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What a crazy year! The trees opened up for an afternoon, and then went back to sleep. We have had lots of time for setting up the evaporator, and tidying up the sugar house. The warm temperatures we have had over the last week slowed everything down. Finally! This past weekend with some more snow and temps below 0 we saw some movement in the lines and the buckets. And last night the temp went down to -9C! It was still just 0 in the bush at 3 this afternoon, so despite the sun shine, things hadn’t really started to move. We will head out after dinner this evening and collect everything we can from the buckets, and it looks like tomorrow should be a great collection day, with processing starting likely on Thursday. This has definitely been a year of working on patience! On another note, walking through the bush on Friday we came across Farley’s coat that the deer stole. No where near where we though he had lost it. Just goes to show ya that you can never trust a deer. Your Maple Farmer, Michael 
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Here’s the report from the bush. Temperatures finally hit +10 (50 degrees F) which seems to be the trigger for our trees to wake up. A quick tour around the trails yesterday and the run started in about 3 pm. Boiling will start this week, as the daytime temps are looking good, and cool nights. Looking over the long term (14 day) forecast, and the next two weeks look to be a very busy time for us. I am looking forward to seeing the finished product in our new glass jugs! Stay tuned as I will post some more pictures of the boil. Cheers! Your Maple Farmer, Michael
3/12/2021 1 Comment Preparing for the 2021 Season Hello everybody and welcome to the 2021 Maple Season! Farley and I have been out this week giving pep talks to the trees and getting taps set up. We have one more day of tapping to get everything set up for this year, and if we have the opportunity next week, we will try and add some new lines. We have made a few small upgrades this year in our gathering equipment and re arranged the kitchen in the sugar house to provide a more streamlined flow especially when we are packaging. Supplies are all in, but despite the warmer weather this week the sap has not really started to flow. I will check on it again today, but we are still waiting on mother nature. Yesterday while tapping, Farley chased a deer past me. The deer was staying in the deep snow, effortlessly bounding along. Farley stayed to the groomed trails, and well, he has enjoyed a winter by the hearth, so definitely not a threat to the deer. About 10 minutes later the deer came back through to re join her group. Then, 5 minutes after that Farley returned. Missing his coat. We have made several trips around to look for it, but my only conclusion was the deer I saw was a decoy for some rogue deer, and now there is some young punk buck sporting a blue hoodie. Starting tomorrow the temperature is supposed to be dipping below freezing again for the next week, so I expect that sap collection will be a little slow. As I look back over last years records, our first boil was April 1, 2020 That seems to be relatively consistent for our area. I am really looking forward to the first boil, and will definitely post some pictures. Now I have to talk Jennifer into baking some of her signature sugar chalet cookies. Your Maple Farmer, Michael
Farley - King of the Wood Pile Pipeline ready for the first run!
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AuthorMichael & Jennifer - Your personal Maple Farmers Archives
February 2024
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