If you someday find yourself recruited for sap bucket collection duty and get a little turned around out in the woods, it’s easy to find your way back to civilization. Notice how all the buckets seem to be hanging on the same side of the tree? They are – the south side (South Side, holla!) As spring approaches, the sun heats up the south sides of the trees fastest, so the sap flows most freely on that side and that’s where all our taps & buckets are.
All, that is, except for the tree we call Scarface. Scarface has a huge scar all up the south side of his trunk, so we put the bucket on his east side. Sometimes the winter sun heats up a maple tree so hot that the bark splits all the way up the tree, which is why nurseries sell tree wrap for you to protect that prized maple in your front yard. Such is the case with Scarface. So aside from the fact that we can’t get a tap drilled into the south side with all that tree scar tissue, we’ve just decided that when dealing with a tree with a scar that bad-a$$, you put the bucket wherever he says it’s okay. And thank him for his time.
