Western Wisconsin Tapping [Archive]

markcasper

03-08-2006, 06:49 AM

I have close to 600 tapped as of tuesday night. Put the line in the tank on the ones I tapped over the weekend. I will be putting another group in for collection this morning and will continue to tap all day on my last group that has vacuum on it. Has not froze the last 2 nights here. Pretty drizzly and damp.

Started the vacuum pump yeasterday noon on the first tank and let it run all night. Hope its still running good when I get back there in a few hours. Have got some major looking for leaks to do. Only had 10 #'s at the pump with slow idle, it should be at least 15. I am thinking there is a leak in the dry line I ran out and will have to go over that this morning. I am hoping to get nearly done with my vacuum taps by tonight and tomorrow will be spent getting the evaporator ready to go as well as probably gathering the first sap of the new season.

Have to work all weekend, so will do my non-vacuum trees next week, as well as deciding how many bags I will or won't do. Happy tapping! Mark

markcasper

03-10-2006, 12:25 AM

If you think it may leak, IT WILL. Got almost finished with my vacuum taps today. Whats taking so long is that I try to spot and fix any leaks the first time around. Its been a struggle.

Finally freezing tonight. My electric motor hillside taps ran good on vacuum today, hasnt' froze for 4 nights. The only trees running so far are the south slope ones. If their on top of the hill, or near the top, they are dry as a bone yet.

Probably have 200 gallons thus far. Have to work all weekend, so will just let the sap pile up til Monday and then start that escapade. Mark

markcasper

03-12-2006, 08:02 AM

Gathered yesterday for the first time....1000 gallons gathered from 800 taps in so far. Sap flow has been so-so and not good without the vacuum. Trees on top of the hills and basically anything not on a south slope has hardly ran. I struggle with those that advocate January tapping...............

It was 57 here yesterday, front came through and temp this morning is 23. So we should have a pretty fair day today. Am not done tapping yet, seems like i am never done. Usually have 1200 taps at least, so will get up to that this week. First cooking at my place tomorrow.

Happy cooking everyone. Mark

markcasper

03-13-2006, 08:21 AM

Won't be cooking today. Have worked all weekend and have only gotten 2-4 hours sleep per day for the last 5 days. SNOWSTORM here this morning. I bet I can't see 200 feet out past my window. At 32, its heavy wet snow and suppossed to get 6-10 inches. Talk about hogslop! Now getting back to the woods will be impossible without digging the JD cat out of the shed. Have been lucky and gotten back on frozen fields the last 2 mornings with the tractor.

Sap was running good yesterday at noon, on the south anyway.

Am going to sleep til noon and then get my evaporator finished put together, then hopefully go out and collect what ran yesterday or will battle with frozen items tomorrow.

I have one tank of sap that is a week old tomorrow and still looks pretty good. Has been kept cold and shows 37 degrees on the bulk tank thermometer. Mark

markcasper

03-14-2006, 06:54 AM

What a difference a day makes! We got around 16 inches of snow that started yesterday. They originally forecasted 6-10.
Got the evaporator ready to go last night and am heading out to fire-up the beast for the first time. I gathered 4-500 gallons last night, sap that ran on Sunday. Only 15 degrees right now, thank the Lord for propane torches. Will have to thaw a few things out this morning to get started.

I have around 1400 gallons give or take, so that'll make for a full days boil today. Weather sounds to be cold for several days now, will give me time to rest up and catch up on my lost 2 nights sleep so far this season.

I'm predicting medium amber being made on the first 20 gallons and will get to light at the end I'm sure. Sugar content of the sap is ranging from 2.7%-3.2%. The 2.7% is from the one tank that has about 35% soft maples and they are very crowded.

Mark

markcasper

03-15-2006, 12:42 PM

Finished the first cooking of the year last evening with around 45 gallons made. The first 20 were definately dark amber and am not sure if the later syrup qualifies for medium. I can't find my grading vial at the present time. I bottled the last 10 gallons up, the rest is in milk cans.

Dissapointed with the darker syrup, but some of the sap was a week old. I figure that if I hadn't had the vacuum running on most of my taps, I would have only half this amount. There was 3 nights in the last 9 days in which the vacuum was left on all night, therefore bringing in some sap.

After tonight, I have some vacation from work and plan on finishing up the tapping by the weekend and get some other odd jobs done...i.e. oil changed, additional cleaning in the shack...etc. Mark

Parker

03-15-2006, 11:50 PM

Making progress!!wish my trees ran that sweet!!

Packerfan

03-16-2006, 08:53 AM

Mark where are you located?

markcasper

03-16-2006, 05:51 PM

Parker, Sweet now, but I have not seen a year where especially the soft maple tank goes right down to 2% or 2.2% after about 4-5 collections.

Packerfan, I am located about 65 miles east of Minneapolis/St.Paul. Between the towns of Menomonie and Knapp. I live about 1 mile north of I-94 and in fact I have one bush of my uncles that is in viewing distance of the interstate. Always hard to listen for leaks there b/c of the traffic noise.

I am unhappy now. After a fairly good start, its now looking very cold for at least the next week. I have all of next week off from work :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

Whats a guy to do??

markcasper

03-17-2006, 10:10 PM

Very cold this morning, got down to 4 above and looks like its headed down close to 0 tonight. We just got plastered with snow this week, 18 inches to be exact. Now I have another BIG problem, the north and west sides of the trees are full of snow and any tubing thats less than 3 feet down on the tree is froze solid with sap. To my disbelief, I went out to the woods at 1 today and the south sidehills were running nicely in the warm sunshine.

I started the vacuum pump at the one bush and went for walk discovering that line after line was chuck full of sap with no way to get through. There were wet streaks from most of the tapholes b/c the sap is just simply oozing out of the holes around the spouts. So I went to work, going to basically every tree and checking to see if they need to be scraped of snow. Had the propane torch at hand and thawed out many frozen spots. Got about half done. Planned on tapping my north trees tomorrow, but that may have to wait as I find it unwise to do that when the ones I have in already and are running need the most attention. I'd say the trees ran a good quart per tap today and obviosly would have been more had I known about these blockages. Got only to 34 here today, but with the ground not froze, the deep snow doesn't put a halt to a tree if it wants to run. Mark

markcasper

03-23-2006, 04:20 PM

I have gathered sap every day since Saturday, between 1/2 to 1 gallon of sap per tap, per day. Its been a very good, consistent week thus far, despite the cold tempuratures.

My sugar content has been averaging between 2.9% and 3.5%. A neighbor who I am buying bag sap from brought his first load in last night and that tested 4.6%. The sugar content has been very, very good.

Have made around 160 gallons so far from about 900 taps, with 200 more coming on line as of today.

About 1/2 of my syrup has been light amber. The syrup made this morning was lighter than light amber. Can't complain about the season thus far, hope it continues. Mark

markcasper

03-25-2006, 12:07 PM

Slept for 14 hours straight, so was behind a half day. Have been up since 5 am Friday morning and its now 11 am saturday. Gathered 500+ gallons yesterday morning that ran on Thursday, pretty much all from vacuum due to no freeze on Wednesday night. Had a hard freeze on Thursday night and friday was a good day here. Got another 1100+ gallons last night while my brother ran the evaporator. Started at 6 last night and got done about 7:30 this morning. Also got a load of sap from the neighbor again which tested 4.3% this time.

Made 65 gallons in this stretch, mostly all light amber. BUT, noticed that different smell that I always notice as the season advances. It didn't have that "wish I could bottle that smell" kind, like the boiling had the day before. Kind of weird, its been pretty cool for the past 2 weeks, had 18 inches of snow, a few nights of zero lows and still you can tell things are changing. The syrup seemed to boil a little weirder than it did the day before and times prior. I can't figure it out, but I know it does this every year. Syrup tastes great however. Next week don't look good with highs forecast in the 50's and not freezing at night. Course the weather people have been wrong dang near every day and night this week.

Went back to change the oil in my vacuum pump this morning after cooking and out gas in the tank as it ran out sometime inj the night.
Unbelievable vacuum. Started the pump, went to do a little surveying, came bcak and the releaser was dumping every 55 seconds, before??? just a drip,drip,drip out of the mainline. Seeing is beleiveing.

Sugar content continues to fall and NO, it is not from the sap sitting around too long as the UV people suggest. The tank with the most red maples ran about 2.4 %, compared to 3.4 a week ago. Up to around 220 gallons syrup made now

Good luck yo everyone still at it.

Mark

03-30-2006, 11:58 PM

Busy week for me. I have had sap to gather and cook every single day since the 18th of March. No reall big runs, but steady smaller runs.

I have broken the old quart per tap rule and am at about 1/3rd a quart thus far. No commerial syrup made yet. with the 50 degree nights, it aint gonna take long. Mark

markcasper

04-01-2006, 05:29 AM

Just got in from boiling a bit ago. Syrup went from medium to dark amber. Am up to around 370 gallons with no B syrup yet. Anyone that doesn't have vacuum is looking for work around me.

Just to explain about vacuum, I gathered Wendesday night, late and into the wee hours Thursday morning. Had to make 3 trips which is time cosuming, plus i was sanitizing every tank, plus one line that brings sap across a field and to the tank. After gathering, I got cooking around 4 a.m., Thursday morning. It had rained some in the night and got soaked while gathering. Anyway, got done cooking around noon and went out and WOLLA, another 400 gallons of sap from about 800 taps on vacuum and in about a 12-14 hour time frame. Amazing! And even hard for me to believe. The average % for that load was 2.4%.

I gathered about 500 gallons last night, but when I went out, I found my vacuum pump engine had died probably sometime early Friday morning. It had rained pretty hard and either the motor got wet, and or water got in the gas. Was kind of bummed because I figure I lost a potential 300 gallons of sap. Got it going again and is running as I speak, am looking for more sap tommorrow.

Weather doesn't sound too good, only one freeze all of next week which they are saying will be Monday night. Thats gonna be hard on the non-vacuum production. Mark

Maple Hill Sugarhouse

04-01-2006, 08:43 AM

post edited.

markcasper

04-03-2006, 01:05 AM

Made about 25 gallons of dark amber (some may have gone commercial)
Tastes really too good to be B grade and kind of hard to get an accurate grade when its not filtered or allowed to settle.

Gathered 700+ gallons off 800 on vacuum that ran from late Friday night, til 9-10 pm Saturday night. 1 load @ 2.2%, the balance at 2.5%. Told the wife I wanted something to eat beofre cooking and never made it back out of the house til 5 am Sunday morning. Fell asleep in the chair and the tractor was still running after 6 hours of idling :oops: The pecking time change didn't help matters either!

Since it was going to start raining, I did evaporator prep and then decided to resuck the 3 tanks again so I wouldn't have to go out tonight again. Wound up with another 275 gallons in an 8-10 hour time frame since prior collection. My pumps have been running non-stop( pretty much) since last Tuesday.

I finally got time yesterday to go vacuum tasting and fix some problems. I went from 12 hg. to 17 hg about half way out in the one woods. Was 12 when I got there and after 5 hours of walking and detecting leaks, I was at 17. This was in a 275 tap bunch. I wish I could have got around it sooner. Even with the vacuum not the best, it still has given me so much more sap than if it wasn't there. I have had quantities of sap to gather and cook every day in a row for the last 17 days. My neighbor that has bags and i buy his sap has only delivered 5 of these days. So whoever is thinking of adding more taps for production, rather than adding vacuum, should seriously look at the whole picture. It seams this season for me anyway has been one of the most consistent and even as any. I can attribute this to less taps and MORE vacuum this year. Vacuum sure evens things out. I have had some days where I had more sap from vacuum and no freeze the night prior, instead of the traditional freeze at night, thaw during the day.

Am up to 395 gallons so far and i would say 80% of this is from the vacuum taps. I should not fail to mention.....the high sugar content in the early to mid part of the season halped tremendously.

Am still going to keep at it as things rarely wind down before April 10th here. Maybe made a little B today, but need some as I have some customers who prefer this. There are no frogs singing here yet and don't expect them until we get some real balmy nights. Mark

markcasper

04-06-2006, 11:52 PM

Its been pretty busy the last few days. Had one of my biggest amounts of sap collected yesterday so far this year. The syrup has now went to B and don't expect it to come back, but have made hardly any to date, so not a big deal.

Have reached the 500+ gallon mark on syrup as of this morning. Pretty heavy rains right now going on and the vacuum pumps are a humming. Hopefully will have a large amount in the morning to pickup. They are forecasting 20 degrees tomorrow night and 25 on Saturday night and then reall warm next week. So, looks like one last hoorah coming up.

My north taps, the ones tapped 2-2 1/2 weeks ago ran the best yesterday as anytime yet this year. Unfortunayely those do not have vacuum. The sap sugar continues to slip and the last load this morning was 2%.

If I reach 600 gallons of syrup, that will be exactly 1/2 gallon of syrup per tap and will tie my record of the best year per tap, where 700 gallons were made from 1400 taps.

Have a interesting comment and question reguarding vacuum, go there to read it. Mark

04-08-2006, 08:02 AM

Gathered 1100 gallons by noon yesterday, which ran from the previous 33-36 hours collected by vacuum. Had heavy rains Thursday and that night and all the vacuum was on. Virtually nothing from my non-vacuum stuff. One load @1.9%, 2nd load at 2.1%, 3rd load @2.3%.

Syrup is all B now and isn't going to turn back--70 degrees by Monday. Its 20 degrees here now, so should get a good run today yet. Sap is really cloudy now, but nothing out of the ordinary. Am aiming for 600 gallons of syrup and am at about 530-540 now. Mark

markcasper

04-12-2006, 06:25 AM

It is finished! I am going to sleep every chance I get for the next week!

Gathered the last 330 gallons late last night, shut the pumps all down and just got in from cooking that. I have to drain the flue pan yet and finish that in the front and will do that probably tomorrow or Friday. I have to work tonight and Thursday night.

Finished the season with 647 gallons + the 10 gallons in the evaporator=657. The last 160 gallons however, has all been commercial.

Had mountains of sap all weekend and my luck was that I had to work last Friday night and Sunday night. I'm fortunate that I asked for Saturday night off several weeks ago. Recieved 1900 gallons of sap on Saturday, (some of that was from Friday noon and on). Came home from work Monday morning and went right to gathering, by Monday night we had hauled in 2200+ gallons of sap. I started cooking at noon on Monday and boiled til 3 AM Tuesday morning. Another 36 hour period without sleep. I have got to do something different!

The sugar % went south though. I debated on whether to boil some of it or not. I had some that was down to 1.6%, while the last that I finished up with this morning was 1.8%.

We had 74 degrees here yesterday and the sweat was just rolling off while boiling. Pretty miserable.

All in all I am very pleased with the season and owe alot to the vacuum. Though I never got around every line with a fine tooth comb, it still brought in the extra gallons that I had hoped for.

Alot of the days this year were cloudy, which more than helped keep the sap in the tubing from warming up too much and yielding darker syrup. At least 30% of the syrup was high light amber, 20% between medium and light and the rest dark amber and commercial. I can't be more pleased with the quality or quantity for 2006.

As for others in my area, I have not heard much,,,,,yet. I have been so busy and tied up that I have not hardly talked to anyone other than my help and family. A few reports were that it was better than last year, but not an exceptional year. But you don't know with all of the gossip that gets started and especially in the syrup circle.

Makes me feel bad to say that I got over a 1/2 gallon per tap, while many found it hard to get a quart per tap. There is and was alot of extra work with running a sound vacuum system, so it'd better give the extra gallons, otherwise, why do it??

I think the vacuum taps yielded more like 3/4 gallon per tap, b/c my north bush didn't run good at all until well into April and they ran the best of all over the weekend, but now we are done and its too warm for them to run anymore too.

I think the Leader sanitary extensions are a stay at my place. Everything ran like the day you tapped them right up until Monday the 10th. We never had a big warm spell until now, so that too paid an important roll in keeping things going.

Now the fun part, cleaning lines and bottling up syrup, the second season is about to start. Mark

markcasper

04-13-2006, 03:36 PM

Talked to a neighbor of mine who had 1450 bags tapped and did not tap them until March 22,23,24th and he wound up with around 355 gallons and finished up gathering on Monday, April 11th and cooking the next day.

So that would be right about 1 qt per tap and he figured he did all right considering he missed a little at the begining. From what he had heard, others in the area were also at a quart per tap to well above that. So from what I have heard, At least in my part of the state, everyone did very well to excellent with this years harvest.

I did hear a report from another producer in the vicinity that only got 310 gallons from 3000 taps and they thought that was pretty good. The problem with this picture is this individual does no flushing of lines, doesn't pull the taps from the holes at the end-ever! Now anyone correct me if I am wrong, but if that tubing doesn't at least get flushed once, you are gonna have fittings plugged with black crap, spouts with the same and low production every year after. Seems to me that if they wanted more production, then get off their !&^%# and get to it. Now I am rambling and a bit proud that I do invest the necessary time to be at least half way clean. All of the research and literature that comes out on MAPLE, suggests that flushing of the lines is of utmost importance and neccesary to achieve satisfactory yields. All of the syrup big-wigs practice and preach this, yet some must not know how to read.

I had a young syrup maker stop by a few weeks ago and lives in the next town over. He too is in the habit of not visiting the woods after the last collection until deer hunting time. He was dumb-founded when he seen all the barrels of syrup that were filled. He was asking all kinds of vacuum questions and had sugar plums dancing in his head for vacuum next year. How do you tell him in a nice way that he needs to first learn how to get a cleaning sloution or even water through his lines first?? Then worry about vacuum. Hope all had a good season and as someone once said--this is suppossed to be fun!! Mark

markcasper

04-21-2006, 12:40 AM

I am about 2/3 done on flushing lines. I am dumfounded as to how clean the lines have been. Last year it was just terrible, they all looked like they had cottage cheese in them. Maybe it was b/c I had the vacuum pumps running pretty much to the bitter end and there was virtually nothing for flowage since. Who knows!

I did run into about 10 taps that were completely sealed off with bacteria, I couldn't even blow through them. After shoving a nail through these they finally opened up and was able to get the cleaning solution through. And to think of not washing tubing.........................................Mar k

Maple Hill Sugarhouse

04-24-2006, 10:27 AM

post edited

markcasper

04-25-2006, 12:11 AM

Kevin, I never had a change of thought this year. I started experementing with vacuum in 2003 and knew from those results that continued advancement with vacuum would bring more yield.

I did run a dry line on one releaser, put in a few PVC boosters on that line, but had to disconnect the dry line b/c of releaser problems. I spent hours and hours tryong to figure out things. It was trial and error and ended up just leaving that one the same as in the past 3 years. Since I am using the benders, I have not experienced the $$$$$$$$$$$ Giles Bernards or Lappierres. They will probably work fine with all kinds of leaks back in the system. The Benders will not. If using Benders, you will be forced to go back in the woods and find most of the leaks, or they will not function at all. The #1 thing to getting the most yield is getting those leaks taken care. I knew this way before coming to Maple Trader, b/c like I said, the benders never worked the first year I used them in 03. Due to all the leaks back in the woods.

In 2004 I had the same results from the woods on vacuum that I did this year. The main reason this year for the increased production per tap is that there was another 275 taps on good, working vacuum that was not there in prior years. It all helps! Sugar % was very good for me this year and that added even more to the bottom line.

As for January tapping........That can best be compared to asking the people that rode the Titanic if it was unsinkable. It was up until a certain point.

My sample tap yielded only a small amount of sap in January. You are not gonna have the consecutive # of days in January with long periods above freezing day and night like in March and April. If there is medium to deep frost in the woods, forget it! I am not tapping in January. Why not tap as soon as the leaves are off the trees in October then??

I have the feeling we all have not heard the end of January tapping.

As for syrup prices.....I heard from 2 producers who took syrup to a packer already and he was paying 185/ LA, 175/MA, 165/DA, and $1.45 for commercial. The thing that is really baffling. 8O The price of commercial for the producer went down .35 cents per pound, or 3.85 per gallon since January 06.
Yet the price the packer is asking for bottled commercial has risen $7.00
per gallon since January 06. Is it just me, or is there a problem with this picture? So in reality, thats a $10.85 increase per gallon that the packer gets. The TOTAL price per gallon to the producer now is $15.95. Guess we are all stupid!!!!!

The front brace on my flue pan completely broke free about half way through the season, but never leaked. Have to treat it like an egg shell!

Kevin, As for the slower drift of technology to the mid-west. That may or may not be the case. Especially since the invention of the airplane,telephone, car, interstate highway system and now internet.

Alot of it depends on the number of people and how close they are together. Wisconsin has many producers, but since it is a much bigger state in terms of area, the people are more spread out and communicate less, therefore holding up ideas from spreading. I'll have to admit that some of the state associations up in your area are much better organized than Wisconsins. I think the WI organization ranks right on the bottom....very disorganized. They can't even have someone update the groups web-site. Don't get me wrong, there are some very outgoing and energetic people on the board, but it takes more than a few to make it go right. And remember back in high school or possibly your place of employment, or even church if you go?? You know there gets to be certain "clicks" of people and what results from that? I hate clicks and am not into them. If there are clicks, then theres usually more gossip getting done than anything else!

Because of personal reasons which I cannot discuss, I am not very active with the group and if you want up to the date maple education, you will not find it there!

Heres hoping you have a better season next year than this year! Mark

Maple Hill Sugarhouse

04-25-2006, 07:29 AM

post edited

04-25-2006, 01:06 PM

The sample taps did not run much until into March when I started tapping the rest. The sample taps did not run in March unless there was a good freeze, followed by a thaw. There were several day and night periods in which we never recieved a freeze. One period was 5 days in length. I was getting good sap flow from the vacuum taps, the bags, basically nothing during those non-freeze periods. Mark

markcasper

04-26-2006, 04:54 PM

Finally finished up my tubing flushing yesterday! Now onto bottling syrup and cleaning up other miscellaneous things and evaporator. Mark

markcasper

04-28-2006, 09:15 AM

Kevin, I was rereading your last post in reguards to the milk can extractors. I am thinking long term here. Do you know of people up there that use the bigger milkhouse releasers. ? Not the benders, I am talking a larger size with a reciever jar that takes a 2-2 1/2 inch line. One used in the milkhouse like my dads.

I have seen video tapes of them in use and even have the Cornell video on tubing which was made in 1992 I believe and Lew Staats put it together. I seen a Delaval jar with an electric motor pump to take the sap out. There is tons of that stuff around here yet and is relatively cheap. I have been at auctions and have seen a whole pipeline for 60 cows, reciever panel, jar and pump go for as little as 300 dollars. A bit cheaper than the milkcan extractors and closer. I know these are electric and not mechanical, but if I get enough taps someday, then I'll just put in a generator back in the woods and run the vacuum pumps and everything from one generator. Mark

Maple Hill Sugarhouse

04-29-2006, 09:12 AM

post edited

markcasper

03-03-2007, 02:41 AM

More snow again, about 12 inches worth. It went from completely bare ground a week ago to darn near 2 feet as of today. I checked the frost depth on Wednesday and basically figured it was a good foot or so inside the woods.

Thats not nearly as bad as the disatrous season of 2005 where I had from 2 to 2.5 feet in the same spot. I don't think that this foot will really hold things up that that long, but I am sure it will be slow at first.

The forecast is calling for 40's by the end of this coming week with some rain. My south slopes will likely do something. I am planning to start drilling early this coming week. With off farm work and the list of trouble that always comes with getting started, its probably a good idea to get on with it.

southfork

03-03-2007, 08:03 AM

Our frost is very deep , due to lack of early snow. I had an electrical cable buried for 1/4 mile in an undisturbed field and frost was beyond the 4 foot depth. It took Public Service over a week to trench. I am sure it is less in the sugarbushes. Will be interesting here in north central Wisconsin ( Oneida county ).
I am keeping a watch on the latter part of this coming week and may tap by or during this next weekend. There is a predicted cool down after that but it cannot out last my tap hole life. I will decide by midweek.

Good luck--Race

markcasper

03-03-2007, 11:54 AM

I have heard of frost depths of 5 feet out in the open. In the well by my syrup shed, the frost is down 2 feet according to the line on the cinder blocks. I was quite surprised to only go down 1 foot in the woods, I thought it would have been more. There was an inch or two of snow beofre the COLD SPELL, but still.

With all of this snow, it may not get as warm as they are saying, but then to, it can disappear as fast as it came. I have some strong south slopes that always run well 10-14 days before everything else. Also at the onslaught of the first 50's, the syrup can go dark practically overnight from those south lines.

markcasper

03-03-2007, 09:07 PM

I fixed squirrel damage today and am nearly done, a few hours left. I was thinking of starting to tap tomorrow, but after todays cold and wind, I will be waiting til it gets a bit warmer. It was rough going in a strong northwest wind. Only got to 18 here today and is 10 at 8 oclock pm.

Am going over to clean in the shack and pull the gas engine and vacuum pump out and will get it running and change all fluids.

markcasper

03-08-2007, 01:27 AM

Holes will be bored starting later today. Will spend the forenoon getting the releasers hooked up and gathering all of the necessary tapping tools. Just remembered, I have not test-fired the tapper yet........woops. Hope it runs, if not, then i'll worry about it when i get there.

LOTS of snow in the corn and hay fields going back to the woods. It was hard going with the tractor, but made it. The snow is very hard, lots of water tied up in it.

Suppossed to be in the 50's here this coming Monday and Tuesday. Time to get the lead out............................................... ...........................

markcasper

03-09-2007, 12:22 AM

Did get a fair start on tapping today, not too many though. Always such a hastle to get everything you need onto the trailer. Once its there, then every day thereafter will not be spent looking and trying to rmember where you stuck it last season.

There was some sap on the south side of hill, there were some that were dry. It got to 40, but was foggy til afternoon and windy from the east. Pretty dismal sap flow though and will be until this snow goes down.

southfork

03-09-2007, 04:46 PM

Hi Mark,
I dozed my way into the sugarbush today. The sap probably ran some in Oneida. We are going to set about 400 or so tomorrow (Saturday). The neighboring sugarbush is also tapping tomorrow.
I guess it is time------good luck.

Race

markcasper

03-12-2007, 11:15 AM

Had to work Friday night and Sunday night. I have a bout 600 in so far. Not the best, but for one person and little sleep, deep snow and too many looses ends, I guess thats all to be expected. My vacuum is all working, but getting terrible leaks somewhere. Warm balmy night last night, never dropped below 40 and the snow is going fast. Should help warm up the trees. Other than that, started saving sap yesterday afternoon. I don't expect to be boiling before this weekend. More tapping to do and work in town wed. thur. night, then I only work 3 nights after that through the 10th of April. 50's here today and tomorow, then cooler.

Wife said some people were trying to pm me. box full, will check it out.

globetrotter

03-12-2007, 09:13 PM

I heard if it gets really warm that you should re-tap? Is that true?

markcasper

03-13-2007, 12:00 AM

I f you tapped way early and theres been alot of warm weather and little flow, yes the holes will become contaminated with microbes, which will stunt or stop the flow. I would not recommend boring new holes, unless the tree was undertapped to begin with. You could try reaming them out, sometimes it works, sometimes not, and when it does its usually short lived.

If you use new tubing spouts or sleeves, versus "open" spouts, that will make a difference. In reality, if you have enough trees, just move the taps. Its also best to tap on all sides of the trees. The south taps will run first, while the north ones will kick in and take over later in the season, while some south ones cease flowing.

Did not get much tapping done today, rather I fixed leaks and breaks and got the vacuum on one of my bushes from 3.5 to 18.5 out in the woods. Took about 6 hours of time to do 275 taps worth. Seen 3 tree rats and every time i come out they head for the other side of the hill.

When I got there this am., there was barely a trickle (no freeze last night) After the vacuum was on and working, there was at least 50 gallons in the tank by 4 pm. Several of the trees on top of the hill are not hardly leaking yet, while the ones on the immediate south side were juicing well with vacuum. Now my concern is running the sp-11 pump this high. I have never had it tweaked so high until this year. Guess I'll find out tomorrow if its still turning, its going all night.

Will be tapping another group (310 taps) tomorrow. I better hit the hay.

markcasper

03-15-2007, 01:36 PM

sp-11"s have held out. Between 900 and 1000 taps in and maybe 200-250 gallons of sap as of last night. Things sure don't want to get into gear here. Shut all my pumps off yesterday b/c there just was nothing coming. Had not froze for 4 nights previous, but was still pulling in something prior to yesterday. 22 this am and only 30 now, I believe the dry ground has alot to do with minimal sap flow. Now that alot of the snow is gone, the rain that is forecast to come next week should help out. Going to tap more this afternoon.

markcasper

03-16-2007, 09:59 PM

Things are starting to change. I have nearly all of my tubing tapped in with the exception of some in a pasture with heavy logging damage.

Was working on my last vacuum woods today and discovered a broken T with 80 taps running on the ground......any wonder my releaser wouldn't work.

I will be gathering tomorrow for the first time. Want to get it all out early, before the days sap starts running. One tank has sap in it from last Sunday.

Will be working in the sugar shack tomorrow getting things ready for the first cooking, most likely later tomorrow. Was only 38 today, but the south ones poured for awhile this afternoon.

markcasper

03-21-2007, 12:23 AM

I cooked for the first time this past Sunday. I pulled a 48 hour stint again, man I hate those, you practically fall asleep standing up. To make a long story short, I ran off about 65 gallons of syrup between Sunday afternoon and early Tuesday morning. Sap flow has been minimal!

I broke one of my releaser jars on Saturday night when the tank I was washing came crashing against it, so no vacuum there since. My wife picked one up over in Minnesota on Monday and will be putting it back on line in a few hours.

The syrup that was made was 3/4 dark amber and the balance (latest stuff) went to medium. Kind of a disappointment there, considering the sap has been really clear and fresh.

The wind has been awful this season . 2 days ago from the north, then the next from the east. One day the wind changed direction 3 differnt time in 12 hours and it was a sustained wind. That doent' make for good sap flow either. Has it been windy where you are?

The wind has been terrible here this spring, yesterday from the northwest and today fromm the east. That too doesn't make things conducive to good sap flow. Has it been windy where you are?

The sugar content started off between 3.1 and 3.5%. Last night however, one load only registered 2.7%, but the other half load went 3.6%.
Gathered around 2300-2400 gallons of sap thus far.

I stuck about 100 more taps in today bringing things up to around 1200. Looks like that is it. No help this year to do any more and the weather is not looking good, next 7 days are to be in the 50's and 60's and only one night of freezing.

I talked to a neighbor who has a gently north facing woods. He usually taps 1600 on bags and hasn't tapped yet. He said that with the forecast he will wait until next week to see what lies ahead. As I have said before, the deeper frost this year is keeping the trees from going. My south taps have been running ok, but anything on another slope other than southern has been virtually nothing. The ones I tapped today were in a north and east facing pasture. About 3/4 of them were bone dry and it got to 18 for a low, 43 for a high.

Forecast does call for rain and thunderstorms over the next week, so am looking for the vacuum to start earning its keep since it won't be freezing at night.

TR Hardwoods

03-21-2007, 06:28 AM

Mark, We had lots of wind yesterday but other than that it doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary in my area. Our taps are all on the north side and that has been to our advantage this year as a few nights it was right at 32+- and these north slopes have good amts. of snow yet. They seemed to freeze just enough to get that sap to flow.

markcasper

03-22-2007, 01:14 AM

Gathered in around 1100 gallons tonight under thunder and lightning. Nothing like filling the vacuum pump pail with gas, only to feel the ground shake and the sky light up. Kind of scary.

Got all of my vacuum on and running, but not without spending a whole day and then some fixing leaks. My first woods that I did vacuum maintenance on about a week ago or more really disgusted me! I turned it on Tuesday at 4pm and let it run all night. I figured on at least 300 gallons of sap there and when i got there the tank only had about 150. So I hiked it the 650 feet across the field, pump was running, releaser working. Vacuum gauge showed only 2 and when i did maintenance i had it up to better than 18. I heard several holes hissing. The flashlight was out and ended up taping 6-7 large holes in the laterals right off the mainline. !@#$%^&*^%#@@ squirrels!!!!

I asked the neighbor boy about shooting them, told him I'd give him 10 bucks for everyone he brought me. He must not have gotten there yet.
Has anyone else gone over there vacuum systems multiple times during the season due to this?

The live traps are going up there as soon as possible.

So am real behind and am going over to boil now a little after midnight.
Sugar content actually came up a little today. Nothing was below 3%! So thats cool and must be due to the frost starting to leave and the roots thawing. The next week looks terrible-highs in the 50's and 60's, 40's at night. NOT GOOD! I should be over 100 gallons of syrup by noontime tomorrow. Then to bed and will get back up and do it all over again. At least with vacuum I am utilizing my vacation time. The trouble is, I really need a vacation after making syrup, but is hard when you use all your vacation to make syrup.

markcasper

03-22-2007, 01:22 AM

Would you all believe that I tapped 4 large silver maple in our farm yard Tuesday at 3pm. I gathered them at 10 pm Wednesday and got 10 5 gallon pails FULL!!! There was a total of 19 taps between the four of them. They are HUGE. One with 4 on yielded 22 gallons @3.9%. (I emptied that one in the morning on Wednesday b/c 2 were running over)

I have never seen these run like this in the 23 years I have made syrup! If only the ones in the woods would run like this.

markcasper

03-25-2007, 07:10 AM

Just got up from passing out on the couch. Gathered about 450 gallons late last night, stopped home to eat and ended up falling asleep. I have to work tonight, so will run over and boil the sap I have and then get back to bed.

Temperatures are really warm, was 67 yesterday, 65 the day before and 64 the one before that. Not turning out to good!Have had lots of equipment problems. Buried my tractor and gathering tank Thursday night. Didn't have the crawler down there so went to farm to get the BIG tractor and batteries were dead. So ended up getting the cat anyway. What was gonna be an early night turned into a 3 hour deal just to get one load of sap to the road.

Went to do vacuum checks yestderay afternoon, left the cat running for fear of it not starting if I shut it off. Got half done and heard a grinding noise from down the hill. Went down and discovered the fan and generator were not going around. Turns out the belt was really loose and slipping. Shoved a stick in it to tighten the belt. Got down to the lower tank and the throttle handle broke off, sheared a roll pin. What a night!!!

On a good note, all of my vacuum is pulling at between 16"-18". Suppossed to be severe thunderstorms and tornados around today. Maybe that will help blow some sap out.

The syrup went to dark amber Friday night. Sap was cloudy from last night, but still holding up pretty well. Its not stinking yet anyway.

Looks to be really warm all the way through this Friday and then they are talking about only 30's for next week. Maybe will end up tapping a bunch of bags then. Who knows!!

markcasper

03-27-2007, 12:17 AM

Got done gathering a little bit ago and ended up with close to 1100 gals.
from the last 2 days. Would have been more but my gas engine on the pump quit sometime Sunday morning i figure. There was crap in the gas line again.
Went back in the dark after work Monday morning and found everything still.
Got it going, then went to bed. Got a high performance in-line filter and put on there now, that should fix this problem.

The sugar% from what I gathered was 2.6% on one load, 3% on the other and the other I assume is in the 2.5 range. The sap is really milky after all this heat and will most definately be commercial.

Trees ran pretty well today on vacuum. I had 82 degrees this afternoon and it was 80 yesterday. We had some strong thunderstorms late Sunday afternoon with lots of wind. No damage, but definately blew a bit.

I should be over 200 gallons of syrup by the end of this cooking. Thats still less than a third of what I made total last year. I work with a guy whose family sugars, they have 600 on buckets and have made 50 gallons as of Sunday night.

My dad talked to another farmer that lives about 5 miles from me. That guy hasn't tapped either. Thats 2 pretty sizable producers within 5 miles of me that have not tapped yet this year. They very well may tap this weekend as the accuweather forecast calls for 30's and 40's for highs from this weekend clear past Easter weekend.

I just hope its not too late. The popples and elm buds have exploded the past few days. The gras is turning green and the alfalfa is turning green in the fields. It looks like April 20th around here and they are not calling for any freezes til at least this weekend.

I better get cooking or I'll end up dumping all my sap thats going to make strong commercial!

markcasper

03-28-2007, 01:05 PM

Made almost a drum of commercial since Tuesday morning. Trees didn't run that good Tuesday. Vacuum pump with the gas engine was off when I went to gather last night. Thought that problem was taken care of. According to the gas pail, it ran most of the day yesterday.
My other woods with the electric motor only yielded 97 gallons of sap, am going up to check for damage for the 3rd time this year! 470 gallons gathered total on Tuesday, all was from vacuum.

Very windy from the east and rain around the area. I am certain that if it does cool down and the trees kick in next week, the syrup will be buddier than buddy if it lightens up.

markcasper

03-28-2007, 01:06 PM

Made almost a drum of commercial since Tuesday morning. Trees didn't run that good Tuesday. Vacuum pump with the gas engine was off when I went to gather last night. Thought that problem was taken care of. According to the gas pail, it ran most of the day yesterday. So I pulled the rope and away we go???????????
My other woods with the electric motor only yielded 97 gallons of sap, am going up to check for damage for the 3rd time this year! 470 gallons gathered total on Tuesday, all was from vacuum.

Very windy from the east and rain around the area. I am certain that if it does cool down and the trees kick in next week, the syrup will be buddier than buddy if it lightens up.

markcasper

03-29-2007, 01:15 AM

Went out at 1 pm to see if the gas engine was turning. It wasn't and I was about at the end of my rope! So......I noticed droplets of something seperated out in the bottom of the gas line-water. Got it running, spit and sputter and left to go check the other woods with the electric, with the idea of Fleet Farm after that to get new gas line and another filter.

The electric woods was getting vacuum out to the trees, but with all the warm weather, it caused the releaser jar and mechanism to get coated with slime and pink crap-disgusting! The vacuum would get to 18 #'s, then the float would drop, emptying the jar, but because of the slime it would not resume vacuum to the woods until the #'s got down to 8 out in the woods.

Tore that apart, cleaned it and put back together and man it works good now!
Returned from town, put new gas line and filter on after cleaning the gas pail. There was a good amout of water and crap in the bottom of the pail and am not sure how the water got in considering it was covered well with plastic.
Must have been the storm on Sunday?

So I should have sap to gather tomorrow as they were running about a half-gallon a minute back in the gas woods at 11pm.

markcasper

03-29-2007, 11:14 PM

Just got in from gathering with 1300 gallons. That was from 2 days and the 1st day the vacuum was only half working. Now the vacuum is all working wonderful at 17 to 19 #'s. Sap ran pretty well today with vacuum and a stiff east wind. Still some frost on the north side of hills. Strung out and tapped (added) 20 more taps on tubing this afternoon at the electric woods.

Sugar content is dropping. Was from 2.2% to 2.7% on the 3+ loads brought in.

Sap is pretty cloudy and will be commercial. I am heading over now to start boiling after eating a bit. Suppossed to rain heavy tomorrow and may go out and gather again after boiling, try to beat the rain. I hate gathering in the rain!

markcasper

03-31-2007, 04:04 PM

Gathered 770 gallons last night again from the prevoius 24 hours. All from vacuum. I have passed my non-vacuum tanks for several days now-nothing there! Its been misty, rainy and foggy since the wee hours on Friday. Gathered in the mist last night-what a mess! Today isn't any better, heavy rain just a few minutes ago. Contemplating not going out to gather but probably will.

Suagr % from 2.2%-2.5%. Sap not getting any clearer, even with the cooler temps in the 40's.

There is a farm auction with a bender releaser on it on Monday, about 11/4 hour from me. I have to work that night and am having a neighbor go to the sale to buy it. I have never paid over $30 for any releaser bought at an auction around here.

markcasper

03-31-2007, 10:27 PM

950 gallons gathered tonight, am going to cook pronto, but came home to put dry clothes on. Got soaked getting the last load. On and off rain all day and night. Vacuum working great! Should be over 300 gallons syrup by morning. That would be a quart per tap.

Has not froze in a week!

markcasper

04-01-2007, 07:04 PM

Going over now again to gather. This is the 3rd day in a row its been misty and rainy and I am sick of getting soaked. Its colder today too. Interested to see what they ran today. Made 27 gallons of commercial overnight.

markcasper

04-02-2007, 11:00 AM

Gathered 1055 gallons last night again. Boy it shocked me that there was more than the day before. I started boiling at midnight and ended up with close to 30 gallons of commercial. The murky sap depresses me. You would think that with this much volume that the sap would clear up some. Its been cloudy for 4 days now, no sun to heat the tubing and temps in the 40's. That 80 degree days last week no doubt wrecked everything!

I am the most confidant in saying that the spile adaptors are indeed doing what they are suppossed to. It is proof that with going through all of the heat and the fact that the holes will be coming up on a month old by the end of this week. And I am getting more sap than ever.

The sap really has a goofy smell to it when its boiling and did not have to use hardly any defoamer in the flue pan this morning. Somethings going on, anyone know what it is? The syrup tastes fine and is not really overpowering or strong even.

I have to work tonight, so will not be gathering til morning. Talked to a neighbor about helping out with cooking so I can gather while he is cooking.

Sugar is 2.2-2.5%. Continues to fall!

markcasper

04-05-2007, 11:48 AM

Got home from work Tuesday morning, took a 1 hour catnap and headed for the gathering rig. Gathered a total of 1620 gallons by Tuesday evening.

Just about everything went wrong that day. Went to the gas engine woods and thought the upper tank should have had a bit more sap than was there. Checked the vacuum level at the pump and it was only 13#'s. What the heck!? ? Gathered everything there, shut tractor off and started closing valves. Discovered the vacuum loss was comong from the upper system. Started walking up the mainline and bingo, found 3 lines with no bubbles at all there was som much air coming in.

Walked up the first line about half way up the hill and found a dropline out of the hole. Put it back in, looked to the next line and another one! And yet another one laying on the ground on the next lateral. 3taps, all in a row and on 3 different line all out of their holes. What are the odds of this. Needless to say I believe this was done intentional by another syrup maker who is jealous and envious to my production! These 2 "boys" live a few miles from me and stopped at my place Monday morning just as I was finishing up boiling. They looked at my sap gallons written on the wall, seen all the syrup barrels and the fact that I was cooking and you could see the jealousness all over there faces!!! They knew I would not be around that evening, and they talked about my vacuum system.

They tried rigging up a vacuum system which is just a failure, but why attack me? Now I can't say for sure that this is how it happened, but if you knew these two young gentlemen, you wouldn't trust them either.
What are the odds of three taps out in a row? Almost imeasurable? It certainly was not a form of wildlife that did this. I plugged these back in and got the vacuum back up to 18#'s. I believe this happened early Monday evening and that I lost 3-400 gallons od potential sap from that woods.

An hour later my tractor ran out of fuel on hwy. 12 and some cars dang near ran into me as the sap tank was sitting cock-eyed across one lane of traffic. I managed to throw it in 5th and rolled the starter to get it on the shoulder. Walked home and got my brother and some diesel and went to put fuel in it. By that time it was pouring down rain. I got back to the sugar shack, was backing in with the load of sap and noticed the smoke stack on the evaporator was moving back and forth about a foot and the guy wires were swaying all over the place in the 30 mph winds. Here the stack had rusted out right after the first section out of the roof and was only hanging on by 2 inches or so, the rest of it was completely broke off and cockeyed. OH NO!!!!

Jumped in my pick-up, raced to my house to get my cordless drill, sheet metal screws, then back to the farm. I had an old section of chimney. I fired up the cutting torch, cut it length-wise and went to the shack. I wrapped it around the bad part of the stack and start drilling and screwing in screws as fast as I could.
What a day!!!
Did not get boiling until 5:30 Monday night. I had a neighbor fire at 9pm, so I could go out and regather everything and get the rest that I couldn't get earlier that day.
The sap was in very poor shape! Even the stuff that was just 8 hours old. I noticed that most of the lateral lines have mega bacterial growth (white chunk deposits) in them. You should have seen the last 5 gallons in the bottoms of tanks!
Now the weather turned cold Monday night and has not gone above freezing yet. I wonder if a good run would clean this crap out of the lines? I looked at some tapholes and they look very fresh.
I made 42 gallons of commercial Monday evening/Tuesday morning. I am up to around 370 gallons finished now.
Slept alot yesterday and isn't really suppossed to warm up til Saturday or Sunday.

I looked at my notes and here are some intersting tempurature facts on this season: Boiled for the first time on March 18th:
It froze only 3 times between March 18th-April 3rd.
During this time, we had the following for high temps:

40 degrees plus: 7 days
50 degrees plus: 5 days
60 degrees plus: 3 days
80 degrees plus: 2 days

This does not include the several days of 60 degree plus temps that were encountered before my first boil, but after and during tapping.

I was thinking of flushing some lines to kind of clean them up some. I really don't expect much more than commercial grade either way. But the lines are so bad that I am not too optimistic about the future here. Anybody have any thoughts as to what to do?

HanginAround

04-05-2007, 12:13 PM

WoW

As long as you're having fun though, that's the important thing :)

markcasper

04-05-2007, 02:53 PM

I'd like to know peoples experience with flushing lines during the season, with the expectation of producing more.

This is the first year ever that the tubing has gotten this bad and dirty and now its 25 degrees and has been below freezing for a day and a half.
It would be impossible to do an "end of season", "its over" cleaning on the lines. Should I go to each end of tree lateral, unhook them and suck something or other through them? That would probably take a few afternoons. Just flush the mainlines? Do nothing? I am unsure as to what to do.

I was over at the shack just now and tasted some of what was ran off the other night. It is very strong, with a definate stomach turning off flavor. I am positive its from all of the microbes.

Only one other year identifies with this one; 1997, that year we made better quality syrup at first and more of it however. It turned really warm during the last of March and first week of April, then really cold for 4-5 days, below zero one night. When it warmed up the trees ran for a good week, but everything was commercial.

The difference then was that I had very little tubing at that time, mostly bags. So any experience from "line flushers" during the season would be appreciated! Since the vacuum system never captured a line flooding run this season, rather slow, steady runs over 24 hour periods. The lines never did have a chance to self-flush themselves. Any thoughts and ideas would be appreciated.

mountainvan

04-05-2007, 03:12 PM

I've flushed just my mainlines with water to get the crud out of it in the past, I should do it this year too, and had a bit of sucess getting cleaner sap.

markcasper

04-09-2007, 12:07 AM

Went over to the electric woods today, looked in the tank and YUK!!!!! Trees have been froze up tight since last Tuesday night. They just started trickling Sunday afternoon. This is the first day since Tuesday that I turned the pumps on. Had some lines pulled apart and a few branches down from all the wind the last 5 days.

The sap coming in looked like crap!!! Worse than crap. So I made the decision to start flushing all the mainlines. I got the one woods done and WOW!!!!. What a difference, I can actually see through the releaser AND drink the sap too. Its not crystal clear, but a heck of alot better.

Was working up in the gas engine woods until it froze up before 8 pm. Have a good hour there in the morning and then all the mains will be flushed. I pulled at least a dozen and a half spiles with adaptors and almost every hole was running well by later in the afternoon. They all looked fresh with none of them having any slime growth or mold. I was very impressed and satisfied. No reaming or redrilling for me!

A few of the holes had frost and ice in them as its been darn cold here this last 5 days or so.
Hopefully things get on with it as all my vacation from work is gone and next week I'm suppossed to work 6 12's in town.
I will be gathering that turbid sap in the morning, get clean up for the better stuff coming after the mainline flush.

Thanks Van for sharing the news on the mainlinw flushing.

Russ

04-09-2007, 12:16 PM

Mark, thanks for the call last night. My mom relayed your discussion to me. We came very close to hitting the woods today with the Tanakas to retap, but your observations from yesterday, along with advice from several syrup veterans we contacted, convinced us to at least "wait and see" as the weather warms up later this week. Many people we have talked to in the area are at < 50% of a normal crop; several smaller producers and/or people who sell sap have already pulled taps and called it a season. With the price of commercial, plenty of wood and vacation days left (didn't take any yet this year), and a mid-season break, we are ready and willing to make more... as long as Ma Nature cooperates.

I told your wife that we're moving to the Eau Claire area this summer. Sugarbush will be 2 hours away instead of 4 from the Milwaukee area. Maybe I'll get a chance to come over and see your operation sometime.

Thanks again.

markcasper

04-10-2007, 11:26 AM

Russ, I PMD you.
Gathered 1075 gallons yesterday. Trees ran super after 3p.m. The first load looked like it should have been going to the cheese factory.

I finished flushing mains in the early afternoon and picked that sap up at 10 oclock last night. It looked like a bran new season. I was amazed at how clear the sap was, it looked like the first or second gathering. That sap was 2.2% and one other load was 3.0%. Never checked the crappy sap.

Made close to 30 gallons of commercial overnight. Syrup started to lighten a little, but the good sap is tied up in the evaporator now. Still had a not so good smell.

Looks like I'll get sap strong clear through the weekend and then will probably be over. Winter storm watch for our area tonight and tomorrow.

I am at right around 400 gallons this morning.

markcasper

04-11-2007, 02:22 PM

HUGE RUN yesterday! 1440 gallons from a 8-10 hour run. Had a low of 12 above Tuesday morning. All trees running now. North south and down under.

Made 43 gallons of syrup. The last 20 gallons lightened up quite nicely. Boy it sure smells when its boiling (metabolism)???? Sap was very clear.

Have to work in toen tonight and tomorrow night, so things will get backed up.
Everything was emptied out, but the darn trees were running hard at 2am. Then it snowed and got to 32, kind of quit and there back at it again!!!! at noon.

Will gather tomorrow after sleeping and things get thawed and have a boil-a-thon all weekend the way its looking. Suagr%= 2.2%-3.0%.

markcasper

04-14-2007, 11:45 AM

Gathered in 3000 gallons of sap between Thursday and Friday night. Started cooking at noon on Friday and got done about 8 am Saturday. A 20 hour boiling spree that yielded 85 gallons of syrup, half was light amber, the other half medium, except for the last 5 gallons this morning. It went to dark amber and most likely will be back to commercial with the warmer tempuratures.

Nice looking syrup(the lightest all year), but the stuff has an aftertaste and is no doubt tasting and smelling buddy.

I never remember a year going from commerial to light amber

markcasper

04-15-2007, 09:36 AM

Gathered around 600 gallons of sap last night. Trees did not run that well yesterday. The syrup appeeared to stay out of being commercial , but am sure that will change th next time around.

I well over 500 gallons of syrup now and cannot complain about yield per tap. Just wish I had more "quality" syrup. The good sugar contentof the sap help bump up ther

markcasper

04-16-2007, 08:16 AM

Gathered only 350 gallons of 2.5% sap last night. One tank was in pretty rough shape, but into the gathering tank with the rest it went. I believe shes about over. Hasn't been freezing that hard at night the past few and no more temps below 32 are forecast from here on out.

Made 10 gallons more of commercial.

Had a vacuum loss going on in the gas engine woods. Went back to drain the oil from the engine and pump and took a little walk. I believe now that I have a bear doing damage. About 10 taps were pulled in one confined area. Some of the tubing was mangled and twisted.

Have toi work in town tonight and tomorrow night. I think one more trip around in the next 2 days and that will be the end.

markcasper

04-18-2007, 03:59 PM

I gathered yesterday for the last time. Only 210 gallons of sap @2% for the close. Trees have shut off and am going out to get the tube flushing business going.

markcasper

04-28-2007, 11:44 PM

Have a little tubing left to flush as I have had to work some OT in town lately.

I hit 2 auctions Saturday about 100 miles east of my place in central Wisconsin. Went to the first auction, bought a bender releaser and step saver for $65.00. The other guy bidding against me was a scrap monkey and was actually picking the step-saver up and down as the bidding was taking place. At 1.75 per pound for stainless, he was trying to determine where to stop. I had to chuckle.

Boy I was not gonna let him have it and didn't! Also bought a sp-22 surge vacuum pump with 2 horse motor for $45.00. Scrap guy wanted that too, I didn't think so.

Loaded up and went 30 miles north of there. Another releaser and saver, this one was still on the milkhouse wall. Got that one for $45.00.

Stopped at a large producers place on the way home which is located on hwy 29, the main artery through Wisconsin. He has a 6x20 and 6x16. Hes scaling back and I'm dealing on the 6x16. So a pretty productive day.

Parker

04-29-2007, 06:36 AM

If you need parts for the 6x16 I know where there is one with no pans,,has 2 good looking Clarin 601 burners and all the original wood fired stuff to go along with it the arch is rough but all there,,,its a small bros,,,If you wanted to sell that sp-22 I would be interested

HanginAround

04-29-2007, 12:12 PM

Mark, what is a step-saver?

markcasper

04-30-2007, 01:23 AM

Parker, The guys 16 footer he has not used for 10 years. The front pan is no good and the back is a tin pan but ok condition. So basically I am stuck buying new pans for it and an r.o. would seem to me like a better bang for your buck. I am building a new shed first, thats on the burner for this year as I failed on it last fall.

I plan on keeping the sp22 pump, but don't mind you asking. In a few years I expect to have an adjacent 400 more taps next to my others and will run everything off one larger pump. The sp-11 will not handle that many taps, plus the 600 there already. There was a surge alamo #30 at the second sale, but left it, no room in the pickup and a scrap guy got that for like $25.

Its too bad you guys are so far away as theres alot more of this "junk" here than out yer way b/c of the dairy. But, its fast becoming obsolete and harder to find as most of the 20-40 cow herds are gone. Alot of this stuff has been sitting idle for 10-20 or more years only to be sold when the party dies and an estate sale is held.

I am constantly scanning the sale adds and auctions in the farm papers and will jump at the oppurtunity if at all possible. If people like ourselves don't snatch this stuff up NOW, we will pay dearly in the not so distant future.

To think that releaser and sp-22 would have been in a rail car in less than a month if I hadn't attenede the sale, it makes me sick.

Hanjinaround: A step- saver is a stainless resivior around 10 gallons. It sat in a stainless framed cart and was used as a dumping port for fresh milk out in the barn. It had a set of small wheels on the bottom and to this resivoir a milk hose was attached. The hose was as long as the barn and longer, long enough to extend into the milkhouse. This was used when farmers milked with milker buckets. When the cow was done, we would take the top off the bucket and dump the contents into the step-saver. This "saved" the farmer from walking the 100 feet EACH time to the milkhouse and dumping directly into the bulk tank. As milking progressed and you neared closer to the milkroom, you rolled the hose up horizontally around the rack that was around the resivior.

The milk was pulled from the step-savior via vacuum, which came through the releaser jar hangin on the wall in the milkhouse. Out in the barn, the resivior had a strainer and a large ball in the bottom which cut the vacuum from being lost when the resivior emptied. When you dumped more milk, the ball raised and into the milkhouse the milk went.

It was a forerunner to the pipeline system in a stanchion or stall barn. If someone expanded to 30 cows or more, most often one of these were put into use. We had 60 cows and used one til 1977 at which time my dad put the pipeline in.

And the releaser part of it is what I am using for sap. They work well provided the leaks are taken care of and I have one with approximately 325 taps on. I don't feel that one could handle any more, or much more than that.

I might add that per grade a requirements, the long milkhose had to be washed and sanitized after each milking. Then there was a "line dryer" like an oversized hair dryer and you hooked the milkhose up to this twice a day and set it too run 10-15 mintutes and it blew hot air through the entire length to dry it.

I will try and get a photo or two and post it, though i have said that before and never got too it. The stuff is all sitting outside and would be easy to take some nice photos.

Parker

04-30-2007, 05:52 AM

nicely written,,I used to work in a dairy barn that was set up with a simmillar system,,,,milking 50 was the norm in 1980,,dont see that much anymore,,,

Dave Y

04-30-2007, 06:00 AM

I just bought a stepsaver Yesterday , had never been used. I paid 50 bucks for it. Probably paid too much.

royalmaple

04-30-2007, 08:50 AM

Mark-

Figured I's save you a step....

or step save you, I will..... if I was yoda.

http://www.diecastwarehouse.com/maple/Stepsav1.jpg

http://www.diecastwarehouse.com/maple/Stepsav2.jpg

http://www.diecastwarehouse.com/maple/Stepsav.jpg

Going to be my new filter press tank. For my homemade filter press.

HanginAround

04-30-2007, 02:48 PM

Thanks for the great explanation. My grandad was a dairy farmer, but died when I was 2. There was a vacuum system in the barn, but I think they just carried the pail to the milkroom each time. When my dad could drive, but still in school, he took milk in cans to the dairy in the AM on his way to school.

Fred Henderson

04-30-2007, 03:28 PM

I know where I can lay my hands on one of those right now. I would be interested in how you are going to make that filter press. That is if you care to share that info.

royalmaple

04-30-2007, 05:47 PM

The last picture is kinda screwed up but I was trying to show the 1/2 port that is on the bottom. Just hook 1/2 milk hose to the bottom, as a feed to the gearpump the rest is just like a normal filter press you'd buy. But you can mix your DE and syrup right in there and don't have to worry about suction hose sucking the bottom of a pail or whatnot. Everything will drop right into the bottom and into the pump.

Secret squirrel tip #03xd-b1

markcasper

02-25-2008, 11:05 PM

Getting to be that time of year again. Did alot of tubing maint. today and thought of everyone on here. This is one of the latest years of a sample tap going in. It was 28 overnight and shot up to 46 by noon and sunny. I tapped it and got a whole 10 teaspoons of sap. After an hour, it was void of any running whatsoever.

I have been using a shovel for the first time ever to shovel drifts off the lines on top of the hills. Some drifts are over my head, while 50 feet away there is leaves showing on the ground.

markcasper

03-03-2008, 12:22 AM

Was up in the woods for 11 hours Sunday, pulling up lines out of that awful hard snow. I was using a flashlight that my mouth he ldfor about 2 1/2 hours til it died. I have had major mainline faults this year and wanted to get the worst areas up out of the snow before it turns to a moon again. Mainly from lets see.....a popple on one, red oak and elm on another, and a big red oak limb on yet the other. Every line the wires were broken, causing sections of laterals to go with them and their all under that concrete snow.

Tapped old faithful March 1st, it was completely dry and was completely dry today as well. Temp was in the upper 30's, but cloudy. Sounds like most of this week will be cold. They are all saying next week will bring 40's.

That will start to break things up, and that would be right on time for a start to the new season.

markcasper

03-10-2008, 10:19 PM

I started tapping today. Only was out there a while in this afternoon. Got about 150 tapped. Only about 6-7 were running on the extreme south slope. Still cold. Will be tapping all week.

markcasper

03-17-2008, 12:21 AM

I am pretty much done tapping my vacuum taps. Sap flow had been lousy until Saturday. My sample tap finally woke up Saturday and at 8pm Sunday night was running 1 drop/ 3 seconds.

I have been blessed with getting REALLY SICK this past Friday morning. Its been awful....Friday and Saturday together I only drilled 110 holes. I had a 102 + temp, chills, dizzy, etc... Today my fever dropped and was able to get more done.

I have not started collecting any thing yet as there is just a dribble. I noticed today, however, that the south slant taps are picking up nicely. The ones on top of the hills are bone dry yet.

I have one vacuum system ready to turn on and the other 2 will be put together Monday and then leak detection.

Still have 300 non-vacuum, bags, buckets to tap yet. I do not see having sap to boil til the end of the week at this rate.

markcasper

03-23-2008, 01:43 AM

I gathered 3 loads ~ 1200 gallons Saturday night. Some of this had been collecting up since Wednesday. Its been a dribbling a little each day and is the first collection of the year.
The evaporator is ready to go and I will be lighting it after church in the morning. I still have more trees to tap yet, but will have to wait til I get that far. The sugar content is nothing to grand! My one bush that always runs earlier, that load came in at 2.1%. Normally its around 3%. My other groups are a bit better at 2.7% and 3.2%. I am hoping that it will come up whenever this pattern straightens out and things start running better.
As far as others in my area. Alot of taps went in last week, but the flow has been slow with many people collecting just enough to get started. One good thing....the weather people said it was only suppossed to get to 35 Saturday, but was in the low 40's giving some additional run time.

markcasper

03-25-2008, 12:34 AM

I boiled for the first time on Easter Sunday. I gethered 1200 gallons Saturday and picked up 500+ Sunday night. I made 40 + gallons of syrup and all was medium amber. I had 10 above for a low Monday morning and the trees didn't start doing anything until later in the day Monday. They will be running all night as it isn't going to freeze tonight. Not enough to gather til Tuesday.

markcasper

03-28-2008, 07:47 AM

It has turned out to be a busy, slow but steady week. I have gathered and cooked every day this week except Monday. Not getting any big runs, but not too shabby either. Between 700-900 gallons each day. The sugar content has come up slightly, but is still a good .5 % lower than past years.

The next week looks wonderful for sap weather. All of the syrup has been light and medium amber with excellent flavor. The sap has been in really good condition from everything, tubing or bags. I am up to 125 gallons of syrup as of this morning.

I am working on getting my last bush (the lowest sugar%) vaccuum to work properly. Why is it that you always run across a few drops that never got tapped in? I am going to tap some more after today and getting all the vacuum leaks fixed.

markcasper

03-31-2008, 09:55 PM

I had my largest one day run on Saturday with 1100 gallons plus. Sundays gethering only brought in 650 with all of that from the vacuum. We had a snow storm today, I left the pumps run round the clock since Saturday morning. I am going back to shut my other one down now. Shut the electric one down at 8pm and there wasn't a whole lot since last night.

I am up to a shade over 200 gallons of syrup, the last 30 gallons have been a solid medium amber as it was in the upper 50's on Sunday.

I most likely won't get to 1400 taps this year, just too maxed out now with no help. At least I have a solid 1200 in though.

Finally a night off...about 5-6 inches of heavy wet snow has fell today and the temp is at 30 now. I will be looking for MAXSAP after this fresh snow...so i beter get rested up and to bed.

markcasper

04-02-2008, 03:49 PM

Holy motherload of sap run!!! 1200 gallons plus yesterday, got done boiling at noon. Went back to turn the pumps on and they were just GUSHING! It'll probably be a 1500 gallon night tonight. Got to go to bed for awhile.

markcasper

04-08-2008, 12:59 AM

Well looking at my last post, I said 1500 gallons day, it came in close at 1400 and something.
Had a good gathering Saturday and Sunday with around 1000 gallons each day, no freeze and mostly all vacuum and rain.

Monday brought in not quite 700 gallons, all from vacuum. Drove right by the non-vacuum, nothing, zilch. It has not froze at all here since Friday morning last week. The syrup I made Saturday was nice medium, and quickly went to dark and then B on Sunday. We had 60's last Friday and Saturday and that cooked it for lighter grades. It tastes to darn good to be B, but ???

I'm at around 375 gallons total syrup thus far, still have a ways to go to get to .5 per tap, but not out of question...YET. Forecast calls for cool conditions most of this week, but not too many freezes. The sugar % is holding for the time being.

My neighbor has 1600 bags, and I talked to him on the weekend. He had made around 300 gallons so far and all of his syrup has been light amber. Needless to say, he has not cooked for a few days.

markcasper

04-10-2008, 03:16 PM

Vacuum will always amaze me! I brought in 1030 gallons again last night, 500 the night before, and 700 on Monday. It has not froze since last Friday - practically a week ago. Its been pretty overcast all week, not allowing things to get too warm.
I am up to around 420 gallons made with a snow storm on its way tonight and tommorrow. I have been up all night and day. After boiling this morning, had to go and check vacuum leaks. My one woods had a few fresh chews which brought my vacuum from 21 to 14.
The syrup has all been B since Sunday, but the last 10 gallons from the evaporator this morning seemed lighter in color.
Alot of the sap has bee murky and I don't think will go away.
Need to get out and gather before this rain/snow hits, or I will have to do things I don't want to doo to get to the trees today.

Theres a wicked east wind right now to precede this storm, that will probably cut prouction today. I don't see anything close to an end for almost a week. Still snow on the north hills and valleys around my place, everyhting else is gone though.

oh man, the rain has started and here i am on the old trader.

markcasper

04-13-2008, 11:31 AM

I had a pretty good gatherings over the past few days. Had problems during the rain and snow storm with the releasers freezing up at the vacuum inlet. The temps were in the mid 30's, trees were offereing, but the releasers would not cooperate. It must be that air under vacuum freezes at a higher temp.

Yesterday was definately a bag and bucket day. Averaged close too 2 gallons of sap per tap off the bags. The tubing was froze up pretty tight, the lines were plugged solid and the trees leaking everywhere around the spout. The temp was 33-34 in the afternoon with no sun. There was a bit of a ice storm the night before and the lines got coated with ice making thawing impossible at 33 degrees.

Today looks to be the BIG DAY. Sunny and 40, tonight 18, tommorow 55, after that does not look good. Supposed to be close to 70 on Tuesday and Wednesday. The syrup this morning managed to go back up to dark amber.

TR Hardwoods

04-13-2008, 01:03 PM

I just got in and the sap was really strarting to pour in the last hour or so. Lots of sun today followed by that hard freeze. Get ready.

markcasper

04-22-2008, 09:23 AM

April 14th and 15th will go down in my record book as being the biggest, fastest run of sap ever. I had things running over last Tuesday that have never ran over in one 24 hour period. I gathered around 4200 gallons between Monday and Wednesday last week, all from 1250 taps. And they continued the rest of the week, although not like the 3 day marathon.

I actually am still at it. Brought in another 1700 gallons last night, that from 2 days though. I was back to work full time as of last week and had the biggest week of sap on top of it. I am done after today. The trees as of yesterday were still pounding out sap very well, but with the past 2 days in the 70's, the sap has gotten pretty low quality.

I was headed over to boil at midnight, ended up passing out on the couch with my daughter on the floor. Thunderstorm got me up at 4, but then continued to sleep for a while.

I have made an unbelievable amount of syrup. I do not know how or why the rees have kept running so long. Even the non vacuum ones kicked in the last 2 days and did well in the warm sun.

I am over .6 gallon per tap at this time. This is gonna be a record year for me.

markcasper

04-22-2008, 09:58 PM

Well so much for 1700 gallons. I ended up dumping about half of what I gathered last night. It turned to goop and got stringy on me over night.

I boiled the stuff that wasn't crappy

markcasper

03-09-2009, 07:36 AM

Starting to tap TODAY.

Jeff E

03-09-2009, 02:50 PM

Got 1500 taps in over the last 4 days, and had a bit of sap going in the releasers.

My pump lines froze hard on Sat night, so I am trying to resolve that issue. Hard freeze coming over the next 2 days so I need to get everything drained and ready for the next warm up...

Lots of bugs to work out for this newbie to vacuum and tubing!!!!
Had a rough time of it, just taking one thing at a time and working it out.

markcasper

03-10-2009, 01:44 AM

Got around 300 tapped Monday afternoon and evening. Sap was running better than I expected. A friend came later in the day and helped. We were both pulling a THERON as there were 2 "night vision goggles" actively in use til 8:30 pm.
I am letting the sap run on the ground, no sense saving it only to deal with below zero in 24 hours.

Jeff, It is a challenge no matter how many taps, hang in there! I will be having a rough time this year because of my job. I will do what I can and am just !@#$%^&*ed that I am so far behind and have lost some run already.

I will be tapping today, in the storm hell or high water. The goal is another 300 today.

markcasper

03-15-2009, 12:56 AM

Close to 900 taps in so far. I have started working vacuum and discovered that some of the 7/16-5/16 adaptors are leaking. They were all new too.

Sap has ran a little the past few days, nothing big. Looks like no freezing at night until Wednesday.

Jeff E

03-16-2009, 08:59 AM

Well, I think I got the majority of the bugs worked out, we have good vac 24"+ throughout the bush.

Ran the RO on its inaugural mission yesterday, and sweetened the evaporator. Very happy with the results, processing, filtering and bottling about 1200 gallons in about 3 hours, and started filling a drum!

Running the vac non stop now through this warm spell and we'll see what we get. I will add more laterals tonight after work...

markcasper

03-16-2009, 11:40 AM

Jeff, That is great! I hope my inaugural mission goes just as well.

I am heading out to do vacuum work now. I am not tapping anymore until the vacuum is all functioning properly. The sap has been slow, I started saving all sap on Saturday. Theres maybe 300 gallons out there. I will start getting evaporator and gathering tanks ready tomorrow. RO too

markcasper

03-17-2009, 11:01 PM

Well it sure has been crappy as far as sap flow goes. Its pretty bad when your pulling 19" of vacuum and its hard to get enough sap in the lines to do proper leak management.

Actually, I estimate there to be around 700 gallons since Saturday. It has not froze in several nights.

Jeff E

03-18-2009, 09:15 AM

I agree Mark...

I processed another 600 g last night, collected from Monday and Tuesday.
Dark Amber.

Last night the vac shut off about 1am, and I woke up to 30' F, I hope that wakes up the trees.

Being new to bigger operations, going from 350 buckets last year to about 1600 on vac, I really don't know what a good run will look like. I hope to find out soon!!!!

markcasper

03-18-2009, 11:31 AM

Jeff, a excelllent run for you would be 2000-2600 gallons in one 24 hour period. A good run would be 1600 gallons. 1000 would be fair, nothing big.

600 or less would be LITTLE SAP.

Sounds like after this weekend and the thunderstorms, that should push the trigger. We can only hope.

markcasper

03-24-2009, 12:43 AM

Finally got the first syrup out on Sunday. Made around 75 gallons. I think most was dark, some may have been medium.

Many thanks to Pete Felch for helping out on the phone with the starting and running of the RO.

I put in a 45 hour stint, man does that suck!!!! Barely made it in the house this morning! Had to work Friday and Sunday night which put me under the gun. Trees ran well last Friday and then Saturday. There is some to pick up in the morning.

Since everything at the shack is pretty well hammered down and operational, I will start tapping some more trees. Weather looks very good from Wednesday/ Thursday well into April.

Jeff E

03-25-2009, 03:32 PM

Mark, its good to make syrup along with doing all the prep work!

The last freeze we had was last friday night. Its suppose to freeze now the next several nights. Keep me posted on what happens your way.

Here is what I have been processing this week:
Sat: 1400 gal
Sun: 650
Tues: 850

I ran mainline to another area of the woods last night, and by the end of the weekend I hope to have about 300 more taps on line. That would be a big help for me to get the sap.

Jeff E

03-25-2009, 03:34 PM

One other note: the first week of March when I tapped I got 1.8% sap, last week and this week it has stayed around 3%. Pretty happy with that being all forest maples, with some reds mixed in with the sugars!

markcasper

03-25-2009, 10:41 PM

Jeff, I have gathered around 4300 gallons so far off of only 900 vacuum taps. I am trying to get around to tapping some more. The off farm work situation is not helping with that.

Am heading over now to fire up the RO. I got soaked to the bone gathering in the tropical cold rainstorm Tuesday night. Got done and said no more anything for that night. Picked up about 550 gallons tonight since last night.

My % has been 2.7-3.2%, but has dropped slightly in the last day or so. Its pretty common to start out low, then max out, then slowly fall all season.

Good luck in your additional tapping!

Jeff E

03-31-2009, 12:15 PM

We are into it now. Got home from work and had 1900 gallons in the tanks, and it was still coming in strong. By midnight we were up to 2400 gallons.

I made more syrup last night (and this morning) than I have ever made in an entire year!!! Pretty fun. Got out of the sugar house at 4 am, alarm set for 7 to go to work, and probably do it again tonight.

The tsunami has shifted north west!

elmcreekmaple

03-31-2009, 12:28 PM

We had to stop last weekend - probablly right before it got good - but we ended up with about 1.5 gallons a piece for 7 guys. This was our first year and just for pancakes, but next year we will hit it harder. We had one good day on 3/13 - we tapped just over 100 trees and pulled 210 gallons by midnight. was that a good day or can we expect better days when it is really hitting?

Jeff E

03-31-2009, 12:55 PM

ElmCreek, That was a pretty good day here in Spooner as well, but not great.
On buckets, getting 2+ gallons per tap average is great! Some trees will do 5 gallons + in a day when it is really going.

I would suspect if you got 200+ gallons on 3/13, you could have gotten close to 300 yesterday.

As a friend from PA says, you've got to WAAANNNTTT ITTT!!!

hanson

03-31-2009, 04:50 PM

Yesterday we got 4-5 gallons per tap lots of the buckets and bags were overflowing.

markcasper

04-01-2009, 12:46 PM

BIG SAP hit hard here on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and most of the night Monday. Just on Mondays run I averaged 2 gallons of sap per tap! The syrup has gotten really light! A nice treat after all of the dark syrup at the beginning.

New RO is 3 times better than a hired man. Thank the Lord I bought it! Off to tap some more now.

Jeff E

04-01-2009, 01:39 PM

Sounds great Mark-
I hope we get what is forcast. The next 10 days look like super sap weather.
It was a bit cold for me last saturday and sunday, not really big runs as it didn't get going until mid afternoon.

It is great to see the light and medium amber for a change. I have found it to boil very well, with minimal foaming and little nitre/sand. Best sap/syrup in years for quality.

I talked with Dawn Roth and they are swamped with sap to, and they had some equipment issues that kept them from getting stuff processed quick. OUCH.

It sound like they are ahead of it now.

markcasper

04-04-2009, 10:12 PM

Well guys, I am most fortunate to be alive this evening! Had a bad mishap and I believe the Lord was watching over me.

I was hauling a load of sap up a steep hill. It is a blacktop townroad with a big cliff on one side and an embankment on the other.

I had my Deere 4000. I was about 2/3 way up the hill and the thing just up and quit. If anyone knows about them tractors, you lose everything if the engine aint running. I had 400 gal. load of sap. It started backwards, thought about jumping, but it all happened so fast. I was able to veer it off towards the embankment. The tractor jacknifed and was probably leaning 49% when it came to a stop.

I got off shaking and kittering, walked to my neighbors and he brought his tractor to try and pull it out of there. Luckily nothing got wrecked at all. Later on I took my wife and dad up to show them the spot and she started crying.

The tractor started once I got it out, but then died about 1/4 mile from the farm. Needless to say I switched tractors, I think the fuel pump is shot and thats why it killed.'

Other than that, things are moving along. I have around 1150 taps, never did get anymore tappped. I'm at a little over 400 gallons syrup with 3/4 of it dark amber, the rest light and med. More dark this year than normal. Had a fairly good run today, but not as good as last Monday.

Am going to go now and fire the RO and then start cooking.

Jeff E

04-06-2009, 11:08 AM

Glad you swam out of that situation Mark!!!

Your having a very, very productive year. That is a great ratio of taps to syrup. All on Vac? Must be good trees!

markcasper

04-06-2009, 11:58 AM

Jeff,

I am so very fortunate! Only around 875 on vacuum, the rest is gravity and bags. The ones that are not on vacuum are all trees in pastures and yards and they all have 3 to 5% sugar on those. So that helps out alot too.

Have some more line ready, but am going to forget it this year. I've had enough for one year, plus all my vacation is gone now.

It would be nice to meet up after season some time, talk CDL RO and things like that.

Haynes Forest Products

04-06-2009, 12:04 PM

Was at Roth Sugar Bush on Sat what a trip I pulled in at 10:30 with 1350lbs on my trailer and another 1400lbs in 5 gallon buckets in the truck bed Dadge 1500 she was loaded with 2 kids a dog and all my gear. Spent the next 2 hrs unloading the buckets into drums and cleaning up.
Was watching Dawn check sap on all the trucks pulling in to sell sap and what did I spie a old vacuum bottler that has a elec motor and vacuum pump and 6 bottling heads. It has a SS valve box with float that keeps the lines filled. Dawn said talk to Pete I said do you think $50 would do it she laughed and I told Pete that Id give him $100 he said get it ata here. What great people to do buisness with. I put $200 down on new pans or a Auto drawoff with alarms...............what cames first the auto draw or new pans.

Russ

04-06-2009, 12:13 PM

Mark, I know from experience what you mean about those JD's with the power brakes. I think I was in high school when I helped my uncle during corn picking season down in southern Wisconsin, in bluff country. On more than one occasion I shut off the engine without putting the tractor in Park and ended up rolling backward with a partially filled gravity box of corn. Like you, I was able to get the rig to go up an embankment before any damage or injuries occurred. Thought that was the poorest design from a safety standpoint and a bad piece of equipment to have in hilly farm country.

Congrats on the great season with your RO. See my north central WI update for how our season is going.

markcasper

04-06-2009, 12:21 PM

Russ, Needless to say there is a two-cylinder going to pull it the rest of the season. At least you can count on the brakes.

markcasper

04-12-2009, 01:28 AM

Still getting sap here. I gathered 2550 gla. from Wednesday through Friday. The syrup early Saturday morning went to Commercial. The first I have made this year. Its been freezing hard nearly every morning, but it seems the trees are slowing their flow. We've had little precipitation this spring and I think the trees are runing low on moisture now. Some red maples that have bags have pretty much stopped and they were only tapped 2 weeks ago. Their buds are getting real fuzzy.

My lowest suagr content has now reached 1.8%. I have went past 1/2 gallon per tap yesterday for the season.

I have not heard of anyone quitting yet in my area.

Jeff E

04-13-2009, 08:56 AM

Good season agreed! I have talked with some local producers, and it has been a block buster year all around here.

One guy who does about 10,000 taps (buckets mostly, hired help) is over 1/2 gallon of syrup per tap. THATS a LOT of SYRUP!

I am still in Grade A Dark as of last night. I think all tubes and washing tanks daily makes a huge difference. Am still pulling in sap, about 1000 gal per day, but expect that to slow this week as no freezes.

BAD NITRE. I should be reversing the flow every 25 gallons or so, but I dont have what I need to do it under fire. I will have to deal with that soon. $$$.

elmcreekmaple

04-13-2009, 04:52 PM

Get the tank upgradient and gravity feed sap through flexible copper tubing around the stack as many times possible, then into a preheater pan.
693

Any opinions on how this will work? The Arch is homemade this year, 6' X 2.5'. The pan sits in angle iron and is 60" x 30" with no dividers. We had a problem trying to get the sap preheated enough so I thought up this plan. One problem I have is that I would like to put dividers in then have another smaller pan sit on top as the preheater - like the picture, but would it boil evenly under the pan, and how would it be for shlooshing it through with the scoop? Another idea I had was to seperate the pans into maybe 3.5 and 1.5 x 30" sections but how would I get the sap to run from one to the other if the are on the level?

Since I am asking questions - why do I see Archs with the divided, "finishing pan" right above the firebox and the bulk of the boiling sap farther back the flue? I would think you would want the finishing sap/syrup to be at lower heat so you would lessen your chance to scorch.

thanks, aaron