family affair

[sjdoyon]

4912Family working together in the construction of 24x32 sugarhouse and installation of mainline, bluelines and drop lines for approximately 4,300 taps. Father, Uncle, and brother. After six months of working weekends and several vacation weeks, 99% work is done.

Anyone sugaring at 2,000+feet elevation? First run will be spring of 2012 and wondering about any potential issues sugaring at a higher elevation.

4908490949104911

[lastwoodsman]

Whoa- unbeliveable scenery.
Very cool----------
Woodsman

[Cardigan99]

sjdoyon, I have taps betweem 1400 and 1700 feet. Keep the snowshoes and shovel handy. My mainlines are all 4'+ off the ground, and there are a few sections I can walk under this time of year. A couple of sections I've had to shovel out. I also added a 2' extension to my spout puller. Some of my taps get set around 8 feet. In six years of sugaring I've never set taps with less than 3' of snow on the ground.

Wow, 4300 taps.. That's alot of miles on the showshoes!

[sjdoyon]

Cardigan, thanks for the reply. I'm about 2 1/2 hours north of you. Snow was our concern so we snowshoed the land this past March and only found about three feet of snow at it's deepest and the valley had a lot more than that.

After hauling the mainlines and wire by hand all summer up and down the mountain, we actually look forward to snowshoes. Have a four wheeler with tracks so hopefully we can cover some areas.
Our consultant had us put pressure gauges on all 1" lines to make the walking easier, hope it works.

[Cardigan99]

sjdoyon, yes, you guys are up there. I bought an evaporator from some folks over in Newport. Quite a ride from here. I don't mind driving that far, but where are all the Dunkin Donuts up there?

[tuckermtn]

SJDoyon- say hi to Yvon for me... Look forward to stopping by next spring to see your operation. Are you going to have all 4300 tapped this year or slowly work up to that many?

Cheers-
Eric Johnson

[sjdoyon]

Eric,

Will let him know you said hi. He's been spending every weekend since July running his mainlines up and down the mountain, I've only been able to spend three weeks helping. Have three wet/dry lines running down the sugarhouse from three main sugarbushes, farthest being a little over one and a quarter mile. Labor to get installation was extremely difficult since the majority of the mountain was not accessible via tractor or four wheeler. He's on his final runs for his drop lines so we hope to be around 4,300 this weekend. We have more to run next year but ran out of time. Will keep you posted when we start boiling, we'll be late since there is a good 20 degree difference on the mountain from the valley. Yvan will be glad to have visitors stop by. Let me know if you need directions.