2009 Season WestVirginiaMapler

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/24/09

Tapped the remaining 175 taps today as I was planning on waiting until 1st of the month, but we are just over 3 weeks from season being over down here and the next 3 days looks like too much of a good run to miss. It got up to close to 40 today after being in single digits last 2 nights.

Here's the 10 day forecast. Good luck to my other sap brothers.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/healt...6hr_topnav_flu

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Thanks Brandon, Ya i just had to at least stop by here in your post and say howdy...looks to be an OK season after all.

My weather has been fluky this year..but never the less Ive seen the tree's running from cracks on limbs and a few nibbled off buds dripping from the deer nipping the tips off some of the new growth....

Charlie

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/26/09

Picked up about 540 gallon of sap this evening that ran from Wed afternoon thru the night until this afternoon. No freezing tonight until it gets cold Sat night and then appears too cold most of next week. Left about 75 gallon of sap in the woods this evening and hopefully it will continue to run thru the night into tomorrow before the wind picks up sometime tonight or tomorrow.

Appears will be a good boil off tomorrow and hopefully can collect what is in the woods tomorrow afternoon and get it boiled off too. Nothing exciting with sap flow this year, but slow and steady a couple of days each week.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/27/09
Collected aprox 400 more gallons of sap and boiled off 650 gallons. Aprox 300 more to boil off tomorrow and whatever runs from time collected today until I collect tomorrow morning. It hasn't frozen since it started running, so the sap has been running since Wed without a freeze.

Canned off 12.5 more gallons yesterday and hopefully can off another 10 to 12 today. Thru yesterday, at 30.5 canned off and a couple of gallons that I drew off yesterday didn't get canned. Supposed to get down to about 10 again and then start warming back up Tues and Wed. Next week looks like good sap weather for a huge run end of next week. So far staying pretty cool and cold and other than first week of warm weather, tap holes should be in good shape for another 3 weeks. Most of the taps I tapped on 02/07 have new Leader spout adapters in the holes, so I will hopefully be able to see the benefits of them.

Everything is light so far and sugarsand is the least I have ever seen.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

02/28/09
Collected another 200 gallon of sap today. Pretty amazing sap was still running some this afternoon which was over 72 hours since it started running without a freeze. I got 1150 gallon of sap from this run and made nearly 25 gallon of syrup. Canned 12.25 gallon this evening which puts it at 42.75 for the season and with what is in evaporator and flushed from press, it should put it at 46 to 47 gallon for season. Definitely best Feb I have had if memory serves me correctly. Boiled right at 2,200 gallon of sap so far, so sugar content is very good for me this year. Can't make anything but light syrup so far and drained the evaporator for a good cleaning next week which will likely contribute to more light syrup. Appears we have used about 33% of our wood and likely enough wood for 4,000 more gallon of sap and tons more laying already cut for next year in the woods, but I don't anticipate needing any of that.

Cold again this weekend and down to 6 on Monday and then start warming back up next week and end of next week looks about like this week. We had 2 nights in single digits and then it went to 50+ for nearly four days and next weeks looks like the same. Good thing this week and next week looks the same is that the sun was out nearly all day on Wed thawing out the trees and got up to 50 even though it didn't run much on Wed from the tremendous freeze we had, after Wed afternoon, the sun has stayed hid almost the entire time other than a few minutes which kept the trees running and kept the sap nice, cool and fresh.

[JohnM]

Go Brandon!

Looks like you will have a great season in WV this year.

Best wishes to you and your family.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

John,

Thanks and how are things going with you. Haven't been on here much to keep up with things. Too early to tell yet, but season usually runs until around March 21 and I usually make most of my syrup in March. Key word is USUALLY! lol

[JohnM]

Great season so far in Indiana. Still backyarding on your old pan.

Freezing now, will run big sap toward the end of this week!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

03/05/09

Collected aprox 380 gallon of sap this evening. Was down to 3 a couple of nights ago, so it took all day yesterday and half of today to get the sap going. It was running as hard as I have ever seen it this evening at dark and after dark when I was collecting. I have never seen sap run that fast thru 5/16" tubing and would guess it was running at 50 to 60 gph. Supposed to get down close to freezing tonight and 58 and sunny tomorrow. No freezing tomorrow night and 65 on Sat. We have an open house on Saturday and are planning for 150, so we'll see what happens. Appears we will have plenty of sap to boil. Saturday will make 4 full weeks, so the end is in sight. Supposed to be 65 on Sunday also and no more freezing until Thurs, so the tap holes are going to take a beating. Hopefully get another decent run or two after this week and hoping for 1500 gallon from this run before it quits on Sat.

Good luck, looks like great maple weather everywhere this weekend!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

03/06/09

Collected 400 to 500 more gallon of sap today and boiled off 510 gallons and made 12.875 gallon of syrup from 510 gallons of sap which equates to 40 to 1 ratio or 2.5% sugar content. Best I have ever had in 1 day to my knowledge. Hope to get another 400+ gallon by time it quits running tomorrow PM and hoping to be able to boil 700 to 800 gallon of sap for open house tomorrow on Sat. Supposed to be 69 degrees next two days, so not going to be good for any holes as it is going to be Thurs before the next freeze. At 55.75 gallons thru yesterday and the 12.875 was a borderline light/med on color with a definite light taste. Labeled it as med so I would have something besides light to sell for the open house.