Anyone making sugar or put in any taps yet?

[SPIKER]

Hi All:

Had to see if anyone has started tapping trees yet?   It seems like the temps snow and all are about right and I'm seeing a lot of buds starting to swell already!>  I stopped into the local syrup shop & picked up 10 bags to try out.   Late time I used 5 gallon buckets with 3 or 4 trees into one bucket. this year I'm gonna try these here fancy plastic bags.   Sounds like it might be early but then someone said the temps up in Main area was getting conducive to flowing sap.

BBTOM how is it down there at your place?   trees doing the same?

Mark

[Captain]

Mrs Captain is boiling again tomorrow.  She has made about a gallon so far.

[Chuck White]

No one around here has tapped yet!  That I know of!!!!!!!!!!!

My brother has a maple grove and says that within the next 3-4 weeks they'll be tapped.

[bill m]

My sugar bush is on a north face - cold up there. I will tap in about 2 or 3 weeks.

[Don_Papenburg]

We are going to have reverse osmosis this year .  That will speed up things a bit   I think that the tapping has started by now . I haven't spoken with the hilltop rednecks in a week .  We will head down there in a week or two to help out  Close to 500 taps this year .   Most of them will be on a pipeline .

[BBTom]

Today is the first day over freezing (35°F) for about a month, and long term forecast doesn't show anything much above freezing until March.  Frozen sap don't run very well, so I am going to wait till it warms up a bit before tapping.

Don, You will love that RO,  I find that mine doesn't mind working at night (while I sleep) making a bunch of 8% sap for me to run the next day.  Saves lots of boiling time.

Next week may look completely different, but I am not looking forward to slogging through 16 to 20 inches of snow to check lines and tap trees.

[kevinlt15]

It is to cold in wis. but Ican hardly wait. last year Ihad 75 taps out and finished with13 gal. of pure pleasure 8). this year Iam building A sugar shak it won't be done in time so Iwill be working on it during the boiling prosses. to much steam Last year so I need A specific place with vent hood. Then I can store the equip. in there when not in use 

[SPIKER]

I was getting A GOOD LOOK today at the farm driving by, much of the trees I tap are on south facing creek bottom.   they are all red budding up now. even though we had some cold temps still, the south facing is better for the early warm up at my place.   I live maybe 25 miles away from BBTom been to his place but been a couple years.

Anyhow I picked up some bags, 1st year for trying them do they need some other type of TAPS?  The Bags look like they need some sort of clip on connection.   I didnt take a long time checking them over though.   

I cleaned off the fire pit today and a few other little things getting ready.   I need to clean up the buckets and tubes from last season storage, (cleaned after boiling last time but stored I want to clean prior to use.)

Snow is soggy and still about 12" around the fire pit got to clean up some into piles for helping to cool & store partly boiled sap this year.
all the snow should at least make for plenty of flow!>?
Mark M

[isawlogs]

   Dad and nephews are to start tapping this weekend if it can be not too cold , it wont be running for a few weeks yet , but for those who want to tap now and sit for a while , you can get a tapping alcohol that you spray in the tapped hole as to keep it from drying out till the weather gets ok for sap to run. It is available at most tapping equipment outlets.

[SPIKER]

I put in about 20 taps today, I had full flow out of about all the south side of the trees taps, before we had the final taps in I had about a gallon in the first 4 taps.   Ran well enough to push out the small wood chips.

Anyone familiar with the sap bags.?   I picked up 10 to try on some of the more isolated trees and dont seem to have an idea as to what is required for the taps/attach them to the trees.   Seems like they need some sort of hook & loops thing and a smaller tap than what Ive been using.

anyhow here in Ohio we will have to boil Monday or Teusday at the rate it was running today.   We started tapping them at 12 noon or so and was ready to drive through the woods on the tractor.   we left the tapping area about 2pm and in that time the first bucks was 1/4 full it has 4 taps flowing into that 5 gallon bucket.

I want to make enough to keep for 2 seasons this year like the 2 years ago was...

Mark M

[Captain]

Mrs Captain finished about 12 gallons of sap into about 24 oz of grade A yesterday.  Not running well yet....

[Ford_man]

What I ran into 30 yrs ago was the squirrels would bite holes in them and would go from bag to bag. Hope this don't happen to your bags.

[Don_Papenburg]

The bags should have a  2pc.metal top that the bag slides into and that hangs on the tap .   Holds the bag open and makes it easy to pour  or spill if you get in a rush

FordMan you were supposed to take care of the squirrel problem in the fall

[SwampDonkey]

No one has struck a tap here yet, but it's been mild all month as if it was March. I can't see why they won't be early here, the snow is under a foot in the hardwoods already. It will be over before they get going.

Maple syrup has more nutritional value than other traditional sweeteners including corn syrup, brown sugar, white granular and honey.

Source: NBMSA Link

[SPIKER]

I got about 15 gallons today out of 15 ~17 taps. that is sense yesterday at 2 pm or so.   and was checked today at about 4:30.  All & all ok for first day    I will go pull some more tomorrow and see if I have enough for one good boil. I have to clean the pan yet, I split some wood today in prep.   I had one that was leaking pretty good, ( TZ fitting where I have 3/8" tubing dropping into a 3 or 4 taps into one line for the bucket.   It has been leaking but was much worse when I looked at it today and I had to try & adjust it.  It appeared to have leaked enough to melt a hole into the 12" snow all way to dirt :(

Anyhow hope others are getting ready,  COLD for rest of week after Wed here.   So I'll gather & boil one good time prior to having a few days rest.

Mark M

[SwampDonkey]

Mild here all week into the weekend with rain. It's not getting cold enough at night though for good sap flow, don't freeze up.

[SwampDonkey]

Had word yesterday that some folks are tapping up here already. Said it was running well. It should because it's been mild for 3 weeks.

[SPIKER]

I didnt check today, below freezing, but went & picked up more taps and tubing.   Had all kinds of hose problems, step daughters elec. power died, pipes at home sprung leak so didnt even bother checking today...   

Main breaker in SQ D panel died, (HOMLINE) which is bottom of line but better than the cutler hammer stuff, hers is a rental & I had to fix it, had water in from electrician who re-wired the panel didnt use no-lox/anti-oxide compound or seal putty as water ran down service line and into panel and onto/into main breaker corroding it pretty good.

at home I need to find repair parts for old sink fixture all rotted up...   

Just another day in the unlucky life of mine...

Mark

[SwampDonkey]

I had one of them sinks to. I replaced with porcelain, which isn't expensive at all. I bet that sucker will never rot.

[Coon]

Swamp, it may not rot, but don't drop something to heavy in it.... you'll have cracks to deal with.... don't ask how I know this..... I was just doing another one of my redneck repairs that required some washing.  ;)  ;)  :D

[SwampDonkey]

Your wife is too forgiving to allow anything like that into the house. The women folk around here would have you and heavy weighing object out in the front yard before you got anywhere near the sink. :D

[SPIKER]

I added a few bags today & boiled for a batch down, I collected about 12 gallons and boiled the 15 from the other day all down to about 10 gallons of condensed sap/syrup.   I took some pics & need to DL them yet.   I'll get them puton --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!-- and size them down for a clip here too.!

anyhow does anyone have an idea as to best use the bags? the place I bought them suggested cutting off the collars and slip the bags over the taps.
thanks


mark

[Don_Papenburg]

If you hang the bag by itself on the spile you had better put a bucket under , the weight of the sap will rip it off the tree .  You should have a two piece metal collar that slips together and supports the bag . The collar has a hole for the spile to fit and drip into the bag.

[Coon]

Your wife is too forgiving to allow anything like that into the house. The women folk around here would have you and heavy weighing object out in the front yard before you got anywhere near the sink. :D

No she ain't.  :D  I gave her the ultimatem that either she builds me a shop stocked with all the tools I need right quick or she lets me use the sink.  ;)  Don'tcha worry I slept in the dog house for a while over dat one too.  I never cleaned the mess up good enough to her standards.  :-\  Nothin' like that even gets within 20 paces of the house anymore without a good old fashin whoopin from her. And what I don't like about the whole thing is she keeps usin' that ugly stick on me.  :D :D

Brad.

[Chuck White]

Quite a few around here are either tapped already or tapping now!