Well I guess its time I get this going. Looks Like the maple news took over the trader. SOOOOO many ads. a little bit of a deterrent I know this thing isn't cheap so thank you to the maple news. but anyway hope everyone is doing well.

I had a Hip replacement surgery November 28th/23. Its been a long time coming. Delt with pain for a few years. Got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore. advanced arthritis, bone spurs, hip displasia... all in all pretty bad. Doc didn't know how I was still going at the pace I was. My wife says I have the pain tolerance of a heroin addict but anyway surgery went very well and after sitting on my a$$ for too long and putting on 13 lbs still getting stronger everyday and that deep hip pain is gone still a little pain here and there but dont need pain meds or even advil at this point getting stronger every day. I am currently at 11 weeks. back to work 5 hrs a day. I am on my feet all day so he restricted me to 5 hrs and no heavy lifting. should be back to full time in a couple more weeks.

So I started tapping last Sunday Feb. 4th and just took things very slow and steady still a bit of ice and snow but just did what I could do and finished tapping this Sunday. and over that time collected 800 gallons and did my first boil yesterday got the pans sweetened and made a few gallons of syrup. sap still had a pretty green hue but ended up with border amber/Dark I didn't check it yet. Went through the tubing across the street which I did Sunday morning and fixed all the leaks vacuum is holding at 27" I wanted 28" I think I will settle for that for now.

I got a another 500 gallons in the tank since last night but that is gonna sit until tomorrow. Hopefully there will be no school tomorrow and I can boil early but we went from 8 to 12 inches of snow of 3-5 inches to maybe even 1 to 3 storm is going south.

big freeze up coming for the next 7 to 10 days. Hopefully things get ripping after that.

hopefully we will have a great season like last year!!!

Happy sapping everyone.
Brad