Looked around a little online. Those things are expensive! Not worth it for my hobby. Anyway, I fixed the barrel and it is back in business.Originally Posted by eustis22
One bit of frightening news: I heard my first peeper when I was boiling yesterday. I can't believe it, a peeper on March 3rd in the foothills of the Berkshires! Normally I can't recall hearing them until middle or end of March. I hope that doesn't mean the end is nigh. I guess it's good I got an early start.
GO
2016: Homemade arch from old wood stove; 2 steam tray pans; 6 taps; 1.1 gal
2017: Same setup. 15 taps; 4.5 gal
2018: Same setup. Limited time. 12 taps and short season; 2.2 gal
2019: Very limited time. 7 taps and a short season; 1.8 gals
2020: New Mason 2x3 XL halfway through season; 9 taps 2 gals
2021: Same 2x3, 18 taps, 4.5 gals
2022: 23 taps, 5.9 gals
2023: 23 taps. Added AUF, 13.2 gals
2024: 17 taps, 5.3 gals
All on buckets
Sheesh. My one yard tree has dried up after only four weeks. I think this probably has to do with several factors:
- Tree gets full sun all day
- February was the sunniest and driest I've seen in years (good for our solar panels!)
- Hanging bucket with open tap
I know tubing systems last longer than buckets, but I do think that drop tubes to buckets give you some of those benefits. Even with brand new plastic spiles, I have generally found that the open ones dry up faster than the drop tubes to a bucket.
I wonder if Dr Tim and his group have ever done any studies on the difference in collection volume between drop tubes and open taps.
GO
2016: Homemade arch from old wood stove; 2 steam tray pans; 6 taps; 1.1 gal
2017: Same setup. 15 taps; 4.5 gal
2018: Same setup. Limited time. 12 taps and short season; 2.2 gal
2019: Very limited time. 7 taps and a short season; 1.8 gals
2020: New Mason 2x3 XL halfway through season; 9 taps 2 gals
2021: Same 2x3, 18 taps, 4.5 gals
2022: 23 taps, 5.9 gals
2023: 23 taps. Added AUF, 13.2 gals
2024: 17 taps, 5.3 gals
All on buckets
I plan to take Weds off and if there's any sap that hasn't spoiled, I'll boil that and pull taps. Very very early for me to be pulling taps, but too much warmth, even if we get another run toward the end of March, I just can't keep sap good between visits to the sugar bush with these warm spells.
GO
2016: Homemade arch from old wood stove; 2 steam tray pans; 6 taps; 1.1 gal
2017: Same setup. 15 taps; 4.5 gal
2018: Same setup. Limited time. 12 taps and short season; 2.2 gal
2019: Very limited time. 7 taps and a short season; 1.8 gals
2020: New Mason 2x3 XL halfway through season; 9 taps 2 gals
2021: Same 2x3, 18 taps, 4.5 gals
2022: 23 taps, 5.9 gals
2023: 23 taps. Added AUF, 13.2 gals
2024: 17 taps, 5.3 gals
All on buckets
Hope you get a good last boil in Gabe!
Same plan for me as well. Whatever I collect through Wednesday will probably get boiled on the propane stove with the sweet. Couldn’t get into the woods today with the wild winds but got about two gallons from the yard trees. Earliest season end for me but with the sweet I should hit my goal.
2024 - Starting with the 25 then more late Feb.
2023 - 25 taps on 11 trees to focus on the process. 9 Gallons and lots of sugar sand. 35 people over for breakfast in April
2022 - 8 x 14 sugarhouse and a steam bottler. 50 buckets! 9 Gallons syrup and 4 pounds of sugar
2021 - 20 x 30 divided pan on a Mason arch, 34 taps and 8 gallons for family and friends to judge. Dad hooked as well.
2020 - 2 taps, 1/2 pint on a turkey fryer, About 3/4 pint syrup in two weeks - Proof of concept!
Hey Aaron. How'd the end of season go?
Did my final collection and boil yesterday. One bucket had to get dumped - had two critters in it. And my yard tree has been done for weeks now. Everything else had a great run this week. Pulled taps and did a final boil.
But I'm kicking myself now, because the forecast has changed. It froze last night, which was not predicted. And the next week, which was supposed to be all warm with no freezes, has good hard freezes every night for as far out (Weds) as they can predict. So I blew it on pulling taps too early.
Oh well. I still ended at over 18 gallons of sap per tap, which is my second best year ever (last year's sap tsunami was offscale at over 27 gallons of sap per tap).
BigSchuss, you should have a great week coming. You must be swimming in sap right now!
GO
2016: Homemade arch from old wood stove; 2 steam tray pans; 6 taps; 1.1 gal
2017: Same setup. 15 taps; 4.5 gal
2018: Same setup. Limited time. 12 taps and short season; 2.2 gal
2019: Very limited time. 7 taps and a short season; 1.8 gals
2020: New Mason 2x3 XL halfway through season; 9 taps 2 gals
2021: Same 2x3, 18 taps, 4.5 gals
2022: 23 taps, 5.9 gals
2023: 23 taps. Added AUF, 13.2 gals
2024: 17 taps, 5.3 gals
All on buckets
Turns out my last boil was March 4. Got 27 gal of sap that day and boiled it but the best day since was 5 or under and hot. Pulled the taps and rinsed the buckets today. Visiting sugarhouses tomorrow for Mass maple day. 5 gallons of sweet in the freezer to boil down soon
2024 - Starting with the 25 then more late Feb.
2023 - 25 taps on 11 trees to focus on the process. 9 Gallons and lots of sugar sand. 35 people over for breakfast in April
2022 - 8 x 14 sugarhouse and a steam bottler. 50 buckets! 9 Gallons syrup and 4 pounds of sugar
2021 - 20 x 30 divided pan on a Mason arch, 34 taps and 8 gallons for family and friends to judge. Dad hooked as well.
2020 - 2 taps, 1/2 pint on a turkey fryer, About 3/4 pint syrup in two weeks - Proof of concept!
Hey Gabe....it was insane here last week. Couldn't keep up. At my elevation it froze every night and I had full buckets every day. This has been my FASTEST and best season in 20 years. Tapped on Feb. 26 or so and pulled taps on Friday. I am way over average season totals over a very short 3 week season.
I could certainly keep going for the next 2 weeks, but without snow my forest trails to the sugar bush are a bloody quagmire and I just don't want to tear then up anymore.
Sounds like you're done too. Last year I had too much snow after that 42" dump on March 14th shut is down completely. This year...not enough snow...but I'm happy as the sap has been running like crazy.
Aaron...sounds like you finished up too a few weeks ago.
Hope you both had good seasons.
Blair
16x24 Timber Frame Sugar House
Mason 2x4 Evaporator
90 trees on buckets
Nice! Congrats on a good season. Yeah, this was one of my shortest ever too. But still a great one, despite pulling taps early. Honestly, it would have been logistically very difficult to get this week's worth of sap, as I would have had to drive out over the weekend just to dump the muck out of the buckets and rinse them. Would have taken six hours, which I can't afford, as I have a lot of other spring projects now to do. So I am trying to be forgiving of myself for missing this coming week. Hearing that you've wrapped up too makes me feel a little better. I'm going to wind up with about 5.15 gallons of syrup, which is not bad considering I only did five collections, four boils, and I lost all the sap from my three best taps for two of my collections. Oh well, there's always something to improve for next season, and 0.31 gallons of syrup per tap is nothing to sneer at. Looking on the bright side, by not doing another boil, I start next season off with a bunch more nice dry split wood in the wood crib! That saves me time not having to split as much!
Aaron and Blair, what are your final tallies for the season?
GO
2016: Homemade arch from old wood stove; 2 steam tray pans; 6 taps; 1.1 gal
2017: Same setup. 15 taps; 4.5 gal
2018: Same setup. Limited time. 12 taps and short season; 2.2 gal
2019: Very limited time. 7 taps and a short season; 1.8 gals
2020: New Mason 2x3 XL halfway through season; 9 taps 2 gals
2021: Same 2x3, 18 taps, 4.5 gals
2022: 23 taps, 5.9 gals
2023: 23 taps. Added AUF, 13.2 gals
2024: 17 taps, 5.3 gals
All on buckets
Sorry for the late reply on this Gabe. Yeah...I hear you. Whenever I start thinking about "have to's" and "should haves" I always remember this is just a hobby for me. If I get sick of it half way through and want to call it quits despite more good runs I just call it quits. I never want it becoming a burden.
I drained my pan last weekend and finished the sweet and ended up with 7.5 gallons of syrup over a very short 3 week season. Boiled right around 380 gallons of sap.
Blair
16x24 Timber Frame Sugar House
Mason 2x4 Evaporator
90 trees on buckets
Just new to this and wondering if I am not getting it? So far no buds on trees and I don't hear peepers at night. Weather looks favorable through the weekend. In early February I purchased an evaporator 2'x20 with Dauntless Arch from Smokey Lake. I have about 2 inches of sweet in the pan and I am hoping for some more sap in the next day or so, will possibly boil on Thursday and I think finish off with about 1.5 -2 gallons of Syrup. Temps look ideal over next weekend. Is it too late in the season or can I expect some decent medium to dark amber? I have not had fantastic sap flow so far, it has come in waves with periods of little productivity. 1st Boil 5/12 pints of beautiful golden syrup, 2nd boil 1.7 Gallons of light amber that is just a bit cloudy. ( I tried using some DE when I filtered and it did not seem to go well, clogged my new coffee urn vacuum filter that I made.) I would like to end up with about 5 gallons so I am thinking one more week could do the trick. Question is it just too late to hope for quality sap? 26 Taps with 5 gallon buckets, I tapped early Feb 5th ish and I have collected about 240 gallons of sap, avg. 9.3 gallons per tap. Some of the smaller trees seem to be done. In Richmond MA.... A Rookie.
Michael
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