This is a picture of our new taps that we are using this year, they are disposable.

They are suppose to be much more sterile to use.

The taps that are used over and over every year tend to harbor bacteria.

Harvey, Ryan and the "tapping crew" started tapping again on Wednesday and finished this morning.

It's a good thing they finished, because it is beginning to snow very hard.

Now Harvey & Ryan will begin working in the sugarhouse getting everything in order to begin boiling. I have a half gallon of syrup left in my fridge and that is it...we have never been this close to running out ourselves!

Tapping Update

The crew tapped almost 900 taps today.

The weather does not look so nice tomorrow.

First Day of Tapping 2011

Harvey, Ryan and a crew of 3 other people are headed to the woods to begin tapping today.

45 degrees this morning and rain is predicted.

This is a picture I took last weekend. Our sap lines are usually about 4 feet off the ground, but not this year. It is really hard going in the woods. The men have been digging out sap lines with a shovel for a couple of weeks.

The top picture is of "sap" lines. These lines go from tree to tree.

The bottom picture is one of our "main" lines. The sap lines feed into the main line. The main line carries the sap to the sugarhouse.

If you click on any pictures posted, it will enlarge the pictures for you.

Lots of snow!

New Sugaring Season Begins Soon!

Welcome to a new sugaring year!

Harvey & Ryan have been working in the sugarwoods fixing tubing the last couple of weeks.

Today I helped Harvey work on the lines.

We usually start tapping the last week of February.

We will have 3,000 taps this year.

Mother's Day and Mother Nature surprised us with a big snow storm. This is a short video that I took this morning.

We started pulling taps this week. We still have one more day to finish. We might have to put our snowshoes back on in May to finish sugaring!

We finished boiling today.

The ice has melted from the pond.

80 degrees today.

Approximately 990 gallons. We will have a more accurate amount once they come to pick up the syrup, which will be within the next 10 days

Sorry, my regular day to day life got in the way of posting again!

We are still boiling. I don't know when we last had a freeze at night.

Yesterday it was 80 degrees! Harvey made 30 gallons of Grade B last night.

At this point, we have about 965 gallons, compared to last years 1,200 gallons.

It is suppose to be 80 again today, we will see what happens.

Harvey boiled Monday and Tuesday evenings.

70 gallons of Grade B.

We are hanging in there!

No sap for Saturday or Sunday. We were really cold this weekend.

13 degrees at night and warming up to about 36 during the day.

We did get a run today and Harvey is boiling tonight.

It looks like our season may be coming to an end.

Throughout the state, sugarmakers have only made about a half a crop, compared to last year.

Harvey boiled last night and this afternoon.

Grade B....40 gallons yesterday, 20 gallons tonight.

No boiling yesterday. It didn't get warm enough to make the sap run.

25 this morning, high of 49 today. It could be a good day.

We had a freeze last night and woke to snow falling this morning.

27 last night, 38 today. Not sure if it will be high enough for the sap to run.

Harvey boiled last night...30 gallons of Grade B.

Harvey made 35 gallons of Grade B.

Rained all night. This morning we have rain with a little snow.

No freeze last night. Not sure what to expect today.

We have an approximate total of 750 gallons so far...about half a crop.

Sap started running slowly yesterday and we didn't think we would boil.

Then we had a small snow storm and the sap picked up. Maple trees love a storm.

Harvey made 15 gallons of Grade B.

We had visitors to our sugarhouse last night. My brother, Dwight, his wife, Julie and their daughter, Riley and friends Leslie, Mark, & Jack Hotopp.

Harvey made 14 gallons of Grade B last night.

Harvey made 45 gallons of Grade B last night.

It was 64 degrees here yesterday. The streams are opening, but we still have a lot of snow in our woods.

Harvey's mother always said that sugaring wasn't over until the ice was off the pond...looks like we have a lot more sugaring to do!

Harvey boiled last night...33 gallons of Grade D.

Grade D is Harvey's grading system for very "dark" syrup!

We need another freeze, which we didn't get last night or some precipitation.

Harvey had a releaser pump break yesterday. This pump pumps the sap from the vacuum releaser to the storage tanks. In layman terms...a pump that is much needed at sugar making time!

After buying a new pump, Harvey made 50 gallons of Grade B. Excellent flavor, but dark color.

It was very warm yesterday high 50's, this could have contributed to the darker syrup.

No freeze last night, but sap ran all night. We have half a storage tank of sap this morning.