Tubing is ugly.

[OneLegJohn]

There. I said it. U - G - L - Y.

[wdchuck]

Yeah, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I think my tubing is pretty **** attractive. At 200 taps, those buckets aren't so bad, but when the numbers start to escalate, tubing starts to look pretty good. I'm no greenhorn talking out my a** here either. One year I gathered 1000 taps on buckets alone for 23 days straight through every imaginable kind of weather. It really got me to thinking................"Maybe there's a better way".........................

[OneLegJohn]

I know. I was just trying to stir up trouble..... I actually talks Pops into doing some tubing this year. It is his woods - he is a little old-fashioned. It took me 5 years to get this far!

[mountainvan]

on the mountain here buckets would be impossible. tubing is the only chose. I like tubing too cause the city folks think it's ropes to help people up the mountain!! not kidding with that.

[wdchuck]

Good for you! I went the same route- first some tubing as an experiment, then all we could afford to get the pipeline out of the woods to the roadside where we could pick it up. Then its vacuum and a bigger evaporator and an RO and blah blah blah............We're not working as hard ( my body couldn't take it anyway) and making more $. And I do think there's a certain beauty to a well laid-out pipeline system.......Must be some kind of "man vs nature" thing...............I hope I'm winning............

[maplehound]

I know wihtout it I wouldn't be in this hobby. I could never gather 600 buckets and still have time to boil after working an 8 hour day.
Although all that tubing does make it hard to get around in the woods. Stepping over or crawling under gets a little hard at times. Then so does walking over all the dead fall in the woods. Today my Dad took a bad fall and broke his glasses and hit his head on a log. Possibly even knocked himself out for a few seconds but he was by himself at the time.
Ron

[Ed K]

When I was young my FIL did buckets, 5500 of them, it took an 8 man crew to collect all that sap :roll: .You can't find that much help now, and couldn't afford to pay them.

[brookledge]

I think everybody pretty much has said it pipeline is a labor saver.Myself included. I would not be able to do this if I had to collect buckets. I work 40-45 hr work week M-F plus with buckets a good year is 1 qt. of syrup per tap With pipeline and vacuum you can make upto 1/2 gal per tap. I don't get rich doing this and if I had to pay for labor for collecting buckets then why do it. I know that there are some areas that just can't be done with pipeline but that is not an issue with my sugarbush.
Keith

[sweetwoodmaple]

I would challenge that tubing is a labor saver as long as you can leave the tubing in the woods. I have to take mine down in some places, and others have to take it off the tree, but can leave it in the woods.

Therefore, I think the labor (in number of hours per season) is more of a wash in this case. Especially with all the inspection and fixing of lines that you need to do during and between seasons.

The reason I still do tubing is that I can spread the labor out to times before the season. I believe it is still worth it. I have a M-F day job as well.

Plus, as you stated, you can do vacuum with helps with yield and flow of sap.

[brookledge]

sweetwood
I have to agree with that. What I was trying to say is during sugaring season for me time is of the essence. Your right that it takes time to setup and maintain it and can be done any time. I'm lucky that I only have to take down about 20 taps and a small section of mainline every year
Keith

[OneLegJohn]

Do deer ever take the lines down?

[brookledge]

I won't say never but usually not. Deer will go under or over. Most of the time its moose. They will walk through it reguardless. I have heard of bull moose seen dragging 5/16 tubbing wrapped up in there antlers.
Keith

[wdchuck]

I much prefer the deer. I've seen them running full bore and duck under everything, even the bucks with a big rack. This past fall, I found 3 missing laterals dragged down into a gulley 150 yards away by a moose.

[maplehound]

The first year that I had tubing in the woods I now tap I had one line streached to nothing and snapped off. It could only have been done by a deer as we don't have any moode around here. The 5/16 line was only about 3 inches off the ground so I think they just didn't se it. Only happened once though and never again.
Those darn raccoon are another story though.

[Al]

As tubing get's more populer I think a few buckets by the roadside or by the sugar house are a good tourist magnet. I have all buckets (131) and enjoy the tradition. Besides that I have two boys 9 and 4 that need a little work ethic appreciation in there lifes. They now enjoy maple more then ever. Of course this is just a family hobby and I'm not in it to make money just memories. :D :D I'll never forget the first black syrup we ever made and my son declared it the best ever. You can't top that. :D
We also use our woodlot for snowshoe trails etc. Depend on how much land you have. We have 23 acres of heaven. :D
Take care

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Sap quality is better in buckets but I couldn't make much syrup if I couldn't use tubing. :?

[OneLegJohn]

Dairy farms wouldn't do so well if they didn't have milk machines either.....

[SUGARSMITH]

Whats really ugly is carrying two buckets down a steep frozen hill, sliding most of the way on your a$% and coming up dripping with sap. Now thats real ugly

[Fred Henderson]

No, it when you make it all the way to the bottom and take one step trip and spill both totally.

[maple flats]

I must disagree, I think tubing systems are beautiful, especially when laid out properly. There is a simple beauty in a system with the mains going up hill. with branch lines going off every 50 or 100 feet and the 5/16 lines all coming into the system acording to a master plan. There is also beauty in watching the sap run into the tank on a good day, especially if that tank is positioned at the sugarhouse and set up to feed the RO and then into the evaporator.
If your tubing is ugly the layout was designed wrong. The next one you design put it on paper and try to plan a thing of beauty and functionality merged.

[lew]

I have to agree, tubing is beautiful. i have had the oppurtunity to see one of our woods from a distance of about 1 mile when the morning sun was just burning the frost off the tubing and it was all wet and shiny. It looked like a large map with the 5/16 tubing looking like small streams and tributaries to the larger rivers, mainlines. What a site to see.

[Russell Lampron]

For those with vacuum lets not forget the beauty of watching the releaser fill with fresh sap and dump. I could watch it for hours if I didn't have so much other stuff to do.

Russ

[markcasper]

It is a blessing to sit and watch the releasers fill with sap and then dump methodically, time after time. They work like a well-oiled machine and like clock-work. Really is satisfying b/c thats the time when you see your hard work pay off. Mark

[Mike]

I look at it this way.......Every time the releaser dumps, Its time saved running back and fourth with a bucket full of sap to the tractor to dump it....It would take me a good 8hrs to gather and now it takes me about an hour.....Ya got a luv vacuum........... :D :D 8)

[ennismaple]

Tubing isn't ugly - I'm ugly after gathering a whole bunch of buckets and filling my rubber boots with sap!

IMHO - clean, 4-seasons blue tubing looks quite pretty against pure white snow.