started in the catskills

[mountainvan]

After opening presents I went across the road to my test tree. Weather yesterday was 40 and rain, same Christmas eve. So what did santa leave in my sap bucket hung with care? One and one half gallons of sap with a sugar content of 2.25% ! Pretty darn good for December. If the weather cooperates, I'm predicting an excellent maple syrup crop for 2009 here in The Catskills. The trees are fully recovered from the caterpillar outbreak a couple years ago and are ready to be tapped!!

[dano2840]

isnt it like at least a month early to be playing with the drill and hammer? or r u in a funny location where this is sugaring season right now?

[mountainvan]

No it's not to early to get some sap.The last two years, plus a couple more in 17 years, I've tapped in the beginning of Janaury and done quite well. I've tapped the same tree at Christmas time for the last 8 or so years. If it's ready, then I get ready. If I was truly sap happy I'd be putting in 1,000 taps for this weekend. I could make 50 gals if I was ready, but I still have work in the woods, clean out the saphouse, get out the tanks, put the ro back together, etc. etc.. With tapping early you have to be willing to ream the tapholes in March too. I will be making some syrup this weekend from the one bucket on my saphouse stove. That's when I clean up the saphouse and put the evaporator back in boiling condition.

[Gary R]

Way to go Van. Good luck sugaring. We have hot and cold weather pattern down here also. I should start tapping. I just don't know if I could do it for 3 1/2 month's.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Just let me know when you start tapping van! I'll come help you watch the steamrise! And if i can i'll try to help you tap depending on work... that 40hr job is really a bummer!

[MaplePancakeMan]

So i'm kinda obsessive about the weather and i looks like the NAO turns sharply negative at or around the turn of the year meaning for a very cold first half of Jan so keep that in mind if you do tap!

[mountainvan]

Went out and got a bit more sap. Got it boiling on the saphouse stove while I worked on my new/used vacuum pump.

[mfchef54]

And so it begins. Hoping for an early start myself, Van, but have to work the next 10 days. we'll see what the 6th brings.
Spent Christmas with family but before venturing out to visiting I spent some time bricking the new (for Me) evaporator. Ducted the blower so it goes in thru the clean out door and the test (with no fire) worked well. have been washing buckets and lids. and trying to remember where those big sugars I found are exactly are. new year resolution: don't go into woods without the marking paint.

[mountainvan]

47 degrees and saps been dripping since 2:00. If I had all 3,000 taps in I'd be busy tomorrow!

[mountainvan]

Went out at 9:00 and collected 2 gallons of sap. Sugar % was 2.4%. That's great for December. If I had all my taps out, and they all gave 2 gals,that would be 6,000 gals of sap and over 150 gals of syrup! What the heck have I gotten myself into!! Went out early and ran some 1" mainline under the road, and 3/4" at my big bush. I need to go to town and get more 1", fittings, clamps, etc.. It's 53 degrees here now and the sap is dripping fast into the bucket.

[dano2840]

how manny do you have tapped right now??

[mountainvan]

Went out this morning and got another gallon of sap, 2.3% sugar. After I work in the woods today I'll boil this weekends run down tonight. Dano, I only have one tap in, just to see what"s up with the trees.

[mountainvan]

Collected another 1/2 gal this afternoon. I got enough sap so for for a pint of syrup! It's boiling on the stove as I write this. I can't wait till I'm making a pint a minute.

[mountainvan]

The 2009 season has started for me. Put in over 500 taps today. I'm in better shape than I thought I was! My new 36 volt drill worked great. I drilled 350 holes on one battery. I finished my small bush, 400 taps, and started on my new big bush. Both have southwest exposure and should be flowing late saturday or sunday. My big bush is north exposure and will need a couple days of warmer weather to thaw out, so I'm leaving it till next week to tap.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Awesome! I'm excited for you. i am still on the fence about making syrup this year. Been scouting land and talking to owners just in case. I explain that its hypothetical due to the conditions i'm under and all have volunteered to help what they can! much more then i expected. Ones got 150 taps the other 70-80 and i have 60 on my property. I could push 300 but that might be a little too much for my evaporator! It would be smart to just set it up all nice for next year and set up right. Then i realize i'm not that smart or rational ha ha

[mountainvan]

Woke up at 7:00 this morning, looked at the outside temperature, 0.0 degrees, and then went back to bed. Ended up bottling some syrup this morning, after my sleep in. At 12:00 it was a 20 degrees so I went up on the mountain to tap some trees. Put in 400 taps in this afternoon, all on one 36 volt battery. Believe it or not the sap was actually flowing out of some of the southside taps. Most of the trees that had sap flow were 15" in diameter, but one 48" tree had a southern taphole flowing. I didn't think I'd get any sap till sunday, but with what I saw today it may flow well saturday afternoon. My best guess is that I'll get the first finished syrup on monday.

[PATheron]

mountain van- How many taps do you expect to have in by saturday? Will they be on vac? Theron

[mountainvan]

If tomorrow afternoon warms up, it's supposed to be a high of 12 degrees with -20 wind chills, but if it does warm up above 20 I'll tap another 400. Then move to my big bush friday for another 400+. That's 1,700 taps all on vacuum. More likely than not I'll finish my second bush friday and move the the vacuum pumps to the sugarbushes early saturday and start getting sap later saturday. My big bush is higher up and has more snow. Unfortunantly it's too steep for snowshoes, they become skis pretty quick, so it's all busting through. A couple warmer days will knock the snow down some and make it easier going. I'm not in a huge rush to tap everything, just want to get going and make sure everything works the way it's supposed to and make some syrup for markets next weekend. I expect that the taps I've already put in will be flowing into April if the season lasts that long.

[Riverdale]

Good luck with the first run Van, I hope everything works well for you. Not planning to get setup/tap til the week of President's Day. Planning to add 100+ taps on a new system then too. Looking forward to a good season!

[Brian Ryther]

I will be taping the first 1000 on saturday. It looks like it might run late in the day and into the night if the low pressure system come through as forcasted. Then we will wait for wed, thursday friday for the next run. I hope to be caping my first barrel by the end of the week.

[mountainvan]

I didn't drill any holes today. Instead I went and got more tubing and fittings this morning, and plumbed a releaser to new and improved mainline in my sugarbush around the corner. I've been tapping that property for 12 years but have never had vacuum there. Every job done is one step closer to making lots of syrup this year.

[mfchef54]

van congrats on 1000th post. hoping for a good run this weekend also.

[mountainvan]

Tapped in another 400 this afternoon, that's 1,300 in so far. It was 9 degrees this morning so I did some little projects till it got up to 20 at 10:30. Two of my sugarbushes are all tapped and tomorrow I start on my big bush, which when done should almost double my tap count. The weather looks good for sap on Sunday, and then again in the middle of next week. I'm very curious how my ro membranes will perform after the couple of complete wash cycles at the end of last season. If they still don't work well I'll have to bite the bullit and get new ones before I have all my taps in.

[mountainvan]

Woke up at 6:00 to 3 degrees, a little too cold to tap. Spent the day setting up two vacuum pumps and hooking everything together. My bush around the corner had sap flow by 3:00, not much but a start. Tomorrow should be good flow. I have to find leaks tomorrow morning at both bushes that are tapped.

[mountainvan]

Went around the corner to see if the sap was flowing. Heard it going into the tank from the road so I went down and turned the vacuum pump on, sap is coming in pretty good. I'll be boiling soon!!

[3% Solution]

All right van, glad to hear it!!!
Run some tubing today, that's all done.
Going to wash it all tomorrow, that will be done, just waiting!!!!!

Dave

[mountainvan]

Went over the mountain to see some friends at the camp I used to work at. On the way home I stopped at the bush with the vacuum running, open the door of the truck, and I hear a whoosh and a splash!! Already a couple of inches of sap in the tanks. So I went down the road and started the other vacuum, saps flowing there too. Guess I'll see if I can still get up at 5:00 am to gas up the pumps and start walking tubing to find leaks.

[mountainvan]

Up at 5:00 to gas up the pumps and start finding leaks. I have my small bush all done, up on the mountain with the headlamp to start. Some people are being a bad influence on me with all their bigsap talk. Sap is flowing great now and the tanks should be close to full by the end of the day. Now to go out and check my second bush for leaks.

[mountainvan]

Well I was right with my sap prediction, other than that it flowed all night and didn't stop till 6:30 today. Had a minor problem with my small releaser getting blown over today, moiture traps are good things! Walked most of my second bush this morning, but it got dangerous with slush on top of ice on a mountain with a 45+ degree side. Even with ice crampons I took a couple good spills. I have the bruises to prove that maple trees are harder than me. I got my ro all together, rinsed, acid wash, and rinsed again. Tomorrows collecting sap and boiling it down.

[mountainvan]

In a holding pattern here for now. Went out this morning and collected sap, started it through the ro and knew pretty quickly that the membranes were shot. That's why I didn't put all my taps in, just in case. Ordered new ones which should be here midweek. Till then the saps going to fill every tank I have. Saps flowing now too!

[mountainvan]

Holding pattern has been canceled by the sap gods. Collected 1,500 gals of sap tonight, luckily I ran what I got yesterday through the slow ro. Tapped another 100 across the road just to see the sap coming out of the holes. Tanks in the woods should be full again tomorrow morning, and tomorrow night, and thursday. Time to go boil for the first time this year!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Van,

Has that membrane made it yet?? Good thing is that early season sap will keep a lot longer!

[mountainvan]

New membranes have not made it yet, but the old ones go slow but it's better than no ro. Collected 1,000 gals last night and another 1,000 this morning. Boiled from 11:00 to 6:00 with a barrel of medium made. Saps still flowing so more syrup tomorrow.

[mountainvan]

What a crazy day!! Went out at 5:30 to start the pumps, turned them off at 11:00 last night, temp was 31 at 11:00 and 40 at 5:30. Spent the morning finding small leaks in the tubing, got both bushes 19 inches at the tanks and 17 inches up on the mountain. Sap was flowing ok today, I should have 1,000 gals of sap tomorrow. At noon I went down to check one pump and found the releaser on its side and the small shelter for the vacuum pump on the other side of the tanks. Now the shelter is not light weight, but it was, and is, windy. I got the hatches battened down and went out for my sons birthday. When we got home there was a tree on our house. Pulled out the chainsaw and started cutting. Luckily there's only a small hole punched in the old part of the house, that part needs a new roof anyway. After cleaning up what I could in the dark I went and got my releasers before a tree fell on them. Tomorrow looks to be busy, and no new membranes yet.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Yikes Van.. when it rains it pours. Wind was really kicking today lots of limbs down and trees as well. Hows the sugar content right now? My test tree was running 3-3.2% its about 3/4's full so i got about 3 gallons from that tap since sunday. Not much of a sap flow got too warm here.

[mfchef54]

sorry about the house but at least it blocked the sugar house, now that would have been a disater. LOL. all kidding aside I'm glad the damage was only minor.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

mfchef54,

I see that you use a leaf blower on your evaporator. How does that setup work for you?

Russ

[mountainvan]

Another fun filled day here in the Catskills. My son and I were out early to clean up the trees on and around the house. A big basswood came down, hit a red maple, beech, birch, elm, and iron wood pretty much smashing all the trees it hit. Thankfully the trees took most of the force not the house, even though the hole in the roof is bigger than I thought. I only almost slid off of the roof twice. At 11:00 we went out and got 1,000 gals of sap, and was done by noon. Two one inch pumps in the woods and a two inch at the saphouse really speed up collecting. Just finished boiling and bottling.

[mountainvan]

ironwood is also called blue beech or elephant wood. It's very hard and burns hot and long. Ordered membranes again, company I ordered from before is not very good. Ended up getting the xle 40-40. Flow rate is 2,600 gals/day and they won't pass sugar like the nf270 40-40. My wife is happy with my purchase too.

[3rdgen.maple]

Why is it that I have a couple sugarmaples that just don't produce. I have not gotten enough sap out of them in years past that I am not even gonna tap them this year. Three in particular are probably some of the healthiest trees on the property. Atleast 48 inches in diameter big crowns. 6 feet away from one of them is the best running tree I have buckets are always full or overflowing. Rule out tap placement cause Im not tapping in or near old tap holes. Get good white would with each tap. Doing nothing different than the other 300 plus taps that produce for me. Any ideas?

[ackerman75]

I'm not shure why either, I also have a couple trees like that and they are at least three feet diamiter. I have been tapping those trees the last five years and they have never produced much ?

[3rdgen.maple]

Hopefully somebody can help both of us out on this one. I never thought I would say a healthy sugarmaple is useless to tap but maybe some just are If I can't get sap from them I will get firewood from them but just wanted to see what everybody else thought before I get carried away with the chainsaw. I have a pretty big house and burn about 40 face cords of wood in the winter so they will not go to waste. I still cringe at the thought of putting a saw to them.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

3rdgenmaple,
If you have tapped them several years and they still have not produced for you, they are probably duds. We all have them. I have a big one right beside my old sugar house and people were always asking me why it wasn't tapped. It simply wasn't worth the energy to walk to to get 3 quarts of sap from 4 buckets. I am putting vacuum on that one this year and hoping that will help it to flow. Wish I had a way to moniter it.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

3RDGEN.MAPLE

40 face cord of wood to heat the house, is what you should be worried about not1 maple that doesnt produce sap.

[3rdgen.maple]

Not really worried about it besides it is more than one tree that does not produce. Yeah 40 face cord is alot of fun let me tell ya. Was more curious why certain trees just dont produce sap.

[maple flats]

No clue here. I have had a few reds like that in the past, have not had a sugar do it yet (that i know of, unless one of those on tubing is real slow and I never noticed it)

[mountainvan]

Went to a winter market today, no economic downturn for me yet. Got home and finished boiling the sap from yesterday. So far about 50 gals of syrup made. I have another market tomorrow, then back to tap,tap,and tap next week! Oh, for my answer on the trees not running.... I have two big sugars that never gave any sap with buckets. I know they were alive because of the leaves in the summer. I did tap one dead red maple this year, always a good idea to look up at the tree before tapping it. Back to the sugar maples, when I hooked them up to tubing under vacuum I now get sap from them.

[mfchef54]

Van, hope saugeties was as good as NP. same here with taps. it was just starting to pick up again around 4:00 wife and son were suppose to pick up today. It's nice not to have to do this all alone.

[maple flats]

I haven't tapped any yet but I will with the next warm spell. Looks like I have between 650 and 700 this year and not the 800 I wanted. More to come next year with RO. I gave one of my old bushes to another producer. I decided it was too much driving to collect when I was busy with my better producers. That one was 60 taps but they were marginal producers because of very old age, dead sections and partial crowns. These trees averaged 35-40" diameter, roadside but the 60 taps gravity rarely filled the 55 gal bbl I collected into as a main tank.

[mountainvan]

Just got off the mountain before dark. As soon I pulled in people stopped to get syrup. Seems the word got out that I had already boiled. So most of the syrup I made last week is already sold. Had a very good market in Saugerties also. Sorry for taking your customers Mike, but I was selling syrup first! Tapped another 400 this afternoon and plan to finish my big bush by midweek. Life is good tonight.

[mfchef54]

you right van you were there first, but I couldn't compete with you. I'm just glad there is someone representing us mapler's at the market.

[mountainvan]

I did not think sap would flow today here, 12 degrees this morning, but while drilling more trees it was dripping out. So I went and started the vac pumps and spent most of the afternoon taking trees off of the tubing from last thursday night. I got the vacuum up to 19 inches at the top of the tubing.

[MaplePancakeMan]

i tapped 3 total trees so far... just to test the water. going to tap the rest this weekend... but i'm not really happy with how they are flowing. very minimal at best. 3 days of running and i collected 2.5 gallons of sap from 3 taps.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

MPM,

Were you the one posting in Craigslist looking for sugarbushes to tap?

Russ

[MaplePancakeMan]

Rusty, i was the one posting on craigslist for dutchess county. Mfchef.. posted in ulster. Got lots of responses. I am not tapping any of them this year... but have worked out deals for next year for tubing and 250 taps.


Met a lot of nice people including one famous person haha. its amazing what maple can bring you.

[mountainvan]

Finally got new ro membranes today!! Now I need some good sap weather to try them out. I set up my ro plumbing that I can do a recirculate if I want, but I normally don't go over 9% sugar. From what I've read here it's better for the membranes to do two passes at lower pressure than one at the upper limit. The first company I ordered from finally got around to shipping, but I told them I would refuse delivery and they were actually ok with that. Guess their shipping guy really messed up and the company is taking responsability for the mistake. I still wouldn't order from them again, but they're off of my bad list.

[mountainvan]

Put in another 400+ taps in today. Sap in my big bush started flowing around 12:00 so I came down off the mountain to start the vac. pumps. I should have a couple loads of sap to get tomorrow morning. I had some company tapping this morning. A lone coyote shadowed me for about an hour. Every once in awhile I'd catch a glimpse of him walking in the brush. When I went back up this afternoon it started to snow, and twice it was a whiteout. I just hunkered down in some hemlocks till the snow let up some, then went back to tapping. With the snow from last night and the new snow this afternoon I was causing mini avalanches, or making snowman parts. All in all it was a pretty cool day to be up on the mountain tapping trees.

[mfchef54]

van what's your sugar percent? running around 1-1.5 down here right now.

[MaplePancakeMan]

my 3 test taps have ran 3.2%, 3% and 1.8% on the red that i tapped for the first time ever. the 2 sugars started off for a full day at 4%+ out of the tree.

[mountainvan]

The last sap from last week was 2%. Went out this morning to collect sap from yesterday. More ice than sap, but I collected 100 gals that's 4% sugar. I have it in a stock tank in my heated ro shed. It's not that cold here now, 18 degrees, but it is very windy. I have a market tomorrow so I'll boil it down tomorrow night. Todays a good day to stay in and get a little rest.

[mountainvan]

I boiled the sap I collected friday this afternoon. Ended up with a couple gallons of dark amber to add to the season total so far. Cleaned up the saphouse and got fittings ready for sugarbush deployment while I was boiling. I plan on finishing tapping tubing tuesday and start hanging buckets wednesday. Then the real 2009 sugaring season can begin with a tsunami of sap! I can hear my wife now, " I told you to be careful what you wish you, you're swimmimg in sap now."

[PATheron]

Mountainvan- How many buckets are you running and how many different setups do you have to come up with all those taps? Looks like you might be busy starting end of this week. Will you be able to keep up with 3 or 4000 gallons of sap in a day? Theron

[mountainvan]

I plan on having 200 taps on buckets, half of those are three tap tubing going into a 5 gal bucket. I could hang more, but first I need to see if I can keep up. I usually get 1/2 gal to a gal/tap when I collect so I can handle that amount of sap. The new membranes I got are rated for 2,600 gals a day, times two is 5,200 gals a day. I"ve been paying attention to the ro talk here, so I'll be running mine 24 hours a day if nescesary. As for setups I have one 500 tap bush, a 800 tap, and a 1,000+ tap bush on vacuum. Four bushes with 100 taps, give or take a couple taps, on gravity. Then the buckets and a couple small tubing runs. I expect to have some long days, but I've gone three days straight without any sleep. Granted that was 12 years ago, but I'm tougher now than I was then! I'm getting restless waiting for it for warm up. I have a lot of empty barrels to fill.

[PATheron]

Mountainvan- Ive found with my ro, and this is my plan, I can run it just about indefinitely without a loss of performance if I run it at 300 gallons of perm going out per hour and rinse it every four hours. So with me I have now 3550 Id say on vac and were putting a 100 buckets out too. Im going to get home at 4 and start the recirc thing getting rid of 300 per hour. Then at 8 Ill do a rinse and go back to recirc and go to bed. Then Ill get up at midnight and rinse. At that time in 8 hours got rid of 2400 gallons. Go to bed get up at 4 and at that time got rid of 3600 gallons of water. Rinse it. Put it on wash go to bed. Get up at 6 and hopefully its kicked off on high temp. Put it on rinse and go to work. At that schedule I got rid of a gallon per tap in its intirety and I only have to get up for a few minutes at a time. Once I get home that day its all washed and rinsed and do it again if I have to. Of course you wouldnt do the whole works your only going till it slows down with sweet water. If it doesnt run the next day youve got a clean ro now you can single shoot it to the head tank and it may be about 15%. Perfect. If it runs again unfortunately Ill probly have to keep working it down but thats the price I pay for not having bigger equipment. Gotta get it in the drums with what you have. Hope you make tons. Gotta hit the sack. Theron

[mountainvan]

Tapped in another couple hundred taps this afternoon. Sap was once again coming out of the south side holes even though it was 10 degrees here this morning. Started getting my third vacuum pump up to my big bush this morning. Almost ready for the real season to begin.

[mountainvan]

My wife woke me up this morning by tucking me in tight with another blanket. She said that I should stay in bed and not look at the temperature outside. She and the kids went to school and I got up and looked at the temperature outside. It was 6 degrees. Too late to go back to bed, I was up and thinking of trees that I had not run tubing to yet, so no sleeping in. I made drops till it got up to a whole 14 degrees, then went out and hung tubing and tapped more trees. There's still some big one just up the mountain a little more. By noon the taps on the southside of the trees were dripping sap! I walked down the mountain, started the vacuum pump, and there was sap. Hopped in the truck and went up the road to my second bush, started the pump, and there was no sap. I looked over at the mainline going under the road and there was a tree on it. Shoot, dang, darn, gosh..... back to the saphouse to get the chainsaw, tubing tools, propane torch, and almost all the tools I needed. There's always one tool or fitting that's not in the bucket. This time it was a spare wire tightener, so I got a ratcheting tiedown strap and used it to get the mainline tight. Now for the fun part, crawling inside the pipe with the torch to thaw out the mainline. Heated the pipe for what I thought was a good amount of time, it wasn't, and then went to my big bush to set up that vacuum system. By 4:00 I had everything hooked up and a little sap coming into releaser. Went back to my second bush to see if the ice had melted in the mainline. Darn, heck gosh.... back in the pipe with the torch. After what seemed like too long in a pipe under the road, I heard sap being pulled through the ice by the vacuum pump. I slid out of the pipe, surprising my neighbors dog, and him. We struck up a conversation about what the heck I was doing in the pipe, when the ice finally gave up. Five miles of tubing emptying in a couple of minutes is very impressive. I have some more repair work tomorrow, the other small bush to tap, buckets to hang.... man I love sugaring season!

[MaplePancakeMan]

sweet diddly jesus van.. don't let anyone tell you, that you don't earn your money haha.

I put taps in today. Did your trees take any damage in the ice storm? The ones i thought were healthy with no breaks really weren't. Lots of stress cracks and sap is oozing out of them onto the trunks and dripping down. Think thats going to hurt me this season? I can't see how it won't.

[mountainvan]

Started early today fixing mainline from trees having fallen on it. Moved on to my big bush for some finishing touches and more trees tapped. Sap started flowing by 11:00 so I went in search of leaks. Walked several miles around the mountain in 6 inches of fresh snow. By the time I got down it was still light and one of my small sugarbushes was calling me to come tap it. Added 200 taps to the total count. By 5:00 I went to my second bush and collected 4oo gals of nice 2% sap. Now it's time to install my new membranes in the ro so it's all ready for work tomorrow.

[mountainvan]

I finally got my ro up and running for the season. After finding out last night that the round plugs of the old membranes don't fit the new membranes, I Macgyvered some caps and got it humming along. The sap started flowing sometime in the middle of the night. When I got up at 6:00 it was already 40 degrees. Ended up collecting 2,000 gals, and the saps still flowing. I believe I'm going to forgo the infinite pleasure of collecting several hundred buckets every day this year, and enjoy the sap supplied by my taps on vacuum. Time to go out and pump more sap into the ro tank.

[mountainvan]

Today has been a good day, so far. Boiled for 6 hrs and made 37 gals of syrup. Started extra dark and ended light. After boiling it was in the truck to get more sap. Collected 1,800 gals of sap at 2% sugar. The last of it is going through the ro right now. I think I'm going to have to get another storage tank. Not having many buckets to get sure cuts down on the collection time, and I'm bringing sap in faster than the ro can process it. Weather does not look good for any more sap till next weekend, and just when I was getting into a groove.

[mountainvan]

Finished another 35 gals of syrup today. I'm glad I bought another pan to use for filtering. I've been getting about 20 gals through before it starts to clog. No more rushing to change the filters while boiling hot. Sap started flowing this afternoon so the pumps are on. I just need to get the releasers back to the saphouse before this next storm rolls in.

[PATheron]

Mountainvan- How many taps do you have out now? Are you done tapping? Theron

[mountainvan]

I have 2,400 give or take some. I do still have some small bushes to tap, less than 100 taps, and the buckets sitting in the closet. I will do the small runs, but only some buckets close to the saphouse. I'm very happy with the way everything worked this last run. 3,800 gals of sap down to 600 gals of concentrate down to 70+ gals of syrup. 6 hrs of collecting and 12 hours of boiling in two days. The recirc. with the ro worked great. I ran the permeate and concentrate flow at an equal 3 gals/ minute at 350 psi. It only slowed down when the concetrate got to 9%. I think I'll stay where I'm at now and enjoy making some syrup.

[caseyssugarshack93]

What size evaporator are u running mountainvan ? and what size r/o, Your going to make some big syrup...

[mountainvan]

I have a 2 1/2 x 10 drop flue and a 250 gph cdl ro. The most syrup I've drawn off in an hour is 10 gallons, but I had the rig really cooking, 1,200 degree stack temp. Yes I hope to make 800+ gallons this year. Only 680 gallons to go!

[mountainvan]

Bottled half of the syrup I made yesterday, cleaned up after the snow, and then took it easy. The problem with days with no sapflow is I start to think of going out and tapping somemore trees. Wednesday should be warm enough to go out and do that!

[PATheron]

Mountainvan- Your doing exactly right with the ro in my estimation. I did the half and half trick the other day and ran it all day. Rinsed it every 4 hours and even at the end it was performing like crazy. Just keep recircing it till you check the output and its the number you like and shoot it in the head tank. That number will stay real consistent. Unbelievable efficiency and I think your going to have to do that to keep up just like me. You like to tap too much. Im getting nice syrup color now and it has good flavor I think. Go tap some more Van. Only a month to go or so. Theron

[mountainvan]

Bottled some more of the syrup from Sunday. As soon as it was in the bottle it was sold, sweet. Glad to hear I'm doing the right thing. I never hear that enough.

[Riverdale]

Ready for a good run here in Delhi. Picked up a 7" short bank wes fab yesterday that i'm borrowing for the season. Buddy I work with isn't tapping this year becasue his wife is due mid-march so he's letting me use the press. New eMaple digital refractometer will be arriving UPS today and all lines are in tanks ready to rolllll. Most of my free time looks like it will be devoted to cutting more wood...after adding over 350 taps one has to recognize that much much more wood is needed. Spent Sunday afternoon knocking down and skidding out a bunch of dead standing beech. That plus some pallets and we should be ok. Let er rip!

[mountainvan]

I was in Delhi today getting saphouse snacks at the grocery store. Drove over to Oneonta this morning to get another 550 gallon tank. I would have liked to have gotten the 1,100, but it would'nt fit in my truck. I now have 2,000 gallons of storage at the saphouse. Stopped and got more bottles, and snacks, on the way home. Bottled a bunch of pints when I got back then fell asleep on the couch with the cats. Looks like the sap will start to flow friday afternoon and not shut down till late monday night. Tomorrow I'll hang buckets and run tubing to somemore trees. Have to make a lot of syrup this weekend.

[Brian Ryther]

Van,
How far are you from Oneonta? I am 12 miles to the west, near Morris. I have always been interested in your operation and would like to visit some time.

[Marky Syrup]

Tapped last weekend in southern Oswego County, NY. Sap should run for us this weekend w/ 40s and 50s forecasted:)

[mountainvan]

I made my big bush even bigger today. I ran mainline down to a small gravity bush, installed a 15 foot sapladder, and hooked the tubing up to it.. There are trees between that I hung buckets on that I can now get vacuum to also. I plan on tapping those tomorrow and hanging some more buckets. Then it's clean everything in and around the saphouse for saturdays sap collection.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Nice Van... your just a tapping machine! I put out another 60 today So i'm almost one 21st of your size haha.

[mountainvan]

All my hard work has paid off and then some. Yesterday I went out at 6 am and the sap was already flowing. Started all the vacuum pumps and then ran more tubing and tapped about 100 more trees. Hung 50 buckets after a short lunch. That's a coffee and some honey buns in the truck driving between sugarbushes. Cleaned tanks and generally readied everything in and around the saphouse. At 4:00 my neighbor called and said the tanks were close to overflowing. So I went collecting. Brought in 1,500 gals of sap, had a short dinner, and went and got 400 more gallons at 11:00. Finally turned the ro off, wash cycle, at 12:00. Went out collecting again at 6 am, and brought in 900 gals of sap. Boiled from 8 am to 5 pm, went and collected the buckets and gassed the pumps too. Ended up for the day with 60 gallons of syrup. That's a record for me. After boiling went out and collected another 1,600 gallons of sap, and it's still flowing strong. The ro is working on this evenings sap as I write this. Time for a beer and then gas the pumps, and get the ro washed for more sap tomorrow morning!

[mountainvan]

Had another busy day here in The Catskills. Went out early gassed the pumps and collected sap. Started boiling at 10:00 and finished off 30+ gallons by 3:00. Had a cub scout pack come for a sugaring lesson. Diverted disaster twice today. Once while the cub pack was here I was out talking about tapping and the syrup got up to 220, 66% was 216. Then in the afternoon I went to gas pumps while my wife watched the rig. When I got back she opened the valve to draw off but ver little came out and the temp went up quickly. Had her turn off the blower and open the firebox door while I opened the float all the way and let sap come back in. Not sure why it happened, but if I had been a couple minutes longer there would have been smoke from the front pan. Time for dinner!!

[mountainvan]

Went out early collecting and ended up with 1,800 gals of sap. I was planning on boiling right off, but ended up taking my wife to the doctor. Turned 1,300 gals of the sap into 30+ gals of syrup. I still have some left to take care of tomorrow. Finally turned the vacuum pumps off at 9:00. My prediction last week was right on, 84 hours of sapflow, 6,000 gals of sap, and 120+ gals of syrup. Tomorrow morning I have a radio interview, and then it's out to get the sap that flowed today. I hope to drain and clean my evaporator before I boil to bring the grade back up. Below freezing tonight and then a two day big flow!

[mountainvan]

I said to myself I wanted to make maple syrup for a living. The sap gods are giving me my wish. 750 sap gals this morning to 20 gals of syrup. 1,500 gals so far tonight and sap is flowing hard. Just waiting for the ro to finish rinsing, then start it again with fresh sap. Cleaned out tanks and the evaporator this morning, plus gave a live radio interview over the phone. Time to go out and get back to work.

[mountainvan]

Today was almost one of those days to call it quits and go back to bed. Went out early to gas the pumps and see what bush to collect first. My two big bushes were great. Tanks almost full and sap flowing hard. My third bush on vacuum was a different story. When I drove in I looked at the vacuum gauge by the big sap ladder, 0 vacuum. Looked over to the tanks and vacuum pump on the other side of the road, it looked to be snowing. It wasn't snowing, there was sap spraying out of the top of the reclaimer. Not good! Looked to find the problem quickly and saw that the releaser was stuck. This is the small lapeirre one. The float was to the top of the chamber, but the rod was stuck in the part I don't know the name for, but I can think of a few. Ended up spending two hours cleaning up the mess and dumping a couple hundred gallons of sap that could have had a little vacuum oil in. It hurt to do it, but not as much as having oil in my syrup. Very luckily my son was employed as fireman today and made over a barrel of syrup. We ended up collecting over 2,000 gals of sap so far since last night, and the saps still flowing. The vacuum pump is fine too luckily. I just need to get another releaser before saturday.

[Brian Ryther]

Van,
I also have been having problems with my new lapeirre Releaser. I have found that it needs to be perfectly level and that the rod that goes through the cover needs to have lube on it. I have spent meny day this season cursing that releaser, but it has come through for me in the past few days. Is there a good releaser on the market?

[mountainvan]

I also have a couple gilles bernard single releasers and if they stay lubed they're good. I lubed the rod going through the cover, but it's sticking inside the mechanism tht I can't get to. On a appy note I just got in from turning off the pumps, 1,500+ gals to turn into syrup tomorrow!

[mountainvan]

This shows how observant I am when tired. The little releaser doesn't have a mechanism, just a small hole that the float pushes a stopper against to plug the hole and let the sap dump out of the bottom chamber. When it dumps the float drops and the hole is open and the the releaser cycles again. Seems the hole did not get plugged because of a malfunction with the float/stopper, the whole thing filled with sap, the moisture trap didn't trap, and the gyser happened. My maple dealer T. Kaufman wasn't as tired, or mad at the releaser, and figured out what happened. I swapped the little one for a regular one, thanks to Tom being a standup kind of guy.
I did go out this morning and collect 1,200 gals of sap. Boiled all afternoon and finished 25 gals of syrup. Tomorrow will be the first day this week with no sap. No rest though, lots of cleaning to do tomorrow.

[yarg]

If You hold up the plunger that rises with the float while the vacuum is on and spray food grade silicon (crc) so that it gets sucked into the tubing there it will go into the valve....this is more affective than lubing the rod. If you do not have silicon you can try pam cooking spray.

Also make sure your ball in your trap is perfectly round and that the hole it closes against on th vacuum side seals with the ball and does not have any irregular edges or sap will get by.

Hope this helps...Happy sugaring.

[mountainvan]

Delivered enough syrup today to pay for the new dryer my wife bought this week. Stocked up on gas for the pumps and snacks for the saphouse. Picked up some silicon spray with teflon, slick stuff. The next week looks to be perfect sugaring weather. Not sure if I've ever had a perfect week during sugaring season. Finished boiling the sap from yesterday tonight. Add another 10 gallons to the total so far. Tomorrow is cleaning tanks and then watching the sap pour into the releasers!

[mountainvan]

Todays collection made everything else so far this year seem like a puddle! I collected 3,400 gals of sap and got a little more than half of it turned into 30+ gallons of syrup. Still extra dark with a fantastic flavor. All the sap tanks at the house are full and the tanks in the woods are empty. At least they were at 8:00. Everything actually worked the way it's supposed to also. Got to go turn the vacuum pumps off.

[mountainvan]

Boiled early, 10 gals b. Drained and cleaned the evaporator, went and got 1,600 gals of sap. Just finished boiling, another 30 gals dark. Time to go turn off the pumps and put the evaporator to sleep.

[Riverdale]

Runnin hard in Delhi, have finished off 30 gal. in the last 2 days/nights, mostly Med A. Filled the saphouse with wood this weekend, may have to go find some more by saturday at this rate. Sap isn't sweet, bush with all sugars, half old girls and half new trees has been 1.8/1.9...Resting here at work for a few hours then heading home to relieve my gramps...he needs a rest.

Mountainvan, glad Tom K could help you out....he's a great guy to deal with. I'm glad he's only 10 mins away for me, seems like I've been visiting him every weekend picking up supplies etc..may have to go start cutting all that wood on his side hill so I can get through the season!

[mountainvan]

Collected another 1,800 gals of 2% sap this morning. Ran 500 left from yesterday plus 1,600 from today, the ro just did'nt want to do the last 200, plus I needed to stop too. As Clint Eastwood said in Magnum Force,"A mans got to know his limitations". Finished off 50 gals of extra dark. I've never had so much dark syrup, I wonder if my new membranes have anything to do with it? Pumps are still running, but I'll go out in a bit and turn them off. Man I'm dragging, a couple more days like these and I'll fall over.

[Brian Ryther]

Van,
I dont think it is your membraines. I made 50gal of B yesterday for no aparent reason. Time to check the tanks. No freez last night = sap at night. Edit, I just went outside, 27 degrees and frozen solid, looks like another big day. Tanks are 1/2 full to start the day.

[mountainvan]

Yeah I thought that too, but I need sometime to get out and clean the tanks. As soon as I empty them the sap starts running hard again. Collected 1,800 gals this morning, turned 1,000 of that into 25+ gallons. RO is working on the other 800 now. When it's set I'll go out and boil some more. Saps flowing hard so more collecting tonight also. Back to work!

[MaplePancakeMan]

Van, all i can make is light syrup and not much of it. I was even batching it trying to make it dark but its sooo light. Anyway hope i can get another run but the sap i have right now is really really cloudy, doubt it will make good syrup.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

My last two boils produced dark syrup. Hoping for a run tomorrow through the weekend.

[mountainvan]

Started early with boiling, by 11:00 my son and I had a barrel almost full of grade b. No surprise with the sap having a nice patena. Went out while my son was boiling and got 1,200 gals of sap, ro's just finishing that up. Then I actually got out and cleaned all the tanks. If the sap flows tomorrow I'll run water in behind the sap from today, drain and clean the evaporator, and start fresh saturday. Hopefully the grade will at least go up to dark.

[mountainvan]

Started early boiling again, made 40 gallons in 4 hours of boiling. I'm getting close to the 500 gallon mark for the year so far. Sap ran some today, probably 500+ gallons in the tanks. Cleaned all the tanks around the saphouse and spruced up some for the maple weekend. I still need to make sugars and cream, and turn off the pumps. So I'm off to it!

[mountainvan]

Took it a bit easy today. Ran water in behind the sweet in the evaporator, so I was boiling for maple weekend, ended up with 10 gallons of b. After the openhouse was done I went out and got 1,500 gals of 2% sap. Running it through the ro now, so tomorrow is another fresh start, round three I believe. Weather here looks good till April at least.

[mountainvan]

Turned the 1,500 gals of sap into some syrup today. Not sure how much, as we had a fullhouse of visitors today including some local mapletraders. Nice meeting you Gary and seeing the guys from Tillson again. Sales were execellent today. The only disappointment was after cleaning the tanks, draining and cleaning the evaporator, and talking to the sap gods the syrup today was still b/c. I read on someones post that they concentrated to 6% they got medium and 8% was dark. I'll have 2,000+ gals of sap tomorrow so I'll give it a try. Funny thing was that the syrup smelled and tasted like medium, kind of like vanilla, not the heavy maple from the last couple days. Go figure.

[mountainvan]

Collected 1,500 gals of 2% sap this morning. I spent as much time thawing out valves and transfer hoses as collecting. It was cold enough this morning that any sap that spilled or splashed on me froze to my clothes. Boiled almost all of it into 20 gals of dark amber. The syrup yesterday was extra dark not b, I used the 2007 kit that lightened up. Later in the afternoon my ro became demon possesed and jumped up to 410 degrees celcius. It had shut off a couple times before but I had'nt seen it. So I have some boiling tomorrowto finish it off.

[mountainvan]

Delivered some syrup this morning, I was going to boil but I forgot to drain the line between the ro and back tank. I didn't feel like messing with thawing out 20 feet of tubing with a torch. When I got back it seemed the sap was flowing, even though it was 34 and had gotten down to 14. I went and turned on the vacuum pumps and then searched one sugarbush for leaks. When I came down off of the mountain the sap flow had stopped even though it was 40 and sunny. Went back home and ran the rest of the sap through the ro and boiled that down to 10 gals of extra dark. No boiling tomorrow, maybe I can find some more leaks before the next big run.

[mountainvan]

I was wondering if my early February taps were slowing down, after todays sap flow they are not! Washed the main mainline at my bush up the road, hopefully it will help clear the sap up. Started the pumps at noon and they're still sucking the sap down the mountain. Cleaned all the saphouse tanks and have the front pan soaking in acid overnight. I should have close to 2,000 gals of sap tomorrow to boil. The season is not over here yet!! I visited a sugaring operation over the mountain and they are at 1/3 of last year. They have all gravity tubing. Seems vacuum will save the season for me.

[mountainvan]

Brought in 1,950 gals of sap this morning. Turned all but 200 of it into 30 gals of dark amber. I'm very happy the grade went up, hopefully it will stay that way for a couple days. Weather this weekend is warmer than they said last night. Guess the vacuum pumps will be on till sunday night. Sap is clear and still 2% so I have to be happy about that too. I need to go and get some sap or the tanks will be overflowing by tomorrow morning.

[mountainvan]

Brought in another 1,000 gals and saps still coming into the releasers at a good clip. I had the first load in at 6:30 am and last at 9:30pm and still need to go out and gas the pumps. I earned a day walleye fishing this summer for todays work. Plus I paid for my daughters braces! Off to gas the pumps.

[mountainvan]

Did not pay for the braces yesterday. My wife told me how much they really are.t will take the weekend of good sapflow. Went out and gased up the pumps, saps still coming in and clear. Time to clean the back tank and run the sap from last night through the ro, it's just finishing rinsing.

[mountainvan]

Ran 1,450 gals of sap through the ro today and am now running another 1,400 gals through that I collected tonight. Sap in my big bush is gushing, my bush up the road is flowing nicely, and the one down the road is'nt doing much. There's still 200 gals from today down the road, but after 1,000 from the big bush it doesn't seem like much. I did clean the tanks and flush the mainlines down the road before boiling, but it was almost 60 and sunny here today. Boiled most of the afternoon and made 30 gals of nice dark. The high point of the day is nothing broke, stalled out, or burnt! Time to go gas the pumps for the night.

[mountainvan]

Had a nice turnout for maple weekend today. Boiled the sap from last night and made another 25+ gals of syrup. Went back to extra dark. Sap is still flowing thanks to the vacuum, I'll go collecting tonight. Right now I'm just plain tired, but the saps still flowing so there's work to be done.

[mountainvan]

Collected 800 gals of sap tonight, ro's getting it down to 200 gals of concentrate. My bush down the road has quite, up the road is slow flow, and the big bush is still going good. Tomorrow night is supposed to down to 30 and monday middle twenties. I'm not throwing in the towel yet.

[mountainvan]

Pulled in another 600 gals of sap this morning. Everything is empty and ready to cleaned tomorrow for round 4. I made 30 gals of extra dark today, still excellent flavor. Ran water in behind the sap till I squeezed most of the sweet off then drained it a bit and added acid to soak overnight. Now it's take my wife out to dinner for putting up with sugaring.

[mountainvan]

No sap today. First day in awhile that I have not boiled. I did clean all the tanks and the evaporator. Weather looks ok for the rest of the week for sap flow. Warm at night later in the week, but cloudy with rain. If the sap flows I should have good quality sap all week. Not sure what to do with myself this evening, all the works done for now!

[mountainvan]

I have some sap flow today. The northside of my big bush is giving out. Everything else is not due to 32.7 for a low in the valley last night. Mountains still have snow so there's hope for a cold night to get all the other taps flowing.

[mountainvan]

31 last night and saps not coming off of the mountain yet. Could be I'm not done. Brought in 300+ gals of sap from yesterday.

[mountainvan]

Not cold enough to get the sap flowing in the bushes that had already said goodnight. Collected 400 gals this morning and still have the vacuum running at my big bush.

[mountainvan]

Now is decision time. Do I call it a season with less syrup made than last year or ream my big bush for more sap next week when it's supposed to get cold again? I already decided to dump what I got yesterday, evaporator and ro are clean and I can't see running 400 gals of 1.5% sugar not so good sap through them. I am going to fill the flue pan with water, plug off the front pans, and finish the 20 gallons of almost syrup today. Decisions decisions.....

[mountainvan]

I went up on the mountain at 7:30 to ream the holes in my big bush. My wife said I should do it or I would be grumpy all year. I'm grumpy all year anyway, but today took a little grump out. The trees at the top were dripping sap, so when I came down for food and a fresh battery I started the vacuum pump. Finished reaming by 2:00, 900-1,000 taps done, and the sap was pouring in the releaser. Collected 400 gals from four hours of run, added that to the sap I already had and I am back in business. Boiled for three hours tonight, no syrup started from scratch. Went up to see if the pump was running, it was not. I switched engines today, but the gas I put in has water in it. Not getting gas for the pumps in Boiceville anymore. Drained the tank, new gas and alcohol, and I'm back in business pulling 22" of vacuum. Weather next week looks good for sap flow too!

[sapman]

I'm with you, Van. Can't wait til next weeks colder temps. Hopefully I'm not gettting my hopes up for nothing around here.

Tim

[3rdgen.maple]

I second that sapman Next week better be a good one. Mountainvan not to get to far of the topic of maple but how is the water levels down there. Any flooding. I am a flyfisherman and was thinking about making a trip down to the delaware.

[mountainvan]

Gave up on the vacuum late last night. Engine just would'nt run. So no sap this morning. I moved my third pump to the big bush, hooked it up, and am now pulling 22" of vacuum. I will have sap tonight. Water level here is low and clear for the Esopus.

[mountainvan]

Collected 400 gals of 1.5% sap, holding it till tomorrow morning. Leaving the pump going all night so I should have another 400 tomorrow morning. Weather looks good for next week, bring on more sap! Esopus is higher today thanks to thunderstorms today.

[3rdgen.maple]

Thanks mountainvan for water update.

[mountainvan]

Finished off 700 gals of sap this morning. Turned it into 10+ gals of extra dark. Nice to be boiling and making syrup again. If it actually gets below freezing tonight I could go for another week. If so I am keeping the vacuum at 23" and see the sap pouring in!

[caseyssugarshack93]

Are you pulling 23 inches of vac with a surge alamo, and i got a other surge almo i think its a 50 or 75 with a reclamer what should i adjust the oil lines to drop per second like a drop per 10 seconds is what i was told,

[mountainvan]

Yes I have the alamos. I have almost a steady stream of oil coming into the pump I'm running now, it does have a reclaimer. It has only one oiler in the intake pipe so I want as much oil coming in as possible. This is also the pump that sucked in the sap earlier in the season. Pulls better after the accident than before, go figure.

[caseyssugarshack93]

Were is the adjust ment on them i noticed today one of the oilers that goes into the pump is stripped and only a few threads hold it in so it would suck air though there so i thephlon taped it and put a letter silocone to help seal it up sence it stripped hope it works , im swiching out of one my pumps with the other one because the relamer on the other one needs some work.

[mountainvan]

Casey, sent you a pm

[3% Solution]

Mountainvan,
This is our second year using filter aid with flat filters.
Still loving it!!!!
I have helped a couple of guys this way start using it!
I think they both love it also.
How's your season going?

Dave

[mountainvan]

Didn't think the sap would flow today, low of 35 at the house, but went and turned the pump on and the sap was flowing. I'll be boiling tomorrow! Glad I could help with the filtering.

[mountainvan]

400 gals of sap in this morning, not a lot but much better than 0. Below freezing here last night so saps flowing again today. I'm waiting till later today to process the sap, I'm hoping to get another load or two today so I have enough to run through the ro and boil for a couple hours.

[mountainvan]

Ended up with 500 gals sap, turned it into 10 gals extra dark. Still have to go check on the pump and bottle syrup. Off to work!

[mountainvan]

Brought in 300 gals of sap this morning. Finally getting a decent freeze. Not sure if the trees I reamed last week will give a lot of sap or not. The next few days will tell.

[mountainvan]

Hard freeze last night, 27, so hopefully the reamed trees will kick back in. Went up to start the pump earlier, still frozen on the mountain, but the vacuum pump was pulling 28". I'll stick with 23" when the sap starts flowing again, I don't want to burn up a pump.

[mountainvan]

Sap is flowing good again!!!! Started the pump at my big bush late am, by noon it was coming in quite well. I was going to move my other reliable vacuum pump from my bush up the road to down the road and see what reaming would do for the sapflow down the road. When I got to the bush up the road I heard Gomer Pyle, " surprise suprise", the sap was flowing from trees tapped in Febuary, no reaming. Changed my plans and went and got the releaser, hooked it up, started the pump, and there was sap! Now I have two bushes with vacuum giving sap. Took my son down the road and hooked all the vacuum equipment up. Then we reamed 400 taps and boy howdy did the sap flow hard! Now I have all three vacuum bushes giving me more sap. The honda engine on that pump is still giving me grief so it's down to tractor supply for a new engine tomorrow morning. I have around 1,000 gals in the woods tonight and 300 at the saphouse. I'll be boiling tomorrow for sure! Weather here looks great for sapflow for the next week.

[yarg]

Hey Van, great to hear your still going...are you making commercial?

[mountainvan]

Not yet. The syrup I made two nights ago was extra dark. Tomorrow may be c, the sap has a nice opaqueness to it that flowed today. It should clear up after another day of good flow.

[yarg]

I hope you go to a nice med for all that hard work.
On a different note do you go to vermont for the maple weekend comming up? Iwas thinking of going if your not going with the family.

[mountainvan]

No I stay away from Vermont, unless I go through to get to New Hampshire. No disrespect to any maple maker from Vermont reading this. I am going to Tom Kaufmans openhouse next saturday. I've given up on making anything lighter than dark, I'm just happy to still be making syrup.

[mountainvan]

Collected 900 gals this morning early. Went and got a new motor and had all three bushes up and running by 1:00. Boiled late afternoon making 10+ gals of grade b. Sap smelled a bit while boiling but the syrup tasted good. No buddiness yet here. I need to get back outside and finish washing my tanks here and then go get a couple loads of sap. The tanks are full again!!

[mountainvan]

Collected another 900 gals of sap between last night and this morning. Ran 600 through the ro before I had to go to the dentist, I havn't been in 13 years and no cavities. Boiled for a couple hours this morning making about 10 gals. Already got another load of sap since back from town. Boiling again tomorrow!!

[MaplePancakeMan]

your a dang machine man and your trees are bionic. Whats the total gallons so far?

[benchmark]

No kidding!! What's your approximate tap count? Went to the dentist last summer for the first time in 10 years, no cavities, just wisdom teeth he said needed to be pulled. That's just as bad isn't it

[mountainvan]

Yep I'm a maple making mountainman machine. Pumps ran all night, went and gassed them up early to see if more sap would flow. The ro is starting the day with what I got last night, it does not like late season sap. I've made around 620 gals so far, weather looks good for the next five days too. I'm not sure on the taps, somewhere around 1,200 reamed and 800 still giving sap that were tapped in Febuary. I did no ream any red maples as they are budded. The syrup I'm making is very dark but has a great flavor. Time to go get some sap and enjoy the day making maple syrup!

[mountainvan]

This is a historic first, I am writing this in the saphouse while boiling. Guess my wifes new wi-fi thing works. Just finishing up the 1,200 gals of sap I started the day with. I almost have a barrel full of grade b. I think it has a little metabolic flavors to it, all my visitors today thought it was great tasting syrup. Good thing the customers always right. Got to get off the computer and back to making syrup.

[mountainvan]

Took yesterday off, except for cleaning releasers and such. 23 here last night and 45 right now. I'm going to be boiling again tomorrow! I've got to go get more prefilters for the ro and ro soap this afternoon. Weather still looks good for sapflow all week here!

[mountainvan]

Trees have given up for this season. I'm still ready to go another week or two, but very little flow today. I did collect 500 gals of sap this morning and finish filling up the barrel of b. Now for the fun part of cleaning up.

[danno]

MV - sounds like a good year for you. Seems like you are the first tapped and the last to quit around your latitude each year. Did you get enough sap after you reamed to make it worth it?

[mountainvan]

I made around 60 gals since reaming. So yes it was worth it. The trees I tapped in the beginning of February that I did not ream still gave me 600 gals of sap too. The year was ok. More syrup than last year, but .10 gal/tap less syrup, even on vacuum. It was a short season for me. February had 4 days with sap, March was good till the last week, too warm, and April was dismal. With out reaming I would have made less syrup than last year even with more taps. Time to go clean tubing, arghhhh!!

[mountainvan]

One sugarbush done five more to go. To tired to do anything but sit on the couch and fall asleep.

[mountainvan]

Ran water in behind the sweet in the evaporator this morning, drew off 10+ gals of extra dark. Plugged the front pan and will drain and boil on the stove to get a couple more gallons. It was 28 here this morning and the sap was flowing a little this afternoon while I cleaned two small bushes and started on the 800 tap bush up the road. Stuff coming out off the mainline was like clear smelly jelly. Pulled in all the buckets which are soaking to loosen the crud off.

[mountainvan]

Washed more tubing, mainly stuff on the flat or not far up the mountain. The springs I usually use for water are dry. First time in 12 years. I didn't want to run the gas pumps on the mountain for fear of starting a forest fire. Not much of a chance in doing so, but people do win the lottery. Going to Delancey tomorrow for the annual after season party at Toms, so no washing tubing!!

[Parker]

So how many taps and how much syrup? I am thinking about tapping earlier next year,,,

[mountainvan]

2,400 taps on vacuum, 19" most of the season, 23" at the end and all of next year! I really only had all my taps going good for March. I'm not counting taps on gravity or buckets because they did not produce this year. I ended with 650 gals of syrup for .27 gals/tap, last two years was .37 gals/tap. Tapping early added 60 gals, reaming added 75. I did lose sap due to equipment problems, I figure 25+ gallons. Mainly due to the little releaser. Working on getting a 600 gal/hr ro/ membrane for next year.

[mountainvan]

Drained the evaporator this morning for cleaning till next year. I tried the milkstone remover, seems to be doing a good job. Washing buckets and tanks too. Still at least another week of cleaning before I'm done for the year.

[mountainvan]

Washed about half of the tubing in my bush up the road. Called it a day when it started to snow! At least it might kill the black flies that are already out.

[mountainvan]

Finished cleaning the evaporator, the milkstone remover worked very well. Cleaned the rest of the bucket, releasers, and filter tanks. Getting closer every day to going fishing.

[mountainvan]

Finally finished the last of the sweet off of the evaporator. Add another 10 gals to the season total. Bottled that up plus another 5 for a nice order that came in today. Back to washing tubing tomorrow.

[mountainvan]

Washed more tubing this morning, such fun. Went back up after lunch and found a nice slick rock that wanted me to relearn about gravity. Took the rest of the day off after getting a little woozy from hitting the ground hard.

[mountainvan]

Went to town yesterday to deliver syrup to a couple customers. After delivering to the first place I was ready to get back in the car when a guy came up and wanted to buy syrup right then and there, he saw me unloading. I felt a bit like a drug dealer," Hey man you want some really good maple syrup". The next order was large so I sold him some and now have a new customer that needs a gallon a week. Started taking down the tubing down the road, I'll finish that today. Plus I got my wood supply dropped off for next year. I still have to cut and split it, but I enjoy that. I still have a headache from my fall friday but I can't lay around like a sick little school girl. Tomorrow I'm going fishing!

[mountainvan]

Took yesterday off and went fishing. No big trout but a couple nice bass. Back to washing tubing tubing today. I should finish my bush up the road tomorrow and start the mountainside of my big bush. The blackflies were aweful this morning, but it got too hot for them this afternoon.

[caseyssugarshack93]

How is the weather down in the Catskills?


When u think your gunna put ur taps in next year? and fire up the ol alamos? and what temp do u usally start your pumps at ?

[mountainvan]

Finished the bush up the road this morning. Cleaned up more around the saphouse this afternoon. I found some barbed wire yesterday with my leg and took another tumble down the mountain. I need to take it easy for a couple days and stay on the flat. I won't, but I should. Weathers good here, maples are really leafing out quickly. I have no idea about next year yet, still havn't made it through this year in one piece yet. I will be using an alamo to suck the cleaning water out of the tubing at my big bush this weekend.

[mountainvan]

Washed more tubing this morning, black flies forced me off the mountain this afternoon. I got 3/4 of the mountain side of my big bush done. I should finish washing tomorrow!! Bottling syrup now, I hated to open some bulk already but I've got to pay the bills.

[mountainvan]

Had a close call today, I came within a couple feet of having me and my truck totaled. I came off the mountain, still not done washing, started to pull out into the road from the field when a big black suv came flying down the road. I slammed on the brakes and went into the steering wheel pretty hard. I didn't get hurt just shook up. My arm hit the turn signal and snapped it off of the steering column, that's $150 to fix. If I had just pulled out without looking I would have been toast. Dead end one lane road too. I need to get back into the habit of putting on the seatbelt even 1/2 mile from my house. I did find a spring that's flowing so I should be able to get the top tubing done tomorrow.

[mountainvan]

I was on the top of the ridge to see the sunrise this morning. Finally have all 20 miles of tubing washed!!! I still hve one section to pull the water out of the lines with the vacuum pump, but that's a nice stroll in the woods, no getting sprayed with nasty sap. Next is cutting and splitting the wood for next year.

[mountainvan]

Well I'm going to say I'm done with the 2009 sugaring season. Tubing is washed, tanks are clean, and everything in the saphouse is ready for next year. I did have fun this year and made enough syrup that I don't have to go get a real job!

[KenWP]

Hopefully you can stop hurting yourself for a while also. I thought I had the market covered for bruises and bandaids.

[mountainvan]

If I'm not bruised, bleeding, or damaged in the brain pan I'm not working hard enough. That also goes for fishing, rock climbing, canoeing, etc..

[mountainvan]

I got the word today that tapping up the hill is a go for next year! I need to talk to my neighbor up the road and see if she still wants me there next year. Me is the vacuum unit I had running for the first time in 12 years of tapping there. If she does not want the vacuum I'll pull out the tubing and move it up the hill, at least the new stuff. Gravity is just too unreliable anymore. I've been busy bottling syrup, making candy and cream, and turning my efforts into cash in the pocket. Life is good!

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Congratulations! Now the real work begins. How many more taps will this be? You will be pushing Theron for the BIG SAP! now.

[mountainvan]

Started hanging tubing at the end of the valley. 50 trees down, 450 to go, and that's phase one. Syrup sales have been good all fall and the winter is shaping up to be busy with indoor markets.

[mountainvan]

I get a couple days off thanks to my leg finding a hole and gravity pulling the rest of me down. Luckily no fractures, just a real good sprain. Who said hanging tubing wasn't dangerous.

[MaplePancakeMan]

well its really dangerous in the woods where you string tubing haha i've seen that billy goat ledge! wishing a speedy recovery.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Van,

You up and running yet? How are things out your way. I might be over there Sunday, Hiking not sure yet but if i do and you're around i'll stop by.

[mountainvan]

Not yet, but close. Still too cold to tap up here. I have not even put my test tap in yet. I do keep finding more trees to tap. If my trucks here I am. How's it down in the flatlands?

[MaplePancakeMan]

even with the warm up this week and the relatively mild week before that... my test tap only gave me 6 gallons in roughly 2 weeks most came in a 3 day span. ran minimal today. So i'm not really missing out on something super. I'm in limited taps this year due to work so i'm not tapping until i know i'm going to get a good run.

On the plus sugars consistently 3.3 on that tree looks to be really cold for the duration of the week and rest of next week then brief warm and back into the 20's for highs maybe 3rd week in feb for me.

[mountainvan]

2010 sugaring season has begun for me today. Put in 100+ taps in an hour today. Some of the smaller trees were dripping sap. No real warm days this week here, but I'm trying to get all my taps in before the first strong flow.

[caseyssugarshack93]

How many taps You got this year Mtnvan? 3000?, think im going to have 1800 on vac not the 2000 i was expecting but who knows, might get that, might not have anough time, hoping for 700 gallons of syrup here, but who knows,

hope everythings going well down there, Im still have to add oilers to my pumps, have to order some more oilers and get a fine thread tap to drill and tap for the oilers in the alamo 30 and hook up the alamo 75 and then change oil in the bb2 and bb4 vac pumps and ill be ready, wont be long now, few weeks till i tap

[mountainvan]

Another 300 this afternoon, morning was a trip to the accountant and a stop at a friends sugaring operation. I should have 4,000 taps this year, most on vacuum. Little bit of snow made the mountain slick, tomorrow ice crampons.

[caseyssugarshack93]

jeez 4000, you added quite a few how many you add 1000?

[mountainvan]

another 400 in today. crampons were a good idea today. fresh snow on frozen flooded mountainside made for slick conditions. with the fresh snow I came across coyote, bobcat, deer, fox, squirrel, and vole tracks. I kept an eye out for bigfoot tracks, but no luck! I did add quite a few taps this year, mostly in my new sugarbush at the top of the valley, but adding a couple here or there add up quickly also.

[mountainvan]

only 200 in today. this morning too cold and windy, and after finishing the south facing part of my big bush found out the north facing part was dangerous to climb up. when you slip and then slide 50ft down the mountain on your arse, it's dangerous. I'll move up to the next sugarbush tomorrow and leave the big one till it warms up some more.

[KenWP]

Your life mission is to see how many times a year you get hurt isn't it.

[mountainvan]

Now that's funny Ken! tapped another 500+ today, tomorrow I go get my new tower and membrane. I will be ready for the first big flow this year.

[mountainvan]

all tapped,( except for buckets), tanks out, vacuum systems out, ro put together and new membrane wetted, evaporator together, etc.. Have a bit of sap to get tomorrow, maybe 1,000+ gals. Hoping for a good season.

[mountainvan]

first boil today and first syrup. had to clear 3 ft of snow first though.

[mountainvan]

1,500 gals of sap yesterday, north bushes havn't kicked in strong yet. boiling this morning.

[mountainvan]

1,500 gals sap, through the ro, 3 1/2 hrs boiling= 35 gals light syrup. already have 1,000 at the saphouse for tomorrow, 5 other sugarbushes to collect tomorrow morning. so far so good.

[PATheron]

Mountainvan- How many taps are you running this year on vac? Are they all on the dairy pumps? Theron

[mountainvan]

another good day, another barrel of light. poor deer are having a hard time with 4ft of snow and taking down my lines up on the mountain. hopefully my new snowshoes get here soon. theron, same as last year for now. bush up the road is under 5ft of snow, so no sap from there yet.I love my new membrane, sap was 2% to 12% in two hours!

[mountainvan]

barrel+ of light amber today. not much of a sap run today, so walking tubing tomorrow to find lines pulled apart by deer plowing through the snow.

[mountainvan]

pumps pulling 20-24" of vacuum today, found all the leaks. boiled for 3 hrs and made a barrel "fancy". back to it tomorrow.

[mountainvan]

6 am boil and another barrel of light. collected 2,000 gals for tomorrow already and saps still flowing. looks to be busy this week.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Van,

I set my taps out the other day but they just don't seem to be running well how hot did you get up to yesterday. it was 59 here with a low of 22.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

MPM,

Since tapping (Ulster County) I've only collected about 200 gallons on 50 taps. The temps this week do not look very promising. Checked this morning and nothing was running.

- Russ

[mountainvan]

Boiled early again, another barrel and a couple pails of light/medium. collected 2,000+ gals this afternoon which is waiting to be boiled tomorrow morning. all my pumps are pulling 20"+, transfer pumps are good, ro's good, and life is good! mpm, it got in the lower 40's up here yesterday and today with 28 for a low, perfect weather.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Rusty, when did you tap? Checked the buckets again today 5 gallon pails and only a few are half full (since saturday) most are 1/5 to 1/4 full. I'm setting 25 fresh taps on bigger trees tomorrow morning so hopefully it goes well. I need to atleast have 200 gallons before i fire the evaporator up to make it worth while.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

MPM -

I started on 2-18 this year.

- Russ

[mountainvan]

40 gals medium this morning. new bush up the valley started flowing today too! most of the tubing is 2 ft under the snow and it was 3-4 ft high.

[mountainvan]

another 70 gals in the barrels. gravity flow is done till next week, thank the sap gods for vacuum pumps.

[mountainvan]

another barrel and a bit yesterday. today was sales down where the peoples are. a foot+ snow for up here tonight then perfect sugaring weather for the next week at least. life is good!

[mountainvan]

collected sap this morning then cleaned tanks. gave the trees off yesterday, but have the vac pumps running 22-24" and enhancing the flow. should have enough tomorrow to boil for a couple hours.

[mountainvan]

2,000 gals sap turned into a barrel and some pails of extra dark. saps still flowing well under vacuum. cleaning out the evaporator tonight to see if I can get back to medium.

[mountainvan]

another 1,000 gal sap this morning, almost a barrel of extra dark. sap flowing very well up here, buckets are even full. looks to be a good week.

[mountainvan]

another barrel today, already 1,000 gal sap collected for tomorrow.

[mountainvan]

another barrel+ today. I have sap for tomorrow so I'll be back at it.

[mountainvan]

another couple barrels put up. even with the hot weather we still have snow on the ground. buckets quit yesterday, but vacuum keeps me in the sap. will be boiling again tomorrow. after this warm spell I think I'll see if the new spiles/adaptors live up to the hype.

[mountainvan]

processed 1,000 gal sap yesterday, not quite a full barrel. colder weather starting tomorrow night!!! enough snow is gone up top to put out my 4th vacuum system and I have an intern all week. things are looking good.

[mountainvan]

cleaned tanks, buckets, and evaporator yesterday. 26 last night! sap started flowing hard till it got up to 50 and then shut down. good thing for vacuum. I'll have some sap, 1,000-2,000 gals tomorrow to boil. pulled all four different spiles this morning to see if the sap was dripping out of the tree the same. antimicrobial had a slightly higher drip rate. cv's and new spiles were the same, and old plastic came in last but was still dripping ok.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Van,

Whats your season totals so far and how many taps do you have out??

[themapleking]

still got my taps trying the check valve taps. So far at 12250 gals sap 845 taps 14.5 gal per tap. I have been making C grade but it all pays money. These CV taps have saved my this yr they do work. 22" vac on the system.

[troes30]

glad to hear good things about the CV adapters. i have them on my new woods is all, so i cant say one way or the other. they'll be everywhere next year.

[mountainvan]

hey wvm, about 3,500 taps and 500gals syrup. tough year so far. big snow, then too warm, but next couple days look good. made some dark today but no sap for tomorrow.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

still got my taps trying the check valve taps. So far at 12250 gals sap 845 taps 14.5 gal per tap. I have been making C grade but it all pays money. These CV taps have saved my this yr they do work. 22" vac on the system.

Joe,

Good to see ya on here. Sounds like you are having a good year, how much syrup so far?? Glad you didn't sell all that equipment. Send me a pm when you get a chance.

[mountainvan]

boiled yesterday, back up to medium amber after starting over with an empty evaporator. 17 this morning, 40's later. If it doesn't run well I pissed the sap gods off somehow. Had a producer down here pull all cv spouts because so many cracked and they could'nt get vacuum. None of the antimicrobial spiles cracked, and they were dripping faster than the cv. maybe when they make them a little more durable I'll put more out. do not c+p for evl.

[maple flats]

I've had zero breakage from the CV and I walked the lines Thursday, found no loose ones. However I do not have vac this year, just gravity but about half of my taps are on slopes of about 45 degrees so I get natural vac on those. I will add vac on my bigger bush next year.

[troes30]

i also had no breakage on the CV's but i have heard of some. ive heard some having problems with sawdust binding or pluggging the ball...and some valves getting damaged and sucking th ball into the multi fitting and plugging it. but, sounds like if u put them in carfully and correctly they're doing great as a whole. i know ill be putting them in all my woods next year

[mountainvan]

another 2 barrels today! lower bush was reamed yesterday, all spiles had quit, including the cv's. upper bush just really started running hard, 8 ft of snow kept the trees cool most of the season. everything in between is still going, so more tomorrow. this year has been tough to make syrup. too cold, then tons of snow, and then too warm. Who wants to be a farmer?

[mountainvan]

boiled yesterday, 15 gals extra dark. most sap was from high country bush and low bush I reamed. saps still flowing in both so I'll be boiling again tonight!

[mountainvan]

another barrel last night and sap ran hard yesterday. had some mechanical problems so I lost some sap. why does equipment breakdown with huge flows? below freezing up top last night and saps still clear. Off to collect before it gets too warm.

[mountainvan]

still going. lower bushes are kaput, collected slime tuesday, but dumped it back to the trees. upper bush is still going. 600 gals of sap a day from 500 taps. running 25" of vacuum throughout with the alamo pump, sweet. weird thing is when the sun goes down behind the mountain the trees shut off, even when it's been 40. sun comes out the next morning, sap pouring in the releaser.

[mountainvan]

another couple pails filled with syrup this morning. just went to check sapflow, still going!! tanks should be full by morning. working on being an ok year, especially if the trees hold on till friday night, 25 and snow!! I want to go till May.

[mountainvan]

done done done.... 600 gals with the last 20 going to mrs butterworse. maple snot, not bad tasting but nasty in texture. snow pulling taps out of trees and tubing apart then warm temps made for a tough year. now for the fun of cleaning everything. hopefully next year will be easier and more productive. good luck to all for the year.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Van,

Where are you?? Are you making syrup this year or not able as haven't seen you on here for a while???

[mountainvan]

sent you a howdy mountaineer.