As expected and hoped, we collected a little more than 200 gallons of sap early Sunday afternoon. We fired up the evaporator and ran approximately half of that amount through, before calling it a day at 8:00PM. This afternoon Rick started on what remained; I took over after my day job and finished up. I was home by 9:00PM for a hot shower and a late supper. The bulk tank is now empty. The place tidied up. The kitchen wood box refilled. The evaporator inside wood supply replenished. One rank of the outside wood pile tarped to keep it dry. There is some "almost syrup" in the finisher.

Ah yes, the 2011 syrup season is underway.

The sap has not run since we collected early Sunday afternoon. Last night's low temperature was not low enough to reset the sap flow cycle. The forecast for tonight does not hold much promise. After that, the weather man has advised everyone to hunker down for a 36-hour winter storm. That means there is little chance of another run of sap until the end of the week. With the winds that are forecast, we will probably be walking the sugarbush a few times to pick up bagholders and bags off the ground and putting them back on the spiles.

In any case, we will be ready for another sap flow later in the week. We will be ready earlier, but we aren't in control of the flow only being ready.