Never say never!

[TreeTapper2]

9.6" here according to the airport

[Flatlander]

We had about 1 inch. sap ran slowly the last 2 days. cooking it off now. another vacation day gone! still 2.5 % sap though.

Treetapper: you're hooked. There is no support group for quitting, only for getting you in deeper!
Mapler Jim why do you think that you are getting more syrup than you think you should from your sap?

Expect a big weekend of sap runs!!

[TreeTapper2]

Anyone collect sap today? We had a few trees give about 4 gallons and some flat out stingy with a few ounces.

[Mapler Jim]

Well finally, With 4 trees and 13 tapps we got 4 gallon of sap. Got so excited that I forgot to see what the sugar content was. This our 3rd year and we have never done it. Maybe the next batch. Next few days should be great !!!

Have a great run and lots of fun.

[MapleMounder]

Just got back from collecting I’d say about 75% of the taps were running, not a bad collection but thought it would be more. The wind is from the Southeast though and they are calling for rain tonight. We’ll have to see what the sap gods bring us tomorrow. Going to fire the evaporator up and run through what we got today. Good luck all!

[TreeTapper2]

No sap today..well not enough to make a big deal about ( 2 gal. at best). Last nights above freezing temps are no help at all.
I hope it gets cold enough tonight. Plan on boiling 44 gal. tomorrow from my silver maples. They came in at 1.9- 2% sugar.
This weeks temps here look great. I hope the same for everyone else.

[Sapster]

Hope everyone is starting to see some sap flow. Since tapping last weekend, I collected about 2 gallons of sap per tap, most of which came over the past 3 days. It was a little wet today, but we processed 68 gallons of sap to produce 220 oz (1.7 gal) of Grade A Light Amber syrup. This was my best yield since 2007 (I boil to 10°F above boiling temp of water instead of the standard 9°, so my yields are slightly less than normal). Is anyone else seeing higher than normal yields/sugar content)?
IMG_1293.jpg

[Flatlander]

Well I have decided to shut things down for the year. Could have gone all this past week and this weekend and looks like the coming week will be good as well. But I'm out of wood and its time to get to other things. This has been a good year to say the least. I have never had sap stay at 2.2 % or higher for the entire season, it usually drops off to 1.6 - 1.8% and I certainly have never had such a high quantity of sap either. I did add another 55 taps this year but hadn't planned on that last year when I split all my wood. Produced just over 60 gallons of syrup, my personal best in a season!!!

I did change out/switch taps to those CDL clear plastic taps and replaced most of my older drop lines. I think that really made the biggest difference for sap quantity. I think I'm sold on the idea of new taps each year and new drops ever two years.

I hope all you tappers up in the north part of the state have a good rest of the season. Weather looks good for you for a while yet. Keep the kids involved as much as possible.

Good luck to all and enjoy the fruits of your labor!

[TreeTapper2]

Sorry to see ya go Flatlander. Life has its priorities though.
The past two days have yielded 45 gallons on 30 taps.
Still waiting for a down pour, hopefully soon as I have other things to do as well.
Blessing to you, see ya next year.

[MapleMounder]

Flat,

Congratulations on having a good season. 2.2% sap all season long would be great. Now comes the fun part…..Clean up.

Up North here trees ran good yesterday and today. Ended up with all the 1st graders yesterday (had to post pone it from earlier in the season due to snow) they sure had a good time and got to enjoy the sap right out of the tap. Finished up a couple gallons last night for a local American Legion breakfast today, we work best under pressure.

As far as weather, I don’t think they have a clue. Every forecast for the last month and a half always has sunny 40 + degree days 4 to 5 days out that never come. Oh well if it was easy everybody would do it!

Mounder