OK. Last weekend was it for me. I burned my syrup pan on Saturday and had a hard time getting anything on Sunday. Besides having no real amounts of sap to boil and producing motor oil, I'm just beat. We've been working on this season since last October when we started building the new sugarhouse and putting up new lines.

A note of caution to others. Starting with my very first weekend, I had a spare bucket of cold sap in case something happened. Being the last weekend, I some how unconsciously decided that I didn't need it. Wanting to finish quickly, I switched to some really well seasoned wood and got a evaporation rate higher than I normally had. Feed tank went dry and at the last second before getting enough sap in there, my center channel starting burning. White smoke is pouring out. No emergency sap bucket. Happened in seconds and could have been prevented if I checked the feed tank just 30 seconds prior. Oh well. Everyone burns their pans at some point, right?

Time to clean up....

We got about 0.17 gallons per tap this year. Not great, but better than zero gallons per tap. There is always next year!

Dave