Tapping for Maple Syrup

Today Hubby and I volunteered at the Michigan State University Extension Service Tolgate Farm. We were tapping the Maple trees for Maple syrup. They tap about 200 trees. The volunteers would drill the holes and then insert a stile with a tube to a collection bucket. Most of their trees are connected by tubing to a large container. We just needed to make a new tap and attach the tubing. The sap is clear like water until it is boiled down. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. The farm has, what they call. a sugar shack. In it there is an evaporator which separates the syrup from the sap as it boils down. I am sorry I don't have pictures of what we did today, hopefully I will have some of the later process. It was a brisk morning but this had to be done before the sap flows. The sap will start to flow when the daytime temperature is in the near 40 degrees and the nighttime temperature is still well below freezing.