started in the catskills

[mountainvan]

started tapping today!! 300 in, tapped from 12-4, 1900 to go. tomorrow will hopefully get 700 in, wednesday 700( that's the tubing) and boil wednesday night or thursday.

[eggy]

Where about are you in the Catskills, I think we're getting a cold snap this weekend. I was going to wait until that's over. Whaddya think?

[mountainvan]

put in another 400 taps today. quit about 1230, the cancer got the better of me for a couple hours. went back out when my son got home from school, he's staying with tomorrow, no way I can tap the rest by myself. holding off on buckets till march. saps just started flowing at 4:00, great to see the first drops in a tank for the new year.

eggy I'm in western ulster county, oliverea. tomorrow, thursday, and friday the saps going to flow, hopefully hard and fast. weather says cold this weekend, I'll need a break, then warm again next week, hopefully. I think if you're ready to tap putem' in. you close to me or just know the area?

[eggy]

Not sure where you are, I'm in Central Otsego County. It looks like it will be pretty cold this weekend and into the next week, I think I'll wait until that clears out then I'll go.

Take care of yourself, don't push it, that's why we have kids

[mountainvan]

eggy do you know tyler talbot? he's over in copes corners. tapped another 800 today. have'nt seen such strong sap flow since 98. bush across the road has about 100 taps, tapped it around 3:00, by 7:00 had 70 gallons of sap. should have 2000 gallons tomorrow night. what a great start to the year!

[Jay]

Mountianvan,was thinking of you today........boy that sap was running today,every little break on a limb it was just a flowing!!!! I have to wait for a friend to get set up so hopefully next week some time.

[maple flats]

In central NY looks like I will tap next Wed or thurs if the forcast holds. I am waiting the 5 day cold snap first.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

Taping a new stand this year. Put 50 taps in yesterday and collected 120 gallons today. Trees were running good today. Hopefully we'll get another 100+ tomorrow and then the cold spell is due for the weekend.

Russ

[mountainvan]

what a day to start the season!! stopped tapping cause tanks were full. ran 1500 through ro boiled till 10:00, 20gallons of fancy!! went out again tanks were full! lots of sap at the saphouse and was still flowing at 1:00 am!! only downer was sap % was 1.6. happy I have an ro. start ro first thing then go get more sap. should do 50 gallons today. 2006 looks to be a good year.

[mountainvan]

just finished. so very very sore and tired. best start in 14 years!

[brookledge]

Glad to hear you had a good start. I hope it is a sign to come for everyone.
Keith

[mountainvan]

getting a new pressure pump for my ro this week, good it was under warrenty.still works but makes one hell of a noise. put all my syrup so far in bulk for cream and sugar this summer. looks to be running again middle of the week so I'll finish tapping tuesday. have been hearing that guys that tapped around here had alot of sap this week. today carpentry, tomorrow sleep and eat.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

We had a couple of good runs Thursday and Friday. Finished with about 4.5 gallons. Too cold this past weekend but tomorrow's temps look promising.

[mountainvan]

tapped another two hundred today, mostly buckets, sap just weeping at 35. tomorrow should be a good flow if the weathermans right. maplepro sent a guy to fix my ro, needs new bearings but still works, of course he needed a "special" tool to disconnect the pump from the motor which he did'nt have(or know he needed). If that's not a way to keep the farmer from fixing it himself, well.... At least they sent someone down right away.

[mountainvan]

Did nothing today but lay around, got to go to the dang doctor again tomorrow. Getting sick and tired of being sick and tired. Luckily, I guess, no sap today or the next week if the weathers right, or wrong. Sorry for grousing, not too many other outlets. everyone says be happy and be strong, I do it for my family. I f my daughter knew what I was going through she probably have a hard time of it. so I'm signing off for hopefully only a little while.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I keep you in my prayers for a fast and speedy recovery. I have been under the weather this week and it has been rough for me as I hardly ever get sick. Can't imagine going thru what you have been. :wink:

[Kubbie]

We tapped last Mon & Tues. About 400 buckets and were swamped Thursday and Fri. Cooked in between our real jobs until midnight. Finally finished with 14 Gals made. Sugar content seems way down. Got a breather until later this week hopefully. :lol:

[mountainvan]

kubbie, did you have forest tent caterpillars this year? my sap was 1.6% down from 2.5%- 3% last year. wondering if this is more than the bugs.

[mountainvan]

by the way thanks for the good thoughts sent my way. went to the hospital yesterday and have surgery tuesday. I'm getting a bit wussy with this one. last time I did'nt really know what was going to happen and how much it friggen hurts. now I do. knowledge is not always better, ignorance is truly bliss. got my ro fixed today and more tubing to hang next weekend, gotta keep looking foward. by the way brandon ( I figure you read every post) do you know of a tom bone from beckley? he's my brother inlaw.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Van,

Never heard of him. I have lived here about 7 years and lived about 25 minutes from here the rest of my life. Beaver is on the outskirts of Beckley. :)

[mountainvan]

sap started flowing again here today. walked tubing, added so more taps, and sold syrup. perfect day.

[mountainvan]

added more taps today, will add more tomorrow, not enough sap to collect till tuesday, if it flows tomorrow. took down my test tap from jan. and the tree was still dripping, that's unusual. hung more buckets than I should have, tapped a bunch of maples on a nice flat, looked across the stream to the hill and more maples. maybe next year.

[mountainvan]

some sap but not enough to collect. maybe they'll bust lose wednesday. just been getting too cold at night, 14 and the mountains hold the cold, to have a good full day flow. thursday and friday at the latest for sap here.

[mountainvan]

sap sap sap sap sap sap sap sap!! finally some sap!! starting to flow good, rinsing out membranes and will be boiling tomorrow through april!!!

[mountainvan]

bout 1000 gal sap today. sugar % up from1.6 to 2. still light amber after everythings been sitting for almost a month. saps still flowing but can't get it till tomorrow afternoon. start my treatments in the morning. good thing I have lots of sap to look forward to!!

[mountainvan]

made 25 gallon light-medium. saps still flowing so will be boiling saturday. made it through my treatment with only a little moaning. only 5 more to go. makes me enjoy sugaring even more.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

Van,

We collected over 200 gallons the past three days. Everything has been boiled down close to final product. We will finish this weekend. Temps do not look promising for another run anytime soon.

[mountainvan]

I collected only 200 gals today, made it 4% with the ro and took my time boiling it down. bottled 50 gallons of syrup the last three days. flipped my tanks over and will clean everything monday for the next big flow middle of next week. tomorrow I sleep!! rusty bucket what's your sap sugar%? how much syrup you finish?

[mountainvan]

28 degrees here last night so some sap. buckets did better than tubing, so should have a couple hundred gallons. getting cold again tuesday and good sugaring weather for the next two weeks, hopefully. cleaned tanks, got a haircut, and took a long nap today.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

Van,

To date we've got 8 gallons bottled with another 4-5 to finish off. We've never checked the sugar content of our sap. Checked the buckets saturday morning and everything was dry.


Russ

[Jay]

MV, we have been running about 2% which I think is about the norm. Jay

[mountainvan]

made another 5 gal today, went to dark, should go back up to medium after it cools down. getting the saphouse cleaned up for the weekend, my doctor made me an appointment for saturday in the city, I called real fast and said, "no way"! going to sell lots of syrup!! I've been feeling better lately, must be all the fresh air and syrup. still been taken naps, get tired more easily than before.

[Russell Lampron]

Van it's good to hear that you are feeling better. Theres nothing better than making maple syrup to lift the spirits at a time in the year when you can't do anything else anyway.

Russ

[mountainvan]

what a weird day. 34 and very windy, sap flowed at home, 1 mile down the road, lower elevation, but 1/4 mile up the road no sap and a couple inches of snow, a little higher elevation. spent today cleaning the saphouse for openhouse, walking tubing, and relaxing. Hopefully it will warm up a bit and the wind die down. From the amount of sapflow down the road the alcohol sanitizing seemed to help keep bacteria down. de in the flat filters works wel,l just need a string of good days to start making a lot of syrup. at least there's no 50's in the 15 day forcast.

[Jay]

Mountainvan,here to real strang only got up to 35 or so with a strong NW wind,sap started to run about 10:30 and ran right up to 5:00 when it started to freeze, had about 225 that I took over to my friends place tonight and sap was 2.7.

[mountainvan]

collected about 500 gallons this evening. lower elevation was flowing hard, 2 miles up the road nothing. running it through the ro and uv light as I type, can look out and see the ro tank emptying. took two naps today, fell asleep on the couch with the cat and dog, one on either side. Tomorrow back to the doctor then maple weekend and hopefully more sap,

[mountainvan]

made it through treatment 2, 4 to go. saps just starting to flow so I'll have some for sundays openhouse. good luck to all nysmpa members who are having the openhouse this year.

[mountainvan]

What a busy day. lost count of visitors, and syrup sold, and almost burnt up the rig. I was talking and a friend was boiling. I ask him to check the back tank, came back in and said it was empty and he just stoked. went out calmly and pumped the sap from yesterday in the back tank, went in and disconnected the float to get sap in fast. looked at the flue pan, way too close to dry!!. luckily my arch is higher in the back so the syrup pan still had 3/4 in it. if it were level would have had black smoke. lucky lucky lucky. local paper was here and took lots of photos for the paper tomorrow. russ make sure to get the freeman!! hopefully tomorrow will be as busy. had people come up from new york city just to see the sugaring.

[mountainvan]

yep today was much busier. will finish what's in the front pans on the stove, made extra drk today, dump the flue pan and blast the pans with the pressure washer. hopefully that will get me back up to medium this week, if we get sap. tomorrow I may just sleep.

[Parker]

Wow,,that would have been embarassing,,burning up the rig on mapleweekend,,,with a newspaper reporter,,might have made the front page,,, 8O

[mountainvan]

yep it would have been.did'nt make the front page but the third. had a good number of guys who have 5-50 taps out and had time to tell some of them my close call. think it made them feel better knowing the big guys can mess up too!! no sap for today but looks good for midweek. today is cleaning everything in and around the saphouse. start round three right.

[mountainvan]

Did'nt get much done yesterday. Bottled what I made sunday, extra dark in NY, and drained and cleaned my evaporator. Between the two got pretty sick and had to lay down for awhile. I have a new alias around here now after this weekend, The sap king of Shandakan. Yep I'm king of the saps. Going to buy more bottles today and that's about it. Take a day off before the sap starts to pour out of the taps!!

[Russell Lampron]

Had a close call on sunday myself. The heater in my RO room had failed and everything was frozen. Borrowed a heater from my mother and got everything thawed out. Luckily I had some sap to boil so I was able to check out the pumps and membrane. Everything turned out ok but I was nervous for a while.

Russ

[Russell Lampron]

Van get as much rest as you can. The sap is going to start flowing again this week and we want you healthy. Maple sugaring is the best therapy.

Russ

[mountainvan]

thanks russ, had to sleep a little extra this morning but was awoken by someone calling to buy syrup, then a couple other calls for a tour, so was in the saphouse most of the day talking maple and selling syrup. went and got more bottles, a new catskill mountain bottle designed by tom kaufman, more ro prefilters, and filter aid for my flat filters. sap ran some today so I'll walk tubing tomorrow and watch it pour in the tanks!! got offered another 200 acres to tap next year, will tap some of the 50 down the road, but not the 150 about 10 miles away and 600 ft higher. had karioke night tonight, got my 11 year old daughter one for her birthday. my wife thought is was a great idea till she heard us do a duet!! here's to great sapflow for the next week.

[Jay]

Mountianvan,where do you get those Catskill mountian bottles? they sound interesting. Thanks, Jay

[mountainvan]

hey jay, I got the bottles from tom kaufman at catskill mountain maple. the bottles are made by sugarhill and have nice graphics, with no horses on the bottle, or corny racoons in hats riding a horse drawn sleigh through the woods. I usually but the les cruchon bottles, but tom ask me try these so I am. If your up this way stop by and take a look or go see tom in delancey. this could be a good way to market pure Catskill maple syrup, best in the Catskills or anywhere else. yep thems fighting words!!

[lew]

Mountainvan, how can you claim to make the best syrup anywhere? Havn't you heard that we make the best syrup in the world up here in Smithville Flats?

[mountainvan]

lew sent me a sample, 609 oliverea rd oliverea ny 12410 and I'll do an "impartial" taste test. I have to be honest I'm an eagle scout!! had a mapler and his son stop yesterday, gave them a taste of the extra drk I just bottled. dad said it was good, son said it was a lot better than his dad made!!

[lew]

Ouch!!! That must of hurt.

As far as "impartial" taste tests, maybe it would be a fun idea to have a syrup contest here on mapletrader. Think there would be any interest? No prizes or ribbons, just some fun.

[mountainvan]

no sap here today, just more snow!! walked some tubing and found where something with big canines punched holes in my mainline. always the same 20' streach for the past 5 years, at least I know to look for it. I think it's a coyote but not sure. hopefully I'll get sap starting tomorrow. this weather pattern is getting annoying here!!

[mountainvan]

forgot to tell the whole story lew. dad saw I have a tv in the saphouse and said to his son," We'll have to get one of those in our sugarhouse next year so I'll have something to look at other than your ugly face". Seemed to be a little tension there. as for the syrup tasting send it up and see how many salute.

[jmattice]

Hi Mountainvan,
Boy this catskill mt. weather has been weird lately hasn't it.We haven't boiled in almost two weeks. Hopefully by the weekend we'll have some sap!!
John

[mountainvan]

weather looks good for the next week and I'm kinda rested from the weekend, but people keep stopping to but syrup! fixing tubing today. it figures though that the sap starts to flow when I have to go the doctor. good thing I got that extra tank.

[mountainvan]

sap started flowing today, not real hard but enough to get me excited. South side of a big maple across the road was 36 and flowing, north side was 32 and barely wet, air temp was 42. Looks like sugaring season is finally starting!! I have to make syrup, orders are stacking up and I hate to open what I put in bulk a month ago. Go for another treatment tomorrow but by noon should be out collecting sap. John where's Ashland? Yes weathers been weird since I moved here from Ohio. No mile wide tornados here though!!

[Jay]

MV, Ashland is in Greene county about 15 minutes from me here in Cornwallville

[RUSTYBUCKET]

Van,

Just checking in to say we've been busy the past week. Probably will end up with another 10 gallons by the time the week is done. Temps are predicted to hit 50's next week and the buds are swelling up so we are winding down here. The batches this week have been dark but the taste is good. Collected another 80 gallons last night so I'm heading out to the shed now to boil.

Van, I did get the Freeman last sunday and wondered if that was your mug shot. I'm sure the expression on your face would of been alot different had you torched your pans :D Good luck with your treatments.


Russ

[mountainvan]

hey russ, had some guys from tillson here this week said they were pretty much done. saps flowing good now so will go collecting in a bit and boil tonght. treatment was easier today, guess I'm healed up from surgeries, which makes less yelling from me to the doctor. glad to hear your making syrup, I still have 400 gallons to go to make this a normal year. Hey, I was the best looking sugarer in the paper this week!! Front page of the townsman too!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Best looking, is that saying much. :?: 8O :wink:

[mountainvan]

got 500 gallons today at 2.2% sugar, highest yet this year. saps still flowing strong so should have several thousand gallons tomorrow. missed my help today, my wife, lifting buckets of sap was not the best thing to do today. early bedtime for me.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

Van,

Wow, two newspaper stories! There are some folks I know that made the headlines a couple of times. Unlike you, there quote was, "Not guilty your Honor". :D


Russ

[mountainvan]

woke up to snow and 36. must have gotten below 32 so hopefully the trees froze a bit. checked my buckets by the house, full!! seems the alcohol made a difference. last year at this time was getting a slower flow and reamed holes. I'll find out for sure after it's all collected. So away we go in the snow to collect what flowed, from the trees.

[mountainvan]

1100 gallons sap at 2.2 , bottled 26 with a couple left in the canner. went back up to light amber after making b last weekend. guess emptying and cleaning the evaporator was a good thing. first year doing that.

[Russell Lampron]

Van the syrup grade may have more to do with the sap than the evaporator. I was making "B", changed my front pan (which wasn't as dirty as I thought it was) and cleaned my flue pan and still made "B" the next boil. Then with the fresh sap from the last 2 days the grade has come up to a light dark amber. Hoping to make med amber today.

Russ

[mountainvan]

Yep, did'nt have any sap flow for a week and it was cold here so everything was still somewhat clean, tubing, tanks, etc. most years I've gone up to med. from b, but this syrup I made last night was like a real clear cream. only made syrup that light once before in 14 years. snow again last night, nothing like collecting sap with fresh snow on the mountains. got the best "office"!!

[mountainvan]

1500 gallons sap today, bottled 30 gals light. saps still flowing so have to start collecting at 6 to be at the doctor at 12, probably won't get all the sap but enough to keep it from overflowing. now for a couple beers.

[mapleman3]

I too was amazed at how light some of my syrup was.. way lighter than the light on the vermont scale...

[mountainvan]

collected 500 gallons this morning then went to another doctor in westchester and got good news on my cancer. another hospital stay in june will answer if I'm cancer free. stopped to check my big tanks on the way home, full!! collected another 1400 gallons with probably another 500 in the woods, little unsafe out there this late and this tired. tomorrow will boil it and should make around 50 gallons syrup. the one tree, 3 taps to a 5 gallon bucket, I did'nt use the alcohol for had a 1/2 gallon of yellow sap everything was clear and flowing hard all day. hope everyone else did so well today.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Van,

Are you using rubbing alcohol?? :oops: Forgive me, I'm stupid, but am not sure. :oops:

[mountainvan]

just got in, boiled from 630-1100 went collecting boiled again, finished 60 gallons of medium amber. most I've ever made in a day and sap was flowing hard this aftenoon. used isopropyl alcohol on the spiles brandon, seemed to do the trick.

[mountainvan]

spent all day cleaning up and collecting sap. got another 1800 gallons just finished through the ro. way to tired to boil or do any thing else. try to get up early and get it boiled before the sap starts to flow hard again. my wife said I should be careful what I wish for, I may get it!!

[mountainvan]

made 30+ gallons med-drk yesterday morning, went collecting till 7 and got another 1400 gals sap, made another 30 drk-b. got below freezing last night so it may run again. going to the doctor, then out to see what sap I have. all at once sap almost makes this feel like work!!

[mountainvan]

four treatments done two to go. too tired to do anything till about 3 then went and got 400 gallons of sap. pretty cloudy but should make b thanks to the uv light. supposed to get cold again here next week so I'm hanging in. there's still snow on the mountains which helps cool it down at night.

[mountainvan]

finished and bottled 15 gals extra dark this morning, lightened up from yesterday and taste good too!.was going to run water in behind the sap and clean out the rig, but supposed to get cold tonight. have to go out and clean tanks, some of them are a little ripe!! might get a couple more good runs this week if the sap gods are in good spirits.

[mountainvan]

started cleaning tanks and buckets for round four this week. down in the hudson valley the maples have budded, but at 1500 ft the trees still think it's winter. dumped some sap today that was'nt too bad but not enough to collect and mess with. found out yesterday that a syrup producer in hamden,ny lost his saphouse to fire. always at least one a year that burns down or blows up.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Blows up, are the boiling dyamite?? 8O 8O 8O

[jmattice]

Mountainvan,
Who was the producer in Hamden that lost their saphouse?
John

[mountainvan]

guy who lost his sugarhouse was paul, can't remember his last name. the saphouse that blew up was at white lake. used propane to fire with, big boom I was told. that sugarmaker has since died. 28 degrees here last night. hope it was cold enough to get the trees going again.

[mountainvan]

finished cleaning tanks and buckets. buckets were flowing good, tubing nothing, sooo, I reamed out 600 taps from 3-5, had to take a nap after lunch, and got the sap a flowing again. will do another 700 tomorrow and then will GET MORE SAP!!! snow tonight and sap tomorrow!!

[sapman]

Mountainvan,

I've got to hand it to you! It's great to hear from someone who is still enthusiastic about the season! I've injoyed following how things have been going for you, and hope it continues for awhile more.

Tim

[mountainvan]

houston we have snow and the weatherman says good sugaring weather another week up here. reds on the road have budded, I think, but still getting sap from them. I think I'll boil some on the stove and see how it turns out. reds in the woods look ok, but not reaming them just in case.

[mountainvan]

thanks for the compliment Tim. this morning over coffee at our local store most guys were ready to whack me over the head for being happy about the snow and cooler temps. all except ther ones working at the ski centers, their happy too. finished reaming all the holes I know are worth it. did about 1500 in two days. this morning was incredible with the snow sticking to everything, hav'nt seen that since november. will go and collect tomorrow, buckets are close to full and the tubing I reamed flowed a little today and yesterday. this weekend will be the test if my hard work is worth it ,or I get very little sap or make cruddy syrup.

[mountainvan]

got a couple inches snow last night and down to 28. if it's going to flow today is it, unless it does'nt warm up which for this year would'nt suprise me at all.

[mountainvan]

got about 400 gal this morning and sap started flowing midmorning, but the the snow started and slowed things down. will probably end up with 1000-1500 gals to boil tomorrow afternoon. went to get more bottles and 5gal containers, have enough for another 100 gal syrup. right now I'm beat, going to sit on the couch and fall asleep with the dog!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Van,

How many taps are you running??

[mountainvan]

snow again last night, a dusting, and temps in the 40's today. should flow fairly well. I figure I have about 1500 taps that I reamed Brandon. Did'nt do reds or 300 taps on a neighbors that was worried about caterpillars last summer. with reaming, those of you wondering, I go into the same hole with the same size bit, 5/16 brad point, and go in another 1/4". most years I've done it I get nasty wood from the sides, but not this year. all the holes were wet and dripping slowly, I just wanted MORE SAP!! will collect in a bit and then boil, hopefully I'll still have good syrup.

[mountainvan]

just got in. collected 1200 gal sap 1.6% sugar, same as most of the year. syrup was dark amber but will label it extra drk cause of extra flavor. cleaned out the flue pan monday but left the stuff in the front pans. after sitting for a couple days it got a little kick. the hippies in woodstock love syrup with a strong flavor, and this has it. saps flowing ok now so will collect and boil after my treatment tomorrow. after that only one more to go. was supposed to go to Ohio next week, but still have sap and I'm not up for a long trip yet.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Van,

What is your total taps for the year and how much syrup have you made. You seemed to have had a great year?? :D :D

[mountainvan]

27 last night, 40s today. looks good for at least the next 5 days here. brandon, I started in feb. with 1600 all on tubing. then added buckets after a week or two, did'nt think I would be able to hande them with my medical issue, but hung them any way. 5 years ago I had cracked ribs and hoisted a lot of buckets. then I kept adding taps, so I was somewhere around 2000 taps. I've collected 17000 gal sap, which in a normal sugar % year would give me over 400 gals syrup, but with low % I'm around 300 so far. seems there's always something messing with sugaring. to the doctor this morning for my treatment then out to get sap. with everything that's happened to me this year, just making some syrup makes it a good year! mentioned to my wife awhile back about the other mt's dealing with cancer in their families, said it seemed to be more common. she said I was getting old and that old people get cancer more often. still not sure how to take that!

[mountainvan]

survived another treatment and collected 1000 gal sap. still1.6%. ran it through the ro and will boil the concentrate tomorrow. big bush on the hill had the most sap, 600 gals. bush I did'nt ream had about 50-100gals in the tank, but it was white so I'll dump it and flip that tank over for the year. got to go get the ro cleaned and rinsed and them I'm taking the night off.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I guess you fit the saying well, "Can't keep a good man down". :D You are an inspiration to all of us and get a good night's rest and may your sap pour tommorrow! :D

[RUSTYBUCKET]

Van,

Like Brandon said, you are an inspiration to all! We pulled taps and buckets about 10 days ago. I know what you mean about sugaring in the hills. Relatives of my neighbor are still boiling in the Catskill hills. Some of those hollows stay chilled 3-4 weeks after we've pulled out. Given the erradic weather for the year, we finished with about the same amount as last year, 24 gallons. With the coming of spring, its time to change the focus of fun and get back to the ponds and growing fish.

Russ

[mountainvan]

thanks for the compliment. made 14 gals this morning, went from dark with a slight kick to light that tastes great. weird year for sure, never did as much light as this year. sugar sand was minimal today also. going out to get more sap and boil again this evening. that will give me sunday kinda off.

[Parker]

how many gallons have you made from how many taps,,how many on vacume,,has the re-tapping made a huge diffrance?

[mountainvan]

ended up with 20 gals bottled and a bit more in the canner. got another 400 gals sap only one five gal bucket was off color, kinda yellow, but took it all. went to medium by the end of the day. had a lot of visitors to the saphouse today and all of them thought the syrup I was making was delicious, a plus was they bought some too. parker I've done about 300, still have some from the huge run week that is sitting in a 30 gal pot settling, could'nt keep up filtering wise. I had around 2000 taps and now have gotten almost 20,000 gals sap. no vacuum at all, only two days this year it would have helped much. since i reamed, I did not retap, I've got 3000 gal sap and made about 40 gals extra drk-light. so for 2 days really busting my butt I've earned another $1600 and it's going to flow hard for the next couple days here. So reaming the holes definitely paid off for me. I've reamed holes at least 10 different years and it worked well except for last year after our flood. tomorrow is cleaning tanks before it warms up and cleaning up the saphouse, so no day off, oh heck this is better than a day off.

[sapman]

Again, Mountainvan, an inspiration! My boss went through chemo 16 years ago in his early 30's, and he struggled to run our business, not really being able to do much. He's been clear of cancer ever since!

If it were me, I think I'd be taking the year off, which would probably be worse for my health, though. Staying active and upbeat is the best medicine?

Tim

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Van,

Interesting perspective on reaming the holes as you put it. I decided to play with it a little this year and I originally tapped with a 19/64" bit and then went back and hit the some of the holes with a 5/16" bit and it didn't seem to help hardly any. :? Maybe because the holes had already stopped running. :? I am always experimenting to see what happens under different circumstances and the two times I did it, it helped very little. :?

[mountainvan]

when I tap I go in 1.5". reaming I go in 1/4" deeper getting to fresh wood, I think that's what does it for me. as the boy scout motto says,"be prepared". now I'm giving all my sugaring secrets away!!

[mountainvan]

22 last night, 50 right now. sap is flowing quite well. got all my tanks cleaned before it warmed up, sold some syrup, and now I'm going to relax. tomorrow looks like it will be the end here. no more freezing nights and daytime temps in the 60s.

[mountainvan]

is that all the sap you're getting for tonght? what a nice question my wife just asked me. got back from town and went sap collecting. ro tank is half full and there's about another 1000 gals to get tomorrow. not bad for april.

[ibby458]

Mountainvan - what's the elevation of your sugar bushes? I'm impressed with the runs you're getting this late in the season!

We gathered 540 gallons yesterday. Some slight cloudiness in a few buckets, but mostly clear as water. Those 18 degree nights help a lot!

Sugar has dropped to the 2.3 range, but it still oughta make nice syrup.

[mountainvan]

my saphouse is 1500' with a bush across the road. down the road is 300 taps at about 1400', and up the road the top of the big bush is about 2000' starting at maybe 1650'. 27 right now, so more sap flow today. my sugar% has been at 1.6% for most of the season.

[mountainvan]

another 20 gals syrup in bulk to be canned in the summer/fall. went from drk to med. good flavor still, mixed some in a sample jar with the b sitting unfiltered in the pot, great dark amber. two of my sugarbushes have called it a year, so I have 1200 taps flowing good today.

[ibby458]

I thought you must be up pretty high. Our elevation here not far from the St. Lawrence is around 390 ft.

Boiled 15 gallons of nice flavored grade C yesterday, then Gathered 250 gallons of 2.3%, and started pulling the harder-to-reach buckets that were dry.

No freeze predicted for a week, so I'd say we're done after today's gather. Some buckets were dry yesterday, but quite a few of the huge maples were still squirting out an almost steady stream. I got 2 36-48 dbh trees that overflow 4 buckets every day.

[mountainvan]

put another 10 gals drk in bulk with some left in the canner. collected 1500 gals sap last two days, thought today would be it, but was 27 here last night and the trees that are still flowing are doing good. weird thing is my big red in front of the saphouse, which I did'nt ream and tapped in march, had both buckets full to the top, check sugar % and was still 2.0. boiled it down some on the stove to see what it will make, will finish tomorrow, unless it gets cold again tonight. have made 51 gals since I reamed which brings me over 300 for the year, now I'm content.

[mountainvan]

The fat tree has sung and the 2006 season is done here in the catskills. pulled buckets and tanks from the woods today. got all the buckets and most of the tanks cleaned and put away for next year. got the ro washed and membranes in preservative. tomorrow I have to get the evaporator cleaned and all syrup bottled or a bear is finally going to break in. my front door got split down the side of the hinges but held, 3" deck screws did the trick. will be somewhere around 320 gals for the year. this is a sugaring season that I will remember for a long time. the extra effort my family put into this years production was wonderful. when I was too tired to lift another bucket or get more wood for evaporator my wife or son would just show up to take over and my daughter had a drink and snack. the kind thoughts and offers of help from fellow sugarers was much appreciated, so I say thank you.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Van,

Keep us posted on your treatments and recovery, we are still pulling for you and praying for you! :D :wink:

[Parker]

I enjoyed reading your posts this year,,way to hang in there!!

[mountainvan]

made another 10 gals dark this morning running water in and pushing most of the sweet to the frontpan. syrup completly lost the kick and was as good as I made in march. got the evaporator cleaned and ready for next year. all my tanks are clean, so I just have about 10 miles of tubing to wash, rinse, and then plug the spiles. usually takes me a week of good weather to get it all done. tomorrow is my last treatment!!! that feels good to write. also I'm finally putting my maple sign up on the local highway. only took since december to get it done!!

[mountainvan]

last treatment was today. when the doctor said they'd get tougher he was'nt kidding. glad I have no sap today. will have a biopsy in june, doctor says I'm cancer free. nothing like positive thinking.

[Al]

What good news! Glad to hear everything is working out for you and your family. Just picked up our buckets and now have to start cleaning them out.
Take care

[Russell Lampron]

Van,

Sugaring season was probably the best time for you to have to go through your treatments. Plenty of steam therapy to make you feel better not to mention all of the excersize you got tapping, gathering and boiling. Good luck and keep us posted.

Russ

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Best thing is go, go, go, not lay around and feel sorry for yourself. Keeps you stronger and helps bounce back faster! :D :D :D

[mountainvan]

ok, now I'm done making syrup for 2006. emptied the front pan into buckets thursday and finished it on the stove this morning. another 4 gals to add to the total. next week is cleaning tubing, the worst job in sugaring. have read other post about guys not cleaning their tubing, how they can make decent syrup is beyond me.

[lew]

mountainvan

I took over a 3500 tap sugarbush froma fella several years ago that had never washed the tubing in 15 years. Actually I bought his entire operation including evaporator. I put his evaporator in my sugarhouse alongside our evaporators planning on boiling the sap from this one "dirty" woods on his old set of pans and my "clean" woods sap on my set of pans, side by side. Well, to my amazement, the sap from the dirty woods made just as much light syrup as the "clean" woods. In fact, some years it made more light syrup than the other woods. There were alot of "tubing snakes" that came down the lines, and we did have to replace the cartridge filters on that RO more often, but that "dirty" woods didn't make a lot of commercial syrup like I expected. I think what happens in unwashed tubing, is that the sap eventually ferments to the point that it becomes a wewak acid like vinegar and this somewhat "washes" the tubing nd the first run flushes out a lot of the crap. But you will get stuff coming out of the lines all through the season. Even though I have experienced this for myself, I still can't bring myself to not wash my tubing. Just some food for thought.

[brookledge]

I also know some one who never washes or cleans anything and he only sell sap now but when he did boil he would make fancy syrup may be not as much as others but still did.
But that doesn't change my mind either I still wash mine.
Keith

[mountainvan]

I guess it would work like leaving sap in the evaporator for a couple months after sugaring season to get the pans clean. I did that one year at the camp. it worked, but man did it stink!!! plus the first boil of the next year smelled the same way. last year I did'nt do a good job cleaning up from sugaring, due to the big flood of 05, I ended up replacing some tubing due to the red fungus growing inside. when it comes to cleanliness and sugaring I may be a bit overboard. I want all my equipment looking and smelling as new as possible. I'm making something that thousands of people a year eat, that fact makes me very careful with my sugaring operation. plus I'm not only representing my own farm, but everyone else who makes, and sells, maple syrup. it won't take much bad press for the industry as a whole to suffer. look at the whole mad cow thing. if I was a consumer of maple and saw nasty tubing used to collect the sap made to make the syrup, I'd probably think twice about eating maple syrup. ok I'm done ranting now. time for a beer.

[Russell Lampron]

Enjoy that beer Van you deserve it. I agree with you and the others that have posted about keeping things clean. I wash my tubing as I pull the taps and keep my tanks and evaproator as clean as possible too. I want to make the best product possible because my customers deserve it.

Russ

[mountainvan]

cleaned 5 miles of tubing today, 700 taps. only pain was the spiles with the little holes in them and one section chewed up by a porky. tomorrow I'm staying on the flat. these mountains are steep!!

[mountainvan]

washed more tubing, and still more to do. saw,and killed, a forest tent caterpillar today. hopefully they are'nt as bad this year. not seeing egg cases on the twigs so that's a good sign. almost time to get the fishing gear out.

[mountainvan]

said two days ago, these mountains are steep. well I washed the tubing 1/4 mile up the road, spots are feet and hands on the ground while climbing up, almost a cliff. had a close call, almost got caught up in a rock slide I caused. Was standing on a big boulder when it decided to roll down the hill. it took quite a few smaller rocks with it for about 50 ft. hit one of my nice maples causing a gouge in the trunk. sugaring is an adventurous occupation.

[mountainvan]

had to take a day off. my spirit is willing to wash more tubing, but my body was not. glad I saved my energy for baseball with my daughter this evening.

[mountainvan]

went and sold what c I had, 95lbs=$133. glad I sell everything else retail. talked to garth atherton of maplepro and mentioned using filteraid with flat filters. nothing new to him. maybe filterpresses are slightly overrated? had to leave early and go back to bed. guess I'm still healing or have become a wuss. from talking to other producers this morning those that tapped in jan. had a poor year and the rest had an average year. bought bottles and a couple rolls of tubing and that's it for this year. I'm saving my money to pay for gas to go fishing this summer.

[mountainvan]

cleaned more tubing today. yee-haw. turned a pair of my work pants into "hip" pants by spilling bleach down the back of each leg. should take them into the city and sell them for big bucks. should finish cleaning tubing tomorrow then back in the saphouse to bottle syrup. fishing this weekend!!

[mountainvan]

more cleaning of the tubing today. at least I'm washing, rinsing, and drying/plugging on the same day so I won't have to go back up that hill till next winter. on more small bush to wash tomorrow then I'm all cleaned up!!

[Fred Henderson]

There is a guy up here that makes 7000 gals of syrup a year and he don't wash no tubing in none of the bushes that he lease's.

[mountainvan]

if I had that many taps I may not wash either. went to Phonecia, NY to get my daughter from school and looked at the maples there. pulled down a branch and all the forest tent caterpillars egg cases were perforated. my daughter screamed, she's only 11, I looked up the branch from where I was holding and there were so many tiny caterpillars that the tree looked alive, I almost screamed too. Looks like the **** things are going to worse this year than last in that area.

[GregMVT]

Last Saturday I took down a couple of cherry trees that were dieing to use as a base for some cordwood that's coming next week. At the top of one was a bunch of caterpillars about a 1/2 inch long, kind of depressing to see them this early. The good news is that the temp is 24 this morning so with any luck the little buggers will have frostbite on every one of thier feet!! :lol:

Greg

[mountainvan]

finally finished washing tubing. have a couple bushes to plug the spiles which I want to do before the black flies start to bite. once they get bad I stay out of the woods for about a week or two. not sure about the caterpillars this year, killed alot of them with my blow torch today. probably not doing much to the whole population but it made me feel better. ordered some thoricin today and will spray the maples around my saphouse and in the yard, and may do some roadside trees.

[mountainvan]

One more bush to plug and I'm pretty much set for next year in the woods. Now to get into the sales/bottling/making sugars and cream mode. sales have been good this spring, 15% over last year and 110% over two years ago. I may be able to pay for gas to go fishing. Soon it may come down to beer or gas, what a dilemma. at least it's not food or gas!!

[markcasper]

not yet! 8)

[Russell Lampron]

When it comes down to beer or gas it'll be just enough gas to get back to the store to get more beer.

Russ

[mountainvan]

russ that's the best thing I've read yet!! went back to Phonecia to get pizza, my wife was standing in front of a big full crowned sugar maple so I said, I'm not sure which is prettier you or the tree. Not a good look from her after that one. well the deck of the place and that tree were covered in little caterpillars, I almost screamed again. went up in one of my bushes today to plug spiles and look for the nasty caterpillars, found some but not as many as phonecia, a foot section of mainline was chewed like a dog does to a frisbee, but larger canines. not sure why smokey wanted to chew it up, but he did. I'm not planning on writting on this subject anymore this year. Had in my mind about a month ago that I wanted to have 5000 views to something I started writing, and tonight was it. I've actually enjoyed writing my thoughts and experiences these past several months. My 7th grade english teacher would be suprised, I never did write a journal for class. Thanks to everyone on mapletrader for giving me a chance to focus on what I love, maple sugaring, at a time in my life when I really needed it. Now it's time for that beer Russ!!

[super sappy]

I picked one off the apple tree outside the local gunshop today.We have been lucky the last couple of years.Man I thought maple stuff was expensive so are handguns. I drove out over willard mt.Tonight From up there I could see lots of trees to tap. Several logging opperations setting up also.I think that in 10 years there will not be a stand of timber left within 5 miles of my house. No trees no catapillars :?your journal was a great read,Thanks -SS

[mountainvan]

6000 views. what's going on here? Am I becoming famous?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Just an inspiration to a lot of others! :D :wink:

[mountainvan]

Had another biopsy 6/6/06, third one is not a charm. Had a hard time before the surgery and got sick again after. Slept for most of tuesday and wednesday, finally feeling better thursday afternoon. My doctor called last night with the lab results, and I don't have cancer anymore!!!

[Parker]

CONGARDULATIONS!!!!! I am happy to hear that

[mountainvan]

Wow 11,000 views!!

[Sugarmaker]

We are all rooting for you!!!! :D :D

[mountainvan]

It's still 2006 so... I could'nt wait any longer. I tapped my test tree down by the creek today. Sap was dripping into the bucket at a good rate. I'm interested in what the sugar % is, could give me an idea for next spring. By the way, Go El Nino!!!! Keep it mild all winter.

[mountainvan]

Checked my test bucket across the road, 1/2 full and 2% sugar content. That's very good for December.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Extremely mild here last winter and by far the worst sugar content I have ever seen. I hope you keep all the mild winter in NY.

[mountainvan]

I'll try!! Saps still flowing should have 5 gallons tomorrow night. Think I'll make some syrup this weekend!

[Revi]

Last year a lot of people tapped in January, this year it's December for Mountain Van! Will it be November next year? That would interfere with hunting season. Let us know how it works out! Makes me want to get the buckets out.

[mountainvan]

Got a couple more gallons of sap today, boiling it now on the stove. I should have fresh maple syrup for Christmas breakfast. Sugar % is still 2. Have been fixing tubing in my other bushes this week, plus a visit to the doctor. Have another biopsy jan. 2nd, so I'll be ready to go by the 10th!!

[mountainvan]

12,000 views. I'm honored.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

Mountainvan,

Next weekend I'll be heading into the bush to tap. With my neighbor out for the season due to shoulder surgery, I'm going to reduce the number of taps. This week looks like a chilly one.

Russ

[mountainvan]

I tapped 800 in Jan., another 2,200 when it warms up again. Hope that comes soon, cause I'm almost out of syrup again. Went to New Patlz yesterday for a winter farmers market and sold most of what I canned up. Was down your way at Mirror lake icefishing last week, caught some big largemouths. How many taps you running this year? If you want a hand give me a holler.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

This year I'm going to start with 40-50. Everything is ready to go. The unusually warm weather a month ago offered a good opportunity to spend a few days in the sugar house getting things prepped.


Ice fishing Mirror Lake put you about 1 mile from my place. We spent most of last weekend ice skating. All the neighborhood kids had a great time which is good. They will become my bucket haulers in a couple of weeks.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

My brother hauled a 7+ pounder LMB out of that lake about 6-7 years ago. I know a few guys that fish there and asked them about the crappie fishing. They said the ones they caught had an off-flavor. I thought about fishing my little bluegill pond yesterday but the wind chased me off.

[Jim Brown]

I wonder if they can even find the Tops of trees in New York with all that snow!

[mountainvan]

That's up by lake Ontario. Here in the Catskills we don't have much snow. Heading done to Sturgeon Pool for ice walleye tomorrow. Looks like I'll be doing more icefishing and no sapping for awhile according to the long range weather. Down to four gals from Jan.. Got to make some syrup soon!!

[mountainvan]

Tapped a little over 300 today on my very steep bush. Made some small avalanches this morning, and snowman bottoms this afternoon. Going was tough all day, but sap was flowing by 11:00 am. Went to start my honda engine for my vacuum, no go. Had to drive 30 minutes to the car parts store and get a 13/16" plug socket. Turns out the plug was fouled, probably from running the engine at low rpms for 48hrs straight. Cleaned it up, and I'm back in the vacuum. Going to hopefully do another 500 tomorrow since there all on relatively flat land for here.

[mountainvan]

Put in another 400 today, and will tap in the morning. Afternoon I'll be collecting sap. Not a huge run today, but should get over 500 gals of sap. Have not tested the sugar% of this run, I'm curious to see if this cold spell pushed it up.

[mountainvan]

I had a fairly busy day yesterday. Got the amount of sap I thought I would, 350 gls from 800 taps with vac that I tapped in Jan., 100 gals from 300, and 50 from 100 that I tapped this week. So the taps with vac. from Jan. did better that the new taps. Guess the cold kept bacteria from growing, sterilizing the spile may have helped too. Sugar content was the same 1.8%, cold did'nt help it. Spent most of the morning getting ready to boil and the afternoon boiling. Actually only 2hrs boiling, the rest hanging out with folks who stopped by to buy some really fresh syrup. Going to empty and clean my rig today and clear snow. Fun fun!!

[mountainvan]

Got my evaporator sparkling clean. Hoping for some sapflow this week, I sold the syrup I made yesterday already. Word got out that I was boiling so folks came on in. It's nice being noticed out here in the woods!!

[cropseyvillemark]

Van,Isaw a maple sign on rt. 28 when I was on my way to belleayre.Is that you?

[mountainvan]

Yeah that's me. I'm three miles up the road. If you ever head that way any tubing, tanks,and buckets are mine. It's nice being close to the ski center, when they're busy I'm busy. Tapped a few more trees today, no sap, and cleaned up around the saphouse. Pretty much out of syrup again, I need a good 60 gal. day, or 10.

[mountainvan]

put in a couple hundred more taps today. One tree was flowing out of all of them! Should finish tubing tuesday and get to buckets on wednesday.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

MountainVan,

Still no flow here. Hung a few more buckets last Saturday. Hopefully we'll see somthing this week.

[mountainvan]

Finished tapping the trees on tubing and started on buckets. Put in around 300 all together. Sap started to flow from smaller trees at 3:00. They're teasing me, dang trees!!

[mountainvan]

tapped most of my buckets today and sap was flowing good by noon. Of course I tapped the bush that was flooded in 2005, along with my house, and now the nws has us under a flood watch, and a winter storm watch! Wish they would make up their mind so I would now what to be neurotic about. Should have enough sap tomorrow to boil.

[mountainvan]

Ended up with a couple hundred gals of sap today, not enough to mess with, so I'll wait to get more tomorrow. That sap came from my vacuum, everything else was froze solid as it got down to 9 last night. Sugar content went up to 2.2% so that's a good sign. Spent today cleaning tanks and getting my 2" pump ready for sap. 30 degrees and raining now, looks to be a nice night.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Are you sure its just rain because we've got some bad ice here across the river and i hear you're supposed to get .3-.5" ice hope it doesn't damage any trees, power has been flickering here. Collected 110 gallons tonight from 40 buckets. Collecting the rest tomorrow

[mountainvan]

No ice accumulation up here. Watching the creek very closely today though. Got my vacuum up and running, saps flowing at 1,800ft but not here at the saphouse at 1,500ft.

[mountainvan]

Spent most of today fixing stuff and checking my sugarbushes to see how the sap was flowing. Collected a couple hundred gallons from my big bush and am running that and yesterdays sap through the ro. It's going through the uv light so I can boil it tomorrow. We had some localized flooding here, but not bad. Going to finish collecting tomorrow and make a video of maple sugaring for my sister in Colorado.

[HanginAround]

I have a YouTube account if you want me to post it for you, then all here and the world can see it.

[Kubbie]

We tapped all last week. Got 350 buckets out there. We got 250 gallons between yesterday and the day before. Just started boiling. Not sure about the sugar content though. It got really warm here yesterday and today. How's everyone else making out? We're in Sullivan County. Where are you from Mountainvan?

[mountainvan]

What a day, what a day, what a day! Woke up at 7, after getting to bed at 1 cause of massive heartburn, with one winger of a headache. Looked at the temp., 37!! Grab a cup a tea and head up the road to start the vacuum, saps flowing!. Stop at another bush on the way home, saps not flowing! Got home, grabbed a bite to go, got my tools, and up to the no flow bush. Well my mainline runs under the road through a large culvert. Sap had frozen in the line under the road, so... I climb in the pipe with my torch and thaw the line out. Things were going ok till..,by the way the pipe was coated with ice, I loose my footing and slide out of that culvert way too fast. Shoot out and am airborn until I land on the nice soft icy snow. Headaches much worse now, but do I go home like a sick school girl. Heck no!! I collect 400 gals of sap, 150 from buckets and suck up the pain all the way. My day did get much better, sugar % was 2.3 overall, and the highest %,2.6%, was from the bush completly defoliated this last summer. Go figure. Sap was flowing good till 12 when we had a quick snow squall and the trees shutdown even though it stayed above freezing. Go figure. I say sapflow is like a woman, You never know what the heck it's going to do!!.Well I ended up making 15 gals of syrup. Put out the open sign and had some nice city folk stop in for a tour and of course to buy syrup. What a day. And Kubbie, I'm in Ulster county on rt 47 in Oliverea. I did'nt make my video today, the "star" was grumpy!!

[Parker]

Jeasus loves his sugarmakers,,,,,,,and his wood choppers.

[MaplePancakeMan]

MV, you wouldn't happen to have a gasket with 1 1/4" ID and about 2" OD to fit pans together, i've broken one and not the pans leak and i've got sap i don't want to spoil... slightly tinted sap but still sweet nonetheless. Let me know. Hope you feel better after that fall you had, but i guess its not sugaring without some injury.

[Kubbie]

Well, hope ur ok. We only got a gallon off before we had to quite cooking. Still not sure what part of Ulster ur in. Give me some better GPS north, south etc. We're right near the Delaware River. Western part of Sullivan County. Not much flow today even though it was really warm. Hopefully tomorrrow will be better. Send us some pics if u have any. I'll do the same. The stuff we cooked off today was really good tough. This stuff is addicting. I only started to do this 4 years ago. Its alot of work but alot of fun too, and u can't beat the product! LOL! We're still doing buckets, but switching to tubes I think next year.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Kubbie, you're in Sullivan county? I'm in Dutchess on the eastern side and on the northern side. I started 4 years ago as well gotta love it. Shame on me i only do it because its a hobby and i like to cook with it. Not big on it for breakfast foods etc.

[mountainvan]

Kubbie, I'm in western ulster close to Bellairye Ski center. My back yard is Panther Mountain and the Esopus Creek is across the road, sometimes in the yard, and only once in the house. I did'nt get hurt flying out of that icy culvert, I actually thought is fun!! You must be down by Narrowsburg or there about. MPKM, nope don't have that gasket. Maybe you could make your own.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Any ideas on how i could, i'm gonna head to home depot tomorrow for some ideas i've got 3 gaskets on order but wont get here for awhile so i figured i'd ask. If you think of anything let me know PM me or something thanks

[Kubbie]

Hey maplepancake man we're really close to Narrowsburg. Cochecton actually. Most of our trees are in Kenoza Lake though. U'r in Clinton Corners right? Mountainvan, my daughter ski's Bellyre almost every weekend. Had a friend who lived on or near panther mountain for about 4 years. Well I have to go to my real job now and hopefully they'll run today so we can collect later this afternoon. This stuff is addicting. And yes I cook with mine all the time too. I have honey bees and make my own honey in the summer. Its alot less work than the maple syrup too. (Until you get bit! LOL) Check in later tonight let me know how you guys make out today.

[Kubbie]

Hey MPKM, u might want to try a real plumbing supply store. Home depot is limited. My folks own a lumberyard and if I knew exactly what you needed I could probably get my brothers to get you what you need.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Kubbie, its a white teflon gasket used to join the pans. It meausres approx 2" outside diameter and approx 1 1/4 inside diameter. PM and maybe i could get it from you or something like that i'm gonna try to wrap the whole thing in teflon tape for a quick fix. I have some on order but won't be here for a week

[Pete33Vt]

MaplePancakeman, Try a dairy farm supplier, sounds like the same gasket that is used on quick disconnects in the milkhouse. Actually sounds exactaly like what you need. There has to be a farmstore around you.
Justa thought.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Still looking for something... i got a 1 foot piece of rubber same thickness thats used in hotwater and furnaces i cut one out, going to put that inbetween for now and wrap the joint in white teflon tape and put the housing over it. Hope it works! Thanks everyone

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

MaplePancakeMan-

Is there a Maple Pro dealer close to you? they should have those in stock, as that is what Dallaire uses on their pans.

[mountainvan]

Well I did'nt do a darn thing for sugaring today. Did'nt even go in the saphouse. I did take my wife out shoppng and a nice dinner for our anniversary. Weather here is just depressing, cold, cold, and snow. Long range calls for 40 by friday, it will be 10!!! Somebody up north shoot Jack Frost.

[MaplePancakeMan]

I'm not sure if there is a maple pro dealer around here its possible in ulster county there is one. However i got a piece of furnace/hotwater rubber about the same thickness and cut out a gasket and wrapped the joint in teflon tape and put the housing over it. so far so good for leaks. I have a couple of gaskets on order incase that happens again. THANKS to everyone that helped.

MV, weather here was nice and sunny was only 34 but strong sun trees ran well collected 200 ish gallons and am boiling tomorrow if all goes well. I collected from the farm and the sap tasted like someone took a spoon full of sugar and put it in with 4 oz of water it was so sweet. Rest was average.

[Fred Henderson]

There is a thing about being in the bush making syrup. You have to know how to improvise and make do with what you have.

[mountainvan]

I was in Kingston yesterday and was sunny and warmer, my house snow, but I'm a bit higher up. Usually means a longer season than the flatlands. Maplepro dealer in ulster is Jay Brokeama, good guy. I bought my dg evaporator from him. I get most of my supplies from Tom Kaufman in Deleware county, he has pretty much everything you need. I got my ro from him, cdl, and am very happy with it and the service from Nick Atherton.

[mountainvan]

Just got back in from the saphouse, man it's cold and windy outside! Had my orders filled for the week with a little in bulk from saturday, had to get the bulk and bottle it up. People just keep stopping by buying my syrup. Guess the signs on the road saying Pure New York maple syrup sold here work.

[MaplePancakeMan]

MV clocked a wind gust here at 54mph.... i can't imagine what the gust are over there since your higher up. My ro machine had a hairline crack i was un aware of. I pressurized it and booom product water all over the place. Company is rushing me out the replacement part. It appears that it will be cold next 3 days so i'll get a repreive from sapping and be able to fix it for the next run.

[mountainvan]

Wind was howling down the mountain, but I'm in a fairly sheltered valley. Meaning the mountain behind the house is steep!! Spent today taking care of business, delivering syrup, calling customers, and talking to every paper within 30 miles about the maple weekend. Got to get the word out to get the people in the saphouse to buy the maple syrup. I also broke down and bought some wood today. Getting pine slabs,$25 a big bundle, and will mix that with my hard wood. Burnt too much wood staying warm this winter!! I usually get all my wood cut in may, but the cancer slowed me down last year.

[mountainvan]

I called all hands on deck for this week. If the weather is what the weatherman says, well it's going to be like the end of march last year. Starting to get back ordered on syrup, only one guy wants light, everyone else dark or xtra dark. Got some folks from a granola company coming out tomorrow to buy a little syrup and see the operation. Got to get the saphouse nice and pretty, and maybe I'll get a nice new customer who needs lots of syrup.

[Riverdale]

Looks like a helluva run this weekend and next week....weather man says some rain for saturday afternoon...should help thaw things out some more.
330 in the tree last weekend...35 buckets going up tomorrow plus planning to add a bunch of new trees to an existing system to get up to 400 total for the season.

Hope everyone is ready to go and catches the run!

[mountainvan]

Where in Delhi you located riverdale? I head that way at least once a month for bottles and supplies.

[Riverdale]

north of delhi on rt. 10 about 4 mi.. You get your supplies through Tom Kaufman then?

[mountainvan]

What a difference 7 hours make. 8 am -3 temp, 3pm 38 temp with some trees starting to drip. Cleaned up the saphouse, tanks, and dug out my spare wood. I'm dirty, tired, smell of bleach and sour sap, and have to go get my daughter from school. Think I'll stay the way I am, teach her to call daddy for a ride during sugaring season!! Got the granola company as clients today too. Just a small local one, but 50 gals of syrup not a bad way to start a relationship. Better than I'll have with my daughter tonight!! RD I do get my stuff from Tom, he's always been straight with me and gets what I need.

[mountainvan]

walked most of my tubing today, found a couple spots where the mainline came apart, branches falling in that high wind. Sap started flowing good around 2:00 and is really going right now. Looks to be a very busy week!

[Kubbie]

Hey MPM and Mountainvan how are you guys doing? The sap was dripping yesterday but not a crazy run like we hoped for. How did you guys make out? We got a few gallons but not much. Hopefully it will go crazy today. It got down to about 27 here last night. Hopefully the sun will come out and get the trees going. Heard turkeys gobbling like crazy this morning.

[Jim OK]

I'm across the river in Columbia County and I'm seeing disappointing results from what seems like ideal conditions. It's dripping, but slow.

[MaplePancakeMan]

i haven't checked yet but they should be flowing pretty well. Will post back later right now dealing with melting snow pack and flooding basement.

[mountainvan]

Had a good day today. Collected 600 gals of sap at 2.2% sugar, most of the sap came from my bush with the vacuum. 800 taps and 350 gals sap vs 1,700 taps and 250 gal sap. The 800 were tapped in Jan too. Had the vac. going from 930am till 230am this morning and got it going again at 800 this morning. Used my new 2" pump today, 2oogals in about 2 minutes. Did'nt open it up all the way, my filters probably could'nt take it. Ran the sap through ro up to 6.5% and made some nice syrup, medium to light. Bottled 10 with a bit more to do. Had about 20 people stop in for syrup and watch me boil, good thing I made more today cause I was almost out. Looks like this week will be good enough I can start putting up in bulk for bottling in the summer for the farmers markets. MPM hope you don't have any damage with the flooding.

[MaplePancakeMan]

Nope no damage it was a slow flood, we got everything up on blocks. now its just a matter of keeping up with it. i had to break through a 9" ice block in the yard to divert the water coming off the hill. Looked at the buckets today, they ran a little bit today not a ton still thawing out i presume since we had 2 days at -8 to -10 at night. I caught a squirrel up in the tree with my tube in one hand chewing on it, for lack there of better words it was his last meal. Collected 60 gallons from 40 taps

[Kubbie]

We got about 280 gals with about 350 buckets yesterday and started cooking at 5:30 this morning. We're hoping they'll run like crazy today. I don't have a sugar gage so I can't tell you the content but it tastes SWEET! LOL. Have a great day guys its beautiful out there.

[MaplePancakeMan]

picked up 200 gallons from the farm this morning. Should pick up another 60 from the 40 buckets here and boil tomorrow with 320 gallons, hoping the RO part is in today so i can rig it up tonight

[MaplePancakeMan]

does everyone just keep feeding sap into the pan and draw off until they have no more sap to feed in and wait til the next run, i usually finish the day by plugging up the big flue pan and dumping everyithing into the syrup pan and fillin the flue pan with water so it doesn't warp. then when its done i draw the syrup off and fill the syrup pan with water, walk away and let the fire go out then drain the pans a couple hours later.

[danno]

MPM - that sounds like allot of work. When I finish for the night, I just make sure I have about 20 gallons of reserve sap in my feed tank to continue running into the evaporator as she cools down. The bricked arch can stay pretty hot for awhile and you sure don't want to run her dry.

My partially cooked sap stays in flue and syrup pan. If it's a week between gathering and it has gotten warm I will dump the evaporator (that rarely happens for me). If it's less than a week or stays cold/frozen, I just just add fresh sap to the holding tank when I'm ready to begin again.

If there are still a few gallons of sap still in the holding tank, I will dump that.

[maplehound]

I have always just flooded my pans to about 3" deep and walked away. I try not to leave any sap in the feed tank for fear that it will freeze in the feed lines and cuse me alot of trouble getting started the next day. The only times I try and run staight water onto the pans is at the end of the season or if I get a long warm spell and want to clean the pans.

[MaplePancakeMan]

i just do that so i start fresh each night, if i have extra sap i'll fill it with sap rather than water when i have it but if its close to the end and i've used my sap i'll just finish all the sap and fill pans with water.

[HanginAround]

Usually anyone with a big evaporator just lets the fire die and loads up the sap level a bit, leave it all in the pans till the next time. Of course, with smaller pans, you have more options, easier to handle the pans and smaller amounts of sap.

[mountainvan]

Had a busy day today, went to get a couple cases of gallon jugs and a bunch of 100ml autumn leaf. Walked the tubing in my big bush today, only one coyote hole. The sap was flowing good under vac., but not much in the buckets. Tapped another 50 buckets, I think that's enough for this year. Brought back 400 gals so far today and will go get another 200 before I go to bed. Should have a nice long boil tomorrow.
Mpm, I start to slow down my boil at around 3" in my back tank, 40 gals or so, and by the time it's down to 1" the fire out and I flood the pans with the last bit of sap. When I boil again the level in the pans is about an inch.

[maple flats]

I still have not had much flow. My trees have a lot of snow around them. I have about 150 taps in and only got 40 gal in 2 days. Will tap more tomorrow and a lot more the next day. I still have not had my first boil and am trying to get sap for maple weekend. I did hold 12 gal bulk from last year if I need to boil water and can bulk for effect this week end. Might still get enough. On one of my remote sites the snow in still covering the main line for most of 600' and I may need to shovel it out unless some serious melting happens in the next 2 days.

[MaplePancakeMan]

so say i start doing this like i'm supposed to, whats an approx time that someone with an evaporator like mine would draw syrup off?

[tstew]

I have an evap. from Patrick same size but with 7" drop flues. When I first start it usually take about 2 hours for the first draw then I usually draw off every 45-60mins. depending on the sugar content.

[mountainvan]

Just got in the house for a couple minutes before I go up the valley and check my vac..Got 750 gals sap this morning till my pump died, had to take the carb. apart and clean the gunk out, so one bush I did'nt get to today. Got a load of slab today so spent a couple hours with the chainsaw. Finally got around to boiling at 3:30, would have been done sooner but visitors slowed me down. made 17 gals med.. Sap did'nt seem to flow too well today, not sure why. Got down to 26 and up to 50, maybe the snow. That's why I say sapflows like a woman, you never know what it's going to do. Well up to check the vacuum and get some sap!!

[MaplePancakeMan]

I tried to do it like you guys, draw off every couple hrs.... but it never got to syrup. Would the fact thta my evaporator is slightly tipped up on the stack side have anything to do with this, its maybe 1/2"-3/4" higher more like 1/2" though and since i'm only one person its not too easy for me to try and level it. I have to wait til someone comes over to help me prop it up to adjust the legs. I didn't finish the syrup on the evaporator today, i brought it inside and will finish it on the stove in my large pan.

My other question i have semi boiled sap in the evaporator now, if i don't get around to boiling until thursday will this be a problem? since the day time high will be 63-66 and a low of 40?

[HanginAround]

Yeah, you should try to level it out a bit, you really increase your volume if it isn't level, you're trying to finish too much at once in the front pan because of the increased depth. It will come to syrup eventually, regardless, it has to. You will have bigger drawoffs with longer time between them I would think.

[mountainvan]

Had a decent day. Collected 500 gals sap and made about 12 gals of syrup. Still have to bottle it tonight. Sapflow was weird here today. 41 this morning, no sap, at 12 the sap flowed fairly well, but as soon as the rain started it stopped. I have enough syrup for the maple weekend now, but still need to make cream and sugars.

[mountainvan]

Collected 350 gals today,1.5% sugar, all but 50 from the bush with the vacuum. Ran that through the ro and got it up to 2%, mainly did it so tha sap could go through the uv light and get filtered good. So I have 300 gals for the maple weekend, but the weatherman is calling for up to 16" of snow friday to saturday.Spent most of today dealing with minor flooding. Only one tank was floating in water, mainly kept the runoff the mountain out of the saphouse.

[mountainvan]

Cleaned up the saphouse and loaded the woodshed up again this morning before the snow. Bottled syrup and made cream and sugars for this weekend. Seems from e-mails and calls I'll still get some visitors this weekend for the NYSMPA open house thing. Competition is getting tough in this area for the event. The "big guys" have all kinds of stuff other than sugaring going on( a friend is putting on a free egg and pancake dinner), but what gets me is one place is charging people for a free event. I'm calling the president,not George, on that one. that does'nt make maple look good in my opinion.

[mountainvan]

Had a interesting day today, got 2ft of snow so cleared it from 6:30 to 11:00. Got my evaporator simmering for awhile till I got bored with that and opened it up and made some syrup. Today was a bust for the maple weekend, sold enough syrup to pay the registration and make a profit, but would have had those people in the saphouse anyway. Snow kept them away for sure. I can add a new profession to my resume, that of a model. A photographer from New York state tourism took pictures of my saphouse, and me. Probably an editor will see the pictures and say,"you want to put That Guy in or promotional material"!! Hopefully the masses will come out tomorrow, if not I'll still be the saphouse making syrup.

[maple flats]

This was my first time doing Maple Weekend. Was poor weather, only about 6" snow with roads slick and too cold for any sap flow. What I had saved from Monday and tuesday, tanks packed in snow was still clear. Could only pump about half, the rest is frozen. Boiled what I had and chased it with water. Will do more of same tomorrow. I had only about 25 guests show up, sold some syrup, molded sugar, maple nuts and maple popcorn. I hope tomorrow brings more people. Next weekend should be much better, good qty sap. I had to run the evap on slow to make what I had last. Fellow maple trader Buckethead and his dad Ron came to visit and see what I have, we had a good time and he brought a photo album of his homemade rig. He did a great job building it.
Dave

[mountainvan]

I made the sapflow today!! At least from one maple right by the saphouse. I guess the steam going up through the tree and the temp of 34 was enough to get the sap going. Every other tree close by was still frozen. Now to install a steam generator under all my trees. Made a bit of syrup today and had more visitors than yesterday, not as many as last year but my wife thinks they bought more syrup, and she's always right!!. Hope everyone else had a good maple weekend in NY.

[mountainvan]

I was surprised today, woke up and it was 34 and the sap was flowing some. Weatherman said low in the teens, he was wrong. Spent this morning digging out tanks, buckets, and mainlines. My higher elevation bushes got about 3ft of snow, so I got the snowshoes out again. I bought two cord of wood today and spent the afternoon stacking it. I do not have to go to the gym and work out tonight! Sapflow today was the strongest I've seen this year on gravity tubing and buckets. Vacuum was pouring in by 4, it took a little longer for the higher elevation to thaw out. Should get around 1,000gals of sap in the morning.

[maple flats]

Glad to hear you got some, the weatherman was right for us and nothing flowed. I have so far only gotten 50 gal sap this season off my first 300 taps. Tomorrow should change all that and I should be off and running finally. I added 65 taps today and will add more tomorrow morning to help the sap total but looks like I will not end up with the 500 I was looking for. I need to scout around for more rental trees big time before next season. I would really like to hit 800-1000 by then but time will tell.

[danno]

Mapleflats - how much snowpack do you still have. Same boat here on the other side of syracuse - just too cold to get any run this week - till tomorrow or maybe not until Thursday.

Who ever heard of highs in low 20's in CNY at the end of March with full on sun!

[mountainvan]

I'm wiped!! Collected 2000 gals sap today, would have had more but the deer took apart some mainline and I did'nt know it till I went to pump the tank and it did'nt have what it should have. Deer can't get over, or under with 3ft of slushy snow. Went and got a new pump yesterday, honda is toast till I have time to get it fixed by a pro. Made about 40 gals today, went from xtra dark,grade b to those not in NY, to light amber. Saps stiil flowing so tomorrow looks to be busy. Finally the saps flowing good and I'm ahead of last and the next week looks good for sugaring.Time for bed !!!

[mountainvan]

1,500 gals sap today, 1,000 from the vacuum. Put 25gals med. in bulk and left the rest of the syrup for a wedding. Saved some sap to boil tomorrow for round 2 of the maple open house.

[maple flats]

I finally got some sap. It started running a little Tues, ran good Wed, ran all night into Thurs and started slowing thurs late afternoon. Restarted Fri but not real fast. I have about 750 gal for our openhouse. This will be the first I have made all season. I need more trees to rent, only ended up getting 425 in. Looking for 600-700 for next season hopefully, but not too many little locations, really need a big location within reasonable drive to haul, and a bigger truck. Right now I can only haul 125 gal at a time.

[mountainvan]

Started at 6:30 this morning getting gas in the truck and for the pumps. Got everything ready for guests and by 9 the sap was flowing. Had a good number of people through today, and sold lots of syrup. Collected 600 gals from the big bush and boiled all but 200. Made 18 gals of dark which is all bottled and ready for sale. Tomorrow looks to be busy again.

[mountainvan]

Started 6 this morning collecting sap, had my oatmeal while pumping sap to the truck. Had a steady stream of people today and sold out of cream and sugars, and extra dark. Made 20+ gals today, still have to can it up tonight. Looks like a warm spell and then back to good weather this week, I'm only halfway done making syrup. Well back to the saphouse.

[mountainvan]

Collected 750 gals sap and made 13 gals extra dark. Cleaned most of tanks and evaporator today too. Got a big surprise when I drained my front pan to clean off the niter, no niter. I've made 160 gals since I've cleaned it. Never had that happen before, Sap ran very good here today so should be busy tomorrow.

[mountainvan]

Collected only 600gals today, guess it was'nt running as well as I thought yesterday. Made around 15 gals of b. Darkest sryup I've ever made with a good maple flavor. Vacuums still sucking on the trees so I'll have some sap tomorrow. Low of 18 tomorrow night, so I'm hoping for some more big runs.

[mountainvan]

Going to clean tanks today, I'll probably dump what sap I have. I can smell it walking up to the tank and it's full of them sap moths. Also going to run water in evaporator to get the sweet out of the flue pan, drain the front pans and start all over. Hopefully that will get me back to lighter grades.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Van,

How much sap and syrup so far and are the January trees still running??

[markcasper]

I'll second that. How are the January trees running? Slower than the March tapped ones? Same? It'd be good to know so us all can make inporatant decisions like that in upcoming years. Also, did you use an adaptor of some kind and was the tubing flushed from the prior year? Taps still in trees from prior year? Thanks

[mountainvan]

Taps from Jan. are producing better than any other, I reamed the holes about two weeks ago and resterilized the spile with alcohol. The sap was still flowing well but I wanted to make sure they kept running well. I have vacuum on those taps also. Tubing was flushed with 2% bleach, let sit for a couple days, and then flush with mountain spring water. I take my taps out each year so the tree can heal. So far I've gotten 10,000 gals of sap from those 800 taps since Jan. I've bottled 230 or so so far. I think I forgot to write down gallons that I sold the day I made it. Washed all my tanks and did midseason wash on the ro this morning. Now to go tackle the evaporator. I"m going to drain the flue pan into 5gal buckets and add it a little bit at a time to the fresh sap. Hopefully I'll go back up to med from b.

[markcasper]

Van, That is great. A few more questions. I assume that you didn't use a reducer or sanitary adaptor??? Is this group that you tapped in Jan. in alot of sun? In other words, is it mostly south slope. North side (probably not if you tapped them in Jan.)

Good Luck for the balance of the season!

[mountainvan]

Mark, I use the 5/16 spile with no adaptor. The trees are on a southwest facing part of Panther Mountain. They get sun all day long. Finished all my cleaning except the firebox and inside flues.

[mountainvan]

Made my wife real happy last night and booked a flight to Holland this summer. Hopefully I'll get a hold of my relatives that I have not seen in over 20 years, should be fun to take my kids to where my parents came from. It's in the 20's now so I should get flow today and the next week if the weathermans right. I did'nt boil last night so I already miss it!!

[mountainvan]

I did my usual end of March beginning of April routine today. Reamed out about 1,700 taps to get the sap flowing good again. I wondered if the 70's we had last week affected the tapholes, well it did. After about 1,000 I was wishing paraformaldihyde tablets were still legal. I'm sore, but at least now I'll have sap for the next week or two. I looked back at my records and saw that the years I've reamed I've added 10-14 days to my sugaring season. I'm planning on finishing reaming in the morning and collecting sap in the afternoon. Hope everyone elses trees are still going.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Van,

Exactly how do you ream???????

[mountainvan]

Finished reaming my holes today. When I tapped I used a 19/64 fast bit and went in about 1",here's your answer Brandon, today I used a 5/16 brad point bit and went in 1 1/2". When I finished reaming today I watched the sap pouring in the releaser. At 1:00 the tanks had 100gals, and at 4:3o they had 600. Not bad for 800 taps. So I collected 1000+ gals and ran it through the ro and will boil tomorrow morning.

[maple flats]

That sounds good. I had my best day this season, no vac, picked up 300 gal off 150 rented taps. Will get my woods in the morning and then boil. The sap looks good, clear, will test sugar % in morn. During the week I built an improvement to better catch the condensate from the hood and steam stacks, should help the boil rate.

[mountainvan]

Made 17 gals of nice dark this morning then cleaned the tanks around the saphouse and did another wash on the ro, Sap cleared up today, collected 1,300 which I'm still running through the ro and will boil tomorrow morning. I enjoy boiling on a cold morning best. That's when people a mile down the valley can see the steam. Well got to check the ro and make sure the back tank is'nt full.

[802maple]

I am just interested why you wouldn't want to boil it today to save a couple grades, you certainly can tell me it is none of my business.

[MaplePancakeMan]

so i went up to my girlfriends today and went in the woods to test tap a tree for next year. it was dripping 90 drips a min the other two were at 65 a min. theres about 80 taps up there i need to learn how to run tubing anyone have any suggestions as to where i might be able to. Its all slopped downward so gravity would work but i'm not sure if my pump can pump it to the top of the hill about 400 ft ish. and its upward sloping the whole way. Please help

[mountainvan]

Boiled this morning, 20 gals dark amber. Saps flowing, not very strong, so I'll collect tomorrow morning. As for waiting to boil 802, I'm a firm believer in Clint Eastwood's philosophy in the movie Magnum Force," A mans got to know his limitations". I really don't want to make a mistake because I'm tired and burn my saphouse down. I have a uv light so overnight is'nt a big deal. MPM, I have about 10 miles of tubing in the valley, once again come on over and see. Time for a sit down dinner, not one in the truck or saphouse.

[802maple]

just wondering, seems like a good excuse

[New Hope Mapleman]

I just wanted to say thank you for the help and suggestions on the PVC 26 pipe. Was much cheaper and boy what a difference. We put in a reclaimer and with 25" at the pump we are getting 2 gallons of sap for every one the 17-19" woods are producing. It made all the difference this year.
We may be done in CNY but I don't think so. Made dark last night and still have wood and want left over. We'll leave the taps in and see what comes out with the next cold spell. Another thorough good washing will help. Made about .65 of a crop so far.
Thanks again.

[802maple]

You are more than welcome New Hope, I like to help out where I can. WE have had very good luck with that pvc and it is much cheaper.

[mountainvan]

Collected 1000 gals yesterday and put 25 gals extra drk in bulk. I have some sap to collect this morning, maybe 500 +. Weather looks good in a day or two, hopefully the trees will hang on till then.

[mountainvan]

Got 400 gals yesterday, beautiful day to be in the woods. Got it back to the saphouse, started it through the ro, sap out of the tree was still 2%, checked the concentrate, 2%, and then checked the permeate, 2%. RO blew a gasket and so di I!@! Called cdl and Nick and he diagnosed the problem. Actually the u-cup had streached enough to let the sap go by. Well I flipped it over, the u-cup, and got it working again, 6% concentrate 0% permeate. My wife said I should just boil the sap without the it having gone through the ro, she may have been right. But I said going from boiling 6% to 2% is like making it with a supermodel and then with the nonattractive neighbor. Made a couple gals syrup in an hour versus 5hrs. Going to clean tanks and the evaporator today for round five of the 2007 season. May your sap run like a mailman from a pitbull and be as clear as the finest mountain moonshine.