February at the farm is a time for getting ready for maple syrup production and this year is no exception. The harness is cleaned, and needed repairs are in process. We will start working with Bubba, walking him around in harness, then pulling a drag to prepare the trails for collecting sap. Bubba really likes to go, and we often stand in front of him to keep him from moving forward while we are pouring sap into the sap tank.
This year there is plenty of snow on the trails. We plan to jerririg a rounded front for our sleigh runners to make it so Mary Ann can sit on it while driving Bubba along the sap trails. We had talked about making a snow roller for him to drag using a piece of culvert filled with cement, but never got arount to it.
For collecting sap with the horse we use a 65 gallon tank on a very old pung. A pung is a low slung rig with shaves and a seat for two at the front. Ours has two seats (carries 4 people) and the back seat easily lifts off making space for the tank on the back. We tend not to fill it to the top, which could make it too heavy.
The sugar house is built, coupola and all. The evaporator in place complete with a new smokestack. Buckets and taps are emerging from storage to be prepared for tapping trees.
We have entered an agreement with some neighbors, who will tap trees and gather sap, which will make it easier to have enough sap to boil every day. It takes about 100 gallons in the storage tank in order to have enough to boil and in past years it often took a couple of days to have that quantity collected. The neighbors plan to help us collect sap and feed the wood fired evaporator. They have already helped us gather and stack wood and work on finishing the new sugar house.
In previous years there have been 4 or 5 days in the three week season that were "100 gallon days" but usually collection yields around 75 gallons a day and sometimes a lot less depending on the weather. For our trees it generally takes 60 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, and we do not want the evaporator to boil to low and burn. This year we hope to be able to boil every day once the season begins. The season begins when there are several days in which the nights are cold, and the days are warm, which is what triggers sap flow in the trees.
Stay tuned for more information about our 2011 maple season....
