Break over Easter!

It was nice!  We did NOT collect or cook on Easter Sunday, wonderful! Hope you enjoyed your day as well. The trees ran today, but are still running at a good clip, so we'll collect in the morning instead of this afternoon. We made this decision because when they do stop it may be for a few days or for the season.  Planning our collecting energy accordingly :)

Cooking on Easter Eve

We'll clean the stove at the Shak at 3:00, go out to the woods collecting at 4:00, and then back at the Shak for more cooking tonight.  Our friend who's 85 (making syrup since he was 9) says you're ALWAYS cooking on Easter.  If Easter is early, then the maple season is early.  If Easter is late, it seems the maple season is late as well. Proves true this year.

Caught up, but cooking tonight.......

We're caught-up with cooking what we've collected this week, but today will be a big collecting day. We'll be cooking this evening!

Catching-up on Cooking

Yesterday we collected close to 800 gallons so we've got the stove going today to get ready for what could be a few big days coming-up. It seems the trees like EASTER every year :)

Big week....

Yesterday's total was 1,040 gallons (we had to go back this morning and pick-up what we didn't have room for last night). The remainder of the week looks awesome too! Here's a quick video of the stove last night.

They don't run any faster........

Take a look at this happy tree yesterday.....the sap doesn't run any faster! And a perfect 10-day forecast with freezing nights, warm days and some rain/snow in the picture. Looks like there will be a 2016 maple season after all. We were worried Mother Nature had skipped it this year.

The trees were happy with the first day of SPRING

The trees celebrated the First Day of Spring by producing very close to 900 gallons today. Spring has Sprung! The upcoming week looks like fantastic Maple Syrup weather, and the Shak will be a busy place.

GREAT collecting day....

We had trees with overflowing buckets at 10:30 this morning.  It's going to be a BIG collecting day and the stove will definitely be cooking.

Suprise!

One cold night, and the trees starting running again!  We collected 500 gallons today. We'll be at the Shak tonight!

Darn! Still too chilly.

The trees were 'chilled' again today I guess.  No action in the woods or at the Shak tonight.  Fingers crossed for a warmer day tomorrow.

Needed the SUN......

I think the trees could have ran today if the SUN had peeked out, but it didn't.  So it was a little too chilly for action.  We're still hopeful for the next week-10 days!

Steady temps.......

It looks like our temperatures are gonna stick around 50 for the next several days so we don't expect the trees to run with no freezing at night.  But, starting next Weds-Thurs the nights are cool again with chances of SNOW moving in! It's not over yet!

There's SAP to collect today......

We just checked the trees and they are running!  We'll collect this evening and get the stove going by 8 tonight.  Don't forget to set your clocks ahead before bed:)

Thankful they're running!

It's only 10:30 am and the trees are running.  Whew!  We can tell by the maple tree outside our kitchen window which is running crazy from a broken limb.  We'll definitely be cooking at the Shak tonight!  Stop up.

Hopeful for trees to run Friday!

We were so hoping today would have been a GREAT collecting day.....A quick check at noon and again around 5 proved not!  Let's hope for a good run tomorrow, Friday.  These trees are soooo temperamental.  As of right now, we have NOTHING to cook.

Cooking this Weekend

Today we collected about 250 gallons.  It doesn't look like the trees will run tomorrow (Wednesday), but Thursday and Friday look like they could be great days!  We'll be at the Shak this weekend.

Unseasonably warm.......

We had a great day yesterday, collecting 800+ gallons!  We'll go out again this afternoon, but we're not real sure what to expect because it didn't freeze last night.  It has happened before where it stayed warm all night and the trees ran through the night.  Stay tuned!

Sapping 2016 is upon us!

It's that time again.....and I'm not referring to the Presidential campaign debates! Our weather has prompted us into 'ON' mode for tapping our Maple Trees.

We got our trees tapped this past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and our first day of collecting was today with 650 gallons! Not bad for a first day. So tonight is 'test-mode' at the Shak, making sure we're ready!

We are a tiny-bit worried, admittedly, about our Spring conditions. There is NO snow in the woods!  The ground in the woods is still frozen, but there is no typical insulation blanket (snow) to protect us from this unusually warm week that is forecasted. Typically, we'd feel confident with this warm spell coming that the snow in the woods will keep the trees from realizing it's Spring...but this year warm is warm.  No insulation.  2016 may be a 'quick season.'  We'll see.