Tails draggin' tonite

Donald Lehman · Mar 14, 2015

We finished tapping trees across the road today and got about a third of the trees tapped behind the barn before everyone had enough for the day. Jeff and I were on snowshoes this morning, but the snow got so soft this afternoon the snowshoes were next to worthless, so we just resorted to the bull in the china shop method. In other words just put your head down and bull through the snow. Had # 1 an #2 son plus a couple of grandkids help today. 11 year old granddaughter and 14 year old grandson helped cart buckets and covers. They done good. Another day should get us pretty well done. We will end up somewhere in the neighborhood of 700-800 taps. The trees were dripping to some extent today. We put in about 5 1/2 hour crawling through the snow with an hour break for lunch while we waited for the drill batteries to re-charge. It's hard work, but it is worth it just to get into the woods.

Dick2 · Mar 14, 2015

Question: What does the tree use the sap for if it doesn't get tapped?

Adirondack case guy · Mar 14, 2015

Dick, all living plants have sap/moisture flowing thru their canbium layer to promote leaf, vegitation, and flower development. Mousture is fed to the tops through osmosis.
Sap is a product of the moisture in the ground passing up through the canbium layer and mixing with the natural sugar in the tree which is produced by all living plants. We are steeling a bit of the maple trees life blood. Over tapping trees will kill them. Similar to what a rabbit or mouse will do to a fruit tree if they girdle it and remove the canbium layer of the tree, where the sap flows.
Loren

Adirondack case guy · Mar 14, 2015

Don, we had a terible time with the snowshoes this year also. I felt sorry for the two guys wheeling the gas powered tappers. and the guys hanging buckets. I got pretty good at tossing buckets with a cover into them so they didn't have to travel back to the trailer each time they ran out.
Finally yesterday morning the snow hardened up enough to support them on snow shoes, but we only had to hang about 200 more buckets to finish. Best conditions we had all week.
It was very fogy with freezing mist all day here. At present it has warmed to 34F and still fogy.
Loren

Bret4207 · Mar 15, 2015

It's miserable up here. The bottom has dropped out of all the wagon roads and there is a mix of mud and ice and then solid snow. Get in a field and you might have a 4" crust with 18" of sugar snow under it. Tough with a rubber tired tractor, but it's a snapper with a crawler...till you hit the ice and it jars your teeth out! I'll be in the woods this afternoon with my new/used 420. At least now I can get to the wood I couldn't reach all winter. Next years wood has to be gotten in!

Donald Lehman · Mar 15, 2015

As Loren said, the sap is the trees' life blood. It carries nutrients to and from the leaves and the roots depending on the time of year.

Tapping the tree is kinda like a human giving blood.

Tails draggin' tonite

Donald Lehman

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Dick2

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Adirondack case guy

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Adirondack case guy

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Bret4207

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Donald Lehman

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