At the end of the day, i brought home 4 gal of really light almost finished syrup. This is weird though, i had to drain my 2 front pans later & scrub them out, as the sand had stuck after only 2 boils creating almost endless foaming. Drowned 3 moths yesterday, that's gotta be a record early date for me.
So after today's pickup, I have half of my last years season total - Good start, big freeze coming Friday PM, towards the end of the month it's supposed to get more normal. Honeybees in the barn today while i was boiling.
Pumped up 400+ gallons of 55 degree sap this afternoon and got it into the first milk tank. It's down to 39 degrees as I type. Have a Boy Scout campout (down in Kent, Mike) on Saturday so I'm going to pump tomorrow's take tomorrow afternoon, start boiling Thursday night and finish on Friday. With luck I'll have 600+ by tomorrow.
Yes, next week looks good. Cornwall 3rd grade has a field trip to Young Love Maple next Friday so I'd better have some sap to boil!
1980 - 6 taps, stone fire pit, drain pan evaporator, 1 pint of syrup
2016 - 55 taps on 3/16 and gravity, new sugar shack, 2x3 Mason XL, 16 gallons of syrup
2017 - 170 taps on 3/16, 2x4 Mason XL, NextGen RO. 50 gallons of syrup
2018 - 250+ taps on gravity and buckets, 2x5 Smokey Lake arch and Beaverland pan.
2019 - 250+ taps on gravity. A few buckets. 35 gallons of syrup.
2020 - 300+ taps on gravity. 50 gallons of syrup.
2021 - 280 taps on gravity and 40 buckets. 35 gallons of syrup.
The kids are great, I had the 2nd graders here a few years ago - before the 'rona virus came along.
Taped 70 on the 6th and am about 40% of the way to expected yield.
Hoping things will start up again Saturday as they should but disturbingly warm out. Nice that the sun is not getting a hold of today too well.
This year has had "check valve spout usage" written all over it and did when I tapped on the 6th but sort of brain farted that one when I tapped and went cheapo. Ooops! But another piece of approach to file away for the future. But probably will forget about that by next year.
Last edited by Sugar Bear; 02-16-2023 at 02:57 PM.
If you think it's easy to make good money in maple syrup .... then your obviously good at stealing somebody's Maple Syrup.
Favorite Tree: Sugar Maple
Most Hated Animal: Sap Sucker
Most Loved Animal: Devon Rex Cat
Favorite Kingpin: Bruce Bascom
40 Sugar Maple Taps ... 23 in CT and 17 in NY .... 29 on gravity tubing and 11 on 5G buckets ... 2019 Totals 508 gallons of sap, 7 boils, 11.4 gallons of syrup.
1 Girlfriend that gives away all my syrup to her friends.
For the second time this season, i had to drain my front 2 pans & vinegar them for tonight. Never seen sugar sand this bad. Same trees as always. Waiting on the cold front tomorrow PM.
so whats the thinking, are we going to have a decent season left after this quick warm up ?
YES, my thoughts on it are as follows....Originally Posted by CTguy923
A couple of 60-degree days on Feb 15 is less damaging to taps then a couple of 60-degree days on March 15. And the trees are less responsive to "moving on" in Mid-February then they are in mid-March at the same temps.
Although I did have a couple of Honeybees come visit me today while spraying some woodwork. That surprised me a tad bit. And D dills and some other flowers are already making a bid but not showing commitment.
If you think it's easy to make good money in maple syrup .... then your obviously good at stealing somebody's Maple Syrup.
Favorite Tree: Sugar Maple
Most Hated Animal: Sap Sucker
Most Loved Animal: Devon Rex Cat
Favorite Kingpin: Bruce Bascom
40 Sugar Maple Taps ... 23 in CT and 17 in NY .... 29 on gravity tubing and 11 on 5G buckets ... 2019 Totals 508 gallons of sap, 7 boils, 11.4 gallons of syrup.
1 Girlfriend that gives away all my syrup to her friends.
guess all we can do is wait and see
Here's an 'action shot' from 2 days ago. Picked up 170 gal/sap that day.23a.jpg
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