December journal

[jmayerl]

Yup it's December by 10 minutes and I started it.

[Ausable]

Good for You - It has to start with one of us - A strange thing though - here it is about 445am and I'm the only member on the site - lots of guests and that is a good thing. December already - With all the other little Sugarmakers snug in their beds with visions of syrup making alive in their heads -- It is early and time for French toast and Maple Syrup..... See Ya -------Mike-----in Northern Lower Michigan

[whalems]

Lots of maple related projects going on around here. The metal came for the roof /addition yesterday. poured a new concrete floor with trench drains. Putting the mains and lats back up in the sections I have to take down every year. I should be ready to go in 5-6 months!!

[cvmaple]

Got all next springs wood in and under a tarp. The sap shanty is sparrow proof ( so far so good ). All that's left to do is get some propane for finishing the liquid gold. Snow has landed just about everywhere but this area. We have had a ton of rain instead. Hope we don't get too much more this weekend as it makes getting wood for the outdoor furnace a lot less fun!! Starting to pay for our unusually warm fall now. How is everybody else making out? cvmaple

[lakeview maple]

Well spent the whole day in a new sugar bush,nice road access ,ran 2 mainlines and started to run laterals got 25 taps done.I dont know how I got so much done on snowshoes last winter,LOL well I ran outa time and went home and worked on tubing tool.It wasnt working like I thought so got out grinder and mig welder and 4893 it works great.Good luck to all and I cant wait to start another season,God Bless you all and thanks for all the tips from the Trader,Al @ Lake View Maple

[Parker]

Spent the last few days in Hill..am adding 300 taps there and re-working another 300..added a wet line to replace the old wet line that had lateral lines running into it (from the 1980's) still alot of work to do up there.would like to get to 1000 taps there and thru improving the existing set up and new taps double the ammount of sap we get up there.think its doabel,,but im really going to have to WANT IT!..still neeed another 8-10 cords in the woodshed...certinaly gaining

[red maples]

Wish I had more timefor maple this is such a crazy month oh man I am already tired and its only the 2nd!!! my calender just keeps getting fuller and fuller and fuller!!! I just wanna do "my" projects!!! :( I'll be happy when I finish all the stuff I need to get done before X-mas!!!

[danno]

3rd Gen - clear your PM's.

[Tithis]

Tomorrow I'll be building my block arch. I don't want a repeat of last year digging through snow and ice to build it in February. I'll probably give it a test fire to see if the changes I'm planning from last year make any difference.

[Tweegs]

A new 250 foot section of 3/4 is up in the main bush, all graded out and ready to go. I have the wire up for another 250 feet in a stand of silvers, hanging the tube tomorrow. Still want to get another 300 feet up in different section of the bush, but that will have to wait until after Christmas.

Sat down with my builder last night to iron out a few bugs with the new shack plans. He’ll now be able to finalize a materials list and get this show on the road. Lots of rain here lately, the ground is too saturated for digging holes, we need a dry spell.

Still plenty of work to do, but at this stage of the game, I’ve got enough time.

[3rdgen.maple]

3rd Gen - clear your PM's.Its empty.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I don't get on here much but was able to connect on a big West Virginia public land buck with bow on Nov 7th. This one gross scored about 5 and 6 inches larger than my previous 2 best bucks. Seen a total of 13 different bucks this year during the 10 days I hunted from Nov 4 thru Nov 26th and 6 of the 13 were aprox 100" or larger and nearly all within bow range. All of the days I spent entire day in a climbing stand except the day I shot this one at 1:08 pm. It was an 11 point which is the most points of the 7 I have killed since 2005 as I have three 10 pointers and all of the 7 are bow bucks except the smallest one I killed with gun in 2006.

[christopherh]

Nice Buck and Bow! I shoot a Mathews to, love it!

[Cardigan99]

Wood is all cut and split here, just have to get the rest of it to the shack before the real snow sets in. Thinned out my oldest section of bush this summer. Replacing everything there. All the wire is up but I've got to get the mains and lats in. Set the holding tank for that section today. Still have about 400 ft of pipe to run from that part up to the shack. Gaining on it.

[gmcooper]

Just walked a new bush this afternoon with the landowner. 300 taps all nice sugar maples! Owner is even willing to cut brush, thin, and help with tubing or anything else he can do. Not much thinning needed as lot was snip and chipped 25 years ago. Decent slope and he is ok with vacuum.

[Gary R]

Rumor has it that a delivery of maple equipment occurred over the weekend. It came from Wisconsin. Anyone going to spill the beans? Sorry I missed everyone. I had a date with the deer at camp.:)

[Daryl]

Gary,
Even the ones that didn't get a delivery from Wis. even got a shiney package from Santa. They just had not been good so you can guess what was in the small tin foil package. It was black and lumpy. (Check with Jim Brown and Sugermaker).
Daryl

[Dill]

Checked out the vac bush sunday morning. I had been worried about the all the storms we got, but it seems to be in a sheltered part of the ridge so no major damage. Also the mainlines had been slacked off, so I think that saved damage. Had a few dead trees down, but only one tapped tree that I think was dead last year. Going to branch off a couple of mainlines and add 1 more main now that I added vac to it. Found a bunch more maples.

[maple flats]

I'm holding off until after deer season to finish in my leases. Still have drops to add in some mains. Tanks, vac pump, generator and TF pump along with the drops to add at that time.

[Revi]

We have been improving the muddy trail by putting gravel on it. Since it hasn't frozen seriously it has gone well. I hope it freezes hard around new year. We are going to do some logging and it would be nice if we had some really frozen ground with a foot of snow on it before we start.

[Farmboy]

Got a little bit done around here but not enough. Took the quick connect off of the end of a line a neibor kept taking down so it stays up now. Bought a stihl MS460 chainsaw for the firewood buisness. It will make quick work of sugaring wood too. Ordered My new front pan form Smoky Lake. It should be here in 6 weeks. I have too much to do before the season.

[Parker]

Pulled out 1500' of mainline and wire in hill yesterday,,very steep ground in this section,,going to be very difficult to tap/maintain,,,,BUT,,,,300 pretty nice looking trees up that ravine,,and I really want to get up to 3000 taps,,,,comming along.

[Jeff E]

Interesting no one ever talks about getting smaller!
I am putting the sugar house in order, doing bottling to fill orders, and scheming about getting to more trees.
Some interest from folks with land that is to far away, one is worth thinking about. Probably 1600 taps in some beautiful trees. 35 miles away...

Recovering from a bad bike wreck, so woods/heavy work is just getting going again. 3 titanium plates in my head make the cold air pretty miserable.
I gotta want it this year! It is going to be a bit 'up hill'!

[GramaCindy]

OMG Jeff…sorry to hear about the bike wreck. Wow, it sounds as though you are lucky to be alive. IMHO you may want to wait for a year for those extra trees, take it slow this year, enjoy the process and give yourself time to recover. Hope you get stronger every day….
Interesting no one ever talks about getting smaller!
I am putting the sugar house in order, doing bottling to fill orders, and scheming about getting to more trees.
Some interest from folks with land that is to far away, one is worth thinking about. Probably 1600 taps in some beautiful trees. 35 miles away...

Recovering from a bad bike wreck, so woods/heavy work is just getting going again. 3 titanium plates in my head make the cold air pretty miserable.
I gotta want it this year! It is going to be a bit 'up hill'!

[red maples]

yeah there are a few times I have read that folks are getting smaller but not very often. holiday sales are really going strong I have maybe 4 - 5 gallons total left and most are 1/2 gallons size I must have sold 30+ pints in the last 3-4 weeks they are flying out the door for gifts. just sold my last 4 pints today. grade B I have 1/2 gallon and a few 1/2 pints left thats it.

X-mas shopping almost done, but a bunch of appointments and my daughters basketball practice, flute lesson, dance clas, I have to do 2 ice carvings next week but those pay very well 2 hrs at $175 each nice x-mas bonus!!! trying to get my TV stand made!!! and I have a nice chest cold on top of it all!!!

just waiting for January to get maple stuff in order!!! then hopefully I will have a little more time!

[twobears1224]

this week the leader truck pulled into dads driveway and unloaded a bunch of pretty shiny stuff..a 2x8 arch,a revolution front pan and max flue pan with a stainless steel smoke stack..complete with stainless steam hoods.. they also left a springtech 600 r.o. we,re setting everything up now.
my own operation has to be put on hold for now.i was in serious logging accident awhile ago and i can,t seem to get better..every time i try pushing myself i get really sick and i,ve been pushing way to much.i have to stop and take a break...it really sucks.

[waysidemaple]

Well, finally got the roof jacks and stack caps for the new evaporator today. Next weeked we will be running the electric and working on installing the roof jacks. For this year I'll be running the whole show at the sugar shack on a gas generator. We had the generator so instead of buying the 325 foot line I'd need to hook into the house power I decided to go this route this year. Picked up 300 more feet of 3/4 inch mainline and 3 more rolls of 5/16. I'd have to look at the records but I think that will make 25 rolls up in the new sugarhbush. 1000 tap mark has come and gone at this point and I plan to keep going. I guess my goal will be to get as close to 1200 taps for this season as I can.

Scott

[Dill]

Got a load of gravel for the entrance to the vac bush today. The owner is having a hell of a time with minor thefts out of his storage buildings on site. I hope no one starts messing with my lines. Josh came over to give me a hand with how to lay out some new mainlines for this year's expansion. Got a good loop that should grab 50-100 more taps. And adding a T or a Y to an existing line that should help with some of my 30-50 tap laterals in that corner.

[tuckermtn]

It must be the thing to do these days- got the local excavation guy to scrape off the slop and put a few loads of gravel in for some better access in my Salisbury bush. He also put a gravel pad down for the 750 gal flat top coming from Parker.

First shot at a holiday open house today from 9-3pm. Sold a good amount of syrup, mostly to folks who were driving by and saw the signs on Rt. 11. One guy bought 5 1/2 gallons to give as gifts...thats my kind of present...

Still lots to do both at the sugarhouse and in the woods. two months to go before tapping- yikes.

[SeanD]

I set the kids up (ages 4, 7, and 9) to sell some syrup at a little table at the end of the driveway for the first time today. Got a ton of looks - sugaring is not too common around here - but eventually they made their first sale. They were having a ball just sitting there, but making a sale was awesome for them. The funniest part was the folks who stopped were visiting from PA. Sorry we stole some of your customers, guys. I guess they wanted some of the good stuff. ;)

Sean

[Dennis H.]

I like it, a twist on the lemonade stand.

[lakeview maple]

49224923492449254926 Had a great day working out in the bush, I was able to run about 30 more taps with a average of about 10 per lateral,had some fun company with my wife and my sap cat lol ,thank you God for great weather .

[adk1]

I just got back from an 11 day Carribean Cruise. Now back to finishing up and getting ready for syrup season! This weekend I will finish running the last section of 400' mainline. thank god I ran the wire in November. WIll be tough enough running the 3/4" waterpipe in this cold weather!

[waysidemaple]

Two more days of school (4 finals) and then it's home for a hardcore month of solid maple. Finish the install of the new evap, finish the install of the new sugarbush and add a new section to it. Hook vacuum pumps up, set tanks and releasers, check the new sugar bush for leaks, cut more wood, work on the woods roads. the list goes on and on. Can't wait for this semester to be OVER! 2 months left till I tap!

Scott

[adk1]

Nice! I need to run my last 400' section of mainline tubing. will get that done this weekend. then need to clean out my sugarhouse/garage. it is stuffed with everything. then I can finally have the evap delivered and set in place.!

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

I was just running a few taps too. I ran about 7 on a small line. In my small operation, every tap, brings more sap, and more sap means more syrup to me! Just recieved my order in from Leader Evaporator, of a few new fittings and some cream jars.

[adk1]

I plan on going to Leader the first weeknd of Feb when they are open. I will buy anothe 3 rolls of lateral line and whatever else I need. Will be a good overnigt for my wife and I! I cant wait for my very first season. I will be ready. I plan on being 100% tapped by March 1. Then I will have to help out and tap my BIL bush. Mine is very small compared to his.

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

You guys up north don't get to tap very early, but down in Pa. , I usually get tapped no later than the 3rd week of february. Sometimes earlier. But, you guys are farther north, so i guess it just depends on where your at, to when you can tap. Another producer 10 minutes away from me usuallyy takes then 2 weeks or more to get all tapped, with about 5000 taps.

[Yellzee]

put down a bunch of gravel on my trail... so wet that the tractor was wrecking the part of the trail I did first to get to the next section so had to give up after a few hundred feet..

It's certainly packed down into the ground now.

Bad news is I didn't quite get to the worst part of the trail, and the 4 wheel drive quit working on the tractor I borrowed... hope it's something cheap to fix!

Big freeze tonight.. so gravel pile will likely be too frozen to even try and shovel by hand.

[peacemaker]

Merry Christmas to me ...just got the approval on my USDA loan new 600 GPH Turbo R/O vac and filter press
expanding to 1200 taps

[christopherh]

Finally put windows in the Sugarhouse, what a difference that makes! Widening the trails is almost complete. Now I'm stretching the arch to make a 2X8 and adding AOF. Oh yea and Christmas Shopping!

[Tithis]

Broke down and finally paid the money to get real sap buckets, only two of the taps will have the patented low-fat recyclable plastic jugs (milk jugs). Justified it by saying they aren't so much an expense as they are an asset. Kept in good shape and and I can easily sell them back at around what I paid for them. I'm also going to be driving here and the addition capacity will cut down fuel.

Plus most are in neighbors front yards and I'd like to keep them all happy, buckets are much nicer looking then jugs.

[Yellzee]

2 nice loads of hardwood logs delivered this week, that should keep the saw busy over xmas. Weather looks good for the holidays, hopefully time to get out back and check all the lines, take downs some lat's before the winter chewing damage comes that I always seem to suffer.

Not good weather for the trees thought, above zero for 2 days, below zero for a day, can't be good for them.

No ice skating on the pond this xmas, that's for sure.

[adk1]

been real warm and strange here to. Lake isnt frozen over yet, ice fishing is looking shady. that is what I do until the sugarin season. we need to get some snow though to keep those maple roots cold! Will be a short season if we dont, at least that is what all the local sugarmakers say.

[Tithis]

I've been concerned about it too. I'm hoping we'll get a cold snap any time now. I really like winter and the lack of real cold and snow is getting me a little down (opposite of most normal people).

Heres hoping January actually feels like January.

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

In pa. were still in the mid 40s in the days. I hope we get a sold snap too. Nobody else wants winter, but us sugarers need it! Wish you all a merry christmas, and a cold winter!

[Revi]

It has been warm here too. I hope the trees don't think it's spring and start flowing too much. I think if we get some winter for the next couple months we'll have a good season. I hope it freezes up soon, because we're doing a little logging and we need the ground to freeze up well and have some snow. We'll see.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I am a sugarmaker and I am not wishing for any cold weather anytime soon. Best season I ever had was in 2004 and it stayed warm like this way up into Jan and then it was really cold in Feb and March and had best season ever. Last two years we had record snowfall in 2009-2010 and had a ton of snow again last winter and cold all winter until syrup season and then it got too warm. Rather have the cold weather in syrup season!

[Tithis]

I've only done this one year so I have no real idea exactly how weather ends up affecting the season. I'm just hoping increasing the number of trees and tapping all large lawn trees will give me a good amount regardless.

[maple flats]

Merry Christmas to all, and peace on earth.
Tomorrow I'll be splitting more wood, for the house. Then I'll get things ready to work the rest of the week in the woods. Tuesday, I'll start adding drops. I also have 4 manifolds to assemble and connect to join my mains to the wet/dry conductors. Then I've got to get some tanks and set for collection, have another lead on totes. Lots more to do in the next month. I'll be working every chance I get til the season is over.

[220 maple]

Happy Holidays to all, hopefully St. Sap will visit my camp by Jan. 25th, the wood is stacked by the evaporator with care in hopes that St. Sap will soon be there. Merry Christmas to all.

Mark 220 Maple

[red maples]

well gettin gclose to the less than 2 month mark. gotta put the finishing touches on the books for 2011 this week. now that December and christmas are pretty much over I can finally start on my maple projects not too much to do as long as everything goes OK. November and december had so much stuff to do so many family apointments its was just too crazy to get anything done relaxing a bit the last few days and re-energizing for stuff I need to get done!!! Also need to cut down a few trees to get ready for next years' house wood. and clean up around from the oct snow which we haven't had any since then. but there are a few little branches here and there that came down after the windy days over laterals and stuff. try to get the sugarhouse cleaned out a bit maybe this afternoon just need to get things cleaned and organized. Check my inventory see what I need to order for the upcoming season, and season. need to source out some sheet metal for a steam hood!!!

[Dill]

Picked up a new chainsaw for christmas a dolmar 5105 and got cutting on christmas eve.The sugarhouse is now full of wood.
Russ and Josh came over yesterday and we got a new mainline out in the vac woods. Just need some odds and ends get it tight then start running laterals. Good afternoon of shooting the breeze and kind of working. Looks like I missed a lot of trees there last year.

[Brian Ryther]

Dumped the last of my syrup at Bascoms today. New syrup pan is arriving on Thursday. New sugar bush is 1/2 installed. Things are great.

[ennismaple]

Spent a bit of time getting a small section of new mainline almost ready over the last few days. Nothing relaxes me more than running tubing on a beautiful day in the woods! The new mainline section is about 800ft of 3/4" and will need to rise through 3x 8ft sap ladders to get to the mainline. Tap count is 108 and despite being on a triple sap ladder I expect them to be good producers because most of them are young, vigorous trees along a field edge with good southern exposure.

Other than that, got some cleanup done around the camp and proceded to try out the new 5/16"x14ft chain I bought after I turned the truck sideways and got it stuck trying to take it up a steep snowy hill. Gotta stop making stupid decisions at the end of the day! We've only got a bit of plumbing and other odds and ends to clean up before we need to worry about charging drills in 2 months time.

[waysidemaple]

Worked in the woods some more the last few days. Added another 100 plus taps so looks like 900 vac plus my 200ish grvaity lines/buckets. Got some maple stuff for Christmas and a new Stihl MS 211 with the easy-2-start. Thats a little different but after a few days I'm getting used to it. Evaporator is cleaned and one of these days we will fire it up with water and see what it really does. Wanted to do it today but rain and mud mad it tough, ended up building the floor and walls for the pump house. Hopefully tommorow I can get that to the woods and put together.

Scott

[Dennis H.]

Hey wayside got your email.

[maple flats]

I don't get on here much but was able to connect on a big West Virginia public land buck with bow on Nov 7th. This one gross scored about 5 and 6 inches larger than my previous 2 best bucks. Seen a total of 13 different bucks this year during the 10 days I hunted from Nov 4 thru Nov 26th and 6 of the 13 were aprox 100" or larger and nearly all within bow range. All of the days I spent entire day in a climbing stand except the day I shot this one at 1:08 pm. It was an 11 point which is the most points of the 7 I have killed since 2005 as I have three 10 pointers and all of the 7 are bow bucks except the smallest one I killed with gun in 2006.
I got 2 this season, both does. I wasn't out hunting on either one. The first was 11/16, bow season. I got to the sugarhouse after driving bus that morning, started my excavator and while it was warming I walked to the edge of our large garden to decide which tree to drop. When I got there I spotted a doe in a thicket, she looked at me but laid still, didn't think I could see her. I slowly backed out, went to the sugarhouse, got my bow and returned very quietly. She was still there, hiding. I had a hole about the size of a football thru to the doe. I drew, got my pin on her and shot, about 5 yards. She ran about 25 yards and tipped over. The arrow had gone full length and exited half way out the off side shoulder. She was a 1 1/2 yr deer.
My second deer, also a doe, was again just after finishing my bus run, on 12/20, the last day of black powder season. I was working in the sugarhouse. Every few minutes I looked out into the woods. One time I saw a quick flash of white. I grabbed my loaded muzzle loader and walked across a clearing towards my sawmill. About 20' before the mill, I saw 2 tails take off, but a third deer just stood and looked at me. I raised my smokepole, got her in the crosshairs and squeezed the trigger. A 130 yard shot. She fell instantly with the hit. She was either 3 1/2 or 4 1/2, a big doe, field dressed at 152#, the second biggest doe I ever shot. I was truly hoping to reduce the local herd, so does were actually preferred over bucks. This is because they kept getting thru the deer fence and eating too much. We sell fruits and vegetables from that garden and deer were costing us several hundred dollars a year. I have now sent for nuisance permits, hoping to get more.

[brookledge]

I haven't been on the trader for a while. Now that the Christmas season is over and I'm not making and filling orders and it is dark early I might try to get back into the daily routine of the trader. I have been busy out side to repairing from storm damage and getting things ready for my new high vac pump. Now I'm selling some of the pumps and releasers I don't need any more. Anyways hope everone have a good Christmas and lookingforward to a happy new year
Keith

[Yellzee]

hey, we finally got some cold weather here... about -17 Celcius this morning. Hopefully the chickens didn't freeze last night!
Started cuttiing up the loads of logs for house wood.

Work on my road is turning very expensive as I'm waiiting for the bill from replacing the broken driveshaft in my buddy's tractor.

looks like it warms up above freezing again tomorrow for a few days.

hope to get out to check on lines this weekend.

now off to take the kids skating at the rink and hopefully tire them out a bit..

[red maples]

not terribly cold but windy!!! oh I hate windy I can take as cold as you wanna give me....add wind forget it I turn into a wuss. a Little snow would be nice though!!!

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

Same thing here. tubing doesn't move to well in the cold! Its cold, but the wind id horrible. I hate windy winter days. I got a small tank ready to go for the one small bush.

[Tithis]

Got my new sap buckets in the mail yesterday. My tree's will look nice and proper this year.

Still a bit away but it looks like we'll be getting some nice cold weather come next week. Hopefully it will stay that way and actually be seasonable. Some snow wouldn't hurt either :rolleyes: I love taking walks in snow storms.

[Tweegs]

Almost done in the woods.

800’ of new mainline is up.

Added 15 saddles on the old stuff and reworked near every existing lateral to get rid of those pesky Y’s.

Still have about 8 lats to rework and 4 new ones to go in on the last 100’ of new main.

Looks like I’m going to be short a dozen or so saddles, but that’s the easy part.

Want to get the mains flushed out and check the grade. If the weather holds, I should be able to wrap up everything but installing the saddles before I have to go back to work on Tuesday. Having these last two weeks off has put a serious dent in my to-do list.

The new shack still hasn’t been started. At this point I’m concerned that it won’t go up before the season. The ground is saturated; test holes for the posts fill with water almost instantly, too much rain. Going to have to start thinking about plan B.

[Amber Gold]

Switching from winter prep/holiday season mode to maple mode. Not much for woods work this year. The woods is already set up and just making minor mod's to resolve some problem areas from last season. New woods tank is in and level. Sure will be nice to have the extra storage. Not much changing in the SH aside from a roundbottom tank I bought to replace the bulk tank for SH storage and maybe a new, larger perm. tank. New canner and syrup pan made by Bill Mason and new membranes for the RO.

Looking to add taps for this season to maximize use of my equipment and make more syrup. I'll get my neighbors property online for their ~60 taps. There's another woods in town, all set up w/ about 100 taps, and hasn't been tapped in a few years. I'm going to talk to the property owners to find out what's' going on. I'm also looking to put out 3-400 buckets. Figure this is an easy way to add taps this year with no upfront labor and costs. The buckets are available and I'll have help this year collecting sap. I think I have enough taps located, just need to start knocking on doors. Who knows, maybe this year I'll be >1000 taps.

Unfortunately, it's raining today so not much outside work happening today. We have no snow in this area of NH. Any thoughts to what all this frost will to do the maple season? If we can get a couple feet of snow, will the ground thaw back out?

[Dill]

At this point I think we should have just tapped in Nov and kept the pumps on. Looks like a couple more thaws next week as well.