Maple Sugar 2022

[Stephen1]

I remember doing that. We had cement blocks though, not stumps. looking good

[Corley5]

A sign of things to come  8) 8) 8) 8)  I figure we'll start tapping around February 12th.  Our first run last season was 2/22 and then is didn't run again for three weeks  ;D

[IndiLina]

First little bottling of the year.    

[rastis]

I've been watching the temp trends to see when to tap. Right now it's looking like 2/9 to tap. I have 144 taps on vacuum and produce about 60 gallons a year, boiling on a 2x6 modified with AOF and boil right around 50 gph 

Mike, that fiber filter is still yours if you want it. You coming up this way soon or shoot me your address and I'll mail it. 

[Stephen1]

We are still solid in winter here. Our normal tapping is March 10

[OH logger]

Gonna run out normal 200 buckets this year. That's enough to keep it as a hobby. We are adding a Smokey lake auto draw this year I'm excited about and a little scared too. If I have to go unload logs or do something else I hardly trust dad to keep an eye on the draw off. If his phone rings the draw off is the last thing on his mind. 😆. Last year we had a real close one. I had to go in the house and I got back out and he was 3 degrees over where we were drawing at. 😯. Should be a great addition. As long as it works right 👍🏿

[Corley5]

Our Marcland auto draw has always worked very well.  But it's always watched just in case.  Never trust a machine

[mike_belben]

just saw this carl, thanks buddy.  i will PM you in a minute

its starting to feel like im behind, but last year i tapped on valentines and it was a dud for 2 more weeks.  was that on account of the wacky year or .. ? 

[mike_belben]

im totally not ready.  

[GAB]

On Feb 18 in 1981 (my dads 55 birthday) he boiled enough sap with a 5 x 16 rig to make a barrel (31.25 gal.) of syrup between his morning and evening dairy chores.  Then old mother nature froze everything solid for 3 weeks.
When it comes to agriculture mother dictates.
GAB

[Jdock]

Here in Nw NC I tapped my trees last Sunday. Roughly 14 taps on 3/16 tubing. Over the weekend I boiled about 3 qts of finished syrup. 3/16 tubing is awesome. One 2 day run yielded over 30 gallons from 7 trees

[OH logger]

im totally not ready.  

Lol. By the looks of your weather you should be ready 🔨

[mike_belben]

I cant remember the last time things went how i planned. 

[rastis]

Finished tapping about 7:00 last night and most trees were dripping. Replaced about 300 feet of tubing due to tree rat damage. Checked the controller this morning and vacuum should kick on when it hits 38 today. Maybe boiling tonight.

[Joe Hillmann]

Dumb question, do you just drill a hole and push in a tube for the jug on a tree method?

I drilled holes, gently pounded in a plastic tap, then attached the tubing to the tap. I do plan on testing out just inserting the tube into the drilled hole next, as I'm out of taps.

If you take a piece of PEX pipe ( I think I use 3/8 but not sure) you can gently heat it with a torch while rotating the pipe in one spot above the flame.  Once the pipe starts getting plastic you can pull on both ends and the spot that was heated gets narrower.  While still stretching the pipe dunk it in cold water to make it solid again.   Then cut the pipe where you heated it.  Now that end tapers from the full diameter of the pipe to whatever you stretched it down to.  That taper can be pushed into a hole in the tree that is just a tiny bit smaller than than the original pipe diameter.
That gives you a nice tight, leak proof fit between the pipe and the tree.  I am cheap so that is how I make all of my taps.  If my description isn't clear enough I can post some pictures if you need.

[Chuck White]

Well, we're all tapped and the barrels in place.

Warm spell needs to go away for a bit! 

It was in the 40's all day yesterday and through the night, still 40° and the wind picked up, snow's going away, not good for sugaring!

[Stephen1]

I plowed our barn yard yesterday. It went just above freezing so the snow was nice packing snow to plow and lift with the bobcat bucket. We will look at tapping next week. The long range is still winter here.

 

 

 

 

[Ed_K]

 With all the stuff going on in my life we just started yesterday, got maybe 6 holes drilled it's running but we changed over to putting holes in the top of the main line and using the new fittings that clamp the fitting directly to the main line. I changed to main line last fall it was 18 yrs old I think   .

[Chuck White]

Well, the sap ran through the night, but not very well, and today the temp hit 60°, barrels only about 1/4 capacity.

The wind blew all day and slowed the run, so we won't be gathering until tomorrow.

[OH logger]

 Been  tapped in a week here. 200 on buckets. First year Using our auto draw off.  Love it!  In a week we've gathered almost as much sap as we did all of last year. Everything goin good so far 

[Chuck White]

Had our first boil today, made 5.8 gallons!

It's a start!   8)

Sap didn't run at all here today, heavy overcast!

[Stephen1]

We tapped on Sunday, 190 taps. Very Little sap running, to warm and windy.  another 70 taps to go. Winter came back last night.  4" of new snow and 0 F
Next weel looks real good, but who can trust the weather.

[Corley5]

Had a little run over the weekend that we dumped on the ground to flush lines of what's tapped.  We'll finish tapping the next couple days.  About 800 left to do.  We'll be ready for next week.  Looks to be good

[Chuck White]

We finished boiling off all the sap we had still in the evaporator and ended up, including yesterday with a total of 16.2 gallons.

Now, whenever the weather cooperates again we'll give it another go!

[Ed_K]

 Last Fri. the 8th Rita finished tapping, and Sat. we put the last main line into the tank after letting all the lines run to flush the sawdust that couldn't get cleaned out of the tap holes. Also on Sat. I started setting up the arch and pans ( going to take picts of the piping so I know where they all go ;D) The weather hasn't been good for sap runs but we got 175 gals in the collection tanks and 25 in the holding tank up on the hill above the sugar house. Yesterday I went out at 8:30 to find both collection tanks had frozen at the shut offs and broken. It was 14° I should have known it would have froze  >:(  . I had to pump the tanks up to the hold tank went to Aubuchon's to get repair parts. I decided to just put stops on the outlet of the tanks. Got them fixed and I have 200 gals in the hold tank to start boiling  8). Going out at 9:00 and hope nothing else is broken :( .