Harvey boiled today, but it was sap that ran in the night. He made 40 gallons of Grade C.

It didn't get above 40 degrees today and the sun never came out,  so no sap this afternoon.

I bought this cookbook today and made 2 recipes for supper.

I made a quick salad dressing and it was so good. Here is the recipe....

Creamy Maple Syrup Dressing

1 Cup Mayonnaise

1/2 Cup Maple Syrup

1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar

That's it...quick & easy!

I also made Maple Spice Cookies for dessert. They were so good!

This cookbook is available on Amazon.com. There is a few books used at a price of $1.99 + $3.00 shipping.

30 degrees this morning and fresh sugar snow. The trees are beautiful!

I believe we will see the sap run today!

Town didn't get any snow, which is only 2 1/2 miles from our house.

Higher elevations only...aren't we lucky!?

Harvey boiled this morning and he made Grade C today. Grade C is commercial grade...the 1% maple syrup that is found in Aunt Jemima. He made 40 gallons and sap is still running.

We definitely need a freeze to get our grade back up! The weather this week looks like good sugaring weather...freezing at night and warming up during the day.

Predicting 31 degrees with a mixture of snow and rain for tonight. Tomorrow sunny with a high of 48 degrees.

Sap ran all night, all day and still running this evening.

Harvey was making Grade B (very good flavor) today.

We have a total of 700 gallons. Harvey said we made 800 gallons last year for our entire season.

2 tanks of sap and Harvey is off to the sugarhouse to begin boiling.

Samples of what Harvey has made this season.

He boiled yesterday and today, but I don't know how many gallons or grade.

Still have a lot of snow in the woods.

On Frozen Pond

Harvey's mother always used to say that, "sugaring wasn't over until there was no more ice on the pond".

Looks like we might have a few more runs.

We are starting to see signs of spring.

My raised bed gardens are beginning to appear.

Harvey made 50 more gallons (A-Medium) last night...100 gallons in one day. 

37 degrees snowy, rainy, very foggy this morning.

We have one full tank of sap this morning, ran all night.

Harvey made 50 gallons of A-Dark today, stopped for supper and now gone back to boil.

We have a total of 500 gallons at this point...about a half crop.

Harvey started boiling at 11:30 a.m. He is making A-Dark Amber.

The repair man couldn't make it this morning, so Harvey decided to start boiling, because he has 3 tanks of sap and we are getting a good sap run today.

Apparently, the repair man left the arch "jerry-rigged" in case he couldn't make it back.

It is 52 degrees at noon.

Repair man came at 7:00 p.m. last night. Something wrong with the control panel on the arch. He "jerry-rigged" it last night so Harvey could boil. Repair man coming back today to try and figure things out.

Harvey boiled from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. and made 30 gallons of A-Dark.

It was 28 degrees this morning, but sap ran all night. Harvey has 2 full tanks and beginning to run in the 3rd tank.

Repair man just called...he will be here around 7:30 p.m.

Harvey is staying calm. Just hope it is something easy to fix.

We are getting a good sap run.

Trouble in the sugarhouse!

Arch won't start. 

We have 2 tanks of sap and it is running very good right now.

We have called for a repair man.

Now we have to wait.

To be continued....

We have been frozen since Sunday.

It has been a good break for Harvey.

Harvey said the sap began to run at noon today.

He thinks he might be boiling tonight.

A chilly 9 degrees this morning. Suppose to warm up to a high of 24 degrees. Not much happening in the sugarhouse today.

Harvey made 20 gallons of Grade B yesterday.

Friday and Saturday we didn't have any action in the sugarhouse. It froze at night, but didn't warm up enough during the day to start the sap flowing.

Yesterday afternoon around 4 p.m. the sap started to run slowly and ran all night. Harvey has 1 tank full of sap. Harvey is starting the RO and it takes about 3 hours for him to get enough concentrate before he can begin to boil. He will probably start to boil after lunch today.

It is snowing here this morning and we really needed a storm for the trees.

Our sugar content of the sap was 2.75% yesterday, which is high for us. We are usually 2%. Some sugarmakers are only getting 1.5%. 

Yesterday morning Harvey had 1 tank full of sap, it ran all night and yesterday.

Him and Ryan started boiling at 3:oo p.m.

Finished boiling at 5:30 p.m.

60 gallons of A-Dark.

It is 14 degrees here this morning...a good freeze last night. We don't think it is going to warm up enough today for the sap to run.

47 degrees this morning and cloudy. Sap ran all night slowly.

Harvey boiled today. Grade is A-Medium today.

We have 300 gallons.

35 Gallons of A-Medium today.

Harvey made 50 gallons of A-Medium yesterday.

Froze last night and 50 degrees today.

Looks like another big run!

Harvey started boiling at 4:00 p.m. today. He had half a tank of sap and it was running good.

The grade was a very light A-Medium and could become Fancy before he finishes this evening.

I brought him supper and he thought he would be finished boiling around 7:00 p.m.

We made 35 gallons of A-Medium & Fancy grade syrup yesterday.

Total of 185 gallons.

I think there is going to be another run today!

We have a 1 tank of sap.

Harvey & Ryan are boiling tonight.

Full report in the morning.

In the 1940's, Wilfrid, Harvey's father, built a sugarhouse located on Route 58, Hazen's Notch Road in Montgomery Center, Vermont and produced maple syrup from the sugarbush which we use today.

They used a team of horses to help gather the sap. They used buckets and some pipeline.

It has been quiet at the sugarhouse yesterday and today...we are very cold up here.

We built our sugarhouse in 1989, Hayley was 2 and Ryan was 5. This is what Hayley would do when she came to the sugarhouse...sleep. The hum of the arch would put her right to sleep.

We made A-Medium Amber yesterday and we have 140 gallons.

I have fresh syrup for Mom & Mimi here at the office today.

Just came from the sugarhouse. Harvey and Ryan have been making lighter syrup today. They haven't graded it yet, so I am not sure what the grade is or how much they have made today.

The sap did not run today, it was too cold...high of 18 degrees today. They are boiling the sap that ran yesterday.

I made them homemade pizza for supper and brought in to the sugarhouse.

I also made a huge dish of maple rag muffins for Harvey. This is his favorite...hot out of the oven with vanilla ice cream!

They are going to be shutting down anytime and I will give you an update on grade and gallons.

Cold this morning, 14 degrees. 

Sap stopped running at 10 p.m. last night.

Harvey has 3 full sap tanks. He will be boiling sometime today.

Harvey boiled this afternoon.  

The grade is A-Medium today.

We have a total of 100 gallons.

Tonight we have 2 1/2 storage tanks of sap. Harvey will boil tomorrow.

Very, very windy here tonight.

Sap started running at 2 p.m. yesterday. By evening we had a half a tank of sap. Not enough to boil. 

This morning we have 2 full sap tanks...time to boil!

Raining and 32 degrees this morning.

Harvey & Ryan filled barrel number 2 yesterday. The grade is still A-Dark, but getting much lighter. 

Sap was running yesterday, but very slowly.

The weather says warming to 40 degrees, so might get another run today. Looks like there is also sleet and freezing rain for tonight and tomorrow.

The RO repair man got here in the afternoon and fixed the RO. Harvey put one of the parts in backwards when he put the RO together!

Counting Saturday's syrup and yesterdays, we now have 1 1/2 barrels of A-Dark.

He still has 2 storage tanks of sap and will be boiling sometime today.

It is cold here this morning, 27 degrees. It doesn't look like it is going to warm up enough to get a run today.

Beautiful, warm day here.

But we still have a lot of snow as you can see from these pictures!

Harvey & Ryan are getting ready to boil.

The reason our tanks are full is because we have trouble with the RO. It just stopped working this morning.

Jay came up to help us with some plumbing issues. In case we can't get the RO going, we will have to bypass this procedure and run the sap directly into the arch pan.

We have someone coming to fix the RO, but it is such a busy sugaring day for everyone, repair men are spread thin!

These are our 2 main sap storage tanks. 

We had 1 1/2 tanks of sap this morning. 

We now have 2 storage tanks full and over-flowing into the 3rd storage tank.

This tank (left) is where the sap is pumped after being processed through the RO.

The sap will then be pumped into the arch (pictured on the right) to begin boiling.

Picture 1 - RO (reverse osmosis). This machine removes water from the sap before starting the boiling process. This cuts our boiling time, so we produce maple syrup much faster.

Picture 2 - Vacuum pump - 3 pipes are the main lines coming from the woods.

Picture 3 - If you enlarge this picture, you will see on the right, the sap flowing in from the woods.

Harvey boiled from 3 pm to 7 pm yesterday. He made 10 gallons of A-Dark. It always takes longer to make syrup the first time we boil and it is usually darker syrup. None of the equipment broke down, so we are off to a good start! 

Ryan helped Harvey in the sugarhouse yesterday, checking lines and cleaning storage tanks and John Cluba visited the sugarhouse while Harvey was boiling last night.

Sap ran all night and is still running. Harvey has a 1 1/2 tanks of sap this morning, so this means we will be boiling sometime today. 

40 degrees this morning and raining. Sap ran all night and is still running. Harvey was up 2 times in the night to keep track of everything at the sugarhouse. We have a full tank of sap this morning, which means we will need to boil sometime today.

Harvey is at the sugarhouse now preparing all his equipment to start boiling. This is always fun, because usually something goes wrong on the first boil!

Finished tapping today. Sap is running, but not enough to boil tonight. We need quite a bit of sap to get started.

Temperature reached 48 degrees today. Raining off and on. Our snow banks are beginning to shrink.

Harvey and Ryan will be walking the lines in the morning. Harvey thinks there might be some leaks in the lines. Every drop of sap is precious!

31 degrees, sleet and freezing rain this morning. We might possibly get our first run today. We still have more tapping to do and not sure if it will get done today with all the rain that is predicted. High today in the 40's.

Last year our first boil date was March 8, so we are right on schedule.

These are pictures of Hayley and Harvey tapping a few years ago.

-4 this morning...warming right up! The tapping crew tapped 3/4 of the sugarbush yesterday. Headed back to the woods today. Suppose to warm up to 30 by this afternoon. Tonight it is suppose to snow and then turn to sleet and freezing rain for tomorrow morning, yipee!

-9 degrees here this morning! Harvey and the tapping crew are going to start tapping around 1:00 p.m. today. It is suppose to warm up to 22 degrees by this afternoon.

This morning some of our family went to a local restaurant for breakfast. It was fun to get together on a cold Sunday morning.

Picture 1-Me & Riley (Dwight & Julie's daughter)

Picture 2-Harvey, my husband

Picture 3-Tyler, my nephew and his girlfriend, Sam

Picture 4-Bev & Reg Robtoy, my parents

Picture 5-Jay, my brother & his wife, Lisa

Picture 6-Marguerite and Aaron, my brother, parents of Leigh & Tyler

Picture 7-Leigh, my niece

Picture 8-Dwight, my brother, Riley & Julie

Friday we had crazy weather! At 8:00 a.m. it was 50 degrees and beautiful sunshine. Around 1:00 p.m. it started pouring rain. Harvey, Ryan and 2 of our crew were able to tap 1/3 of the sugarbush and then had to call it quits when the rain started.

Yesterday morning the temperature was 4 degrees and snowing. Back to winter and way too cold to tap.