Started out the day making a second
pass up the main line for sap in the sugar bush. It is good to pack
a wide path in anticipation of tapping and it helps eyeball what
repairs are needing done. We are going to get away with a lot fewer
than last year. Stihl, there are a enough squirrel and deer nibbles
to shore up so we do not loose any sap.
At the topmost tree for the second
time, I decided to make a full stomp of it. I can still get muh faht
arse to the top of the USGS designated object on their 7.5 minute
topo maps. The absolute peak, at 1462 feet. is on the adjacent 100
odd acre wood. Which I traipsed across to get home. Probably about
a mile and a quarter solid round trip. Vertical rise of just over
400 ft. Not bad for a pentagenarian.
Will go out tomorrow and make a few
repairs. Since we are a no-vacuum operation, the tapping needs to
wait for the beginning of next week at least. Vacuum will prolong
your season by limiting tree healing response, but we feel is a
questionable practice for long term bush health. The math is simple.
Any system on vacuum will produce at least two if not three times
the sap as a gravity fed line system or spile and buckets. That
means the tree is pulling two to three times the ground water from
the aquifer. It also must pull two to three times the raw nutrients
to make sugar. Sounds like an equation that results in soil
depletion to me.
Every little bit counts. Make sure your syrup doesn't suck!
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