Hop Kiln Road 2011

[Hop Kiln Road]

Hop Kiln Road 2011

[Russell Lampron]

Whats this about a releaser Bruce? You thinking of joining the vacuum crowd? Next thing we know you'll have an RO machine too. Good luck with the new season.

[NH Maplemaker]

ya, when he tells M that story I would love to be a Fly on the wall!! I bet that will be a good one!LOL JimL.

[Amber Gold]

Bruce, did I hear you right...I thought vacuum on trees was sacrilage. Remember, suck and squeeze.

[SWEETSAP]

Hey Bruce, we tapped here in Dunbarton on Monday, Tuesday, and Wensday. Tuesday through Friday we sucked out 200 gallons of sap and boiled on Saturday until the sap froze in the tank. We are using the check valve taps and are pulling 24" at the releaser. If you are interested we can set you up with a small pump. Dan & Dick

[Backyard Sapper66]

Bruce,
I get a kick out of reading your posts!!
"M" must be one special lady. Sounds like you might need to set up camp in the sugar house just in case "M" misunderstands more of the sapping lingo.
Good luck with the releaser situation.
Doug
:)

[Russell Lampron]

Talk about cold and frozen, I forgot to empty the 5 gallon bucket that the condensate from the steam hood drips into the other night. Now I have a 5 gallon pail shaped ice block that sticks up an inch out of the pail.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Felicity Where Art Thou?

Tapped out in their gaiters
Yes the boys are all waiters

While the snows pile higher and higher
And we await Nature’s cherished flyer

Our woodsheds are tuned all in neat ranks
Even the wee have washed their big tanks

Tubing spun in webs snug tight
By old and young a work all night

Dreaming to hope tis Felicity they snag
Even lest risk scorching a sisterly hag

So many nary draw a frosted glimpse hoary
Let alone the sought sweet kiss of their quarry

Oh down from the north she wings
The brightest of the light she brings

Cause only for a moment she tarries
As it must be with all flighty fairies

For tis back north she so nymphfully scurries
Although the forecast remains cold flurries

So sulks many a brave and hearty stoker forlorn
Her hasty flight to the sound of her mother’s horn.


(Just practicing in case there’s another poetry contest this April. Got my clock cleaned last year with the old geezer squeezer bit.)

[Parker]

Wow-Bruce, another great verse! We all cherish the sweet goddess, if your a true sugarmaker you dont mind this powerful curse...for days and nights long we toil in the snowey wood, wishing for full tanks to boil and a bulk price that is better than good,,all of our savings spent on pumps, tanks, and new mainline, BUT, in our minds eye that vision of 40 full barrels is just so fine.. AAHHHH,, Pretty rusty,,think I need a few 12-16 hour boiling sessions to sharpen up a littel.....Gotta hit the woods,,,GOOD LUCK!!!

[Russell Lampron]

At 8AM it is 24 and rising here but there is no sun yet. We need the fog to burn off quick so that things can get thawed out. It's going to take awhile because of how cold it got last night to get things flowing.

[Russell Lampron]

"Hope the high winds forecast for today stops the run." Are you out of your mind Bruce? Sounds like you need M to make you some of those special margarita's so that you can get your head on straight. You can't make syrup on the 4th of July!!! Glad that you are having a good season too.


Flow continues; boiled off 200 and picked up 340, which brings this season even - in terms of gpt - with the last three seasons on this date. Got my holding tanks buried in snow. A lot of snow still in the woods and forecast for next week looks perfect. Hope the high winds forecast for today stops the run. Sugar remains between 2.4 and 2.6.

Will need to unload sap soon if anyone is interested.

[3% Solution]

Bruce,
Ya jinxed me, didn't run that great here yesterday when we was gathering.
Russ is right, got to make syrup when the saps running.
Ya know like make hay when the sun shines.
If your buried lots of other folks are too.
Just keep putting one foot ahead of the other.
Keep boiling.

[Russell Lampron]

You're not the only one that is making darker syrup this year. Customers that had been to other places this past weekend looking for light syrup were saying that nobody had any. The lightest that I have made so far is medium.

[Thad Blaisdell]

I am making darker syrup as well.... I have made very little fancy.

[Amber Gold]

I've been making all medium until we hit the warm spell last week, then it turned to dark for a few boils, then to a B...sap very cloudy. Trying to get my good sap worked through the pans so I can start making DA again.

Sounds like you're having a good gravity run. Even with the vac. problems I've had, I'm up to more than 15gpt of sap, but the sugar's dropped off. I've spent most of the season around 1.6-1.8%...new woods so I'm not sure if this is typical for them or not. I'm pretty confident I'll finish the season between 20-25 gpt.

So when are you getting the suck and squeeze?

[mlaird]

Interesting comments about the dark vs. light amber... All of my syrup so far has been very light. Mind you, I'm a newbie just tapping a few trees in my yard, so I have only produced just over 1/2 a gallon total this year, but all of it has been light, with last Saturday's boil possibly shading toward medium. Here's a photo of my best week's production, 3/6-3/12, which gave me just over a quart of light amber syrup.

[Amber Gold]

Bruce, that is correct. If I could get more sap, I'd be processing more of it. I'd even buy it because it would free up my time during the offseason setting up a woods and during the season having to maintain it. For someone on a limited time budget, buying sap isn't a bad way to go.

[Russell Lampron]

What to do for next year Bruce? Buy an RO!!!

[Russell Lampron]

Bruce I have operated mine with as little as 90 gallons of sap. I had permeate saved up from previous use to clean it with though. 300 gallons will give me enough permeate to clean the RO with. I like to have a lot of sap so that I can get it real sweet, 16% to 18% so that I don't use much wood and draw off a lot of syrup in a short time.

[Amber Gold]

What's the flow meter you're using? All of my sap is trucked in and my numbers aren't even close to adding up this year and I want to use a flow meter for next year.

[PerryW]

Under marginal tempertures when mechanical vacuum will produce flows, natural vacuum won't.

I agree, you need the good sap flow before you get any natural vacuum.



the flow resistance from sidewalls on the gravity tubing systems restricts peak flows. Therefore gravity systems should strive for short laterals with as few taps as possible inorder to get the sap and gas separated and into a mainline.

Not sure i agree with this one. If there was enough sidewall resistance to restrict peak flows, then if you pulled a tap, sap would squirt out. I have some laterals with over 30 taps on them. When the sap is running at peak; If I pull any tap on the lateral, I can still hear and feel the natural vacuum. So, my theory is; As long as you can feel some natural vacuum, then the line can NOT be overloaded. Now I doubt the small amount of natural actually increases the sap flow; but I still like to hear the sucking sound so know things are running properly and I can more easily find any small pinhole leaks.

In spite of this, I think it is probably still a good idea to keep laterals short and not more than 10 taps on them in case you ever want to go vacuum. Plus, from my experience, the animals don't seem to ever chew through the mainline, wheras they seem to have an appetite for 30P. AND you probably have less problem with the lateral freezing up if you "strive for 5".

[PerryW]

Perry, I think the experiment would have a 30p line with 15 taps on it and then run the 30p 30 feet down a 10% grade to a barrel. Then put 15 buckets in the same area. I think the results would be close to mine.

Some of my lines already have 4 to six taps on 8 ft laterals and those lines have consistantly out produced others which have 10 to 15 on long laterals and good slope.

You might be right. I think the big problem with overloaded laterals is they take longer to thaw. I notice trees trying to run (sap leaking out under pressure) but ice in the lines prevented the sap from flowing. Short laterals with only 5 taps would prevent this problem.

The only reason i have these long laterals is I have sever small groups of maples that are 500+ feet from the top of my mainlines up a steep hill. It was NOT cost effective for my to run a mainline all the way up to these isolated groups of maples, so I use the 30P as a pseudo-mainline to pick up these isolated groups of trees. Sure looks impressive when they are running full-bore!

[PerryW]

Perry, I think the experiment would have a 30p line with 15 taps on it and then run the 30p 30 feet down a 10% grade to a barrel. Then put 15 buckets in the same area. I think the results would be close to mine.

Some of my lines already have 4 to six taps on 8 ft laterals and those lines have consistantly out produced others which have 10 to 15 on long laterals and good slope.

You might be right. I think the big problem with overloaded laterals is they take longer to thaw. I notice trees trying to run (sap leaking out under pressure) but ice in the lines prevented the sap from flowing.

The only reason i have long laterals is I have several small groups of maples that are 500+ feet from the top of my mainlines up a steep hill. It was NOT cost effective for me to run a mainline all the way up to these isolated groups of maples, so I use the 30P as a pseudo-mainline to pick up these isolated groups of trees. Sure looks impressive when they are running full-bore! Also, I can tell by the bubbles if there is a leak. If there is a (natural) vacuum leak, the percentage of air in the lines goes way up, so I know air is leaking in somewhere up the hill, and I can usually hear the leak.