Fall Prep

[Littlesap]

Finished splitting this year's wood and covered it up, the hurricane gave me a good start on next year's supply :lol:. Fired up the evaporator to clean it out today, no leaks which is always a good sign.

Last season I used one of those small vacuum tanks that John Langer was selling up at the CT maple convention at UCONN, what a difference it made, 85 gallon tank that was good for 60 taps. This year I'm either going to sister it with another 85 gallon tank or build a second unit so I can get 120 taps on vac. Anyone else out there using small vacuum?

Anyone out there using a Steam-Away - pros/cons/cost?

[markct]

yea vac sure is the way, im working on getting the rest of my taps onto vac, put a culvert under the power line access road that seperates the upper part of our woods from the lower so i can get them onto vac this year too. plan to feed a mainline thru and down the back of the field about 400ft to connect up to my other mainline

[adk1]

my copula has been installed. looks fantastic I must say! One more thing checked off the list. Now I need to stain it (hopefully but not a deal breaker by any means)..Clean out my 200gal tank and set that in place. then I need to get orgainzing my sugarhouse..move all of my garage equipment t othe front of it. the back 1/2 is reserved for sugarin. Here is a question for you all. Thinking about having a large tarp system that I can roll up and down on a horizontal pipe to somewhat block any low hanging steam from the front half of the garage. it would keep the sugarin half alot warmer and isnt that how steam really rises, via warm air?

[D's sugarshack]

the roll up tarp thing will work as long as the steam has a place to go,some days are better than others as far as gitting rid of the steam

[adk1]

should go right up my copula. I have the area petitioned off all the way to the peak of the roof...

[D's sugarshack]

that should work good for you,you can roll it up a little if you need a draft to get it out,i some times have to open the bottom of my over head door to vent the steam out depending on the weather

[markct]

only 6 or 7 weeks to go! i got most of my wood ready to go, probably will still split some more to have on hand if the weather holds out. have been busy getting all my taps on vac, in the past had many that were still on gravity but this year i dug under the power line access road and put in a culvert to run a sap line thru so now the upper part of my woods is connected to the lower part so they all can be on vac now, and also making an electric releaser for the front sugarbush since i have power there at the shop so figure thats the easiest method

[markct]

heres a few pictures of setting my new zero tank, and putting the feed tank up on the roof of the ro room i built earlier in the year

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150462502453582&l=12c8ca11f4

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150462327898582&l=e45da7b1ea

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150382044918582&l=914e675049

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150384535753582&l=b32fc4897c

also here is the gear pump i setup for my filter press, i decided i had enough of pumping by hand!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150464104068582&l=03b55cc696

and here is where i put a culvert under the powerline access rd so i can run my sap line thru it and around the corner, thats what the post is for, then down the hill to my vac system

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150411591553582&l=129f8d8bef

[delta757and767pilot]

Im getting worried about the warm weather!!

[markct]

i wouldnt worry too much yet! dont forget that last year we were all saying it was a pretty mild winter this time of year, then after christmas time we had cold and snow constantly till march!

[Greenwich Maple Man]

i wouldnt worry too much yet! dont forget that last year we were all saying it was a pretty mild winter this time of year, then after christmas time we had cold and snow constantly till march!


Agreed!!!!!!! Winter has hardly hit. It willl come for sure. I was at a large producers house the other night and we were looking at his calender from last year . It wasn't until the 8th of March that we boiled any sap. And that was a very small amount anyway. It starting rocking mid March well into April.

[markct]

Last year i remember in late feb a local producer saying how it was gona be a bad year because any past year they had made atleast half there crop by end of feb, then like you say about 2nd week of march the trees just opened up like a faucet and did great, had my best year ever, which is hard to compare since every year i add taps and make improvements to vac etc, but still made over 100 gallons before it turned buddy and then a friend with a larger operation took the rest of the sap and made about another 50 gallons of some of the lightest commercial i have ever seen!

[markct]

today after work i finished all the tubing and droplines at a new area i am setting up at work in the woods, 57 taps in a wooded corner of there property near the highway, alot of decent crowns on the trees so hope it will work out well