February Journal THE COUNTDOWN!!!

[Amber Gold]

Got most of last years tubing system ready to go. Just a few more laterals to take care of. I was considering tapping this weekend based on the 10 day forecast looking favorable, but I'm not quite ready to yet. Next weekend will be the day.

My homemade mainline tubing tool is binding up for some reason, which is bad timing because I was hoping to use it tomorrow. The mainline had a twist in it last year, and when I rerouted the line the twist came out and a saddle is now on the bottom.

[red maples]

saw some trees tapped today one tree is very lucky to have not 3, not 4, not5 but 6 buckets hanging from it geez talk about bleeding it out!!! and a feww trees with just tubing sticking into some holes down into a bucket no spouts.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Another 6 to 12 inches predicted here by tomorrow evening and appears another storm on the way for this Saturday and Sunday. To say this is unbelievable is an understatement. I made 50% crop last year in Feb and 50% in March which is about normal for us and no sap weather in sight thru Feb 24th which is as far as 10 days show. Basically just shows snow every day. Snow is already deeper than my tractor can handle so I am waiting to get a big tractor to try to plow out the roads.

[dano2840]

well im almost there, just have to finish putting the other half of the laterals up on the 114 im adding, move the tank in the sugar house, run the vacuum line, plumb the tank to the pump, get the gathering tank and clean it/ tie down to the trailer, and cut as much of the slabs i got as possable before sap comes in, hoping to start tapping on friday, i dont know yet temps are only forcasted for mid 20s and snow showers, i would like to see 34 and sunny when i drill holes but it doesnt make sense to tap when its 20, its not like i have 9000 taps or any thing, but on the other hand it would be nice to be getting sap in the tank on that first run!

[dano2840]

saw some trees tapped today one tree is very lucky to have not 3, not 4, not5 but 6 buckets hanging from it geez talk about bleeding it out!!! and a feww trees with just tubing sticking into some holes down into a bucket no spouts.

ha thats terrable, almost as bad as the tubing system i saw last year where there was 4" trees with 7/16 spouts in them, i was like WTF some one doesnt have any idea what they are doing, and they were roadside trees to, so the are slow to heal, looks like that guy will have some fire wood in a few years shhheeessshhh

[Dill]

Got the trash can up through the roof yesterday. I spent some time trying to remember gemotery and used a compass to scribe a perfect circle in the roof. Then cut it carefully with a sawzmost. Just to find out that I didn't take the 7 pitch of the roof into the equation. So we just started cutting till we could jam it up there. Either the shack will be burn down the first time the evap is lit or I'm good for 10 years.
I've got some sap so far from Lee. So Wednesday is still the plan for boil number one. Probably tap up in Northwood next sunday (the 21st).
All that's left is building a head tank stand, and picking up some olive barrels and getting them cleaned out.

[PerryW]

My rule of thumb is to NOT open the sugarhouse door until at least March 1. The 10 day forecast (until Feb 25) says nothing predicted above 32 deg, so I see no reason (so far) to get excited for my area anyway.

[Dill]

Your quite a ways farther north. I'm looking at 40s for the end of this week.

[Dennis H.]

Took the snowblower out and finished cleaning around the tanks and vac-shed. I even climbed up on the roof of the sugarshack and cleaned off the snow around the cupola so as the doors open freely. I dup out the wood pile and walked the lines to make sure the snow is off some low sections.

I now should be ready for the warm up that we are to get this week.

[farmall h]

It was a nice day today...to bad I had to go to work. Dennis have you tried your Bender releasers out? Are they set up side by side working in unison or are they on separate lines. Just a tip....if you find that when your pulling sap and the float rattles up and prematurely releases you might have to add more weight on the float ball. I experienced that when it wasn't getting a full charge of sap. Try running them and letting a little air suck in to see if you get alot of float turbulence. Just a note.

Bob