2009 Season WestVirginiaMapler

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/06/09

I was able to get off work a couple of hours early and put in 230 taps on one of my south side bushes in about 2.5 hours. Also, got both of the tanks set and made some minor repairs. Temperature was about 40 or a little higher and all blue sky and sun all day and no wind. Beautiful day to be in the woods working and the sap was running a little before dark. This bush is split in the middle by a fence and belongs to 2 different people. The larger side has aprox 165 taps on it and all but about 5, I used the Leader Disposal extensions to see if they make a difference as the other side of the fence has about 65 taps on it and these 65 run into a different tank than the other 165, so I can see how big of a difference they make if any.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/07/09

Spent the morning at my son's bball game and hit the sugarhouse about 11:15 and spent a couple of hours tapping the other south side bush, setting tanks and making a few minor changes on the tubing and repairs. This bush has aprox 115 taps on it and a lot of them are very steep or have to be tapped off of a ladder because they are nearly flat and I have the high end of the taps on the flat area about 8 to 10 feet off the ground to maintain slope. In this bush, I have about 90 of the taps on the Leader tree saver spout extensions running into the same tank and I have about 15 other taps running into a seperate tank that are not on the spout extensions. I also have 4 other taps running into a small tank and 7 on buckets, so it will give me a good idea how much difference if any these spout extensions make pendiing the season will run until around March 21st which would be 6 full weeks. Temperature was in mid 50's most of the day and sap was running pretty good in both bushes by late afternoon with lots of sun and some wind. Forecast for next several days show warm, rain and little freezing. Hope to get enough sap for a good long boil one day this week, but we'll see what happens. Ground still frozen pretty good and not sure how deep it is frozen.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/08/09

Here's 10 day forecast current temp at 8:30 is 46 degrees

Today
Feb 8AM Showers
45°
24°
30%
Mon
Feb 9
Partly Cloudy
52°
36°
10%
Tue
Feb 10
Few Showers
58°
39°
30%
Wed
Feb 11
Cloudy
56°
32°
10%
Thu
Feb 12
Rain / Snow Showers
43°
25°
30%
Fri
Feb 13
Partly Cloudy
45°
27°
Sat
Feb 14
Rain / Snow Showers
41°
24°
40%
Sun
Feb 15
Rain / Snow Showers
36°
23°
60%
Mon
Feb 16
Partly Cloudy
35°
24°
10%
Tue
Feb 17
Partly Cloudy
33°
18°
10%

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/08/09

I had one of the helpers to check out my tanks this evening and appears there is 400+ gallons in them so far since yesterday morning. Supposed to get to 27 tonight, so hopefully a decent freeze that will get them restarted again tomorrow and I can get out of work by 3 or so to collect. Might be able to do a big boil on Tues, but wait and see. Lot of temps in 50's and pushing 60 for next 3 or 4 days. Way too early for this so far, but take what we get and hopefully a big boil on Tues or Wed.

[Tomahawk]

Hey Brandon!!

Glad to see you're off to a great start.

Good luck this year my friend.

[mapleman3]

Git R done Brandon!! looks like you'll be boiling something soon!!

[Sugarmaker]

Brandon you are right into it! Great our season is just a few days behind.
We may be boiling Tuesday night also.

Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/09/09

Collected around 500 gallon of sap this evening and maybe a touch more. Sap was still running some and not supposed to freeze this evening so it will quit running overnight or during day tomorrow. Upper 50's today and pushing 60 next 2 days. Then colder into middle of next week, so no more sap runs in sight at this time. Hope to get at least another 100 to 150 gallon tomorrow afternoon when I collect, but we'll see. Will fire up the evaporator about 7:30 tomorrow morning and make sure no bugs or problems before I turn it over to one of my helpers to boil while I work. Not a bad run for the first run as I have only about 2/3 of my taps in the the other 1/3 that are not tapped are my best running taps which will go in sometime in the next 2 to 3 weeks. Hopefully the spout savers will help extend the season this all this 5 day high temp spell.

[mfchef54]

wvm,
what's the sugar content?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have no idea what sugar content is, but seems good for me as I average about 50 to 1 ratio or 1.75% sugar content. Drew off close to 10 gallon yesterday from 585 gallon of sap and that is starting up with raw sap, so probably close to 3 gallon of syrup still in the evaporator.