February journal

[cpmaple]

Parker,

I if tapped and made syrup based on accuweather, I don't think I would ever get very far at least down here. They have some of the dumbest forecasts I have ever seen and are so overly optomistic it makes them look stupid.

They have been pretty accurate the past few days as far as temp here in my location of ny. So i think i will go ahead and start tapping next weekend for sure and do the most of my tapping the following weekend like i posted before

[Smith's Maple]

We had alot of snow in jan. but the last two storms was mainly rain here. Only about 12 inch's or so on the ground now. That is alot better than the 50 plus inches we slugged through last year to tape.

[whalems]

Finnally got the roof on the temporary shack yesterday. need to sheet the walls and move the arch in and insulate and brick and run tubbing and set tanks and..... We tap in june Right

[3rdgen.maple]

The only accurate weather accuweather is able to get right is the day before forecast. Had a big storm yesterday and not even the local channel said anything about it. Last night high temps for today was 23 degrees. I woke up this morning and it was already 30 and its 34 right now. They have absolutely no clue how to predict weather. It is in fact a waste of time to even watch the weather report. I get a good laugh when they all say todays high is ( whatever ) and its already above that temp. Idiots all of them. Im going go to cut wood.

[farmall h]

Wicked lightening and thunder. Lasted an hour or so. Got 8 inches of snow in the process. Came back from Leader in Swanton at 4:30 (total white-out!) had to drive 30-40mph the whole way back on Interstate 89 and rt.2. Got home with the Double releaser though...gonna mount the releaser in the sugarhouse today over a "cut in half" 35 gallon drum then plumb the existing 2" pvc to the side bung of the drum and redirect the sap to four holding tanks.

[Dennis H.]

I am now officially ready to tap.
I placed my tank and milk releaser for the lower trees and fired up the vac to look for any leaks. Found a stubby that was chewed completely off by a tree rat and a stubby that was hanging no longer on the T fitting plug.

The biggest leak I found was a 3/4" barb fitting that came undone. I had to put a new piece of 3/4" black pipe back in the ends were now more that 8" apart!!

Once they were fixed I had vac running right at 23"

Got the 55 gal drum ready that I will be using to collecting sap from the buckets, it fits real nice in the bed of my Kubota RTV.

[Dennis H.]

Farmall H, let us know how tha new fancy releaser works for you, got any pics??

[Fishgill]

Did a test boil today. All went great !!

[BryanEx]

Did a test boil today.

So basically you are saying... you made some soup outdoors?

Just teasing. These guys that are already bottling are driving me crazy because I still have weeks to go before I even start looking to tap.

[Fishgill]

I hear ya. I had to stop myself after boiling 30 gallons of water.
I can't wait for the season to start.