Happy New Year... January 06 Journal

[mapleman3]

Well Thought since I first started this journal thing many moons ago here that I'd get a jump on the 06 year 1 hour early...
I hope everyone had a great 05 and may 06 be even better!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

[brookledge]

I'd also like to say Happy New Year and may all your sap be plentifull in the new year.
Keith

[Maple Flats]

Today I finished stacking firewood. I still want to do up more wood just in case we have a super year. Right now I have enough to do up 10% over my best per tap year (and I am adding about 50% more taps than 05. Since I didn't find a RO I thought I could swing I now plan to have about 225 taps this year. When I do fet either a bigger evap or an RO I want to grow again, next level should be 300 and who knows after that, this disease is growing. I still plan to cut a lot more wood but much might be held as logs til I find more storage space for seasoning it.
Dave

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Spent the day finishing up the cleanup. Cleaned the evaporator with pan cleaner and then simmered if 1/2 full of baking soda and vaccumed it dry with the rainbow. Also cleaned the head tank and other large tank and mopped and cleaned up the sugarhouse.

4 to 6 weeks from tap time here and I am nearly finished with everything. Still have several misc things, but will work on them as I get time! :D

[mountainvan]

spent today bottling syrup and getting my icefishing sled fixed and ready for fishing next week. have one test tap out, no sap here yet, bout another month to think of tapping. sent in registration for maple weekend in march, see if I sell out!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I did get the rest of the wood I had cut split and drying yesterday as if I needed any more. I also took some pics of my new syrup hauler and posted the under the maple syrup section on my yahoo website. :D

[Sugarmaker]

Brandon,
Man that new Sap Hauler looks nice! Great addition to anyones maple business/hobby.

[Parker]

Very nice set up Brandon,,nice deer too

[syrupmaker]

Brandon....Nice hauler there. Not even a stone chip in the bucket yet. She can't stay new forever though, might as well get it over and run a couple loads of 2's around the yard. Guess it was worth a trip to the south. :wink:

Rick

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

My dad decided he needed his tractor too much for me to borrow it every year now that he has moved and also having to pay someone to move it twice a year to my place and back. I use the tractor nearly every time I am at the sugarhouse, so just having my dad's for 6 weeks was kind of a bummer too.

Oh well, got this one new 2006 model $ 1700 less than one identical to it that was 2 years old sold for on ebay with a trailer and scraper. There probably is anyone that takes care of stuff better than I do and with it being a Kubota, it should still be going in 50 years when I am 80. 8O Considering I probably will only put 40 or 50 hours per year on it! :D

[brookledge]

Well I'm leaving tommorrow on vacation for 10 days. Looking forward to it but know when I get back I need to commit more time to the sugarhouse in getting things ready.
Keith

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Keith,

Have fun laying around on the ship deck in the sun or come to my house. It is warm enough here that you could lay around in the sun in you skimpies. 8O :lol: :lol:

[lharris1]

I'm taking a vacation day Friday to tie up some loose ends for at the sugar camp and do a test boil. Does anyone collect condensate and pump it to a faucet. We are planning to use a demand pump and pump to a double boll SS sink. I'm not sure how hot my condensate tank will get but will try to keep it below 140 F. Also plan to have a branch that will go through a coil in a cold water vat to the cold side of the faucet. Just wondered if anyone else was doing anything like this.

[mapleman3]

Larry how about just filling a tank above the sink and using gravity to the sink? just fill the tank with the bucket of condensate every now and again

[Salmoneye]

Happy New Year y'all...

Miss me? 8)

The sugar has just started to flow in my veins for this season...

Going to be 50 here today and then the bottom drops out and we head back for the rest of the winter below 20 (probably way below before it's over)...

Almost no frost in the ground yet, and most of the snow is gone...Today I am going to go reset a couple T-Posts on my mainline and add one where there is a slight sag...Other than that, all I have to do is tap last week of February and wait to boil...

Got a report from the border of Northern PA and Southern NY...A friend saw two different places with buckets out 8O

[mapleman3]

Hey Fishman :wink: Welcome Back.. you have alot of catchin up to do on reading... , yes the time is near, a few from here DID tap a bit this fall to try it out... you'll have to chaeck out their posts...

[Parker]

Just could not focus at work yesterday,,,too warm ,,,SO I headed up to hill and shot the grade for the mainline and set a few lag bolts on grade,,the trees were all running pretty well,

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Salmoneye,

Welcome back! :D Of course we have missed you as you wisdom is always enjoyable in your posts. :D

I went to Richmond,VA for the weekend. It is supposed to be cold and snowing at home today and tommorrow before getting back into the 50's on Monday. :( Don't know what is up with Jan, but hopefully Feb and March will be like it was last year.

Anywhere from 3 to 5 weeks before taps go in. I could tap in 2 weeks, but don't want to tap in Jan. I like to wait until around the 10th to 15th of Feb.

[Parker]

WOW, What a differance a day can make!!! just got back from Hill and it was COLD up there today, NO SAP RUNNING..I could not believe how hard the wind blew all day...the main line is getting there,,would have been a LOT faster to throw all the old setup away and start new but,,,,I have all the mainline wire hooked to new anchor trees, dry line 90% run wet line just needs new fittings and final grading,,,

[NH Maplemaker]

Parker, You are a better man than me to brave the weather out today!! Over here in Cornish the wind blew so hard our new pup could evan stand up with out getting blown over the snow bank!! But I under stand , when you got that much work to get done you got to stick with it!! If we ever get a big year you are going to be a busy boy!! Good luck. Like to see your operation one of these days!!

Jim L

[lharris1]

I have a maple three in my back yard that has about 3.5% sugar and I tapped it in December. Our spring tapping is about 100 miles away, but I tapped two trees at home just for fun. They quit running last week but a woodpecker attacked the tree in my back yard and it has sap running down all over the bark. Any suggestions on what to do about the attacker?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

BANG YOUR DEAD! 8O

.22 WILL DO THE TRICK! :D

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yeah, but if you are like Dave Y, you are tapping in "downtown" Marienville.

So, your statement may take on a whole new meaning if he misses... 8O

[Parker]

About 1" of rain and 50 deg. temps today,,,I am about ready to charge up the tapping drill batts,,,cant move logging!!!

[lharris1]

The "Bang you are dead" sounds good but I might get a visit from the town cop when the .22 comes too close to the neighbour's house. :oops:

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

One of the high speed pellet rifles work good with a scope or just a cheap pellet rifle would do the trick if you hit it. They are legal to shoot! :D

[sweetwoodmaple]

Remember -

1 Shot - get's everyone's attention, but they can't identify where it came from...

2 Shots - you're caught and here come the cops.

So, just keep it to one shot and you'll be fine. 8O :lol:

[maple flats]

if you do make sure of your target and where the bullet will go after that. Safety first please.

[Dave Y]

One thing to remember about shooting any bird or animal, is that in most states it is illegal to kill a speices that has no open season. Try hanging suet up for it,and in the spring you may want to spray the tree with an inceticide. That is why he is banging on your tree, it is looking for food.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

There was an interesting article in the Maple News about a squirrel eating maple sugar, well kinda making his only maple syrup/sugar out of it. Pretty interesting and I guess it is true. but I have never seen it from being in the woods all my life, but I never was looking for it either! :? Maybe the woodpecker is doing the same thing after a hard winter. Animals have more God given instincts built in that we have no clue about! :D

[lharris1]

Thanks for the ideas. After talking with my brother and doing a google search I'm pretty sure the culprit is a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. I will try to get rid of it. There are rows and rows of small holes.

[mountainvan]

a nonlethal and legal way to get rid of birds and squirrels is to mount a plastic owl close to where they're doing the damage. I had one tree that red squirrels lived in and constantly chewed the tubing. plastic owl is still in the woods and tubing is whole. also on squirrels I have seen them nip the buds of off twigs and lick it like a lollipop. some people think the native americans watched the squirrels, tryed it out, and here we are today making maple syrup. thanks squirrel. on a bad note third flood in my valley in less than a year. hopefully my tubing is ok, could'nt get out to check or i"d have ended up in the ashokan res..

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

It appears that Matthew Emerick is our newest celebrity in the new Leader catalog. Way to go Matt and let the syrup roll in PA this year. :D

Will have to say that is hands down the best maple catalog and layout I have ever seen! :D

[sweetwoodmaple]

Darn, should have got his autograph when I was down that way a few weeks ago! :wink: Who knew?
:D

Take Care - Brian

[TR Hardwoods]

Here is an idea for your woodpecker problem.......Glue boards that are used for mice/rats. They work wonderfully! Also good for the occasional red squirrel.

[Father & Son]

Chase and I visited Chris Casbohm's sugar house last night. What a great set up :!: Nice building with lots of room for equipment and storage. Very well designed and thought out.

Today a blower I got off ebay arrived. Going to try to hook up forced air. We'll see how that goes.

Tomorrow is the Northwest PA Maple Association meeting. Looking forward to meeting some of the local syrup makers and learning as much as we can.

Jim

[Sugarmaker]

Hey TR,
I have three of those 75 year old pans. 2 x 4. Right Jim and Chase? They were there when I bought them and they thought I was nuts, well after visiting last night they know I'm nuts. I'm not going to boil in them, they need to go into our local maple museum.

Jim,
Thanks for the nice comments. Sorry I didn't have some coffee or drinks for you guys! We got so involved in talking maple, cars tractors, more maple, it keep us busy for 3 hours or so. I enjoyed it! Stop over any time! I think Jim liked the circa 1830 vintage sap through that we have! This is a nice antique. Look on page 55 of the sweet maple book. Our sap through is in the lower right corner.

Yea Big maple meeting tomorrow for North West PA. Maybe I will get some pictures for the site.

Cheryl says to me "You've Got A Problem". ( I think it might be maple related but not sure?)

TR, Check out our site. I see you have bees too. Seems to me, to be a natural, that honey goes nicely with maple. PM Me.
Chris

[VA maple guy]

I have several Norway Maples that have rowes of those little holes.
I thought it might be ants chewing on them, but they might be there just drinking the sap that's running out all over the place. The woodpecker sounds more likley to be the problem. :evil:
Gerry

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Spent nearly all day working inside the sugarhouse and getting everything hooked up. I took my hood to a fabricate shop about 6 weeks ago and they were making some minor additions to it and I just got it back yesterday. I scrubbed it up good last night and took it over today and got it installed along with preheater and stack. Also got my head tank and my UV light hooked up along with a lot of other little projects. I am about 30 minutes away from being ready to boil inside the sugarhouse. I hope to be able to work all day next Sat in the woods getting the lines in place and repaired as needed and the tanks out and in place. Hoping to hold out until the 11th or 18th of Feb, but we'll see. Better too tap a little too soon vs too late! 8O

Larry Harris stopped by for a little while today and we had an enjoyable time chatting and batting ideas back and forth. It is nice to have someone close to me that makes syrup now! :D

I did add some new pics to my website under the maple syrup folder of everything set up! :D

[sbmaple]

wvm thats a nice looking sugar house. what did you use to finish the outside?some day we would like finish the outside of ours .
another couple of weeks we will start a final washing of everthing. got 200 buckets to wash we picked up over the summer.get everthing ready for the first part of march.we usually tap the 2nd weekend in march.may get an earlier season this year .time will tell.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Sbmaple,

Thanks! The outside is 8" white pine boards cut 5/8" thick and overlapped two inches! :D

I did edit the photos this morning of the inside pics I took yesterday and lightened them up some!

[NH Maplemaker]

Brandon, Nice job !!Your hard work has payed off. You have had a big year!! Pictures look grate from this end!! As I told Chris, it's easy to see you both take a lot of pride in what you Do!!!

Jim L

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jim,

Thanks a ton for the kind words. It appears that you take a ton of pride in what you do also as you have a very nice setup. The way I see it, if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing right! :D Stuff costs too much not to take care of, so I try to take care of everything as good as possible so it will look good and last as long as possible! :D

[Parker]

Brandon - in your pictures there is a shot of your sugarhouse (syrup 13?) there is what looks to be a large syrup pan? aginst your wood pile,,,what do you do with that?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Parker,

That is a 5x7 stainless King syrup pan that I bought from Bascoms about 10 years ago. I made a lot of syrup on that pan and the last year I used it, I made around 70 gallon. I had a cinderblock arch and a good grate system and I could boil off around 50gph with it once I got it hot. Sure was a wood hog and not the most efficient thing I have ever used, but it made good syrup! :D

I bought it for $ 200 and Bascoms had the thing shipped down here on a tractor trailer for $ 100. :lol: :lol: :lol:

[cropseyvillemark]

Brandon-a couple of questions about the pipe insulation shown in your new pics,as i too have some tight spots in a new installation.What kind of material is it? where does one get it? how is it fastened to the stack? and just how close can combustibles be once they are insulated?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Mark,

My trusses are on 2' center, so I insulated as I was not comfortable without insulation as my stack is 10", so I only have about 6" clearance on each side of the stack. I used 1/4" ceramic blanket which is 2' wide and put a piece of galvanized 14 gauge wire on the top, bottom and center of each piece of insulation. I also insulated good around where it goes into the stainless roof jack just to be safe. You can pick up the insulation on ebay fairly cheap. I think my is 2300 degrees and 6 or 8 lb density kaywool. You may want to get 1/2", but 1" would be overkill. :D

[Parker]

Steve and I went up to Hill this morning,,made a day of it,, he brought his 4 wheeler, you can move alot of stuff with a 4 wheeler, the mainline is done to the sugarhouse,,still have to figure out the tank/releaser loaction,,,all the tubing is set out on the mainline (like stocked sheetrock)ready to hammer all the lateral lines in next oppertunity..should be able to get 700 taps in befor the season....time well spent

[maple flats]

I'll be adding a little over 100 this weekend on a rented bush. Trying to design to go up each year, owner does not want tubing up all year. This part is new to me. Got to put up just under 600' main going past a roadside line of trees and some spots have brush to contend with. I'll be working alone since my grandson can't make it, need to get smart on doing things w/o helping hands to help get started.

[Father & Son]

Spent yesterday doing odds and ends. Put the new draw offs on the syrup pan. Cut some new pan gaskets and did a test boil. Everything worked well including the cupola that I just finished this fall. Could actually stand in the sugar house and breath at the same time. No more Turkish Sauna :lol:. Now all that is left is to do is washing the buckets and storage tanks. I might get done it time after all :!:
Jim

[steve J]

Went up to camp and sorted thru my sugaring supplies I bet there is not 3 inches of snow up there and melting fast. I sure had a person been tapped they would have had a good run today. Lots of bare ground showing to were the sun is hitting the slopes. It appears that the deer are moving around freely and are not yarded up at all

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Spent all day today getting all my lines in place, doing repairs and getting all my tanks into the woods and set. I have a couple more hours of misc stuff, but other than that, I am waiting to put taps in the trees if the weather cooperates. It was 50+ and sunny today and the same for tommorrow. Sure hope it cools down soon or I'm gonna be in trouble. 8O Hoping to wait until 2 weeks from today to tap, but will wait and play it day by day. :?

[Sugarmaker]

Jim,
Glad the test boil went well. Sounds like the pan fit up OK. Felt like I should of tapped today, but instead spent the day cleaning and preparing the sugarhouse. Also cut some more pallets.
Chris C.

[Father & Son]

Chris,
Did that piece of ceramic blanket work OK or haven't you had a chance to try it yet? I figured this week was pretty busy for you. I tried a piece between my pans and it was too thick. :?
Jim

[lharris1]

Brandon: The three of us stopped by your place just afternoon but you must have been out working with your lines and tanks. In spite of the warm weather our taps are not running much. They may continue to run some Sunday, but Friday and Saturday we probably didn't get more than 80-90 gal on about 230 taps. We got more wood in and and are now in good shape there.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Larry,

Really hate I missed the three of you. After two, I was up behind my grandmothers working on that bush getting it ready and before that, I was working in two different other locations. I can't believe that is all the sap you got. Today was an awesome day for sap at least I thought it was. It got down in low teens the last two night and got up to around 52 today. 8O 8O 8O I have to believe that all this warm weather has the trees so confused they don't know what to do. One day below 40 over the next 10 days. If it don't get better soon, the trees are going to bud. I am not going to tap all my trees for one or two decent runs. Just pack up everything back in the sugarhouse and wait until next year. I was hoping to come over today and see you boiling, but I worked past 5:30 and had to get back home to help with the kids and spend time with the family.

[Parker]

I really wanted to get out into the woods and work on lines this weekend but I am stuck at a buddies shop replacing the clutch in my 1700 international,exploded at 60mph on I-89 with 2 cords of wood on, but that is a diffrent story,,,at least the sap hauler should be ready for the season,,,just listend to the extended forcast,,,teens and twenties at night,,30's and 40's during the day,,

[Sugarmaker]

Jim,
The insulating blanket was perfect. Dummy me put another 1/8 inch thick piece of insulation between the pans and when I tightened the fittings it I saw solder cracks at the fittings. I water tested that pans and they are not leaking any more than normal which is a drop a minute or so. So I will not take these apart and try to re solder. (YET)
I also used some of the blanket on the inside of the arch front on each side of the door.
I may use the rest in the rafter area where the smoke stack goes through. Thanks.
I think I have some of the 1/8 material left if you want to try it?

Back to the sugarhouse for more cleanup today.
Chris

[mapleman3]

Well I have 1 more day this Friday of cub scout activities to do then starting this weekend it's nothing but Maple, I always do a Febraury crunch... lots of limbs on lines, and repairs to do, clean the sugarhouse, change burner nozzle, clean the tanks again, flush the lines , clean the releaser again real good... etc etc etc. 1 month hopefully, I don't want to tap any earlier than march 1 like I used to do way back when..ok maybe a few years ago I did but thats seems eons ago :wink:

[VA maple guy]

I got my copper tubing preheater built this past weekend. I also built
a small cinder block arch to fit a 2x3 pan that i bought. I plan on running two evaporators this year on the days that i have a heavy sap run.
Last year i spent sixteen hours boiling on one day alone. I don't want to do that again. It looks like i'm going to add about fifty taps this year.
Most of the new taps will be on sugar maples. The only thing i have left to do is wrap my barrel evaporator with a ceramic fiber blanket i bought off Ebay.
Gerry

[Parker]

Fianlly got the clucth done in the binder,,,back to the woods,,,was up in Hill yesterday,,got 9 rolls of tubing tied into the bottom mainline,,figuring out where the 2nd mainline will be (probably wont get that in this year),,ran wire from sugarhouse to where the tank will be by the road,,I would like to take the rest of the week and work up there,,,but bills to pay,,