maple syrup season

[bhall]

In this neck of the woods the sap will be running next week. Snow is still 2' to 3' deep so we will be having lots of fun to put in the early taps. I do the syrup thing the old way with a tap & a bucket.
Bob

[Autocar]

I talked to Ohio Logger this afternoon and he told me they were going to start tapping after church tomarrow. Weather looks pretty good but may get to warm later in the week unless we keep the snow that should help on cooling down at night.

[Chuck White]

Got a little over 300 of our 1,200 taps in today!

Not running, but they're in. 

[thecfarm]

Looks like the week coming should make things start to happen here too.

[timberlinetree]

Long days & nites ahead. Don't  know who will be running more, me or the sap :D. Hope all have a good season.

[bhall]

Chuck my number of taps looks like yours with one less zero, put in 120 and usually get about 20 gallon. That's plenty enough for family, me & friends.I do a lot of baking with it, made oatmeal cookies yesterday to get me going today.

Timberlinetree you gave me a good laugh, long days, beenthere, it will be a good season.
Bob

[millwright]

Got mine out today, now just sit and wait

[JohnM]

Two trees, four taps today.  Rest will go in this week/weekend.  

[coxy]

im just to lazy its easer for me to call the family in Chucks neck of the woods and tell them what I want  :D :D

[bhall]

coxy most of my family has taken that attitude, they used to all come and help, now they stay at home and give their wish list.
Bob

[bhall]

Yesterday we put in 40 taps on the south slope, beautiful day.

Farm road leading down thru the valley


 

headed to the south slope


 

my buddy Hank stickin the hoses in the bucket


 

got some buckets hung


 

closer view of a set up


 

the south slope with the buckets in the tree line on the right


 

My neighbor and I hope to put in another 20 taps at the bottom of the slope tomorrow, and then another 20 in the valley on Friday. Not much flow today over cast with rain, should be good on Thursday & Friday. Sure is great to be doing some thing like this outside rather than moving snow. Saw a few robins today, they forgot their snow shoes.
Bob

[Chuck White]

Got all of our line taps done yesterday, 1,150 of them!

Got all (31) line barrels in today!

Next we'll be tapping and putting up about 25 buckets "for old time sakes"!

Sap actually ran a little today!

[bhall]

Chuck, you sure be doin it big time, I love that. What size are the barrels ?
Makes me happy to see you do some buckets for old times sake.
Bob

[thecfarm]

I would not know what to do if I saw that much dirt!! You have about twice the trees tapped that we did last year. Have fun. Looking forward to more pictures.

[Chuck White]

We use 55 gallon, plastic, recycled barrels.

Some of our lines are as short as 10-15 taps, and our longest line is just over 150 taps.

On the longer lines, we'll double up the barrels as things get going!

[cbla]

put 10 taps out this past weekend, supposed to get warm next week so we will see

[DeerMeadowFarm]

I'm hoping to get my 10 taps in this weekend but the snow is going to be a big problem for me vs. where my trees are....  :-\

[cbla]

there is still 3 ft of snow at the camp and they are calling for another 7 inches on the weekend

[loggah]

I got 250 buckets in place along with 6 barrels for our tubing,tomorrow we will get them hung,i hope !!!  ;D 350 taps this year.

[Chuck White]

Have fun with it loggah, don't over-do it!

I still think it's going to be a good year!

[GAB]

I hope it is a good year.
I put in 46 taps on Sat. (3/7).
To date I have gathered approx. 17 gallons of sap.
Yesterday's 5 gallons tested 2.1 or roughly 41 gallons of sap to the gallon of syrup.
I sure do hope the sugar content rises soon.
Gerald

[bhall]

My neighbor Hunter dumping the tree juice, we gathered 70 gallon yesterday, about half what I expected considering the weather the past four days



 

The first boil down of the season



 

A little bit of steam, kinda warm today with rain & fog



 

My set up is rather simple, just a flat pan 2' by 3' that I made about 20 years ago. The cylindrical drip tank a friend made for me 2 years ago. I set the drip rate to match the boil off rate and that way the sap can keep cooking and just add sap to the drip tank every couple of hours. At my altitude water boils at 210 when the barometer is high, right now a low pressure system is moving thru so the sap is boiling off at 208/209. This evaporator is natural gas fired, I like to do both wood & gas, but my wood burner is in need of repairs, unfortunately last year I was also in need of repairs so never got the burner done, always something needing fixing. This evaporator will boil off 5 gallons per hour; the wood one is much slower. The sugar shack is just an old shed, my dream is to build a real nice one someday that can also be used for making juice with the cider press. The sap tank strapped to the tractor holds 120 gallon, the same friend made that for me 2 years ago also. That tank sure makes gathering much easier, I used to take a dozen of the black transport buckets in the back of my old 77 Ford pickup and drive about 75 feet from the shack & carry the sap. If there was a whole lot of sap to gather that wore out my knees real quick. Now I can drive the tractor right up to the shack, hook up a hose & fill the tanks, I love that. Trouble is right now the snow is still too deep for that small tractor to get thru, so yesterday we carried the sap. Oh well, it will get better.
Bob

[beenthere]

Looks like a neat setup.
But I'd for sure have something more substantial than a couple light tie-down ratchet straps holding that 120 gal tank. Would be a pity to have it tip off when one (then two) straps wear through and break. Way too much work getting the sap to that point to dump it.
Maybe a safety chain for security.

[cbla]

That's a real nice setup Bob!

[Chuck White]

That'll get-r-done!