Sunapee

[Mac]

My lines are up. 120 ready to tap. Thankful to have another week though, to get everything else ready. First year with an evaporator... two years with propane and a flat pan. I'm sure there is somthing I haven't done yet.... I can see already it will be high anxiety the first few days....!!! Guess thats what the boiling soda is helpful for. It will be nice to have this resource when things start " heading south".

[Mac_Muz]

Well I dropped down and read my thread from Last year. I set taps march 2nd. Not much of any race to get that part done, just a race to get every thing else done starting with nothing. Bam!~

This year i might even have wood ahead, if it dried any. By the time i got to cutting it it was buried again.. But it has been about 8 weeks stacked in the weather, and appears as drier than when I dug it out and cut it up. it was old slab wood dumped on the ground years before i moved here, so it dried, but then it took on ground moisture. I don't expect the lower portions in the stack to be any good either, just the part above the snow.

The snow here is settleling but I'ld say there is still over 3 feet deep of the stuff, far less than last year!

Many of the trees I use are in the road line where town plowing uses road graders and big bucket loaders to wing back bankings. Last year i had to do a bit of ice climbing to get up and over to the trees.

The tap holes are over my head standing there in summer. Last year I dug down some, and first placed the buckets on the snow, to just mark and then drill the holes to tap. If I hadn't I would have needed a step ladder to get my buckets back at seasons end.

Now that is because of road graders and bucket loaders, and not natural snow fall.

It is likely I will wait and tap on Feb 21/22 which is still earlier than I have ever set taps by a week. But even the weather will determine that.

I do wonder though if anyone sets 1 tap as a test, and checks it, perhaps on a good known tree?

[Parker]

I tapped the maple in my yard last sunday-virtually no flow,,,one of the factors keeping my itchy trigger finger in check...on a decent day that bucket would be full

[3% Solution]

Still got some cold weather in store for us.
Just think this rain that's coming in (.38") will turn the snow to crust and we can walk on it!!!!!
Hang tight boys, hang tight, this is a teaser today!!!!!

Dave

[Mark-NH]

Solid advice Dave. We know this 2 day warm spell was sent to test our resolve. Hold tight boys. Don't crack under the pressure. This weekend should be a corker to get out in the woods.

[Mac_Muz]

yeah I ploan to wait, and maybe beyond this coming weekend too.. never before have I ever set taps any earlier than March 1st. Might not this time.

The nice thing is I can ask and read here to get an idea, maybe even see whats going on south of me. And in my case since all it is, is a love of labor and I don't earn 1 cent, it really doesn't matter. Almost no matter what happens i will get something, and I hope that will be enough for some food preps for the next on coming year.

I still have eatten my fill, and there is still some left over from the past year.

I guess my needs are met with less than 3 gallons, since there is still some around, and at that I gave away several pints to locals who helped and or some to a few friends.

I will be on the ice today dealing with broken cars and trucks.. No fun, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do and it better than the sun beating on my head and being eatten alive by black flies. Maybe tomorrow I will cut some dead white pine. I want the rain to pass first if it is going to.

[mcgeec]

Hi everyone,
Thanks for the advice. It reminded me that I jumped the gun last year and put in half my taps. Everything froze up for 10 days.

When I tapped the rest, those new taps ran great for four weeks. The earlier taps probably produced about a tenth what the later taps did.

Besides, I will spend this weekend working on the platform to my first sugar shack.

McGee

[Cardigan99]

Mac Muz. I've got a couple of tap holes from last year I hung buckets from that are almost 9' off the ground. Tapped them chest high on top of 5 feet of snow on the edge of the field. Glad we don't have that kind of snow this year.

[3% Solution]

Cardigan99,
The snow has really dropped here, wasn't over the tops of my boots today.
Last weekend I was up to my butt.
The snow is coming away from the bases real good.
As soon as this cold snap passes I guess we're going to drill some holes.
Still have to watch the weather.
Stay safe.

Dave

[Mac_Muz]

Cardigan99, I plan to use some of the same trees I did last year in the towns plow line, but the snow isn't nearly as deep this year, still there is enough.

I have found access to some new trees too, but harder to get at, on the field line. The snow is going fast here in the Fog which eats snow fast.

Still I will probably need to snow shoe in the woods line to tap.

Still no trees I can access are in any real sun for any good amount of time.

I am not sure exactly what that means as any other time i did this the trees got good sun, when ever there was any.

Rembering isn't one of my best things to do in life, but the little i can it seems that sunny days dod the best.

The best of any trees I recall were in the sun, with a field between them and the sun and a fast clean brook at their heels.. Practicly roots in the water.

That place is way to far for me to go everyday. That place was perfect for lines, but I have never used any. That was where I had 22 taps out and nearly killed myself trying to keep up with a 2x2 pan... geeze the things I get myself into.