View Full Version : Sweet and Sour Dill 2011
Time to get a thread started. I just went through my last 2 years of threads,and I really enjoyed seeing where I was at.
Josh, my father in law, father and brother came over to help today and in less then a sunday last week and a saturday this week, we've added almost 300 taps. I have 2 more laterals to tension up and cut drops in tomorrow and 2 really short laterals for trees on the mainline.
Still haven't tapped any, I was hoping today but ran out of daylight and helpers. I'm going to run new lines at my parents place in Lee tomorrow afternoon and tap those trees. They also run early and shut off earlier than Northwood.
So all I have to do tomorrow is fill the Sugar wood shed, the house wood shed, plow out to another place I tap. Clean the head tank, test boil, and finish today's jobs, and run new lines in Lee. No problem.
Here's looking towards a great season.
red maples
02-13-2011, 08:35 AM
Good luck Alden!!!
Sounds like your moving right along...not to jinx you, but it seems you're way ahead of where you were at this point last year.
All I can say is its gonna be a better year than last year!!! (It has to be!!)
Russell Lampron
02-13-2011, 04:55 PM
Sounds like you had a busy day planned for today. How much of it did you get done? Gotta hurry now. The season is just about here.
Amber Gold
02-14-2011, 07:30 AM
Alden, I agree it is nice to go back through last year's posts.
How much did I get done? Not everything, but some.
The wife spent the night at the inlaws to leave early on a hike and took our 1.5 month old with her, and my daughter spent the night at my folk's place. So I slept the blessed uninterrupted sleep of the childless.
Anyway, I ended up running 6 more laterals and adding another 40 or so taps. Two of those even had less than 5 on them. The record so far in these woods is 40 per lateral. I know strive for 5 and all that. Its a whole heck of lot slower do that stuff by myself. I still haven't tapped this woods, but maybe this week.
I filled the house wood shed and put a few more buckets of wood in SH shed.
And TAPPPED at my folk's farm. Well I have 30 out. But its a start. I have a new section to run down there with another 20-30. And I have to plow out a neighbor's woods road where I have 70. But I'm making progress.
Oh and how do you know you been on snowshoes for too long? When you try to climb in your truck with them on.
morningstarfarm
02-14-2011, 11:10 AM
saw the funniest thing yesterday...my youngest came out to help the old man with his new snowshoes..I spent 15 minutes getting them adjusted...I no sooner got them all on when he looked at me and said he had to go the bathroom..NOW!...back into the house he ran...with his snowshoes still on..I was standing in the driveway laughing at the sight for about minutes when I heard this loud DAD HELP!..I ran into the house to find my boy with his snowshoes on...his snowsuit around his ankles...his pants half up..and all this in a tangled heap between the toilet and the tub...Oh MY GOD..I just about choked I was laughing so hard..I just had to call his mother to see what her son had done...She who must be obeyed has no sence of humor:lol:
red maples
02-14-2011, 03:40 PM
Kids are like that....try to take them sledding back in the woods I put them in the sled put on my snowshoes get about 100 ft back and I hear dad I have to Go!!! OH MAN yep back to the house!!! luckily it was only 100ft back. I know I did it to my folks too!!!
3rdgen.maple
02-14-2011, 03:58 PM
I dont ask them if they have to use the bathroom before an outing rather I tell them if you want to go with me you better go first. Learned my lesson early on when I hiked back in the woods to fish with the youngest once and after about an hour hike and got to the fishing spot he looked at me and said I have to go to the bathroom. Gave him options, suffer, use the hermit bathroom or we leave. Well we left. Got back home and he said I dont have to go now. :mad:
Russell Lampron
02-14-2011, 06:55 PM
I'm glad that my kids are all grown up now. I don't have those I have to go problems anymore. Now it's me that has to go!
Well I just did the cleaning and test boiling. Since I haven't finished tapping the first order of business was throwing all the barrels and tanks out into the snowbank.
Anyway in deja vu from last year, everything's fine but the preheater leaks, so off with her hood!
I guess that will give me something to work on while I'm sweetening up the rig.
Wow is that wind something else, I thought it was just the snow coming off the roof but it kept howling and then I was getting ice pellets through the unbattened walls.
Backyard Sapper66
02-15-2011, 08:31 PM
Chris,
Your reply discussing your adventure with your son made me laugh so hard I thought I was gonna have to go to the bathroom myself!!!
This IS what it is all about. They are only young once so we have to enjoy them while they are here.
Thank you all for having such a great sense of humor, it makes the day go by much better knowing I get to read these posts later on.
Good luck to everyone and let's hope we get an early run over the next 3-5 days!!!
Doug Boisvert
Well my first battery pack last for 25 trees, which ticks me off a bit.
The second lasted for 150, so I'm back at the office while the good one charges.
palmer4th
02-16-2011, 03:46 PM
So who is tapping for the warm weather Thursday, Friday?? Will she run?
Arrrgh I still have 20-30 taps left at that sugar bush. The battery was fading faster than the light. It was barely dripping in there today. I'm hoping to have enough to boil saturday night.
A heating guy was over at the house today doing a quote to add heat to the upstairs. He's going to whip me up a new preheater for a gallon or 2 of B so that doesn't suck.
Went out this morning before work and finished tapping. It felt about 45 with the sun but alas only 25. So nothing is running yet. Just have to whip up a cover for the tank before Friday. Unfortunately my supply of plywood is under a snowbank and worse I can't remember which snowbank. I was able to find my gathering tank and dig that out.
Going to tap everything else saturday, its been running down in Lee.
Odd I got nothing in Northwood yesterday, the tank wasn't even wet. I have to go walk for leaks at lunch. And now I'm worried that bush has to be on vac its pretty flat.
red maples
02-18-2011, 09:31 AM
I was just wondering how much sap you got??? but you already answered it. Mine is very flat too. Tough to keep out sags and flat spots. if you don't have a site level your screwed. I am gonna walk all my main line again this afternoon and make sure I don't have any dips or anything and tighten up some side ties if need be.
Do you have alot of reds? or mostly sugars?
I 'm telling you its that ice around the base of the tree!!!!:confused:
danno
02-18-2011, 10:31 AM
Odd I got nothing in Northwood yesterday, the tank wasn't even wet. I have to go walk for leaks at lunch. And now I'm worried that bush has to be on vac its pretty flat.
Sounds like a closed valve somewhere or a pulled mainline fitting to me. Been there ...
Amber Gold
02-18-2011, 10:54 AM
Alden, check your mainlines and see if you got all the saddle holes which ended up on the bottom. Also, your woods is pretty cold, so I wouldn't worry about it. I may only have gotten sap because of vacuum
Yes I walked it yesterday and put rubber patches over the holes, I might have missed one. Headed out at 2 to check again.
Well, I got 50 gallons or so out of the tank. 20 gallons of which actually made it into the truck, the rest sprayed wildly at the end of the hose and washed the truck, the buildings etc.
The property just doesn't have the pitch I need so I just made the jump to Vac.
Found an SP11 in barn where I do hay. The old guy wants to hang onto "just in case I get more cows", he's 83 and hasn't had cows since 1988, but you know just in case.
Anyway he's lending it to me for the season. Just ordered up a Hobby releaser.
red maples
02-20-2011, 08:48 AM
you will see the difference as soon as you hook it up!!!! and you will fall in love with it. When you see that releaser dump again and again and you see sap flow into the manifold. I just set up a chair there for about an hour and just watch it flow in.
1 thing with that hobby. make sure you rinse the float shaft at the release button that goes through the top cover with water everyday, take the cover off and turn it upside down and poor water through it. Make sure the thing is perfectly level or it can stick and back up. other than that its great little releaser. as long as you do these things it won't back up. you will see what I mean as soon as you see it. the sap will get on that little shaft and stick.
have fun!!!
Well it turns out not to be an Sp-11, its an Sp-2, much the same but made in the 30s. So I'm not actually embracing modern tech this way. Just waiting for the releaser, thank you weather gods for giving us a hard freeze up to wait for the bugs to get worked out.
Today turned into one of those days. I know I bought 100 stubbies from Maple guys thursday but try as I might they are not in the car or the truck or the house. Probably left them on top of the car and lost them in Lydenbourgh. So I still have sap running onto the ground.
Josh came over and got most of the realeaser set up. I have to make another Lowe's run in the morning and get more fittings. That's where I lose money more and more fittings.
tuckermtn
02-26-2011, 04:35 PM
... I have to make another Lowe's run in the morning and get more fittings. That's where I lose money more and more fittings.
I hear you on that- I have a bin that must have 40 PVC fittings and 50 pipe fittings- but I never seem to have the one I need to finish the set up...
red maples
02-26-2011, 04:59 PM
Same here you can plan all you want!!! I have lots of fitinngs my self but always miss count the one I need!!!
Seriously I'm headed to Lowes again tomorrow. Buy stock in PVC and hose clamps folks cause I bet there is 100 bucks of stuff between the releaser and the pump. Everything is almost set, except the t for the regulator came stripped and it was the only part I didn't get 2 of, and I have to find a bigger chunk of hose to connect the pump up.
Got 75 D&G spouts swapped for stubbies really fun in waist deep snow with frozen lines but to see 5/16 lines in 5 inches of frozen sap and none in the tanks was worse. BTW who decided stubbies needed round heads? A square one would be so much better. I lost probably 10 that went flying out of the tool.
Im now offically as of 10 this morning sucking trees. Only got 5inches so far but that's better than nothing. One side of the mainline is running so I was able to find leaks. Mostly just old holes. A liberal application of elec tape cured them. The other line is froze up solid. Pulling zero but no hissing either.
SSFLLC
03-01-2011, 02:01 PM
Hi Dill, Sounds like where going to finally get some sap. Turned the pump on at 2:00 myself. It seems to picking up. I've got 23 at the pump and heading down to see whats at the releaser. Than walk for leaks. Hope you have a good day. Keith
red maples
03-01-2011, 02:06 PM
yeah leaks!!!! start walkin' those lines Alden!!! I alway have a roll of red electrical tape in my pocket when I am in the woods. I use red so that I can find the leaks easy in the off season and fix them properly!!!
Last year was my first real year and I was missing drops, forgot to close valves hollow trees you name it. except squirrel chews because everything was new ....this year lots of squirrel chews!!!
well I got it up to 10", some moron cracked the elbow fitting next on the pump side. So I didn't even have to hike for that. Really didn't run today. Especially since the frozen mainline is still frozen.
red maples
03-01-2011, 07:21 PM
yeah mine either!! got a little maybe 10-15 gallons thats it. mine thawed out just intime for the refreeze at 4:00.
Well I wasn't able to get enough liquid out of my tank in Northwood to prime the pump. The only part that wasn't froze was where the releaser was dumping. I had 50 gallons in the front tank at my parents. I had to chop through the ice to pump that out. Then another 40 gallons in the back tank, which wasn't frozen at all.
Then a really interesting ride home, its time for new tires on the truck. And after all that my hoses at home were too froze to move the sap. So I have a giant ice cube in my truck tank.
red maples
03-03-2011, 10:06 AM
It was slippery last night we got a quick dusting of snow white out for about 15 minutes. some melted and froze on the road....slippery I don't care what your driving.... I think anything unboiled is a block of ice right now!!!
morningstarfarm
03-03-2011, 10:39 AM
yup a block of ice...I am sooo glad I got every drop I had cooked last night and the tanks stood up...looking at the near future...here she comes!!!
Well I got 40 gallons out of the vac bush, and 100 off of 60 gravity taps in Lee.
Enough to boil for a while. My blower motor decided to quit on me. Heated right up. What a difference boiling without it. I could see my hand in front of my face, instead of just steam. Darnit.
Well we made 1/2 a gallon of nice light syrup last night. I need to get the blower and hood fixed, I'm using twice the wood and can't see in the shack.
My wife came out to the shack last night for the second time in 2 years and I had a scorch spot for the 2nd time in 2 years. Oh well.
Scrubbed it down and flushed the pan out for mersh production.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd43/a-Dill/0307111943.jpg
One way to make your rig look bigger is to use a smaller people when taking photos.
Its starting to break loose in Northwood. My releaser was a little stuck and when I tweaked it the main line ran full bore, dumping twice in 5 minutes but then it caught up and slowed down to a trickle. Back to pulling 10 inches which I'm happy with.
There is a odd noise in one of the mainlines that I can't describe. Down near the realeaser, its almost like a water fall. There isn't a hole in a the line, but its constant.
red maples
03-08-2011, 01:23 PM
Its starting to break loose in Northwood. My releaser was a little stuck and when I tweaked it the main line ran full bore, dumping twice in 5 minutes but then it caught up and slowed down to a trickle. Back to pulling 10 inches which I'm happy with.
There is a odd noise in one of the mainlines that I can't describe. Down near the realeaser, its almost like a water fall. There isn't a hole in a the line, but its constant.
Mine is dumping once every 7-8 minutes. so I think it holds 1.25 or 1.5 gallons something like that so its close to 10 gallons an hour. and getting stronger. it 39* here. last year my best run (although I didn't have a sap ladder then) was dumping once every 2-3 minutes. so sap adds up quickly at that pace. it is something like 25 gallons an hour. only did that twice last year!!!
That is a strange sound. maybe you have a flat spot or a dip in the main line?? is it really loud or a very light sound? If you have sap coming in to the releaser in spurts you have a flat spot or a slight dip somewhere.
I have sags and dips in the other main line this one is pretty well set up. Its constant, and you can hear it a ft or so away from the mainline..
Boiled about 100 gallons down last night, thought there was more sap in the tank but it was still solid. Left the vac on last night.
Got the blower hooked up. I might have it choked down too much but I can add wood without shutting it down which is nice. Hoping to get the hood and preheater back together and on the rig tonight.
Getting worried about wood. Wishing I had more time before the rain to have completely filled the shed.
red maples
03-11-2011, 10:06 AM
I have sags and dips in the other main line this one is pretty well set up. Its constant, and you can hear it a ft or so away from the mainline..
hmmm very wierd. I had that same sound in my line but there was ice line and the air was pulling through it. as soon as it thawed it was gone.
I just got a real scare the owner of the bush called and said my pump was pulling zero so he unplugged it. Figured I'd lost the pump. Went down and plugged it in pulling 7. Fixed a couple small leaks and got back to 10. Not sure what the issue was. She ran all night but has done that once before. Wondering if I should just get a rebuild kit to keep on hand.
Okay so after I watched it for 45 mins and headed back to office. Sam just called back and its back to zero, with the flapper hanging loose.
So ideas? I watched it dump twice, so I think that's working. The pump sounds fine, and its not hot.
Holy big sap today.
I got 150 gallons from the vac. But the big suprise was 150 gallons from 65 gravity taps in Lee. These trees always run hard and shut down early, it'll be interesting to see what I get for a longer season with the CVs. Sugar is up to 2.7 in Lee and 2.4 in Northwood. I didn't even check my other bush in Northwood.
My brother came up and we got the hood on. The new preheater got between 120 and 158 which isn't bad. Boiled 240 gallons in 6.5 hours. Made 4 or 5 gallons of syrup, started really light but dropped to a medium amber.
Got to get some sleep for town meeting.
Well yesterday was the first day that Northwood out ran Lee. Another 300 gallon night on 2x6. I need a bigger rig or something next year. I'm going to hauling sap to Josh this week. 6.5 hours is way too long to boil. I can do it on the weekend but not during the week. One the bright side I've made 8 or 9 gallons. So I've got 1/3 of what I made last year in 2 nights.
red maples
03-13-2011, 03:48 PM
I haven't caught up yet I am still going!!! boiled for a bit this morning made a little syrup. tomorrow after noon gonna do somemore.
Russell Lampron
03-13-2011, 08:11 PM
Alden are you still babying that vacuum pump or are you getting serious about it and cranking it up to get the BIGSAP?
I cranked it up.....to 17!.
I'm not going to push it, since its a borrowed pump. My wife's grandfather was down yesterday and he has a delaval 78 for me. So I'll run the rest of the year on the Surge and pick that up for next year.
Made another 1 1/2 gallons yesterday. Even with the wet wood I moved into the sugarhouse.
Plus I've got more sap than I can deal with at 15.
At least I got some sleep last night.
Russell Lampron
03-14-2011, 11:27 AM
Sleep is important. That is something that I got last night for the first time in a while.
Have you got a blower on your evaporator? That will help the evap rate with wet or dry wood.
Yup got the blower fixed. And my father in law is coming down with a couple pickup loads of old wood out of the barn. Last time it burned through the side of the 2x4 so I have to used it sparingly. I have 3 more rows of dry wood in the shed, I was just wondering how to make it last longer.
Not much of a run here. I just turned on the pump at noon, its 34 and cloudy. But its trickling into the tank right now. I'd like another 100 or 200 gallons for tonight. Only the vac is running nothing really in Lee.
Well that old wood is better than rocket fuel. I boiled 120 gallons in 2 1/2 hours including start up and shut down. The best part is some of the old oak 2x6s are pre charred from sometime in the last 150 years. Preheater was up to 175 degs, and the thermometer only goes to 185.
Also my syrup pan thermometer hasn't worked since I bought the rig. I was filtering the sludge out of the syrup pan before I fired up. And I dropped the therm on the cement. Plugged it back in and its spot on. Got some real nasty stuff out of the pan also.
Made 1 1.5 gallons of DA. Should run hard today that was a hard freeze last night. I was headed in at 9:30 and the ground was crusty.
red maples
03-15-2011, 08:44 AM
yes very excited finally got a good freeze last night it was 21* finally. hopefully a freeze tonight too...but we'll see.
Well its running wicked hard right now. I was just down "visiting the tank", releaser's dumping every 3 minutes and I have sap shooting across the vac chamber.
Unfortunately I have a selectman's meeting tonight and a transportation meeting tomorrow so most of this run is headed to Barrington. Though I might take tomorrow off and boil.
A good run today. It was full bore in Lee, picked up 140 gallons and the tanks only hold 150.
And a decent run in Northwood flipped on the pump at 1, and it sucked some slush into the releaser and then ran steady.
Boiled down 300 gallons and made 4 or 5 gallons of reddish B.
Boy did it get cold yesterday. I got 175 gallons yesterday and was just playing around splitting wood and boiling, until I noticed how much nicer it was in the shack. I got a bad load of standing dead. I don't know how it can be standing barkless and still be wet. That last 75 gallons seemed to take forever.
Got 4 more gallons bottled up last night, still nice light tasting B. My daugther's preschool is coming over for a visit wensday morning so I guess I better spend tonight's boil spiffing up the shack.
Also Charlotte and I went visiting for sunday morning of maple weekend. Got to see 2 really big operations, Moore's and Pearls. And 2 2x6 with RO ops, Russ and Journey's End (Gearpump on here). Moore's is a really nice operation, I've know them for years, but boy it requires the whole family and then helpers to run that system. Pearls' make a lot of syrup but you can't hear yourself think in that shack with the oil guns going. Charlotte wanted right out of there fast.
So I guess that brings me back to I need to get an RO and stay with a smaller rig.
Took the day off and having a maple day. Boiled 150 gallons so far this morning, had 30 preschoolers from my daughter's preschool over to check things out. But they were more into the dog and the tractors, not sure how its running but I know I left plenty in the tanks from yesterday.
I'm amazed how the arch holds heat. I went to bed about 11 last night. And it was cold overnight probably 15 degs. This morning I decided to add more firebrick and the bricks under the flue pan where still warm.
Ok wensday turned out really frustrating. 12 hours and I boiled about 350 gallons. Made some changes to the ramp and blower. Got into some better wood in the shed, that my brother split into tiny kindling. We got into the mid 50s gph. Went from simmering syrup pan to foaming and almost burning. Much more exciting. I was pretty sick of maple wensday. Now its time to get more slabs this saturday.
I sold Josh my sap friday cause I was beat and figured I'd be drowing in sap this weekend. Not so much. Got 200 gallons in 2 days off the vac bush.
So I got a respite saturday, the only problem was the sugarhouse froze up hard. I spent 2 hours today thawing lines out. Good news is the preheater didn't bust.
Canned up wensday and thursday's syrup, I made 9 1/2 gallons those 2 nights. Which to put in perspective I made 22 last seasons.
Got 2 pickup loads of tiny slab wood. My sawmill guy had been making a pile of tiny wood to cut up in kindling. For a lb of bacon he said "Take it all". Wow does burn hot. Burned holes through my sweatshirt and lit my jeans on fire. But it makes plenty of steam too.
Russell Lampron
03-27-2011, 08:33 PM
Hey Alden I was fighting freeze ups this weekend too. I didn't have as many as I did maple weekend though. I made it a point to drain everything that I could before it got cold. Something that I had forgotten to do because of all of the frenzy of maple weekend.
red maples
03-28-2011, 06:48 AM
HOLY CRAP!!! Freeze-ups here too!!! Got behind!!! on Saturday. I am coaching softball so I had only about 2-3 hours of boiling time on saturday, didn't happen was froze up. SO I boiled for 9 hours yeaterday to get caught up!!! boiled over 300 gallons only to to get another 260 gallons yesterday!!!
I was dumping sap by the bucket into the float intake box. just to get going until everything unfroze!!!
The vac bush has slowed down a trickle. 20 gallons wensday, 75 gals yesterday. I'm going to pull sunday. One of the gravity setup is still running but Lee has been shut down for a week. Just trying to make some more mersh. And try to remember to hold over 75 gallons of sap to clean up with.
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