Only up to 45 today instead of 60s as forecast.  Froze last night.  But still no sap run.  We need a good freeze/thaw cycle of 20s at night and 30s/40s during the day.  We did go through the woods to collect the sap that was in the buckets.   If we don’t collect the sap with the warm weather it can spoil.  Collected 110 gallons.  2.0 Brix.  Its a lot of walking to get so little sap.   But with no snow its easy to walk through the woods.   Its also frustrating to see some dry taps.    But the ground in the woods still feels frozen.   If our weather pattern gets back to normal we will have sap runs.   The sap always moves in the trees because its needed as food for the leaves to come out.

 

Frequently at the beginning of the season we fight ice.  We would welcome ice this season because sap has to flow for ice to form.

 

New spark plugs in the tractor made a huge difference.  Its running very smooth now.  No more missing.   It starts right away and fires on all cylinders.