We strapped on the snow shoes and hiked out back to the closest 3 hard maples we could find. One was large enough to run 2 taps and the other two had 1 tap each. That should be good for now. Scotty Overkill gave me some useful advice and I believe he's tapping now too.
My IS heats my home We just started to hit the freezing mark today, but above freezing for the next week (mid 40's) so we should start seeing flow in the next day or two.
Maple Syrup harvesting is just plain cool. We have a local fellah that has some nice maples on his property. He has the galvanized buckets hanging off the trees with a nice snow cover in the woods. It just makes you feel like spring is around the corner.
fishingpol the snow is sooo deep, 3' in the woods. Snow shoes made it easy to get around. We're in the mid 30's finally, and the woods are alive. Squirrels scurrying on top of the snow, woodpeckers out, and the sound of flowing water from snowmelt.
Yep it won't be long now, I can remember plowing for spring planting near the end of maple season while my grandfather had the evaporator going full bore in the sugar house. Those were the days the smell of fresh plowed ground with a hint of maple scent in the air.
Im noticing on the one tree, the spile must not be seated properly, since the sap is flowing down the bark. Does anyone know if the sap will harden, thus blocking the escape of sap outside of my spile?
My dad tapped the maple in his back yard when we were little. He used a wooden dowel with a hole drilled down in the middle of it. It swelled in the hole tight when the sap got to it.
Lol, funny you should say that, I whittled a piece of wood into a spile for a quick fix. Now I'm seeing drops about every 2 seconds. 35°F out right now.
I saw one of the local guys who makes maple syrup, he had more tapping to do but will be ready to go by the time the weather turns. How much do you plan on making?
The weather doesnt look promising...... I may only have the next few days. Even if I collect 20 gal I'd be happy.
The one tap on the smaller hard maple is really flowing. A good sized drip every 1/2 second! The medium sized tress aint doing much and the largest tree with 2 taps is a steady drip.
My neighbor tapped my trees this weekend. His dad has a sugar house. I don't have to do much of anything and get free syrup for allowing them to get some sap out of the yard
I have 24 more taps coming in tomorrow. Seeing Scotty Overkill's numbers, I need to upgrade a bit. We have at least 50 maples, so why not tap a bunch more. Now that half of the snow melted, I can do more. It was tough wearing a pack and snowshoes to tap even the close ones. If I can hook up the wagon to the quad, ill get a bunch more done. Hope the flow hangs in there.
