Maple Syrup - David Mathre Photography

Sunday (13-February-2022) — New Jersey

Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed in the backyard, at the birdfeeder and on the patio: Mourning Dove, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Dark-eyed Junco, White-throated Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Brown-headed Cowbird, Northern Cardinal. When it snows, the birds come back. First Brown-headed Cowbirds this year.

Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Walkabout in the Snow. By mid-morning we had ~3 inches of snow. Images of a statue laying on a bench, the troll on top of the mailbox, and helping a neighbor with his annual (first time in a couple of years) Maple syrup boil down.

Walkabout in the Snow. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (92.5 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (0.0 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Solar Panels covered with snow. Deficit of 92.5 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (588 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (211 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Deficit of 377 kWh.

Sunday (09-February-2020) — New Jersey

Wintertime in New Jersey — Maple Syrup Production.

This was the third neighborhood maple syrup boil down this winter, although I was not here for the first two. The weather has not been conducive for maple sap production (cold nights below freezing and warm days above freezing). The following Little Planet Time-lapse Videos were recorded with a Garmin VIRB-360 camera. Approximately 80 gallons (~300 L) was boiled down to 11 quarts (~10.4 L) with a density of 1.14 g/mL. The material needs to be further concentrated to get to a sugar concentration of 66 wt%. We had issues near the end of the day where some of the solution burned so there will be a smokey flavor issue.

Daily Electric Energy Used (75.2 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (43.3 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Sunny most of the day. Actually, the most solar energy produced since 05-October-2019. Still not enough to completely power the indoor hydroponic gardens, keep the house warm, and power the Synology image servers. A deficit of 31.9 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

Sunday (03-March-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.

alt_title. (David J Mathre) — Starting a Fire to Cook Down Maple Sap Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 23 mm f/2 lens (David J Mathre)

Time-lapse video to follow when I have time to review and process the images.

Saturday (23-February-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Wintertime Nature in New Jersey. Maple Syrup Week 3.

Before going over to help with the maple syrup boil-down, I noticed a cat sitting under my patio bird feeder. While there a squirrel walked right behind it, and when the cat noticed — the squirrel got chased. It is not the same cat that I saw while starting the fire to cook down the maple sap.

Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.

Saturday (16-February-2019) — New Jersey

Wintertime in New Jersey — Maple Syrup Production.

The second maple sap to maple syrup boil down this winter. Time lapse videos to follow when I have time to process the images.