Still waiting in Lanark County

[ennismaple]

While our brothers and sisters in maple are busy making steam from their BIG SAP in the U.S. there's no sign of our season being ready to start any time soon. The forecast for the next couple weeks only calls for a day or two where it'll barely sneak above freezing. The earliest we've made syrup in the past 20 years is March 7 so it's no surprise the drills are still on the charger for now.

We had a LOT of snow in the bush at the start of the weekend. It was well past waist deep and everything we did was using snowshoes. We got the last piece of this year's 1" mainline up and tied Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon we pulled out 2000' of 1-1/4" vacuum line from the pump to the releaser. It's been a long time since my lungs and legs burned as bad as they did when my brother and I were trying to pull out a 1200' spool in one continuous pull! Eventually we admitted defeat and had to backtrack and pull the last 400' off the spool before stretching the line completely out.

Sunday we got the vacuum line tied to the bottom of the sap lines that it follows and started stretching the first laterals in the new bush. I love looking back at a piece of mainline and seeing the laterals stretched tight and snaking from tree to tree. I generally managed to keep them to 7 taps per lateral and under 75' in length but sometimes they were a bit longer or had a tap or two more. A few laterals are 60' long and the head tree is 30' above the mainline - I'll have to get a pack mule to tap them!

We thankfully got some rain overnight on Sunday. By Monday morning the fluffy snow had dropped about 18" leaving us over 2' of dense snow. Monday I stretched more laterals and my father got some more droplines cut in. We've got 171 taps ready for now with about another 120 taps worth of droplines stretched. I think we'll max out for this year's expansion at 750 to 800 more taps once all the laterals are in. I can't wait to see how much sap we get the first good run! We still have to cut in the saddle manifolds and I've got a couple hundred more taps in our old bushes I want to stretch semi-rigid tubing in before we tap. I wish my day job didn't interfere with my maple addiction...

[PATheron]

Ennismaple- Keep us posted I want to hear how much sap you get first run. Theeroon

[cncaboose]

Ennismaple, Not all Americans are getting BIG SAP yet. Those of us in Northern NY, which isn't far from you, are sitting and waiting too. What would be fun is to have bushes in Virginia/ Kentucky, then one in Northern NY, VT or Maine, and a third in Northern Quebec. Then a guy could sugar for 3-4 months straight. Ian

[Fred Henderson]

Ian, What are the sugaring Gods saying for a tapping date in your woods?

[H. Walker]

ennismaple: I can't see sap before the 3rd week of March because the 2nd week is the school's Spring Break and sap NEVER runs when there is lots of help around.

I'm also hoping I might be ready by that time. I've got to finish the addition for sap storage and filtering, install the new tanks, hook-up the sap filter place the new evaporator/hood/preheater, plumb the new filter press, and then string a mile of pipeline.

[jemsklein]

well right now we are at -18 c with some nasty wind chill and on the weekend it i going to be around -1 - +1 so we are getting there

[PATheron]

James- I really like your sign a lot. How did you make the maple leaf? Theeron

[jemsklein]

well to make the maple leaf i found a picture on the internet and put it on an over head slide and blew it up to the size i needed and traced it on 3 peices of wood then cut them all out sand it all and i took the best one traced it and made another on then glued it the mad the letters glued it to the back board and varnished and sanded 4 time then it is done