2023 Season
April 6 (Thursday)
Bill, Jimmy, Pat, Bob, and Curtis were all here by 8:30 AM so we headed out. There was enough sap in the pails to collect but it is frozen almost solid. No hope of getting it out of the pails. The only good news was that the trails were frozen and easy to navigate. I felt bad about not checking pails earlier to know that collecting would be impossible today. It is supposed to get down to near zero tonight so we are not planning to collect tomorrow either. Great news that it’s supposed to get into the 50’s this weekend though. Not sure what lots of melting snow is going to do to the trails. It looks like it will stay warm for the next two weeks so our season may be ending soon.
April 5 (Wednesday)
I finished boiling in a little over four hours. We did get a lot of wind and rain last night and there is a lot of standing water. There is enough sap in the pails to collect tomorrow. It’s supposed to get down to around 20° tonight so the trails should be alright if we collect early. The struggle continues.
April 4 (Tuesday)
Linda is working the spring election so it was just the guys today. Bill is out of town so Jimmy was our driver. The trails weren’t much better than they were yesterday so, of course, we got stuck. And the winch rope on the UTV broke. But we got the rest of the pails collected in two loads and declared victory. We collected 339 gallons of 3.1% sugar (5% after R.O.)
We finished collecting early enough that I decided to start boiling. It snowed about an inch this afternoon and we are supposed to get heavy thunderstorms tonight with rising temperatures. Not planning to collect tomorrow so I will finish boiling then.
April 3 (Monday)
As expected we’ve been dead in the water for almost a week. We ending up getting 9″ of snow Friday night and Saturday. I’ve been trying to get the trails open since then. A part broke on the bulldozer so I have to use the tractor to clear the trails. It was slow going. I finished the trails this morning and decided to collect starting at noon since there is so much sap in the pails. In hindsight, probably a bad decision.
The temps rose quickly into the low 40’s and the trails were like riding on quicksand. We tried to bring the first load up from the south end of the property and got stuck. I went and got the tractor and finally got us out by literally picking up the sap trailer with the tractor bucket. Then, the same thing happened on the second load. The south end of the property is low ground for the most part so we decided to move to higher ground and try to collect there. Guess what? Stuck again. We called it a day after that and drowned our sorrows in a couple of beers. I’m glad everyone has a sense of humor. We need it this year.
We ended up collecting 185 gallons of 3.1% sugar (5.5% after R.O.) from about 120 trees in three difficult hours.
March 28 (Tuesday)
There’s wasn’t a lot of sap to collect and thanks to all of the good help, we were able to finish quickly. Bill drove and Lloyd, Little Jim, Jimmy, Pat, and I all collected. Linda is on her way home from Slinger after visiting with our son and his family for a few days. Hard to keep her away from those grandsons.
We collected 171 gallons of 3.9% sugar (6.7% after R.O.) and I was boiling by 10:30 AM. The weather looks iffy for sap to run and there’s a potential large storm heading our way for the weekend. Oh goody! We shall see what’s next in this very frustrating season. Our season ended on this date in 2021. Every season seems to be wildly different.
March 27 (Monday)
I boiled off what we collected yesterday in three hours. The sap is trying to run and we may be able to collect tomorrow. High today was 43°. It’s a relief to have some syrup to bottle.
Finally boiling!
First draw off.
March 26 (Sunday)
I bet you wonder where we’ve been. Waiting for the sap to run! Linda and I dumped all the pails last week since it had been two weeks since we put out the first taps. There was enough sap to collect but we couldn’t get to the pails with the sap trailer because of the deep snow. Finally today there was enough sap to collect.
Bill just got back from three months in Florida so we have our trail boss. But before we could even get on the trails this morning, the hitch on the sap wagon broke. I didn’t have a spare for that so headed into town with fingers crossed. Our local Co-Op had one so we were back in business in short order. Then when we came in to dump the first load, the feed line to the top storage tank literally exploded. Must have had ice in it. I do have plenty of spare hoses. We brought in 257 gallons of 3.8% sugar (6.1% after R.O.). Finished collecting late so I will wait until tomorrow to boil. Rough start to the season.
Our sap hauler crew: Brad, Jimmy, Bill, Little Jim, Bob, Pat.
March 21 (Tuesday)
Linda put out the last 14 taps this morning while I got the evaporator and R.O. ready to go. She stepped up to tap her first tree and fell into snow up to her hip. Some sap in the pails but not enough to collect. Not sure how we could collect anyway with all this snow. Glad to have all the taps out though.
March 19 (Sunday)
Put out 71 pails in 2½ hours. Temp was 5°. Lost a drill bit in the snow. I’m sure we will find it if the snow ever melts. Glad I keep a spare. Hard day!
March 18 (Saturday)
Snow, snow, snow. We’ve had 14″+ this week and I have spent the week plowing. I am running out of places to put it. The piles around the driveway are 10′ tall. We are on our way to having record setting snow this season. A bright spot is that we picked up the UTV Tuesday. Glad to have her home. Temp was 10° this morning, chill factor -3°. Winter won’t let go. We put out 102 pails today with me on snowshoes again. Less than a hundred to go!
Slow going in the deep snow.
March 11 (Saturday)
It was about 5° cooler this morning but felt warmer because the wind died down. We got 108 pails out in 3½ hours so we’re getting the hang of it. We have 6″-10″ of snow coming so we plan to take tomorrow off.
This gives you an idea of the snow depth.
Someone is watching us!
March 10 (Friday)
Our season is finally underway! We wanted to put out taps two weeks ago but there was so much snow in the woods that we couldn’t face doing it on snowshoes. Plus our UTV has been in the shop since January waiting on parts. But Gene, a fellow tapper up the road, has his taps out and is starting to collect sap. So, off we went this morning in 28° temps with me on snowshoes and Linda driving our ATV towing a trailer with the pails and lids. There is about 18″ of snow in the woods and it was slow going. We got 101 pails out in about 4 hours. We missed having our dog, Otis, with us this year. We lost him in January at age 14. Rest in peace, sweet boy. More snow is predicted for the weekend but we hope to get another hundred pails out tomorrow. Sap is running a little.
Tapping on snowshoes!