No Woods Work. 25 overnight. 50 today. Sap ran but tree pressure was only 10 PSI. Expected higher PSI because we had a good freeze and sunny day.
We were busy with other matters and couldn’t get into the woods. It was a long day: up a 3:30 AM Sunday and didn’t get to bed until 7:00 PM Monday. It was a very good day. Time for the party hats.
Into the woods by 8:30 AM. 20 overnight. Cloudy morning kept the temperature down and the snow and ground frozen. Got the evaporator fired up by 9:00 AM. Estimated 3 hours to cook 70 gallons of sap. Had a good boil and finished by 11:00. Almost fired too long. The 11:00 AM reading measured 1″ of sap in the tank. That’s getting low. Stopped firing and allowed the sap to flow in. Done by 11:30 AM.
Warm spell forecast the next 3-4 days. 50s. Even 60s. Getting too warm. We’ll wait it out.
18 overnight again. But the ice is nature’s R/O: water freezes leaving sweeter sap: from 2.5 Brix to 3.0 Brix.
Collected 70 gallons. Done by 5:00 PM.
Took until after Noon to warm to high 30s and even later for 40. By 5:30 it was below 32 already. The ground is still cold.
Put out the tree pressure gauge. 18 PSI today.
When its 18 overnight it takes until after noon before the trees start dripping. It was sunny and up to 40 this afternoon. Checked at noon. Starting to drip. Checked again at 4:00 PM. Dripping but not enough collect. Not as cold tonight. Tomorrow in the 40s. Likely will collect.
25 overnight. Cloudy and 25 all morning. At 1:00 PM the sun appeared and it warmed enough to start melting. But not enough for the sap to run. Glad we collected yesterday. We would have had ice otherwise.
Got organized and had the evaporator fire started by 10:30 AM. No ice in the storage tank. The temperatures dropped late at night which prevented ice from forming in the tank.
Done cooking by 2:30 PM. All old school, no R/O. Weekend weather looks promising but next week warms up too much. We’ll see what comes.
Had some repair welding done on the evaporator. The right side had a spot that burned through. Welded in a metal plate and replaced firebrick.
Sunny and low 40s. Trees dripping. Went out collecting at 4:00 PM. Altered our tractor path to account for the smaller number of taps. Headed northeast from the syrup buildling then circled around down the west side of the building before looping east and back to the building.
Picked up 85 gallons. Doing the math shows it would have been 425 gallons with 500 taps.
Pumped the sap into the storage tank. Tomorrow we’ll start cooking.
Got 75 more taps out today. 100 total. Sap runs after tapping, but that’s expected. Taps radiate out from the syrup building. We could almost collect without the tractor and tank: walk it in. But we’ll use the tractor and tank to make it easier.
Tomorrow’s forecast is sunny and low 40s with high 20s overnight.
25 overnight. Did not warm during the day. The sun did appear late in the day.
Washed more spouts. Should be ready to complete tapping tomorrow. Forecast is favorable for sap.
Arrived at the farmhouse today at 2:00 PM. Arrived at Green Bay airport at 11:00 AM from DC. Waited for ride and stopped for groceries on on the way to the farmhouse.
February was cold with temperatures below 0. Looks like the weather is breaking now. Cloudy and mid-40s today. Got organized to tap 25. Sap is moving, but a fresh tap usually runs because there is now a outlet from the sealed tree.
Scaling back to 100 taps this season. A lot of other life events to take care of that limit our time. This scale back isn’t permanent. 100 taps should yield 15-20 gals of syrup. A big run day will be about 125 gals of sap. Other days 50 galls. Planning to cook old-school without the R/O.
COVID-19 is still with us. Over 500,000 have died. We’ve dodged it so far but continue to be careful. On the flight back, donned an N95 mask, bandana and face shield. Used lots of hand sanitizer too.
Transplanted 20 trees in front of the syrup building. Ranged in height from 4′ to 6′ with one tree at 7’+. The ground was moist so got a good root ball. A good root ball causes less stress on the tree. Buds just started coming out. This was a good time to transplant.
Transplanted 14 trees on Saturday and 6 on Sunday. Used a small wagon. Allowed us to get close to the tree for moving the root ball. Milorganite in the hole. Move the tree. Stomp down. Add water.
Expect some mortality. In October 2012 transplanted four trees. Two survived. Hoping for better results this time. The area in front of the syrup building has no young saplings. With luck we might be able to tap in our lifetime. That would be 25-30 years away.
Its now up to mother nature.
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