Maple Tapping Underway Friday March 6th 2015

Put out the first 2 buckets Friday morning, March 6th.  About as early as I have tapped since I can remember.  The week is supposed to be 30s-50 for highs so it may run!  You can watch the tapping as I made a video of today's very first tap.  
      Tapping 2015 1st Tree

The Ford 2N, about 1947, sat quietly resting since November and with an overnight battery charge and some ether spray in the carb, it popped off.  Plowed out the driveway to the cabin and opened it up too.  No mice damage noticeable!

Drove the Ford to the top of the hill to see how well it would drive through the 6 inches of snow--no problem at all--not icy underneath, so should be an easy year to collect sap.

The driveway into the cabin--snow is soft and sugary so it plows aside easily 

The sap shed walls are made from old doors and windows given to me from a neighbor.  

The first bucket for 2015, the 152nd consecutive year someone in my family tapped maples in Wisconsin beginning with great great Grandpa Beebe who moved his sapping from western NY in 1863.  His daughter, Anna, married Great Grandpa Charles Hanson, the Swede, who passed it on to his 6 sons including grandpa PH who passed it to his 6 sons to VR who passed it to his 4 sons to Russ who passed it on to his 1 son.  (I should have mentioned that of the 3 girls in my line -- two of them also did syruping).  Family legend has it that gg-grandpa Beebe's first ancestor to the USA, (a Beebe who settled in New London CT started the family syruping tradition in the 1660s).

35 degrees F and sunny -- time to get back to the woods!