Cold North wind with highs only in the 20s. No sap today. But that’s OK because we needed a chance to catch up. With 970 gallons of sap collected over the weekend we need a little time to boil that through. There are now 113 quarts bottled with another batch still to be drawn off tonight. Here is a picture of Ned firing the evaporator.
A busy day. The trees worked overtime again and dripped all night. This is unusual. Nights cool off and the sap stops flowing, but if it doesn’t freeze at night the sap will drip all night. This afternoon we collected 470 gallons more of sap. Definitely a good two day run. Later this afternoon the wind shifted to the North and clouds moved in. Then the sap stopped dripping. But there is still lots of sap to boil down. In the last 24 hours 52 quarts of finished syrup were bottled. There will likely be another 40 quarts or more in the next 24 hours. Another long night ahead.
Friday evening about 8:30 pm a thunder storm rolled through. Why not. The weather has been really strange so this just adds to it. Ned and Dean were boiling down the days haul of 500 gallons of sap when the storm hit. There is an old saying that thunder over an open woods means more snow is coming. An “open woods” means a woods where the leaves on the tress have not yet come out. So we can expect another snow storm yet!
A good sap flow. It was sunny and in the 40s today. Finally a good weather day. And the trees responded. By noon they were getting full. Called for help — family, friends and neighbors — to start collecting at 1:00 pm. Picked up 500 gallons of sap. The collecting tank pulled by the tractor holds 200 gallons so that meant three trips. Working now to boil it through. If there is more sap tomorrow we will need the storage tanks empty. Not sure how late they will boil tonight, but it will likely be late, or depending on how you look at it, early. Bottled either 9 or 12 quarts today already. And there will be more.
Today was 40 degrees, but snowed all day. Go figure. The sap did start flowing this afternoon. We hope to collect and boil tomorrow. And here is a photo taken last week when we were finishing the tapping in the snow. That’s Karl driving in a spout.
Today was cloudy weather, high only to 30, and snow flurries most of the day. Ned cleaned the evaporator and pans in anticipation of the next run. We usually host tours during maple syrup time for school groups. They get hands-on education of maple syrup production. Each one gets a taste of the whole process from clear, sweet sap to warm, delicious syrup. Check the website for daily updates to see when we are collecting and boiling sap.
It was sunny today, but a cold east wind off of Lake Michigan kept the sap from flowing. Its common during the season to have a few days of no sap, then a run for a day, maybe more, then no sap again. We have to be patient. In January logs were made in the woods. There are still a lot of tree tops around the woods. And stumps. We took down a large, old tree by the building. It was a nice tree and has been in many photographs over the years. It was sad to cut down the tree, but we have not tapped it for several years now. As the tree was large and quite old, we are all curious about how old it is. When we have a chance we will count the growth rings.
Windy, cloudy, and high temperature only of 30 degrees today. No sap flowing today. Icicles of sap drips were hanging off the spouts. Maple trees need sunny above freezing days and below freezing nights. Verna says, “No sap flows when the North wind blows.” Ned just boiled down the remaining sap in the evaporator this morning, though was not enough for finishing off to bottle. Currently 32 quarts of maple syrup this season are bottled, labeled, and ready.
It was an odd day for weather. Last night we had snow flurries, then rain. By morning it was about 35 degrees. And the sap started to flow. We collected about 150 gallons of sap. Family, friends and neighbors came to help. It was not a lot of sap, but its best to collect it while its fresh. And we had help because of the weekend. While collecting, snow flurries returned. For awhile we feared a repeat of yesterdays snow. But these flurries stayed light. We had to empty the ice from the storage tanks from earlier in the week. The ice is just water without any of the sugar that’s in sap so there is no loss discarding the ice. Fired up the evaporator to boil. A batch of almost finished syrup was drawn off earlier this evening. Don’t now how much yet.
The day started sunny, but cold. Overnight low was 12 degrees. By 9:00 am it warmed to 33 degrees. The plan for the day was to complete the tapping. We still had about 85 taps to put out. By 12:30 it started to get cloudy. We met up at 1:00 pm to tap. Loaded the tractor with buckets, covers, spouts and the auger and headed to the west side of the woods. By 2:15 the weather changed. First a few light flakes. Then a heavy snow started falling. We were determined to finish the tapping so we kept on going in the snow. In a short time everything was covered with snow. It was snowing hard and getting hard to see, but we wanted to finish so we stayed at it. By 3:30 we were done. There are about 415 taps out.