the past 6 out of 7 days. Made about half what I made last year already! Call me crazy for running 700 gallons a day on a custom 2x4 with an RO running it to 8%. Feel like Phil Conners in groundhog day!

16 degrees this morning and should be near 20 tonight, so lookin for a nice run comin up this weekend! Sadly, that could be it?! No freeze for the next week after that in the 10 day, with 3 straight 60 degree days in there and some 50s. We will see what happens though. Hopefully that's not enough to make the trees bud! I'm not worried about the tap holes since all drops are new this year though. It would be remarkable for the trees to bud this early though, so I am trying not to worry too much. Heck we got 2' of snow last year on May 2nd!

Got another 900 gallons ROed an ounce cooked in, I’ve had a great season got these last two good freezes coming, hopefully that should put me right around 300 gallon produced, for an old sick boy I’m loving life.
Mark220maple

[220 maple]

My trees didn’t come out of last freeze running very strong the tapholes are getting tired and I don’t have the energy to go tinker with the holes to get then to give up a little more sap, the extended forecast I’m told no freezing weather in sight, I never heard of no freezing weather in March in West Virginia, I guess Climate Change!
Mark220maple

[220 maple]

Final boil, last night 1000 gallons of slightly milky sap. Calling it a year, need to move everything from flue pan forward,
Boil that sixty gallons, too concentrate it before moving all to finishing pan!,,might be close to 300 gallons of syrup!
For and old sick Sugarmaker I’ve had a great season!
Hope to be in the game in 2025!
Mark220maple

[220 maple]

Finished with evaporator tonight, moved all sap forward put city water in back pan. Cooked for two hours until the sap is more concentrated, move to finishing pan, waste a little gas but not like a turkey cooker, Oh well time to pull spiles! This will be the test if my new helper really wants to be a syrup maker, the thankless job of pulling spiles, he asked me tonight when we’re going to start! So we will see!
Mark220maple

[canaanmaple]

that's awesome Mark! Trainin up the next generation! Pulling spiles is actually enjoyable to me! I am about the same as you in that I'm on hold until we get some freezing temps again. Gonna finish off what is in the evaporator and clean it and hope get a bunch of sap after this weekend. I am only 2/3 of what I made last year. Could say I should have tapped earlier and got that first run in Feb, and gotten that extra third, but then my tap holes would be struggling right now. Got 3 more days of cloudy and mid 50s in the day to survive before the snow and cold this weekend. Trees show no signs of budding whatsoever, daffodils barely poking out of the ground, and have heard no peepers yet. Pulled lines out of the tanks and washed them all and ready to put em back in the second it freezes!

Finished with evaporator tonight, moved all sap forward put city water in back pan. Cooked for two hours until the sap is more concentrated, move to finishing pan, waste a little gas but not like a turkey cooker, Oh well time to pull spiles! This will be the test if my new helper really wants to be a syrup maker, the thankless job of pulling spiles, he asked me tonight when we’re going to start! So we will see!
Mark220maple

[DrTimPerkins]

My trees didn’t come out of last freeze running very strong the tapholes are getting tired and I don’t have the energy to go tinker with the holes to get then to give up a little more sap, the extended forecast I’m told no freezing weather in sight, I never heard of no freezing weather in March in West Virginia..

Any sense of how WV did overall?

[darkmachine]

I could have probably tapped a little earlier, but the first run i collected was on Feb 5th, and the last was March 3rd. I collected 2700gal of sap averaged 1.63% , the math projects it to be 49.23 gal of syrup. That would put me at .36gal per tap. I'll know for sure once i get it all bottled. I wouldn't call it a great season, the weather wasn't great, maybe i'll tap in January next season. I've given up on buckets for any type of production. I usually hang about 130, it's just not worth the effort, they only last a week if you get a few warm days in a row. Going to add more taps next season, and keep the vacuum tight.

[220 maple]

Dr. Tim,
From my sources some producers had a real good year, other in the Southern and Western areas along the Ohio River struggled, some to the point that they are planning on selling equipment and giving up forever! But there is other reasons other than the climate that is the reason others are quitting. From what I can tell only four camps still in the game, three of them are at higher elevations, Darkmachine maybe at a higher elevation but his camp apparently sit in micro weather pattern area compared to the rest of us. I would not even attempt to make another drop from my trees, just because they show no sign of bud growth, I had to prove too Dr. Rechlin that they was buddy last year and I’m sure it would have the same this year.
Mark220maple