Sugaring numbers so far this year

[Forrest hunters]

First year tapping and boiling on a 4 pan block arch and finishing in turkey fryer. Attached is my log so far this year on what I have collected on boiled down. All the numbers on the dates for each bucket are inches in each bucket and are later changed to gallons by a 2.40 inches = 1 gallon.

Next to bucket number you will find a smaller number which is how mant spiles for that bucket and all mutiples of 2 are on the same tree with the exception of number 14. Next to that small number is a letter combination which is BK = 5/16" black tree saver spile, BU = 9/16" blue spile and M = 9/16" metal spile.

Below the numbers for the pick up dates are the weather from a close weather station with highs and lows for each day. Maybe next year I can get my semi high tech weather station on line to record the days temps for me.

Numbers on right are in red if they have not produced 5 gallons per tap yet this year, black for between 5 and 10 gallons and green if they have produced over 10 gallons this year. From what I am seeing so far this year I will not be putting mutiple taps on any trees next year and will be buying more 5/16" taps as I do not see a big difference with tap size. Trees 1 to 14 are at my mothers about 7 miles from me and trees 15-17 are on my property. 1-11 are in an area about 150 wide by 350 long and trees 12-14 are about 50 by 75. All trees 1-14 are on about 5 acres. More there to be had next year too.

Also in my plans are to label these tress for the same numbers next year and to determine what type of Maple they are as I went out and painted them after the leaves had fallen. Some are sugars but I think mostly Silvers, but not sure, might be wrong all together. I do know that what I have made this year is **** good.

Anyone see anything wrong with my numbers or anything I should add to get better info?

Files:
Attached spreadsheet
Pic of arch going full bore
Batch number 1 finished and canned
Bucket 16 looking wonderful in the bright sun Saturday
Helper with sap for daddy and sap buck 16 in the backgrough.


Moderators need to make .xls spreadsheets able to be attached here too.

[Forrest hunters]

I guess my text file messed up. Try this.

[Yellzee]

engineer or accountant?:mrgreen:

need to run this thru the stats program to look for any significance :lol:

it is interesting to see the numbers really.. I tend to just scratch my head every year and throw out the same old theories without really looking at numbers.

[Forrest hunters]

Yellzee,

Man I must stick out like a sore thumb. You hit it on the head. I was an accounting major, but switch to be a packaging engineer. We have tagets on us all the time. I know the numbers dont mean much, but it gives me something to look at while I watch TV and ponder what could be or could have been.

[Jeff E]

It is interesting, what are you hoping to find? Best trees (get sugar content as well as volume) best equipment (spout type, age of spout, cleaning method, size of spout)

[Forrest hunters]

Jeff,

I do not as of yet have a hydrometer for either syrup or sap, but those may be on the list for next year. Not sure what I am trying to find, but maybe what trees run good and what ones do not. Also I think from the numbers on even the multiple trees from same base even may only get tapped once next year as I do not see a lot of improvement with mutiple taps on trees. I have listed the tap sizes on my spreadsheet and all are new except the old metal ones I received from my dad. Future will all probably be 5/16" trees savers and I will probably see the 7/16" ones and have 1 common size. Another thing I think I may add is the tree diameter on the list , but not sure how to do that when some have multiple trees from same base. Just things to occupy my mind i guess.

My wife has trivial trivia bs in her head taking up space and i have trivial hobby stuff in mine. Not sure whos smarter. Guess i just like to ponder things.

[Yellzee]

Man, Accountant turned engineer seems like a deadly combination... I can see why you had to switch.. it looks like you are interested in collecting numbers that just might be useful. I guess it takes one to spot one ....

Now if you were tracking man hours or cost per gallon of syrup I'd say the accountant was winning.

my 2 little sappers manage to consume enough of my time I dont get to do much datat collection... in fact without my father in law I don't think any syrup would be made this year.. I seem to just squeeze in sap collection and syrup finishing while he does all the hours of boiling.

[Revi]

We keep track of how much sap we get each day, and it's been a lot lately. We have 300 trees, and they have been pumping out the sap lately. We got about a hundred gallons today for example. The sugar content was around 3%, so that made for better boiling.

It's fun to look back and see how much we've made out of how much sap.

[markct]

what the heck is the giant white plastic tap in the picture of the sap bucket?

[Forrest hunters]

Markct,

I put a 1" PVC elbow on my drop tube there. The elbow is wire tied onto my metal spout. Easier that drilling and hanging the bucket. Works pretty darn good and also I can use that bucket with all my other 5/16 and 7/16 spiles with drop tubing.

[markct]

ahh ok, wasnt sure if you had made some giant plastic tap there!