Tapping

Yesterday we put out about 110 taps. We didn't get an exact count at the end, but it was pretty close to that. It was really windy when we started and the bags were blowing around quite a bit but the trees were running so hard the sap filling them started to hold them down before too long.

Bob & Julie Assembling Bag Holders

Usually it's just Michael and me tapping, but this year we had my family plus my dad, so we always had two drills going plus a couple of people assembling the bag holders and it went pretty fast. I did have to do a little clearing where branches had fallen in the way of getting to the trees, but nothing too large. Hopefully mud doesn't become a big problem again this year, but it's already really wet and rain is in the forecast.

We're going to skip tapping a few trees near the barn for a couple of groups we're expecting so they can see what tapping is about. On the 28th we have a Father-Son group scheduled to come out from Edna Martin Christian Center in Indy. It's a community center in an inner-city area so this will probably be a new experience for most of them; we're really looking forward to it. The other is a family that purchased a "Maple Syrup Day" that we donated to a benefit auction. Hopefully we can find a day with nice weather for them to come out and they can all get in on tapping and boiling.

Julie Hanging Some Bags

But, that's all down the road a bit. Unfortunately we still have some work to do to be ready. The biggest issue is some sugar sand left in the pans from last year that's going to be really hard to get out...hopefully we can take care of that on Wednesday. We're going to have to start boiling no later than then.


Doug Adjusting A Tree Tag


Austin Being Austin