Tapping 2011

[Dennis H.]

Ok no one has started one yet for this season and since it looks like I will be getting ready to tap my maples in a week or maybe 2 weeks I desided to get it rolling.

The weather down here north of Carlisle is looking really good. The temps are hoovering right below or right at 32 so it won't be long.

We have about 8" of snow on the ground also. I am glad for that it won't be so difficult gathering the buckets that I plan to put out.
I am hoping to have around 200 taps this season half of them on vaccroooooom!

Good Luck everyone and you all better be getting your drills charged up.

[FunnyFarm]

I tapped 30 buckets few weeks back.. Turned out to be pointless. That's how it goes. Cleaned the bulk tank today got it set in place the evaporator is pretty near ready to go. I have another day of running tubing and a day of tapping and we'll be up and running here. Should end up around 200 tapped this year that's 120 more than last yr so we're excited. Its getting close good luck to everyone.

[innoxen]

Getting all excited... lol... doin all the mental planning for my tiny operation...

John trying to free up a weekend will get with you.... Tom

[waysidemaple]

Starting to twitch here. Tripled my tap count for this year (300) plus a new evaporator and sugar house. Should make for an interesting year I think. Goal for next year is to double that, and hit 600 taps on vac. Good luck to all this year.

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

yup maybe in the next two weeks it'll be time. it'll probably take the ground some time to warm up with whats sitting on it right now and more to come this week yet.. o-boy.. ;)

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

We plan on starting to tap on the 12th here in Somerset county. Got about 7500 to drill so it will take a week or so to get them done, as long as all goes well. The 10 day for this area isn't really showing anything promising yet.

[Gary R]

Everything is ready. Tanks and evaporator are clean. Only waiting on mother nature. This will be my first year on high vacuum. All the sap will be coming to the sugar shack:) I can barely remember what a pain it was to wash buckets. I will only have 104 taps. It should be more than I can handle on my flat pan. Were going to see how this season goes. We have trees to quadruple our size. I just want to keep this hobby in the thousands of dollars, not tens of thousands:lol:

[mapleack]

I'm going to start tapping this weekend, hopefully get the first 600 in. I'm still not done plumbing the RO, haven't washed tanks, the list goes on.

[Maplewalnut]

They say the first step is admitting you have a problem, with that said...

My name is Mike... and I plugged in my 18V batteries to charge last night

[umpwood1]

Here in central PA we have about 5" of snow with more coming tonight. This year I built a new sugar shack and a new evaporator. Can't wait to start boiling. Last year we tapped on Feb. 20, hoping for the same this year.
Regards,
Woody

[PA mapler]

Up here things are locked down tight, maybe 18" of snow in the woods and more coming, still full winter and looks to stay that way. The first year I boiled with a small home-made pan, the weather was just like this, and even on that flat pan I made light syrup... wonder if it'll be the same this year?

Even though I'm on gravity, I have 200 of the new ball-valve taps to play with this year. Can't wait to see what they do!

[Dennis H.]

I think this weekend will be the weekend. Fri the temps are to be in the high 30's with Sat & Sun in the low 40's Mon to be in the mid 30's.

I will have to wait til Thurs to see what the rest of next week will look like than I will make my mind up.

I have to clear out a spot for my one tank and releaser but I want to wait till after the ice so it would be a sheet of ice down there. The tank is only a 80 gal milk sink so it won't take much to move it.

[Turtlecreek]

Looks to me like I'll be tapping around presidents weekend. I tapped 2 weeks before that weekend 2 years ago and got burned bad, froze up it just was a big hassle. Last year I waited and did ok so I'll have to watch the weather but the only day in the near future that even looks promising it the 15th.

Got a call today from the menonite that is building the evaporator and he said I should have it this week!! Time to go full steam ahead.

[PATheron]

Gonna start drilling holes saturday. Got some misc to do on some of the bushes but the house bush is pretty much ready so Im going to get that in and operational for the first runs and then keep on truckin on the rest. Good luck Dennis your going to be the first one boiling. Theron

[holstein]

plan on taping tomorrow at least the one woods if work doesn't hold me to long in the morning. we shall see how the weather holds for the other woods it is a little more cold blooded and doesn't have vacuum

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Today I had to clear downed tree branches with the chain saw across the lane to get in to the farm. The sun came out and the temp went up to 38-40. Ice started dropping off the trees like hail. I had to take cover. The wind picked up at sunset. I had placed 25 buckets & 35 taps last week. Nothing in them, but it should not be long now.

[Dave Y]

There is lots of snow in the woods here in Forest co. I am going to start tapping my vacuum bush next week and hope to have all my tubbing done in the next two weeks. I will only tap after work. I plan on starting to hang my buckets on the 19th. I have a 3 day weekend that week. I hope to have all my taps out by the 25th. let the fun begin.

[PATheron]

Dave Y- Cant tap now here till weekend after this one. Looks like were going to hit it perfect. Going to be warm next couple weeks. This is the big one Dave. No early warm up. Im hoping theres not a lot of frost in the ground. Get ready for #$itastrophe sap. Theron

[Dennis H.]

I may have to rethink when I want to tap.
My plans were to tap in the vac trees this weekend because the temps were to be in the high 30's low 40's. Well the forecast now has the tamps just in the mid 30's.
The other thing is that they are calling for another storm coming thru this weekend.

It wouldn't be so bad but by Tues the temps are only to get up to mid 20's, not very good sap running weather.

I will have to wait and see. Since I only have about 200 total it won't take long to put in the taps when I decide.

[PATheron]

Dennis- I never proofread anything I do. What I meant to say is its not going to be warm here for a couple weeks. Perfect to let us get tapped before it starts warming up. Theron

[Turtlecreek]

Woody, where are you in central pa?

[Paddymountain]

I'm rethinking the weather too, It looked favorable for next Sunday,& Monday
but they changed it to much lower temps. I'm using buckets so I will probably hold off awhile. The last 2 years I tapped on the 19th and had runs right after that. I put a bucket out back of the shop today, and it ran about an inch til it started freezing up about 5 o'clock. I should have about 160 taps
out this year, can't wait to boil in my new sugarshack.

[Gary R]

Where is Dan W? The temps in Pittsburgh are supposed to be in the upper 30's for the next 4 days. It would be very tempting to tap.

[Dan W]

Gary, It all depends who you listen to. All of the reports are different and they keep changing it. I think right now they are saying it will be 39 one day then back to tundra temps. I'm not even thinking about tapping before next weekend. Can't wait though.

[Jim Brown]

We are going with our standard plan and are tapping next weekend( valentines day weekend) Looking at week head high temps in Pitts.on thursday is supposed to be 21, will hurry it to get out of the teens here. I think we are right on schedule. Looking for a decent thaw near the end of the month..

Jim

[PA mapler]

Things up here never seem to open up until around the beginning of March, and this year looks like it will probably be about the same. Although, if the woodchuck is right maybe I'll get an earlier start. That would be great, especially if those new taps work... then I'll have to worry about running out of firewood!

I didn't boil last year because of a hectic work-schedule, and now I'm getting anxious... :)

[Dennis H.]

I know it isn't a perfectly reliable forecast but the at the least the next 10 days do not look good.

Beside Sun and Mon being above freezing the rest is well below freezing. It looks like it might be a little longer than I thought.

[PATheron]

Tapping in at Pierce and Sons. Who knows what the weather is going to do but Ive got a lot of work ahead of me tapping alone. Go time at Pierce and Sons. Theron

[Dennis H.]

Holy Cow Theron you pushed up the Date by a week, what happened??

[farmall h]

Oh, just wait...by March 1st we will be on it! Only 23 days to go!:)

[Paddymountain]

Next weekend is starting to look good!!! Get ready guys it's about here.

[PATheron]

Dennis- Im looking at the forecast and I think it could run a little. Probly wont but if it does I need that sap to beat Brians averages. Theron

[Sugarmaker]

Getting closer!
Thanks to Gary R we got all of my tubing, about 500 taps on 30 sets of short run tubing, put up today. Gary now has a good idea of the short run tubing systems that we are using. The snow was deep and it had a 2 inch crust on it. We had a great visit and even scouted out some new taps for my road side sugar bush. Gary gave me information on the area since he grew up in the Albion community.
Next will be some new sets, about 60 taps, in 4 locations. Then we will be ready to tap when the weather is right. Gary says we will be making syrup before the end of the month.
Chris

[Gary R]

I like to help out a little here and there. I always learn some new things while visiting others. I'm ready for some sap:)

[Smith's Maple]

I will be starting here on the 12th. 10day shows a little hope for the start of next week.

[molineutu]

looks like its going to be the 12th for me also. will be watching the forecast close the next week. we have a good foot of snow and a heavy crust on top. I will be checking the main line and cleaning alot this week.

[mapleack]

We tapped about 300 yesterday, in for lunch right now, hope to get in 300 today. Some are running and I'm pretty mad at myself for not having the vacuum ready and running. We're missing out on sap!

[Dennis H.]

I am now dshooting for next weekend.
The temps today are awesome in the low 40's and tomorrow looks to be the same but then it is to get right back down in the mid 20's the rest of the week.

One good thing is that with the nice weather that I am having today I managed to get out and finished getting everything ready for the sap that I will be getting. Vac is ready to go and my sap tank for collecting the buckets is ready to go also.

I am so tempted to tap right now, but I am going to wait, but that can change at any moment.

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Around noon, the sun came out and the temps hit 43. I tapped as many as I could handle. Nothing running, but it felt good to get taps in. :D

[tom jr.]

molineutu, how many mm's do you have? looks like we will be tapping next weekend. good luck to you all.

[Thad Blaisdell]

Starting tomorrow. Everything is ready to go. With three of us hoping for 1200+. Snow is so deep and snow shoes still sink about a foot.... not easy going.

[slammer3364]

Acoording to extended forecast the week of the 14th looks good,so I also hope to tap on the 12th and 13th. God Luck to everyone

[molineutu]

tom jr. i have one 1949 utu

[Sugarmaker]

May try setting some spiles this weekend the time is right and the weatherman says it going to warm a little next week.
Darn that means I need to get off here and do something:)
Chris

[Dennis H.]

This coming Friday will be the day. It is go time.

When I get home from work in the morning I will be firing up the vac and tapping the trees.

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Think we may be tapping some this weekend as well, at least 75 taps maybe more? Will watch the temps closely ..

[Turtlecreek]

Looks like Friday night and Saturday I'll be tapping in. I got alot of work to do till then have to start cleaning up stuff I have it all out sitting around so it's just a matter of washing it all up.

I got my new pan today!!!! I cleaned it up tonight and can't wait to boill on it!!

[Dave Y]

Started tapping yesterday after work. Hope to be done by March the first!

[Paddymountain]

I might as well jump in here too, I'm staring Saturday

[Turtlecreek]

Good luck over there Paddy! Let me know when your boiling I have to stop out sometime if I'm not boiling!

[theschwarz1]

Starting to twitch here. Tripled my tap count for this year (300) plus a new evaporator and sugar house. Should make for an interesting year I think. Goal for next year is to double that, and hit 600 taps on vac. Good luck to all this year.

How much did that new setup run you?

[waysidemaple]

theschwarz1, I would say I have close to 8500 into it so far. The evap and sugarhouse taking up most of the money, but that estimate inculdes everything for taps and tubing right on up. Where in Tioga are you, and how many taps do you have? I bought my evap from Miller's Maple (a.k.a. upsmapleman on here) out that way.

[Father & Son]

I'm still shooting for this weekend, but the Accuweather extended forcast is already changing for Northwest PA. Now it's not showing 40's till the 16th.

Jim

[Jim Brown]

Headed to the woods this weekend with 6 new tapping bits and 6 battery packs. hope to get 1300 drilled and on line by days end.
We will see

Jim

[Dennis H.]

Friday will be the day!!!:D

When I get home in the morning Fri I will be out tapping and hanging buckets.
I will have about 100 on vac and I am hoping to hang about 100 buckets.

The temps are looking just awesome, Fri is to be 36 and then in is to be in the high 40's maybe even low 50's for a few days!!

Good Luck everyone who will be tapping this weekend, It looks like anyone in the lower half of PA should be in a really good position to have a heck of a run!

[Maplewalnut]

I should have woods all tapped today. Rough going although the crust on top of the snow finally holds me and I can walk around 'on top' without breaking through. Not sure I like these CVs. They dont seem to seat real well in the hole and have noticed quite a few leakers already with sap dripping down the tree. Time will tell, but I would say tapping with them is defiinitely more time consuming.

Probably hold out a little while until I hang buckets. A forecast with highs in mid 40s is now mid to upper thirties, knock a few degrees off of that for location and....

Good luck Dennis, you always get a run or two before us further north.

Mike

[innoxen]

I put roughly 30 taps in today.... All geared up for burning this weekend...

Good Luck to All.....

[Sugarmaker]

Hung another 30 taps tonight. Snow was deep and crusty.
24 more taps to get strung up, and then on to setting the containers and tapping. Cheryl says we will be making syrup by mid next week. We will see.
Tanks to clean, evaporator to clean, jugs to purchase. How come, no matter how ready you are, your never ready?
Chris

[whalems]

I got 34 taps in today this deep snow sure makes things slow:(

[Turtlecreek]

I got my arch modified to fit the new pan tonight, and made a shopping list of parts I need to pick up at the hardware store tommrow. I have to clean buckets tommrow night and load up the snowmobile to go tapping on Saturday.

I have a feeling this year is going to huge. If I may steal a line for Theron "BIG SAP WARNING" it's comming and I'm going to be ready!

[Gary R]

OK guy's, It looks like most everyone will be tapped this weekend. But, who is going to be the first to boil? My bet is Dennis H. Saturday evening:) I hope many of are Sunday.

Sugarmaker, do you know why your not ready? It's because your still putting in new taps a few days from boiling;) I'm sure Cheryl is saying enough now lets get a fire started:lol:

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

figuring it may not run sat or sun here, clouds and some wind. during the week its gonna break loose for sure id bet on it, by end of next week here hoping for some finished product.. heading out this afternnon to get the taps set..bring it on..:D

[waysidemaple]

Headed home from school shortly. Plan to set the tanks tonight and then tap the tubing tomorrow and the buckets around the house and neighbors middle to the end of next week. Might get a run sunday but the forcast is always changing.

[jmbinventions]

Just drilled my first hole toady and it is running well, usually I tap around the first week of february, we will see if tapping later makes the difference.

[Dennis H.]

I just back in from putting out my buckets and tapping the trees on Vac.

I now have 80 on buckets and about 100 on vac. The trees that I hung buckets from are on top of a ridge and they were running like crazy! I can pick up another 15-20 if I want to, I am going to wait and see how the trees on vac do 1st. I don;t want to waste any sap.

I may be boiling tomorrow.

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
Yea I vote for Dennis also:)
I am never ready! And for the books "The best way to get ready is to go tap some trees. Then you have to GET going".
I don't see us boiling till at least mid week. Its going to take that long for the things to thaw a little.
If it rains that would be great!
Gary get that vacuum fired up I want to hear those BIG sap numbers this year!
Regards,
SM

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

Tapping tommorow birhgt and early. Already have in 44. Around 150 tomorow. All new tubing

[Dan Shea]

I don't suspect that temps will get that high here in NW PA, at least until mid week. And there is probably 18" of solid snow on the ground. But I'm going for it tomorrow! The winter has been too tough to wait. And we all remember last year....Tap 'em now. Who knows about the late run.

DS Meadville, PA

[waysidemaple]

Got 61 taps in this morning along with so tubing repair. In for lunch and a quick warm up then up to the woods to tap another 100 or so.

[Paddymountain]

Got 165 taps in today, I only have about 10 buckets left, we'll have to see where we can put them .

[waysidemaple]

Ended the day with 159 taps in and finally got my deer mount back from last year. All in all a good day.

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

Got 2800 in today. Was a little rough going because of the wind and blowing snow. Hopefully get 3000 in tomorrow.

[Dave Y]

Jeremy,
You must have a good crew to put that many in one day. I was only able to get 400 to day. I am putting on cv's and the are a little time consuming. just two of just tapping.

[Z/MAN]

Started tapping today. Had a whiteout for a while even had to duck inside for a break.

[berry boy]

tapped Fri 752 and sat morn 526 ( had small crew and ate well) today will set up releasers and my vac pump. Mid week is looking pretty decent here for a good run. Lots of work to do btw now and wed or thurs. Good luck to all, may GOD bless us with our health and lots of sap.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Just a bit behind...did some furry friend repairs yesterday, but kids and "sports saturdays" makes it hard to get things done.

I will need all of this afternoon for more repairs and need to clean tanks.

Can't tap until Monday or Tuesday due to work schedule, but hopefully still in time for the big run mid week.

[Dennis H.]

Ok a little update from down here in southern PA.
It is starting out SLOW. The ground must be so frozen that even with the warm temps the trees are just barely running.

I have not collected enought yet to even fill the pans.

I am looking on the positive side of things and am happy the ground is frozen because now the forecast of the end of the week shows that for about 3 days even the night time temps will not get back below freezing but those day time highs are now in the upper 50's and Fri may even hit 60!!

I took off Mon and Tues from work expecting alot of sap it looks like I will be going to work and changing the days I want off to Thurs and Fri.

[Jim Brown]

Were tapped!!

Jim,Doug and Kim

[pennslytucky]

got a trickle today but its supposed to stay above freezing tonight so i expect them running hard by tuesday. looks like they should run well into next week :)

[Maplewalnut]

We finished tapping this afternoon. Turned on vacuum and had 7 at releaser and 0 further up the bush. Cleared out an ice chuck to get vacuum everywhere, fixed two chew holes in mainline , two taps not drilled and a loose saddle and its game on. Not much running today but a perfect time to find leaks.

[Dennis H.]

It doesn't look like I will be truning off the vac tonight. It is to get down to only 36 tonight.
I went out and collected the sap from the buckets more to see how the trees are running. Things are picking up real fast.

I am planning on adding a few more buckets in the morning after work. I can add maybe 15-20. I figure what the heck I can put my swimmies on if I need to!:D

Good Luck everyone out there this week looks like it will be a real nice start to hopefully a long season.

[Gary R]

This was one hell of a maple weekend. Saturday, myself, SDURF and son helped Daryl put tubing up. First half of the day was near blizzard conditions. I've only done it once and the others never. We put up close to 2000 feet and I don't know how many tees. Those two handed tubing tools are real slick.

Today was my turn. Only took 1 1/2 hours to tap 101 and I had 25" at the end of my main line by noon:) Then disaster struck. I damaged my super vacuum pump:cry: I put a valve in an oil return line. I thought it would be opened only occasionally. I was running at 27". I came back and found only 20" and smoke. I had to shut things down and switch the motor over to a Gast pump. That one is running at 26". The sap is running. Then my wife tells me that she won't be able to sleep with the pump running 24/7 in the barn:confused: So tomorrow I am going to plumb it outside and put some type of metal shelter over it. I have about 20 gal. of sap in the tank right now. I've been told to shut it down over night. I may have enough to boil tomorrow:D

Jim, how did those new bits work?

[molineutu]

well got my taps in yesterday 82 this year, 10 more than last. Checked them about 4 oclock and nothing running. 35 taps on main line 47 on buckets. hope to be busy emptying buckets tomorrow afternoon.

[Maplewalnut]

Lots of snow this year, here is the tapping crew taking a break. 250 or so more buckets to hang but tubing drops are all in.

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

Sap wasn't running real well yet in Somerset county. Some of the small trees were running like crazy, some barely running. One woods is completely done, just have to chase leaks. Hopefully get to work one or two days this week. We had 10 people helping this weekend, out in pairs. Seems to work good in pairs with adapters. The adapters definately take a little extra time.

[Sugarmaker]

Thanks to Grandson Mike, we have all but one of the 35 containers in place. Lots of snow to shovel out to get them in position. We also built two new sets of lines today. Thanks also to Jim Bortles for providing some much needed fittings to complete some 5/16 tubing work.
Gary R getting that tubing up last week end really helped:)
Saturday Jim and I picked up the syrup jugs and it was about the winter-est weather that we have had this year!
May start tapping Monday and Tuesday afternoons. Looks like we might get a run towards the end of the week.
Regards,
SM

[Turtlecreek]

I'm 90% tapped I would say, I usually leave a couple of trees to tap for friends when they stop by, I usually hide the cordless drill and make them use the brace so they have to work for it!

The 20 or so i rapped last night were running pretty good today and tonight when I was tapping the rest of them I'm not sure of the total tap count at thus time I'll have to count when I start hauling sap, but I think I'm somewhere around 40 or so.

[FunnyFarm]

We got 132 on tubing tapped another 20 or so to go. Would have been done but the batteries were both dead. We'll finish it up tomorrow. Another 30 on buckets we'll end up with about 180 total. Not so bad for us considering we just started 3 yrs ago with 12 buckets. They were beginning to run as i was tapping this afternoon. Looks like its going to be a great week. good luck all

[waysidemaple]

Got all the tubing tapped this morning, right around 200 maybe alittle over. Next are the buckets around the house and down the road. Not much running but the holes did look went after drilling the hole. Wishing for tons of sap now so I can stop boiling water in the evaporator and actually use sap and make some syrup.

[FunnyFarm]

We are up and running got sap pouring into the bulk tank as we speak. Got to say never thought I'd be installing plumbing on a mountain but running tubing is a ton of work. I got to hand it to all of you who run hundreds and thousands of taps I just pushed myself through 154 and seeing that sap pouring into the tank is a great feeling. Good luck to ya all should have syrup here by the weekend.

[umpwood1]

Put the evaporator in the sugar shack today. We have about 75 buckets hung. Some are running alittle, most are not. I guees we'll see what happens.
Woody

[Gary R]

I'm boiling:D Lite the fire at 6:45. I only have 43 gal. I have 101 taps and only ran my pump 12 hours. I missed the best part. It's going to get in the teens tonight. I wanted to get it out of my bulk tank so I didn't have a big ice cube in the morning.

[Dennis H.]

Just back in from doing my 1st boil. It lasted about 1 1/2hrs. Now the pans are sweetened and ready to go for the next one.
The trees are starting to run but the dang wind has picked up today and most of the smaller trees stopped.

Using the Kubota RTV as a sap hauler is real nice. The 2 places where I have buckets I can now go back in the woods a little ways to get closer for collecting. Less walking, and so far it takes me about 1 hr to collect the buckets.

[PA mapler]

Still looking at the beginning of March to tap. This week the temps are supposed to be in the 40's, and I'll get the mainlines reconnected over the woods roads, and fix a few laterals that some trees took down. I have some trees I put buckets on near the sugar shack, and I think I'll tap a few just to see how they run, but from previous years I know my trees are very slow early season despite perfect conditions. We still have up to two feet on snow up near the top, and we're on a north slope. But I can't wait! :)

[Paddymountain]

I gathered 44 gal of sap this evening, it ran about 2.6 % hopefully I'll be boiling Wednesday evening. Cleaned the evaporater out, everthing is ready
to go!!

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
Nice job on getting the first boil going in the area. Is Jim boiling too? I don't blame you for getting it boiled in with the temps dropping tonight. Sounds like the vacuum is working good. Should be some good runs later in the week too.
Hope you can make some light syrup.
Chris

[mapleack]

Boiled 360 gal last night, just enough to sweeten the pans. Still have to get in a couple hundred gravity taps and 100 buckets. Have around 650 in on vacuum right now. Hopefully my RO plumbing will be done enough tonight to make it usable, I wanted to use the lousy first day sap to rinse it but that didn't happen!

[Maplewalnut]

Andy- get that RO plumbed up, you will be amazed. I ran mine for the first time last night and all I can say is wow! Took a couple starts for me to finally purge air out of it but once running is purrs right along. Flushed the memebranes with sap and we are ready to go.

Probably got about 250 gallons of sap yesterday, took about 75 to flush RO and the rest left in the tank to freeze until tomorrow. Just ran out of time last night. Looks like a decent early run going to happen starting tomorrow through Friday or Saturday.

[theschwarz1]

Getting ready to tap this weekend. Was wishing I was tapped already, but im completely gravity here, so I might not be missing much with the quick warm up we had.
I finally got high tensile up this year, adding about 30 more taps to my existing 30.
And a gracious friend has lent me his 4 wheeler for the season so I don't have to carry 5 gallon buckets all the way across the field to my house! Praise God!

Here's to a good long season for everyone!!!

[theschwarz1]

theschwarz1, I would say I have close to 8500 into it so far. The evap and sugarhouse taking up most of the money, but that estimate inculdes everything for taps and tubing right on up. Where in Tioga are you, and how many taps do you have? I bought my evap from Miller's Maple (a.k.a. upsmapleman on here) out that way.

Yeah I know of Dale...been to his place. Im actually borrowing a 4 wheeler this year from his neighbor.
Ill have about 60 taps this year. I am using a friend to boil my sap. He has about 250 taps out this year. He has a nice new evap...not sure of its specs.
I am in Covington...just south of mansfield.

[theschwarz1]

Reading everybody's posts about how many you have tapped is getting me twitchy!

[Sugarmaker]

Couldn't take it any longer. Took a half day vacation and started tapping about 2:30 and ran out of batteries at 7:30. About 400 taps in place and 150 to go tomorrow afternoon. Taps holes were wet and we may get a run in the next day or so.
Andy, You are into in now with the RO and vacuum! Hope you get the RO going for the Big run!
Gary, Any syrup come off last night?
Looks like its ON!
SM

[Dave Y]

I have 2400 taps in. may turn the Vacuum on tomorrow. Going to hang buckets this weekend. I have 3 days to to put out 2400 buckets. 800 a day, we may get that done, as long as the help holds out.By the way sap was running a little yesterday here in Forest Co.

[walnutdalefarm]

We tapped on the 4th & 5th, hauled in 300 gal on the 7th, which was used to clean R/O on the 8th. Ran here on Sunday, hauled and boiled 1800 gals of sap Monday. Yesterday finished 8 gals of med. syrup and got everything ready for BIG SAP today. Good Luck to all.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Work schedule got me this year...was supposed to be tapped yesterday, but now a day and a half behind. Squirrels have bee brutal this year.

Need to do more repairs this AM, then start tapping after lunch. Dad is coming up, so we'll have two crews. My kids love helping, so dad and I will have one helper each.

Hope to be tapped by tomorrow, but we'll see.

[theschwarz1]

Daily Hike tapping post (http://dailyhike.wordpress.com/).

Thought some of you might like this. I try to stay current on it.

[tappin&sappin]

After checking the weather forecast yesterday and then jumping on the trader (after a long hiatus), I quickly realized I was behind the 8 ball.

Worked until 10:00 last night and got in all (or most of) my taps. Now I just have to set the pan and clean the shack/tanks.

Hope the pan holds!

Good luck all!!

- Jake

[Gary R]

It's starting to smell good in here! Poor run today. Boiling in another 43 gal. from today. I hope to be making syrup tomorrow:)

Jake, good to here your back in it.

Brian, get those kids working. You've got some catching up to do:D

[Sugarmaker]

Took another half day from the real job and played maple man this after noon:) Set another 160 ish taps on gravity tubing and then a dozen buckets, on the new S Durfee spiles, around the sugar house for show. Getting a path through the sugar house and will start washing tanks tonight.
Should be enough to gather tomorrow after noon. But it was strange that the sap just seemed to stop flowing this afternoon about sun down? Temps are still above freezing???
Hope to be boiling Thursday night?
Forecast shows cold next week. If we don't get a run now I probably taped a little too soon.
Hope everyone is having fun.
Regards,
Chris

[SDURF]

We tapped on Sunday and Monday 166 taps total, gathered today only got 30 gal of sap
3% sugar hoping for a good run so we can boil on Thursday!

[waysidemaple]

Well Im up to 233 taps thus far still adding slowly. Had a decent run today but wont be able to boil till friday afternoon for two reasons. First one is school and the second is there is still to much snow to get the old ford 9n up the hill. Almost made it this afternoon so Im confident after 2 days of 50 degree weather there will be little snow to hold me back. Took time today to pack snow around my one tank so hopefully the sap will last till friday. Felt and looked good to watch the sap run in at a steady flow.

[Dennis H.]

Just finished up boiling again today.
I gathered about 100gals from my 175 taps. Really good run today. I would say maybe a third of the ones on buckets were overflowing, they are 2 gal buckets. They are on top of the ridge so they get the sun nice and early. The ones on vac are now starting to kick in. They are on the north side of the ridge and there is still some snow in the woods.

The new evap is just amazing. The speed that I am going thru sap is just, WOW!
I still am not to syrup yet but tomorrow I will. Once I finish what is in my tank.


I am taking the rest of the week off to keep up with things.

[sweetwoodmaple]

460 +/- taps in as of 9 pm. Dad and Abby did 200, and Andrew and myself the other 260 (but we didn't start till 4:30 pm).

The kids were helping all day...so sleeping should be good tonight!!!

I'm still letting the lines run to clear them out, then shutting the valves around 10 pm and turning the vacuum back on.

Had my large vacuum release valve on the releaser stick today after sitting for a year. Hope to not have more problems.

Lots of chews and damage to fix. The wind storms have taken their toll.

So, Gary...not too far behind! ;P Sounds like everyone is doing well, but I'm wondering a bit about the long range forecast. Hope I didn't tap too early.

[theschwarz1]

I got most all my lines up and my buckets washed... just have to tap from now till Saturday. Its hard to first d the time to get much done. Took a half day today. Ill be out early in the morning before work tomorrow. Goodnight!

[Paddymountain]

We boiled about 200 gal last night and was able to not only get the pans sweetened but drawed off about 1 1/2 gallon of syrup.Hope everone is
having fun!

[PA mapler]

I tapped a red and a sugar down near the house yesterday, and there was actual a little wetness to both. Surprised me since it was so cold that night. I also hooked up the mainlines that cross the road, but what a chore even that was. The snow here is still deep, and has a nasty crust on the top. Many of my laterals have long sections frozen under the crust, and to free them you have to stomp the crust down the entire way. Exhausting. Hopefully the next two days of 50's will settle the snow and free those lines. I don't think I can eat enough Wheaties to do it myself! :lol:

[Dennis H.]

I just am about to head out the door to start my day boiling!! Took 2 days off from work.:D

I went up and collected sap from the buckets and in just 12 hours I collect the same amount as I did yesterday!! The flood is started for me.

Today the temps are to be right around 58 so I will have to go back this evening and collect again.

[theschwarz1]

tapped 21 this morning at 6:30 am...the sap was gushing out as I was drilling the holes! TOday I hope to set up tubing and taps for another 20 and another 15 on buckets.
Hope the weather stays steady this season...a good steady...not steady warm like last year!

[Gary R]

Home from work today and over 100 gal. in the tank in less than 24hrs. I know it's not a lot, but I've never had that much sap at my house. Going to boil late. Glad the weekend is here I'll try get on top of it. My father is coming to help tomorrow. Saturday I pick up a 400 gal. tank:)

[Gary R]

OK SDURF, I know why I'm not getting anywhere. At first I thought my cheap refractometer was off. I threw in a long stem hydrometer. 1% :cry: That really puts a damper on the party. How about anyone else? How's the sugar?

[Jim Brown]

Pulled 375 gallon today but like Gary R we are at 1`% We are plenty early have lots of time to get the sugar up




Jim

[Paddymountain]

We are getting about 2.3 % on roadside sugars. gathered 110 gallon tonight ,
just got done boiling,pulled off about 2.5 gal of syrup . wondering what tommorrow is going to bring with 60 degree temps?

[waysidemaple]

I tested some sap Monday night and it was only 1.5. Bummer! I'll have atleaat 200 gallons waiting for me when I get home tomorrow....the 1.5 sap was from my road side trees. Hopefully its enough to sweetin the pans.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Got home from a church meeting and the tanks were running over. I have about 800 gallons from the last 24 hours. Would have had a bit more, but didn't start vacuum till this morning. spent 13 hours in the woods yesterday and had to get some sleep.

[PA mapler]

I checked my two test trees yesterday and this morning. The red maple didn't have any sap either day. The sugar had just enough each day to fill a testing cup. Yesterday, the sap was 1.4%, and this morning it was 1.3%.

[mapleack]

1.7% on what I checked yesterday. I didn't run as well as I'd hoped yesterday and 60 degrees isnt good! RO problems and a bunch of other stuff going wrong just makes me want to sell out, get a 2x6 and hang 50 buckets. Maybe that'd make it fun again.

[waysidemaple]

300 gallons off 233 taps...started boiling at 4.....first time ever on the real evaporator

[adk1]

wow wayside, that must be exciting! I can only imagine!

[Daryl]

I just got tapped yesterday and turned the pump on at 11:00 this AM. On 196taps on reds, we have 80 gallons at 5:30. Still need to set up the evaporator. That won't take very long.
My next project is to finish my home built RO. Several hours should do it.
Darn work delivery dates are hard on suger making projects.

[Dennis H.]

Went to check on the buckets this evening, they are not doing much. The temps are just to high with out a freeze. I am leaving the little bit of sap in the the buckets because of the wind. The wind is picking up and it is to get very windy tonight.

Next week looks like a real winner down here. Just think the 1st week and I have made 1/2 of what I made the entire season last year!!

It sounds like you guys up north are starting to pick up some, good luck.

[Paddymountain]

We gathered about 80 gallons today, hopefully we'll get enough of a run tomorrow to start boiling in the afternoon. Stiil have to filter and bottle the syrup we have made so far. Look's like a Saturday evening project.

[Jim Brown]

Got 675 gallons of 1% to run through the RO in the morning. Ground here is still froze and the trees have not woke up yet. Got some COLD weather coming low over night tomorrow is supposed to be 13. Not much sugar weather until maybe end of next week.


Daryl; Let me know how that new RO works!1

Jim

[PA mapler]

Hi Jim, yeah it looks grim up north here for the next week or so. We lost alot of snow today, but the foot that's left will be rock-hard after tonite. But today was so nice I got the sugar-shack cleaned, swept and organized, and got all my buckets and pans washed and ready to go. The waiting is hardest part!

[waysidemaple]

Finished up about 8:30 tonight. Got through all the sap but didntt get to draw any off. It was only 1.5. Pans are sweetend and looks to be about it for a run till Wednesday. Evaporator work like a charm. What a difference from the old flat pan front last year. I can official say that was the most sap I have ever personally delt with and I think I did pretty good.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Got through 300 gallons this evening after getting the evaporator cleaned. Still 1,000 gal to go tomorrow.

Running at 1.5% as well. Probably less by the time the little grubbies get done with the sap at 55 degrees today. Oh well.

Vacuum pump ran for 36 hours. Oil temp stays around 120 degrees with the cooler. Used about 12 oz of oil...have to get a better reclaimer.

[Gary R]

We boiled 100 gal. last night. Drew off less than 1/2 gal. of syrup. It is very dark. Only got about 5 gal. over night. But, still about 150 gal. in the tank to boil today. I want to get it finished today so it doesn't freeze up.

Congrats Daryl on getting up and running!

[Dennis H.]

Here I am drawing off the 1st syrup fro the season. That was one sweet moment. Pun intended!!

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
We were right at 2% on the first runs. I have seen it near 3% other years.
Chris

OK SDURF, I know why I'm not getting anywhere. At first I thought my cheap refractometer was off. I threw in a long stem hydrometer. 1% :cry: That really puts a damper on the party. How about anyone else? How's the sugar?

[Sugarmaker]

We finished tapping Wed Night and gathered the first time on 2-17-11. 510 gallons from about 570 taps at 2%
Fired up the rig with all the new goodies about 5:30 pm and had it all in the pans at 10:30. Made 5.25 gallons of good tasting "A" dark syrup.
Had trouble with the AOF system, Dimmer switch was red hot. Then the front of the AOF raised off the arch due to exesive heat after 1 hour. So I boiled deeper to compensate.
WRU Water Reduction Unit was new. Seemed to be taking 2% sap to 3.5 or 4% sap:)
Floats needed adjusted 7 times.
Stack Temps were lower.
New triple walled stack really cut down on the excessive heat at the back of the arch.
Had visitors in the sugar house from Japan, Linesville and Sagertown.
Friday 2-18-11 Gathered 175 gallons of 2% sap.
Drained the pans aligned the AOF system on the arch. Not sure how this got out of whack? Welded stainless angles to the sides of the AOF and screwed them to the arch rails.
Boiled in the sap, made another 3.25 gallon of dark syrup.

2-19-11 Went to Keith's place and helped him make some adjustments to his rig. He made about 1.5 gallon.
Drained my rig again and rinsed it out. Have 36 gallons of 5.5% sap, and 10 gallons of 44% sap ready for the next run.
Received new 5 x 5 filter press from Daryl. Canned some syrup for orders.
Pancakes in the morning! Weather is cold!
Regards,
Chris

[Maplewalnut]

Our sugar has been low also about 1.6 on average with both reds and suagrs combined. Although i did notice sugars dont seem to be thawed yet, much better volume from reds for this first run. Sugar buckets have next to nothing still.

[Turtlecreek]

Last night was a long one!! I had about 75 gallons of sap to boil off. I set up the new evaporator and fired her up for the first time, I had no time for a test boil.
I got it running pretty well but the wind was killing me since I boil outside. I did get draw a bunch of draw offs, allbiet small ones, I made a quart and a half of light amber and my pans are sweet.
I had to quit because of the wind I finished bottling and got cleaned up at around 3:00 am. It was a good night I got my first syrup of the year, and first off my new pan!! Looks lime I will be boiling tommrow, I left some sap in the bu let's to weight them down so they didn't blow away.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Wow, Chris...sounds like fun. Don't have my new pan on the rig...had to quit and start tapping this week.

Turtlecreek - Gotta love the 3 am boils! Sugarin aint for wimps! ;)

Amazingly, I fired up the vacuum today and sucked up another 150 gallons. I am just shy of 1,500 gallons so far this year. I was running 25" at the releaser, so I was very happy with that.

[Dave Y]

Hung 862 buckets yesterday. Everyone make sure you are sitting before you continue reading,
I dumped 2500 gallon of 1% on the ground. I don't want start an other season with commercial syrup. Going to try to hang another 800 to day and finish up tomorrow.

[Gary R]

Last week we collected 349 gal. off of my 101 taps. Vacuum is working real well. Lines were froze solid yesterday. I have about 2 gal. of "B". I might give the new filter press a try today. Going to pick up my third bulk tank in two days this morning. Not sure what I'm going to do with all of them:rolleyes:

Dave Y, Ouch! But, that 1% is making for long boils and not much return.

Good luck to everyone. We still should have some decent weather this week.

[tapper]

I dumped 1% sap yesterday also. 15 years of making syrup and I have never seen 1% sap.

[Jim Brown]

Boiled off 700 gallons of 1% sap on saturday. Rig is sitting full only pulled about a gallon of dark Amber to "B" GREAT flavor but dark! Got to love that RO 1% turned into 4.5 % to the rig and then after the steamaway 7% to the flue pan.Only boiled about 3 hours. Now we wait !

Jim

[molineutu]

boiled 63 gallons of sap yesterday. I will do the finish boil today. Had a friend come see my evap and said he would like to try sapping, so i gave him the pans and barrel arch I started with, and some of advise he was off to tap. I wish you luck Rick....

[waysidemaple]

Walked the lines this morning, only a few branches on the lines from the nasty wind we had yesterday. Only had a few buckets blow off. Really cold out there today and doesnt look like it will warm up till wednesday. Picked up the sugar house this morning as well, quite a mess from friday's first boil. Couple of ash trees came down up in the woods that I think I will cut up this afternoon for the evap. Nice dry dead wood. Then its back to school for the week.

[Dennis H.]

Did my bucket rodeo this morning. No buckets were off the spile but more than half of the lids had to be found. 2 of them took me awhile to find them, they got blown a good distance from thier bucket.

I will also have to wait till this afternoon to collect. Can't do much with sap cubes!!

[Paddymountain]

Boiled everthing we had last night ,got it all filtered and bottled, all of it is light amber around 6 1/2 gallons. going out to gather now, but don't expect to get much.

[Gary R]

Drained and filtered the sweet. Cleaned pan and rinsed bulk tank. I also worked on my preheater. I was only getting about 130 degrees. Others suggested it might be short circuiting. I changed the outlet to the opposite side of the inlet.

I missed out on sap today:mad: My laterals were full of sap. But my mainline was froze from my releaser to the first lift. I spent two hours with a torch, compressed air and banging on the lines. It was so close, but I couldn't clear the blockage. I'll turn the pump back on in the morning.

[Sugarmaker]

Worked in the sugar house today at about 40 degrees it was a little brisk, but out of the wind. Made some maple BBQ, and added a new outlet in the kitchen area. Checked out the new 5x5 filter press, need hoses and some fittings.
General put-zing around waitin' for sap to run.
Daughter Kelly and family came for pancake brunch.

Gary,
Sounds like the vacuum is working well except when frozen:( And cornering the market on tanks too!
Jim Brown,
The R.O and steam away combo is saving a lot of boiling time. But grade B for the first run is not a great indicator.
Daye Y,
That's a lot of sap to let go:) I wouldn't be pleased either.
Tapper,
dumping 1% sap too! Wow.

Things only look good over at Paddy MTN! Light syrup coming off the rig is a good thing!

Brian,
Looks like your pulling in a lot of sap. Being a little farther south of us is helping. Tell us your making some light syrup.

I don't like the sounds of all this 1% sap and dark syrup this early. I hope we can pull out of this with some good runs and some lighter syrup.

Snowing like crazy.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Wow...seems like drama central in maple land...and it's only the first run! :)

Dave Y and others....Not sure what I would do with 1% sap, but I'm not much better at 1.5%. The lowest I've ever seen is 1.6, and when I wrote that on the board of my sugar house from 2008, I put a frowny face beside it!

My 1.5% sap made about 5 gallons of light/medium, then about 7 more gallons of medium. The super sweet I drew off looks like dark amber. So, Chris...not sure if I qualify as making a lot of light, but not bad considering.

Gary...don't waste the torch fuel...if the main line is frozen, the trees aren't giving much either. Though, I'm still one of those rebels with cheap black mainline, so mine usually thaws quick. I had my vacuum running for about one hour today...and had about 1 gallon of sap to show for it....shut er down and will wait on better weather!

Wood pile has a significant dent...and only about 20 gallons of syrup to show for it. yeaow...

Not sure about the forecast...might not be good for next week.

[Turtlecreek]

Second day of light woohooo!!!!! I bottled 2 1/2 quarts of light amber today in about 2 hours and have alot of sweet left in the pan.

I went into the bush today for the bucket and lid rodeo, it was more like an Easter egg hunt. I collected about 10 gallons of sap. Some of it was left from a couple of days ago, I left some sap in the buckets to weight them down in the wind ( that didn't work out) the sap that was d looks yellow so I pitched it. The fresh sap I collected in another area was clear so I evaporated it.

Weather looks good for a couple of weeks. I'm on track for a decent year, certainly better than last year.

[theschwarz1]

collected 25 gallons from 25 taps. There was some ice but not much, tok it too my friends to boil...measured at 4% sugar!!!! I was sure I was doing it wrong from everyone elses reports, but he confirmed it for me! I love big open field maples!

[heus]

Just across the Pa border in NE Ohio our overall sap has been from 1.5 to 2%. Reds are less than 1%. We have bottled 8 gallons of light amber and have another 1.5 to 2 to bottle. Looks like winter has returned, which is good I guess.

[mapleack]

. Checked out the new 5x5 filter press, need hoses and some fittings.
.

Chris, look at brass garden hose screw on fittings for your press. Very slick to use on the little press!

[tapper]

Was adding a mainline to the new vac system yesterday and noticed sap flowing into the releaser so ran the pump for a few hours and the sap was now almost 2.5 percent compared to the 1% I dumped the other day.

[Turtlecreek]

Looks as if everyones sap is running around 1-1.5%.

My question is does that matter on the type of syrup you make? Paddymountain and I are about 15 minutes from eachother and we are both making light stuff. I'm not checking my sap with a hydrometer so I'm not sure what its running at, his is at 2.3 according to another post, makes you wonder?

[Sugarmaker]

Turtlecreek,
The goal [unwritten of corse] is to try to make the lightest syrup possible. In our area we have 'Linesville ultra light', 'Albion ultra light', etc:) its kind of part of the competitive part of making syrup. We try to do everything right but the sap we get sometimes dictates the color. Our first run syrup this year was Dark "A" grade. But we enjoyed it just the same on pancakes:)
Also you will get more dollars for light syrup if you are selling lots of bulk syrup.
Regards,
SM

[Turtlecreek]

That's kinda how I thought it went sugarmaker. I was wondering if anyone had noticed that when they boiled low sugar sap if they
made lighter syrup for some reason. Just something I was thinking about while collecting buckets that's all.

[Dennis H.]

Well I got an early freeze up today. I kept having troubles with the Benders not dumping quit right and when I looked closer there was ice forming around the top cap. Then at 3pm I looked into one of then and there was ice all the way around the float. So off went the vac. No sense in wasting elec.

I did a nice long boil today about 5 1/2 hrs. Drew off some nice syrup also.

The sap I am collecting is hovering right around 1.5% on all Red's. The 1st batch of syrup I dreww off ended up being Med Amber.

The really cool thing for me is that I just made the same amount of syrup that I made the entire season last year!! And I just tapped my trees 10 days ago!!

[Sugarmaker]

Dennis,
Nice job on the first syrup this year. You have made a lot of improvements and the work is paying off!
SM

[Paddymountain]

Last Year:
open air 10x10 leanto.
new to me evaporater with fire brick just stacked in temporary.
2 week season
frustraton level moderately high

This Year:
new sugarshack
evaporater fully insulated and bricked
fire wood under roof
just pulled off another 5-6 gallon tonight
pure joy!!!

[theschwarz1]

I don't know what's going on but the sap I collected on saturday was 4%...ill post a pic of it. I was so surprised I had to take a pic.

[Gary R]

Thescharz, please send some of that our way:) I wouldn't know what to do with all the syrup that would come off.

Paddymountain, you got to love being indoors, out of the elements. It makes those long boils comfortable.

Andy, you must have got a bit warmer than us yesterday. High was only 30. Still froze up over hear. Hopefully later in the week we'll be back at it.

[Paddymountain]

We are pretty well in the deep freeze too. It was 16 this morning, and supposed to be 5 tonight. That's going to put the brakes on gathering.
But it will give us time to filter and bottle our latest batch.

[mapleack]

Between Sunday night and yesterday when it froze we got 1,010 gallons of sap. Managed to boil 700 of it before I quit at 11:30 last night. 200 is outside the sugarhouse freezing solid, another 100 is in the gathering tank in the garage to boil today.

[Maplewalnut]

Andy- did you get your RO up and running yet?

[mapleack]

Andy- did you get your RO up and running yet?

No, haven't gotten parts yet. It's evident that Lapierre doesn't believe in next day air UPS or I would've gotten them yesterday. As a result i'm going to have a 200 gal ice cube. Not pleased. Hoping they get here today, if not I'm calling Swanton tomorrow AM.

[mapleack]

My RO parts came in the mail today, just got them. I'll fix it tonight, might be thursday til I have good enough run to try it out. Fingers crossed.

[theschwarz1]

I don't know what's going on but the sap I collected on saturday was 4%...ill post a pic of it. I was so surprised I had to take a pic.

Maybe its bc of the ice left behind...hmmmm

[Turtlecreek]

I've got sap cubes! All of my buckets are frozen solid. I was thinking of putting some of them in the freezer for later use in my storage tanks to keep them cool, that's about the only good use I could come up with. Oh well looks like I get to take a break for a couple of days.

[Dennis H.]

Never got above freezing today.
It gave me a chance to take all the syrup out of the syrup pan and clean it up.

After taking the syrup out of the pan I checked it and found it very close to syrup. So I decided to finish all the syrup I had, ended up with just a hair under 3 gals. It was Dark Amber though. I think that is from all the sugar sand that was in the pan.

So the next boil will be in a nice clean pan, I am wondering if I will improve grade by doing this.

Tomorrows temps are to improve a little, mid 30's, but the end of the week looks good.

[Dennis H.]

Another day of nothinh happening. Last night it got down to 9 and the highest it got today was 36 and it was right before the sun went down.
I fired up the vac and everything was frozen solid so off it went.

I have about 40 gals of sap to boil but the suction line from the sap tank to the head tank is frozen so no way to get sap to the head tank or for that matter the evap. Tomorrow looks better.

[Turtlecreek]

Two words...sap cubes.

[Dan W]

Tonight I finished gathering what I didn't get to in the snow storm on Monday. Threw away a lot of ice. Have 180 gallons in the tank and hoping for a flood over the next few days. Off on Friday so will be boiling then.

[Sugarmaker]

Might hit 40 tomorrow? Not expecting much since a winter storm is moving in Thursday night. Will check the containers but its doubtful we will have much sap in the sugarhood.
SM

[sweetwoodmaple]

Only hit 37 degrees today after about 15 degrees last night.

Still got about 100 gallons of sap, mainly between 3 and 6 pm.

If tonight does not get too cold, the rain and 40 degrees could allow somewhat of a run tomorrow.

[waysidemaple]

Nothing going on today in the way of sap. Filled the flue pan with water and added the drained sap to the syrup pan. Drew off almost a gallon of medium syrup before the sap ran out. Syrup pan is still sweet and flue pan is drained again. Waiting on more sap now.

[slammer3364]

WE have about 8 inches of snow here in St. Marys with another storm on the way finshed tapping Sun (Ferb 20 ) Maybe we will get some sap by hay making time. Lots of luck people I am sure it will turn.......

[Gary R]

I only got about 20 gal. yesterday. I know I missed out on a lot more. The ice is clogging up at a 3/4" union right before it enters my building. It is the smallest orifice in the system. I am going to buy a 1" today and fix that problem:) Turning the pump back on this morning. Hope to have a long boil tonight.

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

picked up 45 gals of sap yesterday (2-23), so to date from tapping got a total of 155 gals of sap on these very few runs we had and weak runs they were.

big rain storms are supposedly coming these next few days, hope the tree's keep running

[PA mapler]

Got half my lines pulled out of the snow the other day, still knee-deep with more on the way tomorrow. Long-term forecast for up here looks iffy, might be tapping next week on snowshoes :D

[Dennis H.]

Todays temps are now right at 40 but with no sun I have no hope for the main's to thaw out any time soon.

I hope at some point I can boil more sap.

I got to go and check the buckets shortly to see how they are running.

[adk1]

Dont know what the temp is here, had some very light flurries an hour ago, know its not above 35 right now that is for sure

[Dennis H.]

Checked on the buckets and the trees are running, slowly.

Not sure if the night temps are going to get below 32 but the buckets are empty and ready for any sap that they will give.

The releasers are now ready and thawed for tomorrow. With the rain that we are to get tonight and the high temps tomorrow I am hopinng for some sap. It has been 3 days since I last boiled any sap.
I get run the natural RO and made some 2% sap in my Milk tank.

[KV Sappers]

Hello to everyone. I'm a newbie just starting out on this journey of tapping maple trees. We have 6 taps in and so far have made 4 pints of syrup. It's been a blast so far. We're trying to find a different way of boiling the sap rather then doing it in the kitchen on an electric stove. We're steaming the kitchen up something fierce. I thought about a Bajou classic double high pressure propane burner, using 2 12x16 pans on each burner. I know propane is not cheap but I'm looking for a quick fix for this season. I know an evaporator is probably the way to go but I'm not looking to produce a whole lot of syrup. Just enough to hand out as gifts and enjoy on some oatmeal or fruit salad ect. Based on info provided on this site I figure by using a 12x16 pan I should be able to boil a gallon of sap in about an hour. Is that about right? Any help and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Welcome to mapletrader. I am near you in Elizabethtown. I bought a Bayou Classic SP-10 to use as a backup incase my evaporator build was a bust. :lol: It is a single burner rated at 185,000 btus with a high pressure valve at 20psi. Worked great as a turkey cooker this holiday and I used it to finish my first gallon of syrup this year. See pic attached. It does boil rapidly at least a gallon an hour and that was on low.

[KV Sappers]

Thanks for the info Maple Monk Ross. What size propane tank do you use on the SP-10 and how long does a tank of gas last for you?

[Paddymountain]

Batch #4 Boiled 2-21-11 Filtered and Bottled 2-24-11

1gal 3qt 24pt 2 1/2pt should be med amber have to wait til tomorrow for natural light to grade

[Dennis H.]

Holy Cow There is someone near by to me that makes maple syrup!!

KV Sappers where the heck are you located about in Landisburg??
I am just up route 74 from Alinda.

It is cool to see someone else around me. I thought Cassel Farm was the closest person.

I think I fugured out what KV is Kennedy's Valley.

[Dennis H.]

Looking good Paddy Mtn.
Batch #4 wow. I just did my second batch. Now I didn't bottle it up, I just packed it into 2gal buckets for right now. I will rebottle it into what I need when I need it.

[Gary R]

Way to go Paddymountain! Were still dealing with freeze ups over here. I have about 60 gal. in the tank from the last 1 1/2 days.

[Paddymountain]

Thanks Gary R: Dennis H: for the compliments,it's my understanding that both of you have vacuum on about 100 trees and that they are reds,Is that correct? I have about that many reds in the woods right at my sugarshack
that I would like to put on vacuum. Did you guys tap the same trees with buckets, before you went to vacuum? I would be interested in knowing the difference it made. Also maybe later this spring I could visit your setup for some hints. Dennis H I think you are closer,you are right south of Newport
correct? I'm tapping roadside sugars now but I want to have a base amount of sap coming from my woods, so I know I have that much sap for sure.

[Dennis H.]

Yeah all my trees are Red's. I have just under 100 trees on vac. And this year I also have about 80 on buckets. The trees on vac were tapped with buckets the 1st two years I made syrup. It seems with vac I get sap more consistantly than on buckets. Those marginal days are when the vac pays for it self.

Yeah I am south west of Newport. West of New Bloomfield. I have no problem with you stopping down. I have to warn you though, my poor reds are pretty sad for trees to get sap from them. They are spread out pretty good.

[KV Sappers]

Boiling sap today. Collected 2 gal today and with the gal + we collected yesterday we're boiling 3 + today. Dennis H good to hear from you. Your right I'm back Kennedy's Valley. We're just past Freespirit Campground. Would love to see your setup and talk to you about making maple syrup. I just started this year and have an awful lot to learn, but I'm really having a lot of fun experimenting. I know I stated earlier I want to keep this small but boy this is getting addictive. So ... perhaps an evaporator is in my future!!!

[adk1]

Boiling sap today. Collected 2 gal today and with the gal + we collected yesterday we're boiling 3 + today. Dennis H good to hear from you. Your right I'm back Kennedy's Valley. We're just past Freespirit Campground. Would love to see your setup and talk to you about making maple syrup. I just started this year and have an awful lot to learn, but I'm really having a lot of fun experimenting. I know I stated earlier I want to keep this small but boy this is getting addictive. So ... perhaps an evaporator is in my future!!!

Yeah good luck with that. it is totally addictive. I ahvent even started yet, but have my entire operation planned out includign what it is gonna cost me to start. I am going right to buying a new evap since I know I will want one anywyas.

[Gary R]

Last year I was about 50/50, sugars to reds. This year I'm almost 90% reds. Most of the reds I have never tapped. All are woods trees with small crowns.I really have no way to compare. I can only say that the run over a week ago got me 2/3 of all the sap production from last year. I sure don't miss cleaning buckets. I'm going crazy though checking my tank and vac system.

It's pretty hard to beat those road side sugars. There's some guy's on here that tap them. When they run, they run!

[Dennis H.]

Just went out and added 20 more buckets! That now makes it 100 buckets that are out. I figure "**** the torpedos full speed ahead" I have my swimmies ready and floatation device at the ready just in case.

Boiled off what sap I had at the sugarshack this morning, about 60 gals.
Went and collect the buckets and got another 40 gals. If only the sun was out these trees would be running like crazy.

Also it looks like I will be doing the bucket rodeo again in the morning. They are predicting winds as high as 50 mph!! OH YEAH!!

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Thanks for the info Maple Monk Ross. What size propane tank do you use on the SP-10 and how long does a tank of gas last for you?
Just a 20# normal BBQ tank. I still have 3/4 even after a turkey and two hours of finishing syrup. I have read on this site that propane is more expensive to use than other fuels per gallon of syrup. Do what you have to, to have fun with making syrup!

[Turtlecreek]

Also it looks like I will be doing the bucket rodeo again in the morning. They are predicting winds as high as 50 mph!! OH YEAH!!

yahoo I love a good bucket rodeo too!!

[emericksmaple]

Finally have chance to talk, it has been a nut house around here since Feb 12, when we started to tap. Right now we are at 600 gal made. We have boiled 10 times since Feb 14th. Looks great for the next 7 days!! High vaccum is the key. We gathered 5000 gal today .

[sweetwoodmaple]

Good to see all the PA'ers on here!

Yes, Gary....it's like a never ending walk in the woods with tubing and vacuum. I discovered a line off yesterday and a weird vacuum block...must have been ice, but it kept the vacuum from getting upstream.

Boiled off 300 gallons from the last two days. Sugar is up to 1.8%...making Dark Amber at this point. You can tell by the smell of the steam that the trees saw a nice warm up. Oh well, getting low temps tonight.

Looks like a really nice run all night Sunday and into Monday.

On the Reds...I'm about 20%, and I watch them like a hawk. I pull and cap them towards the end of the season.

Matt - good to hear from you!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Matt,

How did you manage 4 young helpers between age of 2 months and 2.5 years?? Do you have 2 sets of twins or triplets??

[Gary R]

More drama in Polk......I managed to collect 70 gal. Sugar content is up to 1.3:( Needed to boil last night. I learned that my head tank freezes at 25 degrees. Luckily my wife just can out to sit for a while. I saw the pan temp start climbing. Looked and seen my pan level low and only a trickle of sap out of my preheater:o No oh s#@t bucket. I had my wife race to get get water. By the time I started dumping it in the back my pan was up to 223. I was able to get enough water in. Drew off about a gallon of "B", a little heavy:rolleyes: Still had about 35 gal. in the tank. Thankfully I still had that torch around. I was able to free it up and get it in 5 gal. buckets. Flooded the pan and went in the house to start drinking. This is exciting!

[mapleack]

Finally got to run the new RO last night. As many have said, I don't ever want to boil raw sap again. Collected 535 gal of about 1.7%, took it to around 6.2% through the RO. Ran the RO for 2 hrs, ran the evaporator for 2.25 hrs. Total processing of over 250gph. Sure beats just the evaporator at 90gph. Definitely have to buy a heat tape today, the outlet valve on the permeate tank was frozen this am, had to use a torch. Also need a heating element for the RO wash tank to speed up the washing process. Bring on the bigsap!

[Sugarmaker]

Matt,
Wow! that's a lot of syrup. Glad to hear from you. I thought you might be busy. Weather looked just right you you.
Gary,
Yea some days it could drive you to drinkin'. Boiling in freezing weather can test all the systems too! Must be just a little warmer than here in the ice box.
Brian,
Your getting more sap than our ZERO amount!
Andy,
Nice to hear you got the new R.O. operating! I am sure you will like that a lot! Yes Bring on the sap!

I may go around and check tubing and containers for possibly run on Monday.

Keith Talbot made a couple of gallons of syrup. He had to get his new float reworked. Also scorched the first batch a little. All those typical start up problems.

I am going to take water ans syrup product in for testing next week and get ready for yearly sugarhouse inspection.

SM

[Dennis H.]

Come on Gary what do you want to do just sit around and drink a boiling soda while the whole thing runs it self!:lol:

[walnutdalefarm]

Yeah, Andy perseverance pays off! I'd complain about Lapierre service but my dealer is great even helped me tap. Matt, when do you find time to breed, i mean breathe. We are at about 150 gallons, Mary says we'd have more if i'd quit spilling sap. (over filled gathering cart,once,left valve open,once,boiled over back pan like you wouldn't believe till i got defoamer thawed,once). Hopefully i'll improve as the season progresses. Joel

[Sugarmaker]

Joel
:) and welcome. Been in your area on state tour several years ago and know Matt from several meetings and dinners.
Hope your season is going well. Sounds like you have a nice set up!
Chris

[Dennis H.]

Ended not having to chase too many lids this morning, But I do have a lot of sap cubes!!

Had a little trouble this morning with the vac. Apparently some sap got into a few plces on the mainline that normally wouldn't carry sap and then frozen last night. I wasn't getting any vac to either releasers.

[SDURF]

We have had several visitors to Our Lil' Sugarhouse already this year! Along with some neighbors, Jim B. and Chase stopped over as we had our first offical boil on the new 2 x 6 on the 18th we didn't make syrup . Gary R. and his wife Laura stopped by today we weren't boiling but they got to see the new evaporator installed and improvements made to the sugarhouse. We also got the play by play of the tank freezing, it's a good thing his wife was there!

[danno]

Also need a heating element for the RO wash tank to speed up the washing process. Bring on the bigsap!

Mapleack - I bought a bucket heater from Tractor Supply for $20. Happy so far. Heats my 25 gal wash tank from 45 f to 110 f in about 30-45 minutes. When I start concentrating, I send my first permeate directly into the wash tank to begin heating. By the time I'm done concentrating, the wash tank is hot enough to start the wash. I would like to get a thermostat on it so I don't overheat the membranes.

[Dennis H.]

Had the best sap run yet. Had a bunch of buckets overrunning.
Vac was working good, had to work on a few little issues but it should be ok now.

Boiled for about 3 hrs this evening, and drew off about 1 gal. I still have about 100 gals of sap to boil. That will be tomorrow mornings project. Might have to collect the buckets 1st. They were running really good when I collect today.


Sounds like sap is starting to run for everyone in PA.
That amazed me to hear how much Emerick has made so far. Now if we can only get an update from Theron!

[KV Sappers]

"Sounds like sap is starting to run for everyone in PA. "

Agree with Dennis. Sap is starting to run good. Collected 3 gal this morning and then 4 gal this evening. I don't think that's bad for 6 trees. Ended up with 16 oz of syrup. Gosh maybe I do need an evaporator because all total it took me over 8 hrs to boil 7 gals. Hey but the 8hrs were fun!!!

[ELM_DALE_MAPLE]

Finally started tapping on the McKean/Potter County line. This snow is definitely a challenge for us but that is what makes it interesting. We got 70 buckets hanging last night and hope to finish up today after church to get to 200 +-.

[Sugarmaker]

Dennis,
thanks for the warning. Looks like a run Monday.
Hope your getting some good syrup.
Chris

[PA mapler]

Started tapping too up here in Bradford. Got all my buckets shoveled out, set and tapped, and about half my trees on tubing tapped. Couldn't say the sap was really running here today, but most of the new holes showed some moisture. Hopefully I can dodge the rain tomorrow and get the rest done!

My helpers:

http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/pp132/ballen67_2008/DSCF36331.jpg

[Gary R]

We are really getting the sap! My releaser dumps more than 3 gal. My wife was timing it. We had 15, 14, 12 minutes between dumps. That's about matching my boiling rate. I started boiling about 4PM with 55 gal. in the tank already. I'm calling my father first thing in the morning. If I have a lot of sap, he's coming to boil. I have to work in Erie tomorrow.

I used Daryl's suggestion. I put some small pieces of brick in my flue area at the back of the pan. I've increased my firing rate a couple of minutes and my stainless stack isn't red:)

Sometime I'm going to start a thread on single pipe ladders. I've been able to watch them work and have some interesting observations. Things I haven't heard from other guy's using them.

[Dennis H.]

Well the flood has begun!! Went out and collect the buckets and got 90 gals off of them, about 55 gals off my lower tank and who knows how much from the one up at the sugarshack, it dumps into the holding tank.
Right before starting to boil the 200 gal tank had maybe 175 gals sap in it!!

Started to boil around 1:30 and had to stop at 6:30 so I could get ready for work yet tonight.:mad:

I drew off maybe 3 gals of syrup today, so it has been a realy good day down here!!

A funny thing I noted today was that the buckets out flowed the trees on vac!:o

Get ready Gary will may need your swimmies this coming week!

[Sugarmaker]

Dennis,
Sounds like you had a great day making syrup!

[fighting a cold today and hope to feel better for a good run tomorrow].
I did get out and check some containers. Most had 2-3 inches of ice floating on a couple gallons of sap.

Gary,
Hope things are going well with the new vacuum system. Your AOF tuning sounds like it will improve your boiling.

Hope things are good in the sugarhood!
Chris

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yes, the run has begun. I boiled the 400 gallons that I had by 5 pm today. Since then, I have around 250 gallons more (need to get sleeping and not checking tanks :))

Pump will be running all night. It can go about 4 hours without needing a touch of oil.

Speaking of checking tanks...I was on my way to observe my closest 4 star ladder tonight when my releaser went off. With high vacuum this year, that 1" vacuum dump solenoid made me jump, and I was 50 yards away!!!! Too bad this isn't the fall when the bucks are in rut...I might have some antler holes in my tanks!

Sorry to hear about your cold, Chris. Been fighting those on and off all winter.

Gary - Nice to have that releaser, eh? I would like to hear about your ladders...mine are all stars and if I replace, single/double pipe would be much easier!

[Gary R]

Some day I'm going to have this vacuum stuff mastered:) When I built my releaser, I added a line from my vacuum reservoir to my pump. This would allow for constant vacuum on the trees while dumping. Well, during high flow rates, sap is blowing by and collecting in my moisture trap. I went out before 6 this morning and found the trap full and the rubber ball blocking the vacuum port. That was a good thing but, I don't know how much sap I've missed. I drained it and I'm going to cap off the line today. I still have about 90gal. of sap right now. I think I'll call my father for help. Pulled another gallon of B last night. This grade had better come up. It's embarrassing:lol:

Update: An hour later the trap was full of sap again. I found some fittings and fix right then.

[adk1]

Well, I have one sap sack and holder. Dont even have a spile for it. WIll get one at the local hardware store 5/16". I am gonna put it in one of my reds next to the house as a learning tap to see who it runs and when it will stop etc to get a feel for next season when I hope to start my operation. Guess I better get my turkey fryer out with my SS pot. I should have done it this weekend.

[Jim Brown]

Well the flood gates opened last night about 2:00am All three of my tanks will be over flowing by noon today at the rate they were running at 3:00am. Leaving this 'Work" job shortly and get home and pump some off before they do.

After last years season 'BRING IT ON!!

Jim

[Maplewalnut]

I planned two days off from work this week to take care of everything but decided they probably wouldn't run today until this front pushes through. Saw Jim's post and then called my wife at home. She said it is puring into the releaser! Man I wish I could predict runs better!

[Paddymountain]

Well Guys, I just got done collecting about 80 gallons of sap, In a little while I'm going to boil it down. At 10:00 tonight I leave for Honduras on a mission trip. I'll be gone til the 9th. I would like to be here for the big runs this week
but my timing is not God's timing. Family and friends will be taking care of the operation until I get back . We are just a hobby here but It'll be nice if they can make a little syrup this week. When I get done today I'll be close to making the 17 1/2 gallons I made last year! It's looking like a fairly good season. Everyone have fun and be safe

[mapleack]

Definitely going to be a huge day. Yesterday was good, collected about 600 gal at 6 pm. Ran all night, I had to pump some from one 400 gal tank that was an inch from the top before work. Going to go home at lunch and start the RO, looking like well over 1,000 gal today!

[Jim Brown]

Well we collected 1300 gallon today and every thing we own is setting full of 2%+ sap. Got to get the RO running tomorrow morning should be a good week if every thing holds.

Jim

[GramaCindy]

Well Guys, I just got done collecting about 80 gallons of sap, In a little while I'm going to boil it down. At 10:00 tonight I leave for Honduras on a mission trip. I'll be gone til the 9th. I would like to be here for the big runs this week
but my timing is not God's timing. Family and friends will be taking care of the operation until I get back . We are just a hobby here but It'll be nice if they can make a little syrup this week. When I get done today I'll be close to making the 17 1/2 gallons I made last year! It's looking like a fairly good season. Everyone have fun and be safe

and the very best of luck to you and yours on the mission trip! I hope it's cold until your return! Thank you!;)

[Dennis H.]

Did not get as much sap today as I did yesterday but I still got a lot, it never got below 32 last night. Right now I have about 200 gals of sap waiting for the morning to boil.

Tonight is going to get cold and lots of sun tomorrow so I should have a nice sap run.

I also drew off and finished 3 gals, 1 quart, 1/2 pint of dark amber tonight. That makes my total so far just over 8 gals.

[umpwood1]

The sap is running like crazy in Central PA. We are having a hard time keeping up.
Woody

[Dan W]

I hven't had a run like this in a long time. Took me 4 hours to collect 290+ buckets. There are 490 gallons in the 500 gallon tank. Just called work to take a vacation day tomorrow. It looks the next few days are going to be duplicates of today. This is what I have been waiting for!!!

[Turtlecreek]

HELP HELP!!! I'm drowning over here. I may have to go buy more storage. I have some where around 100 gallons stored now and will not be able to boil until wed. With the great weather comming it looks like I'll need my swim suit. Maybe I'll have to get out my backup halfpint and run dual evaporators!!!!

Umpwood where are you in central pa?

[Kev]

frozen here today and tonight had a nice day and half run before the cold front, 1 other small run before that. 400 gal of sap so far. looks like a great 4 or 5 days coming starting tomorrow. oh scratch that starting today.
the odd thing is that for a couple of weeks we had great weather but nothing really happend. A few trees drooled a little but no run. then it took off on a cold cloudy breezy day that the temp never got over 36. everytime i think i know somthing..nature proves me wrong

[slammer3364]

Had a very nice run here too,cellar flooded in morning(drain plugged) got everything cleaned up and took a days vac. So I sweetened the pan tonite,if we get a few more runs like that I will be swimming also. Good luck going to get some shut-eye

[mapleack]

Total sap run for yesterday was 1,715 gallons!!!! Only one tank ran over for a few min :( Thank goodness for the RO, I started it on my lunch break, my dad started boiling and we were done a little after 8 pm. Without an RO that would've been 20 hours worth of boiling!

[Gary R]

Thanks to my father he boiled 12+ hours, 160 gal. of sap and still about 40 left in the tank. Sugar is still very low at 1.2%. We drew almost 3 gal. of syrup yesterday. I don't have a kit, but I think we're get close to dark amber. Filtered another 2 1/2 gal. of B for wholesale. We have already exceeded all of last years production:) Boy, I need a 2X6.

[PA mapler]

Finished tapping yesterday, and the sap was actually running a little! Not enough to boil, but enough to clean the fuzzies out of the lines. :lol: Supposed to be cold all week up here, but maybe this coming weekend I'll be in business.

[tappin&sappin]

Gary - sounds like you are making a lot of syrup.

I brought in 165 gallons from 120 taps (gravity) yesterday. Took 6 hours of boiling, only got 1 gallon of syrup. Not sure what the deal is. Think it may have been the wood I was using and the slow leak in the pan.

Lets hope for some more decent sugaring weather.

- Jake

[Dennis H.]

I had mom and dad help out today. They learned how to fire the evap and make syrup.

They ended up drawing off about 3 gals for the day. They ran the evap for about 10 hrs and finished off all the sap that was in the tank.

[Jim Brown]

Well the RO ran 12 hours today and we made between 12-15 gallon of dark Amber. Still have 200 gallon in the woods from yesterday.Trees didnt run here today too cold. At 2:00pm the lateral were still froze.i turned on the pumps ,they pulled down to 25 inches and I got about one quart of slush, I shut them down .

Jim

[waysidemaple]

Well went home today to boil. Got 3/4 of the way to the tank and got stuck. Needless to say I didnt get to boil. Collected around the house and roadside trees and have about 125 gallons in the bulk tank. My 330 gallonn tank on the hill only has about 6 inches of space till it overflows...great! Temps for tomorrow are saying 38 and partly cloudy so maybe it will only run a little. Thursday temps only in the upper 20s. Hopefully the snow will melt enough for me to make it on friday but who knows. If not I might be using the four wheeler and 35 gallon tank to get the sap down....I really hope it doesnt come to that.

[Dan W]

I boiled off 485 gallons today. Tank is empty. Made about 9 gallons of syrup. Got 4 gallons from the first run bottled. Hopefully I'll get the rest bottled tomorrow after collecting, then boil again on Thursday. The weather the next few days looks wonderful!!!

[KV Sappers]

Wow ... reached my first gal of syrup today. Sure can't compete with you big guys but I'm proud of my six little trees giving me a gal of syrup so far. Gee let me see .... 6 trees so far gave me a gal maybe next year 12 will give me 2... maybe 18 would give me .... this maple syrup stuff is definitely addictive.

[Gary R]

KV Sapper, a gallon off of six trees already is great! Yes, your really going to want more trees now:)

[Dennis H.]

KV Sapper great to hear that you got a gallon. You should be really happy with that. Last year I had 80 trees on vac and only ended up with 4 gals of syrup!

Finished off the syrup that my folks worked on yesterday and ended up with 6 gals of Dark amber syrup.

It seems like that is all that we are making this year, dark amber. The 1st batch was medium amber. I cleaned the syrup pan after the 2nd batch to see if that would improve grade but nope, still dark amber. Or my grading kit is getting old and is getting lighter. This will be the 3rd year for it.

[theschwarz1]

still steadily getting 3.5 - 4% !!
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y166/theschwarz1/Maple%20Syrup/brix.jpg

[waysidemaple]

Kind of a weird looking pic theschwarz1. What do you have the hydrometer in and whats all the bubbles in the sap from? Is it ice in there?