Taps All Pulled & Maple Festival

The Worthington brothers have pulled all the taps in the last 2 days.

Today Harvey and I went to the Maple Festival in St. Albans.

 http://www.vtmaplefestival.org/

Lots of sugar makers checking out new equipment with dollars in their pockets from a banner maple year.

This picture was taken at Lapierre Maple Equipment in Highgate. They had huge evaporators set up outside boiling water.

25 Gallons of Grade C

Harvey boiled this afternoon.

75 degrees and sunny, gorgeous day.

Harvey said he is going to pull the plug, again.

Ozzy, who is in the pond, just chased 2 geese out of the pond. The geese are in flight in this picture and not sure if you can see them.

Sap Ran All Night

Harvey has a tank of sap and will boil sometime today.

The color of the syrup made yesterday was the color of A-Medium, but the flavor was Grade C.

Banner year for us. Approximately 40 barrels.

28 Gallons of Grade C

Harvey and Craig boiled all afternoon.

60 degrees, cold wind, sap still running tonight.

False Alarm

Harvey is NOT pulling the plug. We have had 2 nights of a freeze and the sap is clearing up. It is still Grade C, but it can be filtered so he is going to boil it.

Harvey made 30 gallons of C last night.

Craig Bergeron is going to help him boil this afternoon. Sap is running good today.

Pulling the Plug

Harvey announced this morning that he is going to pull the plug on sugaring.

It is really hard on the equipment this time of year. The sap doesn't have as much sugar content so it takes longer to boil and it is really hard to go through the filter press. The grade is "C", commercial grade.

He is going to boil one last time today.

Still Making Syrup

Yesterday Harvey boiled and made 40 gallons...20 gallons of Grade B & 20 gallons of Grade C.

We had a freeze last night 22 degrees.

Sunny, very windy and cold. Temperature says 40 degrees, but the wind is so cold.

50 Gallons of Grade B

Sap ran all day yesterday and Harvey boiled in the evening.

High winds last night and warm, 58 degrees this morning.

Harvey has 2 full tanks of sap and it is running very good this morning.

Harvey headed to the woods at 6:00 a.m. because he thinks he has some links on his sap lines from the high winds last night. He can tell from the vacuum pump that something is not right.

He will be boiling sometime today.

We are at 34 barrels.

55 Gallons of Grade B

Sap is still running, but it is getting darker.

We had a slight freeze last night, beautiful, sunny day today.

Expect a freeze tonight and possible rain tomorrow, sounds like another run.

53 Gallons of A-Dark

Harvey boiled this afternoon.

Sap is still running.

60 degrees, rain and very windy today.

70 Gallons of A-Medium

Harvey got home around 10:00 p.m.

50 degrees, cloudy and windy this morning.

19 Gallons of A-Medium

Harvey boiled this afternoon and made beautiful A-Medium syrup.

Best sap run we have ever had.

We are up to 29 barrels. A full crop for us is around 23 barrels.

Harvey is boiling again tonight.

28 Gallons of A-Medium

Harvey boiled until midnight last night.

He made 120 gallons in 24 hours.

We had a freeze last night, 27 degrees this morning.

Weather for today, high of 62 degrees and sunny.

92 Gallons of A-Medium

Harvey finished around 3:30 p.m., took a shower, had a nap in his chair, ate supper and he is back in the sugar house.

He has 2 full storage tanks and beginning to run into the 3rd tank.

He is cleaning the pans and the filter press. He will probably start boiling around 8 or 9:00 p.m.

Second Boil of the Day

Harvey started boiling at 10:00. Probably will boil until 1:00 and then clean the pans and start over again.

Harvey said he is running on adrenaline, caffeine and sugar.

Pictures from this morning. Click on any picture to enlarge.

Mother Run!

Harvey went to the sugar house at midnight. He had 2 storage tanks full of sap and running very good.

He started the RO and finished cleaning the front pans.

An hour later he had a full tank of concentrate from the RO and a 3rd tank of sap!

The grade was A-Medium and beginning to turn lighter towards Fancy grade. The sugar content is also up...1.9%.

Around 6:00 a.m. it was time to clean the front pans again and the sap is still running.

It is snowing here and the trees are loaded this morning.

Harvey came down for breakfast at 8:00 a.m. and is now back at the sugar house getting ready for the next boil with Ozzy & Jack.

46 Gallons Grade B & A-Medium

Harvey started boiling around 3:30 this afternoon.

Syrup started out Grade B and then switched to A-Medium.

Sap is running the best it has all season.

Stopped boiling at 8:00 p.m. so that Harvey could switch the front pans.

He is probably going to boil again tonight.

25 Gallon of Grade B

Sap stopped running last night. This sap was boiled from sap that ran yesterday afternoon.

Bad ice, snow, sleet today, cold.

23 barrels...at this point we have made a full crop. 

55 Gallons of A-Dark

Sap ran really well today.

Freeze expected tonight and some bad weather coming our way tonight and tomorrow...rain, sleet, freezing rain.

Sugarmakers are very busy and making an abundance of syrup this year.

Freeze Last Night

27 degrees this morning. We haven't had a freeze since last weekend. This freeze will help rejuvenate the trees.

Harvey has 2 full tanks of sap this morning. He will start boiling this morning some time.

High of 40 degrees and sunny today.

68 Gallons of A-Dark

Another boiling day for Harvey.

Sap is still running slow, but steady.

50 Gallons of A-Medium

Sap is still running.

38 degrees, heavy fog.

Sap Ran All Night

Harvey has 2 tank fulls of sap = 2,000 gallons.

He is going to boil this morning.

40 degrees and raining.

66 Gallons of A-Medium

Harvey started boiling at 11:30 a.m. today and ended around 3:30 p.m.

Harvey counted the syrup barrels today...18 barrels.

Looks like a great sugaring week ahead for us.

Some of the lower sugar makers who who gather with buckets are coming to an end. The holes have dried up due to the wind.

Sugar makers with pipeline are doing much better this year.

50 Gallons of A-Medium

Harvey boiled until 9:00 a.m. Towards the end of boiling the syrup was getting light in color, but didn't hit Fancy.

Sap ran all night. Harvey has a storage tank and a half this morning.

37 degrees this morning. Sunshine predicted for today.

Boiling Tonight

Sap started running around noon and is running really good.

Harvey started boiling at 6:00 p.m.

53 degrees, had a small rain shower this afternoon, now clear skies and some sun breaking through, windy.

25 Gallons of A-Medium

We woke up to 15 degrees and the wind is so cold today.

Harvey had 1 tank of sap (1,000) from running all night.

We are up to 14 barrels of syrup which is good.

35 Gallons of A-Dark & 55 Gallons of A-Dark & A-Medium

Harvey boiled last night and made 35 Gallons of A-Dark.

Sap ran all night, he started boiling at 11:00 today and he made 55 gallons. The grade started out as A-Dark, and changed over to A-Medium.

Harvey stopped for supper and the sap is still running.

High of 38 degrees and snowed most of the day.

Freeze expected tonight.

Boiling Tonight

Sap started running at noon today. Harvey is boiling tonight.

50 degrees, beautiful sunshine, but windy. It didn't feel like 50.

We still have lots of snow still on our front lawn and in the sugar woods.

I got home around 4:00 p.m. and took the dogs out for a walk. Stepped out of the house and Percy ran to the fence on our front lawn and was barking at something on the other side of the fence. When I stepped closer I could see that Percy was nose to nose with a raccoon...yikes! I lunged for Tess because she was right next to me, fell down and was rolling around in the snow trying to get a hold of her, Symon & Percy were barking wildly at the raccoon. I could not get my footing in the snow to stand up. The raccoon was hissing and screeching, still on the other side of the fence. I finally got onto my feet, put Tess in the house. Ran to get Percy back in the house. He listened to me and came running to me. Put him in the house and then got Symon's attention and got him in the house. I was so scared!! After I got all the dogs in the house the raccoon ran across the front lawn and went under the front porch. I called Harvey and he came down from the sugar house. The raccoon was not under the porch by this time and must have run into the woods.

The raccoon didn't look sick. I think it was a young raccoon who just woke up from his winter sleep and was looking for food. I picked up all the bird feeders about 3 weeks ago, but there is a lot of seeds on the ground from all winter.

38 Gallons A-Dark

Harvey had 1 1/2 tanks of sap from yesterday afternoon, so he boiled this morning.

We are up to 10 barrels. Full crop would be 20 barrels, we are half way there.

It is been cold, windy and snowing on and off all day.

Back To Winter

Snowing hard this morning and 18 degrees.

Looks like Harvey has a couple of days rest.

52 Gallons of A-Medium

Harvey boiled this morning, 9:00 to 12:00 noon.

Sap ran all day, but has now stopped because the temperature is 31 degrees. The next couple of days look really good and wintry

Ozzy & Jack help Harvey every day at the sugar house....truck patrol.

25 Gallons A-Medium

Harvey had only 1 tank of concentrate due to the arch not firing, so he only boiled the concentrate last night. This left a full tank of sap.

This morning he has 2 tank fulls of sap and running into the 3rd storage tank. Sap ran all night.

He is hoping to start boiling around 9:00 a.m.