That hard freeze last week really slowed things down here this week and I had to do some strategic thawing with the help of a neighbor's Buddy heater but made another two gallons this week of some nice amber. Tubing lines were barely running today but buckets in the sun - should be the name of a maple-based cover band - were going pretty steady.
This storm coming up may stall things further but should be good for the season long term.
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2015: 8 bucket taps (7 red, 1 sugar) on DIY barrel evaporator
2016: 13 taps (bucket and tube) on block arch and hotel pans
2017: SAME
2018: 25 taps on 2x3 flat pan and resurrected barrel arch
2019: 25 taps...same setup plus DIY 3x150gpd RO filter
2020: 50 taps, all buckets..."new" oil tank arch setup
2021: 100 taps (50/50 buckets/3-16 tubing) on 2x4 divided pan
2022: 150 taps (50/100 b/t) on 2x4 pan with sap warmer pan
2023: SAME
2024: 150 taps, added single-post 4x40 RO system
Yeah im lucky in the fact that half of my maple trees are running along an old stone wall fence with southern exposure to a hay field so they produce really well. I always figure .33GPT per year but have exceeded that the past few years. I should get a sap hydrometer one of these days but i tend to be around that 40:1 ratio for the most part.Originally Posted by ADK_XJ
I was surprised to come home to about 25 gallons of sap yesterday, unfortunately i am away this weekend and wont be able to boil until Monday night or Tuesday. Hopefully the sap stays as its supposed to remain fairly cold. its looking like Monday might be a good day for more sap as well. If the sap looks questionable i might end up dumping it as im pretty far ahead this year. I have to resweeten my pans anyways and then its looking cold for the next week or two. Will wait and see how things pan out.
Wasn't expecting to collect 120 gallons of sap after work today, but we did! Going to be a nice couple of days boiling on the weekend finally and not after work until late at night.
Pic of the bottle options we have this year
Syrup 2023.jpg
Holy smokes this has been insane. Got the "Gordie Howe hat trick" of sugaring today. Boiled 100 gallons this morning into early afternoon. Had to make room in the finishing tank so we bottled, then of course had to collect 100 gallons of sap after that. Already at 18 gallons for the season which matches last year's total.
Huge day here...filled an entire IBC tote with sap by early afternoon and it was ripping down the lines when we did!
--
2015: 8 bucket taps (7 red, 1 sugar) on DIY barrel evaporator
2016: 13 taps (bucket and tube) on block arch and hotel pans
2017: SAME
2018: 25 taps on 2x3 flat pan and resurrected barrel arch
2019: 25 taps...same setup plus DIY 3x150gpd RO filter
2020: 50 taps, all buckets..."new" oil tank arch setup
2021: 100 taps (50/50 buckets/3-16 tubing) on 2x4 divided pan
2022: 150 taps (50/100 b/t) on 2x4 pan with sap warmer pan
2023: SAME
2024: 150 taps, added single-post 4x40 RO system
Big weekend
Big weekend for me. I was out of town Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and came home to a bunch of fairly full buckets with one overflowing this morning (~14+ gallons). Looks like we were running through the snowstorm. Sap was flowing today pretty well too, I had 4 more gallons of sap after just a few hours. Spent this evening concentrating it with the RO to go I to the freezer until I can get a boil.
Got home yesterday afternoon after being away Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning and my two 55 gallon collection barrels were overflowing (but only a couple hours im thinking based on the amount of melted of snow underneath the barrels. Seems like everyone had a really good weekend. Was able to re-sweeten my pans but had a scorching incident on my syrup pan and had to shut down the rig and clean, luckily it wasn't catastrophic.
Anyone else have a huge day today? Even the buckets on my low producers were pretty full, and my high producers were overflowing.
Oh yeah! Collected 180 gallons last night. Quite a few overflowing as well. I'm currently out of storage space until I can get some boiling done tonight. Today should be a good run too.
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