2010 Season West Virginia Mapler

[Tomahawk]

Hey Brandon -- good luck this year bud.

Even if I'm not posting, I'll be following along, so keep us updated. And get some more new pics up on your site too! LOL!

Hope you have a great season, talk soon.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Tomahawk,

Great to hear from you and will get some new pics soon. Nothing going on down here to speak of. It is supposed to hit 30's on Sat, 40's on Sunday and 50's on Monday and then cool back down. Hope to get the 220 on the North side in this week and that will be all of the 625 taps and hopefully I can get a good run. Still about 16" on the south side and about 24+ inches on the north side, so not sure the trees will run very good. At least, maybe we can get some of this snow melted. Today makes 7 straight days of snow and supposed to get some snow the next 3 days. I would guess in the last 75 days, it has snowed at least 60 and probably closer to 65. Hope I never repeat this winter in my lifetime, it has been unbelievable. Probably around 160 inches of snow at the sugarhouse since Dec 18th.

Good news is that the ground is as soft as it can be even on the North side, so no worry about the ground thawing. It never had a chance to get frozen.

[Parker]

Sounds like you are having a real winter,,,and I am skampering around on bare ground to mabey 8" of snow,,,a real treat not to be wearing snowshoes and walking on 3 feet of snow tapping,,,,digging everything out,,,WOW,,,mabey Ill be tapped in befor you this year Brandon,,That would certinaly be a first,,,,,Good luck with your season

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Parker,

It is amazing for sure that all the guys in NE are making syrup and getting sap and I can't hardly remember what an evaporator sounds like. Hope to have the other 220 in by Saturday and get ready for hopefully a good run. Sounds like you are on the ball and it is "go time".

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Put in another 90 or so taps this evening on the north side. Spent most of the 3 hours there plowing snow and trying to get the roads opened up on the north side. Hope to get the remaining 130 taps in on the north side tomorrow or Saturday and spend Saturday afternoon on leak patrol as it should be running some.

[220 maple]

Brandon,
You believe it will run some this weekend?, I have been getting plenty of sap, this weekend It will most likely be in BIG SAP WARNING. That is if the weatherman is right, 18 at night mid 40s to lower 50s. I'm going to break the camp record at the pace I'm on. 3200 gallons of 2.5% water in Feb. Only open ten days, 800 plus taps, on high vacuum. I love my Indiana Liquid Ring Vacuum Pump. I will check back in Sunday Night or Monday if I survive the Flood of 2010. Lol

Mark 220 Maple

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Finished tapping the north side yesterday and have everything tapped but 7 taps, so should be at about 620. Too much snow to get to the 7 taps and will tap them in a few days or leave them until next year. Got around 40 Friday will all sun, in low 40's yesterday with all sun, 48 today will all sun, 48 tomorrow with all sun and in 50's on Tues. Supposed to freeze tonight and tomorrow night and then no freezing until end of week. Looks like an awesome week for sugaring. There was about 200 gallon in the tanks when I left yesterday evening at dark, and will start collecting tomorrow afternoon and hoping for a huge run. Snow is leaving fast and starting to see a bare patch on two on the steep hillsides on the south side. Still about 12" on the south side and 16 to 18 on the north side but all the south side will probably be about gone by Tues and the north side should be about gone by end of week. Hoping for 2,000+ gallons of sap this week, but we'll see what happens. Last time I got weather like this, I got 2300+ gallons in 5 days from 100 less taps, but I didn't have all this snow on the ground either which has to be hurting things.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I picked up 950 gallons this evening and left at least another 150+ in the woods. Down to about 25 tonight and 56 tomorrow with no wind and lots of sun, so looks like another big run tomorrow. No freezing in sight for at least a week after tonight, so it may be a one week wonder season for the most part. Hopefully we can get another run or two as the taps are fresh and no extremely warm temps. Supposed to start raining tomorrow night a little and some rain rest of week into next week. Normal end to season is around March 21st here, but praying we can stretch it to April 3rd, but that has never happened but this year has been anything but normal.

Hoping for 2500 gallon this week and would be awesome to see 3,000 or more this week.

Got two of my retired helpers boiling tomorrow and will work in shifts with one starting around 6 tomorrow morning. Looking to boil off aprox 1,000 gallon tomorrow. Sap is crystal clear and should all be light syrup.

[220 maple]

Brandon,
Well I survived the flood of Sugarwater, 2440 gallons friday thru sunday. I don't believe the trees ever ran the freeze out. They would thaw around 10 am then freeze back up by 7 pm. They basically only ran 27 hrs in a 72 hrs spand. I have had them run for three days before off of a good freeze. I only have 870 holes open all on new trees, I am running high vac. on them with check valve taps. I hope we get a freeze next week I am curious how the the CV taps respond. We have not made one drop of dark amber. Questionable whether if it's Med. Amber. The lightest and best tasting syrup I have ever made. Last count we was in the 140 gal range and three milk can setting full Sunday evening that should yield another 24 gallons that will be lite also. I'm sure the trees ran Monday and Today since it has been freezing here in Harrisonburg, we are usually colder back at the camp?
I'll post later about that!!!

Mark 220 Maple

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Guys,

Looks like it may be all over here and the season lasted a whole 5 days. I got 2 days a couple of weeks ago when I had about 60% of my taps in and I got 3 days of sap this week. Had about 500 gallon by Sunday evening and got another 600 gallon on Monday and got down to 24 Monday night but the temps hit 60 with all sun on Tues and it was all she wrote and appears the fat lady is singing as I am writing this. Unless the weather changes and it gets worse every time I look at it, no freezing for the next 10 days which would put us to March 21st and I have only made syrup twice past March 21st which is normal end of season. Usually, I have made at least 90% crop by March 15th and we are at about a 40% crop of the majority of it came in 3 days.

Season normally starts here around Feb 10th and this year it didn't start until March 6th, so it didn't bode well for us. We had 1 day above 40 degrees from Jan 1st until March 6th and then it went hot.