Its slow here but I think that will change soon. Sounds like it will continue to warm up next week. Saw 4 robins this morning. We made 5 gal of syrup so far which is a lot less than last year at this time. We have one more 25 tap 3/16 line to put up tomorrow and then we will be ready for the big run. Sugar % is nothing to write home about but hopefully it will go up.
150 on 3/16 gravity 2018 and 120 sap sacks
14 x 20 sugar shack
2014 New custom 2x6 arch "The Firestorm" w/ preheater, AUF & AOF
Smokey Lake pans and water jacket bottler
2024 new 2x8 set of drop flue pans and hood from Smoky Lake. Lengthen our arch.
Just a hobby but seems like more work every
year
3 generations working together
Wife that guards our syrup
43.74° N
I was out of town this week for work and came back to a bunch of bags filled with frozen ice cubes... At least my storage tank should have plenty of ice to keep new sap cold for a while... A lot of clean up work today though....
2014 - 15 taps
2015 - 20 taps
2016 - 25 taps
2017 - 60 taps - added sugar shack and first evaporator
2018 - 70 taps on Bags
2019 - 90 taps - new 2x4 corsair with hybrid pro pan from Smokey Lake
It's been nuts the past few days down here in the SE corner so today's cool-off is welcome. I've now surpassed last year's sap collection (maple) by 100 gallons and it's quite possible my little backyard operation pulls in 1000 gallons of sap this season. Been cooking and keeping pulled off syrup cold for the last few days and will bottle this weekend. Firewood is disappearing quickly, but I'm running on nearly 100% ash, so the boil rate is awesome. Forecast continues to look good for some more amazing runs. Silver flower buds are darn close to opening here, but that usually means some more good sap is still yet to come. We've been going for quite a while now; first decent run collected was 2/20-21. Sugar is good enough; not quite 2%, but it's fine with me.
42.82N
2015 - Small operation. 25 buckets. One excited 5 year old and one 35 year old that feels 5 again.
2016 - One year older. New Homemade 2x4 Arch, Smoky Lake Pan and looking at 52 maples, 17 box elders and 2 walnut trees.
2017 - Shurflo 4008 hooked to 42 stingy silver maples and a few Norways. A couple buckets on sugars and Norways. 10 box elders.
2018 - ...a few more taps.
2019 - ...more taps on 3/16 gravity. This spiral is heading downward in a hurry.
2020 - 4x400 RO - RB20 (uh-oh!)
It's just starting to open up by us. Collected 450 gallons the last 2 days on 325 taps but some yard trees and north side taps are still being stubborn.
Been slow here near Green Bay collected 140 gallons yesterday. Boiled off 100 of that .Hope we get some action soon or it will be a bad year here.
Must have ran well the last few days. Dad had 32 gallons today off 27 taps. Which gives him 100+ for the last 3 days. He is happy. My trees did ok with maybe 20 gallons from 16 taps. One yard tree has give 10 gallons so far.
~1.5g per tap yesterday. Great run. Today should be a bit slower. Been boiling maple sap in the evenings all week to keep up, and I need to get to the 80 gallons of box elder sap I have to boil. Hopefully tonight after I clean the pan. A bit too much niter in it now - was knocking last night. Syrup coming off the evap last night was insanely light and really vanilla flavored. Amazing stuff. Overall maple sap results for vac and buckets so far is 12g/tap off 69 taps(and three of those haven't done anything). We'll see how long the buds hold off down here since we've been warmer for a while. Season's potentially got a lot left in it and the forecast is superb. Making last year's 10.6 gallons of syrup look like a joke.
42.82N
2015 - Small operation. 25 buckets. One excited 5 year old and one 35 year old that feels 5 again.
2016 - One year older. New Homemade 2x4 Arch, Smoky Lake Pan and looking at 52 maples, 17 box elders and 2 walnut trees.
2017 - Shurflo 4008 hooked to 42 stingy silver maples and a few Norways. A couple buckets on sugars and Norways. 10 box elders.
2018 - ...a few more taps.
2019 - ...more taps on 3/16 gravity. This spiral is heading downward in a hurry.
2020 - 4x400 RO - RB20 (uh-oh!)
Glad you had such a good day and year so far. It's been slow here but really let loose yesterday. Last year was a really good year for us and will be hard to beat this year.
150 on 3/16 gravity 2018 and 120 sap sacks
14 x 20 sugar shack
2014 New custom 2x6 arch "The Firestorm" w/ preheater, AUF & AOF
Smokey Lake pans and water jacket bottler
2024 new 2x8 set of drop flue pans and hood from Smoky Lake. Lengthen our arch.
Just a hobby but seems like more work every
year
3 generations working together
Wife that guards our syrup
43.74° N
That sounds incredible littleTapper! How much syrup have you made so far this year?Originally Posted by littleTapper
~ Karen ~
2012 - 10 taps, 1 turkey fryer - 169.5L sap 4.2 L syrup
2013 - 23 taps, 2 turkey fryers - 748.5 L sap 17.56 L syrup
2014 - 22 taps, 509 L sap 12.5 L syrup
2015 - 28 taps, 1093.75 L sap 25.1 L syrup
2016 - 25 taps, 1223.5 L sap 28.25 L syrup
2017 - 21 taps, 518.5 L sap 12.7 L syrup
2018 - 28 taps, 2 turkey fryers & Denali 3 burner propane stove - 798L sap 16.9 L syrup
2019 - 28 taps, 1409.5L sap 40.12L syrup
Sugar, Norway, Manitoba, Silver and Freeman Maples
Thanks! It's truly amazing what a big difference there is this year ~60 miles apart. You'll go a lot longer than I will though being I'm almost all silvers.
42.82N
2015 - Small operation. 25 buckets. One excited 5 year old and one 35 year old that feels 5 again.
2016 - One year older. New Homemade 2x4 Arch, Smoky Lake Pan and looking at 52 maples, 17 box elders and 2 walnut trees.
2017 - Shurflo 4008 hooked to 42 stingy silver maples and a few Norways. A couple buckets on sugars and Norways. 10 box elders.
2018 - ...a few more taps.
2019 - ...more taps on 3/16 gravity. This spiral is heading downward in a hurry.
2020 - 4x400 RO - RB20 (uh-oh!)
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