CapturedNature

One of my favorite places to visit out west is Stanley, ID. It's a great basin and climate. Nice warm days and cold nights. Lots of recreation out there and the mountains look like the Tetons but without the crowds.

I don't know that I'd call upper 80s "hot" in summer. Isn't that pretty typical?

Did here. Nice brief shower with pea sized hail mixed in. Otherwise it was a gorgeous day and looks like another one on tap after a morning low in the 40s.

I've seen the same amount up here. I even picked one up on one of my game cams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogJNifqz1oI&t=283s

40° for the low here. I was hoping to squeeze out a 39° but it was not to be. Glad to see that there were lots of 30s around though. Great sleeping weather!

I don't think I've seen this site mentioned but I recently came across a neat tool for looking at different layers of weather: https://www.windy.com/?42.118,-72.606,5 There's a ton of different layers and it kind of reminds me of the SPC's Mesoscale Analysis tool but with layers that are not available there. Just thought I would share it.

We still haven't had a landfalling one in New England since 1991. Compare that to a 1938-1960 period. If we get a repeat of that period, I can't imagine the reaction.

Every time I work out in the woods I have to do a check and I'm always finding one. We never had so many growing up and I always wondering why until I started putting out a game camera for a YouTube project and when I saw 10-15 deer walking by I knew why. It's amazing how prolific they are. I rarely see them when I'm just walking in the woods but they are there!

Is that any different from hemlock wooley adelgid? We have that here and my understanding is that it was blown over from Long Island in Hurricane Gloria is 1985. It's been pretty destructive but there are still areas that have larger hemlock populations. It's funny that we don't have native balsam forests but we do have large tracks of pine/hemlock and other evergreenswith few deciduous trees. Bigelow Hollow is a good example of that.

The very dark will be what they used to call Grade B. In a pinch, try the dark. Like I said, it spans what was dark amber and Grade B. Not only is it about flavor it's about light transmittance. That's how it's graded, not just flavor. There is a "processing grade" beyond very dark, but allows for off flavors like buddy or metabolism - both are not good. It can be mixed which is why commercial buyers will also buy that and blend it. I have some very dark but in bulk containers. When I pack it in some smaller containers I'll PM you if you are interested.

Under the new grading system you might want Very Dark. The reason it's hard to find is that many producers sell their very dark to larger packers who blend it with other syrup. That means there isn't much on the retail market. Dark is a span of what was Dark Amber and Grade B. Very Dark is a span of what was Grade B and Commercial (some people call it Grade C). I always get a batch of that at the end of the season by taking off the sweet from my evaporator and boiling it in my finisher. That extra step just makes the syrup darker.

Yes, I mainly using tubing. I have a couple of buckets but mostly for show. I don't use a vacuum pump but I do use the newer 3/16" tubing that creates a vacuum on its own. That's what happened to me. I think the ground was frozen deeper than normal down here due to lack of snow and once the ground thawed, I had a flood of sap. It helped that we had a good snowfall as that was happening so the timing was good. Most of my syrup has been dark. I might have a small drum of medium from when I first started but I had a two week gap when everything was all frozen. That's OK though - it has a better maple flavor IMHO and my customers seem to prefer that.

It's been good. I had a "flood" of sap a couple weeks ago when things thawed out but things have been more normal since then. I have taps from Somers to Woodstock so it's amazing to see the differences between elevation and geography. This week will be my last one though.

Sounds like snow envy...you should go over there and bask in the solid 10" snow cover lol. https://www.google.com/maps/@43.439202,-71.5372351,109m/data=!3m1!1e3

I've seen times where more than half of my town was practically bare but you'd still have yards with solid cover. What are you supposed to do? Pretend you don't have snow in your yard?

I heard peepers this morning on my drive to the sugarhouse. That's another sign of the changing seasons. Still some patches of snow in the woods at higher elevations around here. I was picking up some sap yesterday and it was interesting to see the temperature difference between areas. Near 70° in one place and low 60s in the woods that still have snow patches.

It's funny that you guys are talking about different animals. I got curious what was in the woods around my sugar house and starting putting out a game camera to capture videos. I know I've seen deer, turkey's and foxes going through the yard but I've seen those along with a pair of coyote's. I can't believe the number of deer I have. In one video I counted a "herd" of 15. Never thought there that many out there! I've been trading maple products with a couple of local farms for meat and its worked out pretty good. I usually get a pig and half a cow which lasts most of the year. You can't beat products that you know where they come from!

Try ThreadEx: http://threadex.rcc-acis.org/

I averaged 10.2". I was honestly expecting a couple inches less so it's nice to have a positive bust and a double digit storm. Congrats to the folks out east!

2.1" here. 30.8" season to date.

I'll do it as well...can you PM me the current info? Thanks!

I guess most co-ops these days do that but when I was a co-op observer I always measured at the end of the snowfall. I believe the guy in Staffordville does that but some of his totals baffle me as too high since we are so closer. I honestly feel like his gets snow blown off the lake when that happens...lol. Your point about a homogeneous record is why I did not support the adoption of the method but for those that have been doing it for nearly 20 years should continue to do so. For me personally, I stuck with the old method for just such as reason.

That's the same argument I recall back in the 90s when this "standard" came into being. Many of us argued that it would be impossible to compare systems from the past due to different measuring standards. I, for one, started keeping records with the current standard and never adopted sweeping and measuring every 6 hours specifically so I could compare one storm with another. Likewise, I can compare with anyone else that measures at the end of snowfall. Personally, I think it should never have been implemented but that ship has long sailed and we have a mix now.

I think you're misunderstanding my questioning. The forecast was not good for the valley and hasn't been for the past several storms. I also don't think anyone is cheating if they are measuring the same way they have for 30+ years. I think that's the only way that you can compare one storm to another and one measurement to another. That's what I'm questioning so I can compare one measurement with another. The "on the ground" debate is another story for another thread.

yeah, that's what I was thinking when I saw the 2.5" amounts. They just seem low. I measured 10.2" a couple of hours ago. That 13" seems high but technically he is a little further east than I am and that band was so close it's possible. Looks like a couple more inches since then and it's snowing nicely. I wonder how much we'll pick up overnight....