OT: Slow sap run so far

buickanddeere: To collect the sap, we're using buckets and shanks pony. All taps are within about 500 feet of our evaporator.
Our evaporator's a 2ft x 4ft x 12" inch deep pan on half an oval oil drum with a square tube base and angle iron top frame. I lined the inside with fire brick and it works pretty well. Would be nice if the rear floor of the firebox was a little closer to the bottom of the pan, like a conventional arch - conventional arches are a lot more money than this was though.
Out of 50 taps, we've made about 4 gallons of syrup in the last 12 days.
Today was about the best - sunny and a little above freezing - a little bit of sunshine makes all the difference. Nights are staying cold - that's good. Rain and snow forecast for the weekend. If sap stops for a couple days it may be just as well - I'm coming down with something.

dr.sportster:
I understand all maple sap contains some sugar - hard maple is the best. If you're not familiar with the appearance of a hard maple without its leaves on, best to get some help or wait until next year after identifying the leaves in the summertime. Hard maple leaves have short, fat 'fingers' or lobes as opposed to long thin ones. The leaves are also more brilliant in the fall than soft maples'

davidj:
I understand about the Scotsman thing (last name's Mcdonald) - I boiled all the ice

Bernie in MA:
I've been getting good results with a candy thermometer and the seven degree rule. Now for taffy, or hard candy - what's the temp differential ?

Ibby:
Good advice to wait until the run starts in earnest before drilling holes. The first 25 holes 'sputtered' for the first 5 cold days. Drilled the last 25 holes when it was warmer, and now regardless of the weather, those last 25 holes are much better producers (I'd say at least 100% better).
Our season is a bit earlier than yours. In recent years, we can expect to be started on or about the first of March.

Be back later

Borrowed a bucket washer from a buddy yesterday. My wife will wash buckets today while I set up the pan and arch. We'll tap tomorrow, and hopefully do our first boil Monday. The firebrick is backordered, but supposed to be here Monday morn. If not, I'll use it just as it is.

I remember the 219 F, (7 above water boil point), afraid I don't recall the temps for taffy or sugar. Most times sugar is done on a finishing pan, or sometimes on the stove where you can keep a close eye on it.

Mark

We started last Tuesday here in southern NH:
My wife and I do it for fun each year. We only have 4 taps (two trees) but that provides us all the syrup we generally use ourselves. Near 40 during the days here and around 20+ at night. Good for sap collecting. Looks like it's going to be about the same for the next few days.

Rod

How did you post that photo ?
Copy and paste doesn't work for me.

Thanks - Mac

Just copy and paste certainly will never work, as you have found out. 1. You must first have your photo located somewhere on a web server computer. It can be in one of the photo archives at this site (you'd have to upload it from your computer to one of the archives). It can also be on any other server that hosts photos on the web. I sometimes use my own web page that is located on my ISP's server as a source. The photo in my post this time however, is located on a server owned by a company that specifically provides free photo hosting services and also permits direct linking to the photos so they can be used at other sites like this one.

2. To get a photo to show up in a post box, you must provide the necessary special html coding directly in your post text that refers to the internet location of the photo you want to show up. That coding takes the following form:

[img src="URL of photo"]

Except that [ needs to be replaced with < and ] needs to be replaced with >. If I had actually used < and > in the above, you'd see that dreaded square with a red X in it, like so:

The text between the double quotation marks (URL of photo) is the internet location and name of the photo. For example, I typed this in my post box to make the photo show up:

[img src="http://img219.exs.cx/img219/9763/maplesap1ce.jpg"]

Where < and > have been replaced by [ and ]. The name of the photo is maplesap1ce.jpg and the rest of the stuff between the quotes is the identification of the internet server where the photo is located. In other words, if you typed (or copy and pasted) this:

Link

directly into your web browser address space, you would see only the photo.

3. You should resize any photo as needed to keep the size no larger than 640x480 pixels. That's the size of the one I posted. Anything larger is not respectful of those with slow dialup connections. Larger images simply take too long to download. In fact, if you upload your photo to any of the archives on this site I believe it will automatically be reduced in size to something like 350 pixels maximum width. The format also has to be either .jpg (most common) or .gif.

This all probably sounds complex but it really isn't. Once you actually get used to doing it, it's quite easy. The first time is always the hardest. Everything in that coding has to be exact though. If you leave out the space between img and src or put a space in between src and the = or any other changes except in the URL address itself, you'll wind up with the red X instead of your photo. Fortunately, this site has a post preview feature that lets you see if there are going to be any problems before the actual post. That way, if there is a problem with the photo showing up, you'll know it right away and can go back and correct it before posting.