Thank you, Trees!

We had such a great season!  We'll finish with 500+ gallons of syrup, which is a record year for us.  We officially thanked the trees yesterday as we pulled the taps.  Still have a few busy weekends to wrap things up with bottling this weekend and collecting and washing the buckets from the woods the following weekend.  Enjoyed our visitors at the Shack this year.  Makes a sometimes exhausting season "fun."

Still Collecting

We continue to collect 500-600+ gallons every day this week, and have been cooking every night for 18 days straight.  The trees are still running, but this weekend's 70-degree temps will definitely change the quality of the sap.  We'll cook through the weekend if you want to stop up and visit.

Steam's Roll'n

We are most definitely cooking tonight, Fri. Visitors welcome.

Cooking This Weekend!

The week has been busy enough collecting that we KNOW we'll be cooking this weekend.  We collected 1400 gallons on Monday, 800 gallons on Tuesday, and 500 gallons Wednesday.  More snow coming likely means MORE sap!  We're ready. 

WHEW!

We collected 1400 gallons of sap yesterday.  We haven't had a season like this since 2009.  The weather looks perfectly cooperative this week and next.  We're so excited! 

HAPPY TREES!

Yesterday we collectd 500+ gallons (in the rain).  Not our most pleasant collecting day.  Today we went at noon and filled the gator twice (300 gallons), and will be going back when the kids get home from school.  There's probably another 500 gallons to collect.  Wahooo!!  We'll be cooking steady every evening this week.

Forget the Rest.

My previous post said we wern't collecting today or cooking tonight.  That has changed because the trees are dripping like crazy.  We'll be at the Shack tonight!

Sunday. A Day of Rest.

Kevin will light the stove for a few hours this afternoon to cook what sap we have left from yesterday.  The trees are not running today so we will not go out and collect, and the Shack will probably be quiet by 5.  We'll charge our batteries for what looks to be a great sapping week coming up!

The trees are happy with the SNOW!

Yesterday (Thursday) we collected 500+ gallons of sap, and cooked for awhile last night.  We're getting a very light syrup....which often-times happens after a snow if you cook the sap right away.  YUM!  We'll be cooking tonight and through the weekend.  We usually get started late afternoon after we're back from collecting.  Visitors welcome.

We'll be cooking Friday evening, 4/12

We collected 460 gallons again on Wednesday.  We may take a break from cooking tonight, Thursday, but will be back at it on Friday evening. 

Cooking tonight? Most likely.

We've collected 450 gallons of sap both Monday and Tuesday of this week, and came back and cooked for a few hours in the evening.  I'm predicting the same for tonight, Wednesday, 4/10. 

Storm's Brewing

Technically, the trees shouldn't run today because the forecasted hi is only 37.  BUT, sometimes the drop in barometric pressure with a storm moving in makes the trees go crazy!!!  Let's hope. 

We're on a Roll!

We've just finished a successful weekend of collecting and cooking.  We collected about 1200 gallons of sap over the weeknd and cooked Friday and Sunday night.  We're expecting this to be a BIG week.  Probably won't cook tonight (Monday), but later in the week.  We'll keep you posted.

This weekend's collectors:

Tim  Grandpa  Vince  Tim  Ian  Alex

Arinda  Melissa  Kara  Heidi

Finally!

They're finally running!  We collected about 500 gallons of sap yesterday (Thursday), and hope for a larger amount this afternoon.  We will be cooking at the Shack tonight (Fri) and most likely Sunday night; however NOT on Saturday night.....celebrating a family wedding!

Wisconsin's Trees are Running!

Our neighbor-trees to the east (Wisconsin) have started running.  They're usually a few days ahead of us.  It's coming!  Look at this AWESOME 10-day forecast!  We need 40+ days, freezing nights.  Hopeful to cook this weekend.