Tapping in Ontario

[Brent]

Good to hear you got another flow. We had a flow here to but this morning I had a 4' drift right across the field between the house and the bush. I went to work in a funk. Came home a bit early and the strong sun had eaten way the drift enough to get back and there was a strong trickle into the tank on the pipeline, but the inside of the tank had gone mouldy ... and the wood that is left will not burn hot enough. D O N E
So I split some wood for next year and we spent the night bottling.

[argohauler]

I've been wiffle waffling for the past few days, ever since they said the weather was going to freeze nights again. I expected the temps at night to moderate, but this morning, they still have 5 nights of freezing forecasted. Last night wasn't a hard freeze though, -1. I think it pretty much took all night before it froze. Lake Erie goes against us sometimes I think.

I had finished off what was in the pans on Thursday. I didn't know if I wanted to start up again. I have some wood left. Dad's all gung-ho to do some more. I rebored some of the buckets on Monday the 30th of March. We dumped out the rain and old sap in the morning. I checked them around 8 last night and they had around an inch and a half in a 20 L pail. Some of them only a few drops. I rebored the buckets by the shanty and the 40 taps out at the front of the bush and they put 2.5 inches in the same pail in 4 hours.

I bleached the main lines yesterday morning. I got 3 of the 10 mainlines rebored. I'll do some more today. Hopefully I'll get enough out of this now. I know 2 years ago I rebored and got more syrup in April, than I did in March.

I don't like making syrup too far into April because then I get behind in all my farm work. (vegetables)

[Brent]

Hi Argohauler

I hope it doesn't go buddy on you before you get what you want.

We also have an Argo 8x8 magnum about the same age as yours but we don't use it for sap .... yet.

what tank did you put in and how did you mount it ?
any chance you have picture of it.

[Big_Eddy]

Dumped 40 gals of sap this morning - left over from Monday - weather all week was no good for boiling (outside) and by this morning it was well past usable. No flows during the week til yesterday afternoon, then the trees all opened up. A quick walk around this morning it looks like I have 40 gals at least sitting in the buckets to collect tonight and forecast for the weekend is for -5 nights and +5 days - so looking forward to at least another few runs. Will see how it turns out.

[ennismaple]

Going haaaard today. Ran one tank over, had to turn some other vacuum systems off until we caught up a bit. We'll be leaving sap in the sugar camp overnight because there's too much to boil today. Sugar content has dropped below 2%, which is normal for late in the season. Colour has come back a bit but would like to get more light stuff for retail but it`s not that critical. Bulk prices are the same for extra-light or amber so it really doesn`t matter much.

[argohauler]

Well I think I just wasted my time reboaring. Ice came out of the lines, but I only had little trickles. The buckets hardly dripped. The really good trees hardly produced. Me thinks I'm done. Now it's not supposed to freeze here tonight. I think I'll start pulling tomorrow. Took a tour around the bush, scoping out wood to cut and trees that should be removed. Got some firewood cut for next year.

Brent: The tank is made by Raven I believe. It's 100 US gal, 8" hole with lid and a strainer. It has a 1 inch drain. The people I got it from, put a hopper on top, which is good for transporting your gathering pails. It fits in just perfect widthways. It's not quite as long as the length of the back of the argo. I put a chunk of plywood on the back argo tray. Then I had some chunks of 2X4 and 6 to put on top of the plywood. That gets the drain up away from the centre of the argo where it comes in at the bottom, where the indent is on your argo tray. I then put a couple hunks of wood between the end of the tank and the back of the argo so it doesn't shift.

I use a 3/4 hp submersible with 1.5" hose to pump it out. Takes 5 mins to empty. How muddy is your bush. Our bush is a swamp, hence why I use an argo, BUT if you're travelling through many waterholes, you'll need to grease those seals every couple days if you can get the time. An argo won't chew out your trails as bad as a tractor or 4 wheeler. I'll try to find a picture to scan in.

[cheesegenie]

Great runs here the past few days at last. Sap not as sweet, I can't test
it, but we get about 4 litres syrup from each 45 gal. drum of sap. Looks
good again today, hard freeze and sun is bright already.