More Spiles in the Big Leaf Maples

Drilling a hole in the maple tree

A few days ago Bob, Liz and I put about 15 more spiles in about 10 more bigleaf maple trees. Some trees have two spiles in them, with a connector attaching them to one tube that goes in the bucket. Drilling the hole in the tree is the first step. It is important to make sure the hole is NOT in a hole from previous years. The holes close up, and heal after some time and it's important to let that healing continue to happen by finding a new place for the new year's spile. The hole should be an inch and a half deep and you should make sure the hole doesn't have any wood shavings in it before hammering the spile in.

Liz, hammering in a spile

The spiles are 7/16th big and are made of plastic. The blue tubing seen in the photo are food-grade plastic and are 5/16th in size. The spile needs to be  hammered in quite well and the spile can be directed in the direction of the bucket. Finding a suitable place for the bucket (that allows for it to sit flat and stay in place) can prove to be difficult, as many of the bigleaf maples are on the hill.

The Spile

Once the spile is hammered in, the tubing can be attached by pulling it over the spile. Scissors or wire cutters can be used to cut the tubing to the right length. The spiles, the tubing and the connectors that connect two lines of tubing to make it go into one tube can be ordered online or bought from hardware stores.

The finished product, ready to collect sap when the weather is right



The sap will begin to run when the temperature goes up by a few degrees in a short amount of time. Although we tapped these trees a few days ago, the sap hasn't been running until today when the temperature increased by a few degrees. Bob told me the Alberni Valley tends to have the coldest weather in winter and warmest weather in summer of all of Vancouver Island.

There was quite a fierce wind storm last night. I arrived back from Nanaimo just in time. I was told that Cathedral Grove (with some of the biggest Old Growth trees in Canada) is not a good place to be driving through during a wind storm. The power was out when I arrived back at the farm, and so I was preparing for a job interview and reading by candle light. A friend commented that I'm becoming quite the farmer if I'm reading by candlelight. I'm really enjoying my time on the farm. Sammy the dog is waiting at my bedroom door every morning, eager and so excited to come with me to tend to the chickens and the ducks. Being around so many animals every day is really comforting and amazing.

Bob and Liz

View of the Somass River and Beaufort Mountans during a bike ride





A light dusting of snow

Thanks for reading my blog. There have been readers from all stretches of the Globe and it's amazing to see so many people interested in farming and growing food and raising animals for food.

-Haley