Sugaring 2013

We started tapping our biggest bush yesterday & finished today. I’m not sure on the number but it has to be 4-500. Finished tapping it today & got the vac & releaser set up. Of course the releaser is malfunctioning. Most of the holes were running pretty good when we drilled them. We have about another 1000 to go, spread all around, including about 130 here at my place. This is pretty much my friends deal, esp. the whole vac & RO stuff. He is way into it.
I was thinking today that it might be time to think of sugaring as 2 weeks in Feb plus March rather than March +2 weeks in April.
Mark

Been in the sugar woods all week doing repairs and dealing with blow downs. The snow is pretty deep and heavy up here, making trail maintenance/packing a must this year. I was going to start tapping this week but, given next week’s projected cool down, I’m going to wait a few more days. I’ll be tapping about 2100 this year.

I’ve also issued my formal declaration of war against the porcupines that have nested in my wood pile. Thankfully, they’ve kept their damage to some mostly scrub softwoods but they’re moving toward my more valuable wood lot. It’s amazing the damage they can do. But the war is on.

I’m in Walden, Vermont — in the Northeast Kingdom. My sugar woods are at about 2000 feet and north facing — two more reasons why I’m not in a rush to tap.

Thank you ed,
For this wonderful thread

I’ve been searching around here for some excitement or courage or whatever that thing is that clicks and makes you go nuts and start sugaring. I was having a hard time locating it. After listening to everyones plans, I decided to just take the horses for a loop in the sugarwood. I took a saw and a barn shovel just in case, but never needed it. The team broke through the drifts and the snow was sticky enough to pack and it was perfect. Its about a two mile loop if you go everywhere and we were back in the field in half an hour. Maybe 45 minutes. But it went so good we turned back in and went two more times around. So, we’ve started. And I can feel that urgency all of a sudden.
My neighbor hangs plastic gallon jugs on his road trees, and they are showing a pint or quart per tap, and our woods trees are colder than that so no worries for a moment. And it looks like colder weather this week coming, but I will probably start hanging buckets this weekend. 500 or so, is enough for us to deal with. Have to clean up the sugarhouse and boil some water in the pans, wash out the tanks, but we are pretty much there.
We never used to tap before town meeting in march. A couple years, we never made a drop until march 28th. Now we are tapping the third week of feb. for several years running. Strange weather. Good luck out there and thanks again.

All the guys down here in Mass started tapping today, and it was running. Tradition is to tap this coming week because its school vacation week and the kids are home to help. I gather with my bulls for my uncle and my neighbor during the week but they do all the tapping and boiling. I like it just because its another job for the team, this year a full tank will not be a problem they are getting strong!
~Tom

@highway 39997 wrote:

Mitch,

Glad you got the team out in the woods. I am amazed how the snow had dropped in our region. We are off to pack trails tomorrow and Sunday then wait for warmer weather to gather. Are you using a sap sled or log scoot arrangement?

Does anyone gather with a single horse? I will be boarding Jim Garvins Canadian/Percheron during March and hope to use him with my horse for sap gathering if all works out. Happy sappin’.

hi ed,

we collect with a ben thresher type sap sled. but i rigged it out with a scoot pole with a nose ring so it might as well be a scoot. a good friend of mine collects his sap with a scoot. the sled might be a tad lower and easier to dump into.
we used to collect with a single and a pung. a small precheron mare. great horse (lilly). hang some buckets tomorrow or monday.
i knew this sugarmaker who always would say just as everyone was gearing up “this is going to be the greatest sugar season ever.” his name was ed like you.

hi george,

around here, a pung is a box sled, usually single horse. the front runners turn up high and the shafts pin in on the runners end.
ours was rotting, so i cut the runners ends down and put in a roll and pole for a team.