2018 Season
May 2, Wednesday
We took down the pails last Friday as planned and I cleaned the evaporator on Monday. I put the cleaner in the evaporator on Friday and let it sit for a couple of days. I will definitely do that again. The clean up was much easier. That is the dirtiest job of all and anything to make it easier is welcome. We washed the taps in the dishwasher over the week end. That is the easiest job. Linda and I washed the pails today so we are officially done. The ice also went off our lake today as well. The fishing opener is Saturday and we thought there would still be ice on the lake for the opener.
It was a long, cold, snowy season but we ended up making an average amount of syrup, just over 78 gallons. Most of the sap came the last week of the season. This was one of the hardest seasons we have ever had. It was difficult to keep the trails open because of all the snow. It was hard to get to the pails for all but the last few days of the season. Our season started in February when we put out taps and ended in May, making it the longest season we can remember. The sugar maples still haven’t budded out but we are still enjoying beautiful spring weather. Now on to yard work and getting the garden ready to plant. We always hate to see the season end and are already eagerly anticipating making syrup again next year.
April 27, Friday
We finished the bottling today, making just under 20 gallons of syrup. All of the syrup has graded Amber except one batch today that was Dark. We emptied the front pan of the evaporator and that was the batch that was darker. It feels good to have everything in bottles. We are planning to go to MK’s Rustic Inn on our lake for a fish fry tonight to celebrate.
We are going to take down the pails and taps tomorrow and save the rest of the clean up for next week.
April 24, Tuesday
Another day of bottling three batches. Today we bottled just over 26 gallons. Linda put labels on what we bottled yesterday while I cleaned up.
Linda checked pails and things look about like they did yesterday. The sap is barely running and most of what is in the pails is cloudy or yellow. The season is definitely over. Most years we agonize over whether the season is actually over. This year there was no doubt.
We still have three more batches to bottle but that will have to wait until Friday. We have other commitments the next couple of days.
We wish the woods had looked like this when we were collecting!
April 23, Monday
We had another abrupt end to our season. The sap just quit running even though the sugar maples haven’t budded out yet. There isn’t enough sap in the pails to collect and most of it is cloudy. So, our long drawn out season comes to an end. We will get everything bottled and then start the chore of cleaning up.
We bottled three batches of syrup today, making 25½ gallons. We finished the last batch at 1pm and called it a day. We plan to bottle again tomorrow. Temperatures are still in the 60’s.
The fruits of our labors.
April 22, Sunday
Another early start for me today. I was out collecting at 6:20am. Linda, Otis, and Pap all arrived at 8am and we collected the second load of sap. I started boiling while Linda & Pap finished collecting. We ended up with 166 gallons of 2.6% sap. We ran it through the R.O. and got the sugar up to 5%. I finished boiling at 12:45pm.
The high today was 61° and the soft maples are starting to bud out. The season may be over soon. There are finally a few bare spots in the woods and collecting has been much easier the past two days. We hope that the season will hang on for a few more days. We plan to wait until the season is over to bottle. That will keep us busy for a few days as we have about 80 gallons of syrup to bottle. We are running out of storage containers for the syrup so we need to do something soon.
April 21, Saturday
I came over early today to finish cleaning the R.O. then was out collecting at 6am. Linda and Otis came over artound 7:30 and helped collect the second load. Kevin stopped by at 8am and helped Linda collect the last batch of sap while I started boiling. We collected 226 gallons of sap, 2.8% sugar. There were lots of visitors again to help pass the time while I boiled. The high today was 60° and the sap is running but not well. We will see what tomorrow brings.
April 20, Friday
The sap is finally running good and I was glad to have help from Bob and Linda today. I helped collect the first load of sap then started boiling. Bob and Linda collected the last two loads of sap and we ended up with 389 gallons. Sugar content is down to 2.8% and 5.8% after using the R.O.
It was a long day of boiling, over 6 hours, but I had visitors most of the day to help pass the time. Everyone is stir crazy after this long winter. The sap is running but we aren’t sure if we will have enough to collect tomorrow. It was in the low 50’s today and is supposed to be a little warmer tomorrow.
April 19, Thursday
I was on my own again today to collect but Linda is on her way home. I collected 221 gallons, ran it through the R.O. and was through boiling at 3:45pm. Sugar content is still high at 3.8% and was 7% after using the R.O. The high today was 60° and the snow is melting! Maybe we will have a spring after all.
April 18, Wednesday
We did go down to Slinger on Friday as planned but I ended up coming back home Saturday to get ahead of the predicted snow. The snowstorm stalled and didn’t hit here until Sunday. It snowed for two days and we ended up with 24″ of the white stuff. Winter just won’t let go this year. I spent Monday afternoon and Tuesday plowing and trying to get paths to the pails opened up again.
It took me three hours to collect 169 gallons of 3.8% sap today and just over two hours to boil it after using the R.O. to get the sugar content up to 7%. We are starting to think that we might be able to salvage the season in the next week. It is supposed to really warm up tomorrow.
April 12, Thursday
We were out collecting this morning at 8:15am. We had a little rain overnight so the snow was slushy. But for the first time this season, there was no ice in the pails. Because of that, the sugar content was lower at 3.6%. We collected 230 gallons of sap today with a 6.8% sugar content after using the R.O. I still had a little sap to boil off from yesterday and finished boiling at 2pm. We needed to get caught up because we are heading to Slinger tomorrow for our grandson Marshall’s 4th birthday. We had planned to leave Saturday, but there is a huge snowstorm heading our way tomorrow. We could get up to 18″ of snow, just as we are starting to see a few patches of grass. I am planning to come back Sunday and Linda is going to stay down there for a few additional days.
April 11, Wednesday
Finally!! After being shut down for almost two weeks, we were able to collect today. About 25% of the pails were full or overflowing. We have had horrible February-like weather for the past two weeks: lots of snow and cold. It was -11° this past Sunday. We could have collected sap before now but it was frozen in the pails. I had to break trails again with the tractor too. Linda and I went around on snowshoes last Friday to open up the trails to the pails (again!). We actually talked about pulling the taps last week but decided to take a wait and see approach. Other tappers in this area are having a similar season and similar frustrations.
With Bob’s help, we ended up collecting 389 gallons of sap today. By far, this is the most that we have collected all season. The sap had a 5% sugar content so we didn’t use the R.O. We had to wait until almost 10:30am to start collecting today to wait for the pails to thaw a little (we had a low of 18° last night). I finished boiling about 5:45pm. It was a long day but we are glad to be back in business. We are planning to collect and boil again tomorrow.
March 29, Thursday
Bob, Linda, Otis and I were able to collect today. It is sad that the 218 gallons that we collected today is the most that we have collected at once this season. It took the three of us 2½ hours to collect. It was tough going. There was a lot of ice on the trails and the footing was treacherous. Even Otis was struggling. I fell later in the day when we were checking taps but otherwise everyone managed to stay upright. There is still about 15″ of snow in the woods but the snow is finally pulling away from the trees.
We finally collected enough sap to use the R.O. machine. We have to review the instructions every year when we use it for the first time. It is such a time saver for us when it comes to boiling. We ran the 3.8% sap through the R.O. and ended up with 7% sugar content. Since we had to clean the R.O. we decided to boil too. We finished everything by 3:30.
The sap is running good and we are hoping to collect tomorrow. Temps are in the upper 30s today but we are supposed to get up to 8″ of snow starting tomorrow night. If we do that will shut things down for awhile. This is shaping up to be another very difficult season.
March 26, Monday
We had a busy day today and it felt good. I came over early and boiled what we collected yesterday. It took just under 3 hours. I went home and picked up Otis and Linda and we collected 68 gallons of 3.6% sap. It got down to 24° last night so there was less ice in the pails. That explains the lower sugar content too. Normally we wouldn’t have collected such a small amount of sap but we have appointments the next two days which will keep us away from the sugarbush. We still haven’t collected enough sap to use the Reverse Osmosis machine. We finished collecting before noon so we decided to boil again. That way we are all caught up before our appointments. It is supposed to be well into the 40s on Wednesday so we are hoping to collect a lot of sap when we return on Thursday.
We have often had spiders and moths in our pails but, for the first time, today we had a flying squirrel. They are such entertaining little creatures and we were sorry that this one met his demise in one of our pails.
March 25, Sunday
Linda, Otis, and I collected 104 gallons of 5% sap today. Once again it wasn’t really enough to collect but we wanted to do something that felt productive. It got down to 14° last night so there was quite a bit of ice in the pails again. Sap flow is very spotty. One pail might be almost full and the one next to it almost empty. We never remember the flow being this inconsistent. We attribute it to the snow pack. Linda got off the trail today and fell into snow over her knees. We are trying to remain optimistic. With temperatures in the upper 30s today, we are hoping to collect tomorrow.
March 24, Saturday
Linda and I bottled 6½ gallons of syrup today. It feels good to have some finished product. We were surprised that the syrup is as dark as it is. Our new toy this year is a grading kit and the syrup graded Amber, so it was lighter than we thought.
People are calling and stopping by wanting some syrup but we aren’t going to sell any until we are sure that we will have enough for family use. There is a growing chance that this could be all that we get.
It was in the upper 30s today and we are hoping to collect tomorrow.
March 23, Friday
There wasn’t enough sap to collect today so I just boiled what I got yesterday It only took 90 minutes to finish boiling. Linda comes back home today and we plan to bottle tomorrow. Slow, slow, slow season.
March 22, Thursday
Nothing going since Monday. I came over today and collected 78 gallons of 5.5% sap. There wasn’t really enough to collect but some of the sap had been in the pails for several days. The low last night was 4° but got into the mid-40s during the day. Maybe we can collect again tomorrow.
March 19, Monday
I came over early and got yesterday’s sap boiled off in 2½ hours. I have a milk pail of syrup so at least we didn’t get skunked this season. It got down to 22° last night but there isn’t enough sap to collect. The season is certainly off to a slow start. It’s not getting that warm during the day and there is still about 20″ of snow in the woods; not conducive to sap flow.
March 18, Sunday
I came over early and boiled off what we collected yesterday. No draw off but the first boil was successful. So great to smell that cooking sap again. It takes some time to get the levels adjusted in the evaporator and that all went well. With Linda gone I was bored and came back over at 3:30 and collected 98 gallons of 4% sap. I plan to boil tomorrow and maybe collect. The high today was 42°.
March 17, Saturday
Linda left this morning to visit our son and his family but I had help from Bob Hardy and Kevin Wiley. We collected 100 gallons of 7% sap It took us 2½ hours to collect after getting stuck in the snow a couple of times. The sugar content was high because there was a lot of ice in the pails. The low last night was 5° and we had a high of 38°.
March 15, Thursday
Finally, I got the last 47 pails out today with the help of Kevin Wiley. It has never taken this long to get out all of the pails, both in days and time. I was beginning to think that it wasn’t going to happen. Now we just need the weather to cooperate.
March 12, Monday
Linda, Otis, and I got another 28 pails out today in 1 hour 45 minutes! We’re getting there.
March 11, Sunday
Another friend, Gene Harnisch came over today with his trac vehicle to help open up our trails. He is a fellow syrup maker and we appreciated his help. His grandchildren sat in a boat that he pulled behind to provide the needed traction. It made a huge difference in the trails to the point where I was able to put out another 25 pails.
March 5, Monday
We had other commitments over the weekend but got back out there today and put out 125 taps in about 4 hours. Better yet, we didn’t need snowshoes. Randy Dennis plowed our trails yesterday so it was a lot easier getting around. Thank you, Randy! The sap is still running even though it is in the low 30s with high winds. More snow is predicted for tonight and it doesn’t look like there will be much snow melt in the next few days. Still trying to figure out how we can collect sap if this snow doesn’t go away. We will have to wait to put out the last 100 taps when there is less snow. We have tapped all of the trees that are easy to reach (a relative term this year) and need to get deeper into the woods for the rest.
It is beautiful in the woods but wish this snow would melt.
You can see that we have had some melting, just not much in the woods.
March 2, Friday
We did a little better today and got 75 more taps out. Several of the pails were almost full. There is almost enough sap to collect but we don’t have a vehicle that can get through this snow. We will work on getting the rest of the taps out and hope the snow melts.
Even Otis got stuck!
March 1, Thursday
Linda is back out in the woods with Otis and me. We got out 25 more taps in a little less than 1½ hours today. We are still on snowshoes and pull the pails and lids in our Otter sled. The weather is still sunny and in the 40s and the sap is running good. Wish more of this snow would melt!
Towing the Otter sled through the deep snow.
February 28, Wednesday
It took me 3 hours to put out 64 taps today. It is sunny, in the mid-40s, and the sap is running. We have put out taps on snowshoes once before but never in snow this deep. It is slow going and exhausting.
Tapping on snowshoes.
February 27, Tuesday
Even though there is 2′ of snow on the ground, I thought we should get some taps out to see if the sap is running. Temperatures have warmed up into the 40s after we received almost a foot of snow last week. The sap is running so I will put out more taps tomorrow. Here’s hoping for a great season!
The 2018 season begins with lots of snow on the ground.