Tapping the 2012 season

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

Who will be the first to tap this season. it is looking warm but in the 15 day forecast it is looking a lot cooler in the long term. :D We have way too much work to do for an early season. New 3 by 10 all stainless new 16 by 20 sugar shack and an additional 132 taps onto 150. Our goal is to be ready for the 2nd week in February. Our first boil was february 15th last season. Good luck everybody.

[rookie]

some people on this site have already been tapping, I don't even have my new arch finished yet. started planning it last may..... boy time flies when you have to much to do

[Turtlecreek]

No need to be in a big rush, boys and girls. Remember last year, we had an warmup relatively early in February and a bunch of folks jumped, well their holes dried up and were wondering about reaming. I for one am going to hold my cards until at least presidents weekend. I think if you tap to early either the holes dry up or you have to deal with freeze ups all of the time.

On a separate note I was p in the woods today and noticed a couple of trees that were running out of some woodpecker holes. It almost made me want to run down to the house and fire up the tapper! It's not long now a little more than a month.

Anyone else concerned about the lack of cold weather this year?

[KV Sappers]

Last year I tapped on Feb. 11 and I'm holding out till at least then. Weather has been crazy but extended forecast is looking more like it should be and local tv station showed an extending forecast map and we are to be below normal. Just have to wait and see.

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

My only concern is that spring may come early. We should be fine though from the looks of things. No true way to tell. The old timer farmer down the road says winters worst is to come. :D

[Turtlecreek]

I ordered my bottles and some pan gasket today from brydonson's in coudersport. It's been in the 20's here all day with no snow. This is the weather we have been waiting for.

[cyblood]

Yep - looks like Saturday is the day for me according to the extended forecast. I'm a 3rd year backyarder with about 20 trees so I figured I'd start with half of them and see how things develop - it just seems awful early to me.....

[Dennis H.]

Just got back in from collecting both the buckets and sap tanks, I now have about 140gals to boil this evening!

This starting to look really good for us down here. Kvsappers just around the corner and it sounds like she is doing well.

Got to get some sleep so I am well rested for this evening.

[Turtlecreek]

How many you got tapped Dennis, and do you know what percent the sap is running? I think I may tap this weekend or next week depending.

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

I got nothing today, too cold, it seems like above freezing temps, but it is raining, so i dont know. I hope it runs this weekend sometime, id like to see how my batch of 20 taps turned out.

[KV Sappers]

Collected 13 1/2 gal. today. Have about 30 gal. of sap now and I'm starting to boil. Will finish tomorrow. My sap is reading at 1.6 right now.

[Dennis H.]

Turtle creek I have 200 buckets and vac taps.

The sap from the buckets are right 1.5% and the sap from the vac taps are about 1.4%
King of on the low side for the vac taps.
These are all red maples.

I boiled for about 4 hours yesterday evening, wasn't able to get thru all the sap before calling it and evening.
I have the food inspector coming this morning so I am waiting till he is gone to go collect the buckets and then boil.

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

boiled down 250 gallons last night. I have 172 on hand right now. the contactor in my electric releaser is down and i cannot pump sap today because half my bush comes in on sap ladders. I will have to get that fixed for tomorow. Looks like a big runs the next 4 days. and i will finish tapping this weekend.

[Turtlecreek]

I have the food inspector comming on Monday, so I'm going to wait to,see what he has to say before I get all set up and he decides he doesn't like what he sees. This weekend I will be cleaning everything, preping the woods, maybe putting a fresh coat of paint on the arch. Boy I got a lot of work ahead of me, better get cracking I guess!

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

Good luck with the inspector turtlecreek! looking for a big run tomorow! Got the Releasor fixed and the frost has set in:D going to be a big day tomorow! good luck to all who have tapped.

[Dennis H.]

Planning on a big run today so now saying that I should have a lot of free time to be on the trader today!!

We got back down below freezing last night and todays highs are to be in the 50's. Still below freezing so a little longer till I can turn the vac on.

I boiled for 4 hours yesterday and drew off my 1st syrup of the year, about 1 gal.

[waysidemaple]

I think I'm tapping this Friday! Can't take it anymore. Basically ready so why not.

[Turtlecreek]

Very productive today got the arch all ready to go, had some fabrication I had to do on the door and repair some fire brick. Got all of the buckets ready to be washed after church tommrow.

I got a real rude surprise when I lookd at my filters though, apparently they weren't dry when I stored them last year, and now they are all moldy! So i made an emergency call to my friends at Bryonsons in Coudersport and ordered new ones! They are real life savers they are going to ship them on Monday!

Also ran into a fellow sugarmaker out collecting and he has around 600 out and has made 6 gallons of syrup this morning.

[KV Sappers]

I boiled for 4 hours yesterday and drew off my 1st syrup of the year, about 1 gal.

Great news Dennis. Your on your way. I boiled a lot longer but did end up with about 1/2 gal. I'm having problems with the propane burner stove but did manage to get 40 gal. of sap boiled down. Only collected 8 gal. today. Will see what tomorrow brings.

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

I have boiled down 426 gallons of water. I got 2 gallons of medium amber possibly light amber after i filter it inside. It takes a lot of sap to sweeten the pans in my evaporator! Switching sides for the next boil.

[Dennis H.]

You have 2 gals already also.

I have been getting a crap load of sugarsand already, so took off all syrup from the syrup pan and finished it along with what I drew off from boiling and now have 2 1/2gals!!
But man was the pan dirty. It was like a calcium build up on the pan bottom. It was a little different than last year. Cleaned it up good and I am now ready for more sap today.

KVSappers, my trees ran a little slower yesterday too.

[Dennis H.]

Never got as high as they said, only 40, but the trees sure did run.
I collected sap this monring and got rid of alot of ice. This was at 9am. Then went back out this evening and collected again got another 100 gals of sap.

Was not able to boiling this evening with having a few things that needed to get done here at the house, so tomorrow looks like a long boil and little sleep!

[KV Sappers]

I collected around 1 this afternoon and had to remove ice from some of the buckets. Only collected 4 1/2 gal, but trees were just starting to run. This week is looking good. The stove ran good today. I was able to boil down 10 1/2 gallon of sap in a little under 3 hrs. :lol:

[Gary R]

I tapped two Sundays ago. I boiled 190 gal. on Tue. and 200 gal. on Friday. Sugar content is bad, 1%. Similar to last year. Drew off about 1.5 gal. of medium. New rig is working great. Doing about 60 GPH on a 2X8! Looks like a couple of more boils this week:)

[Turtlecreek]

I passed!!!!! The state guy came out and looked everything over and he was impressed, he just wants to come back when I'm actually boiling and we will be good to go!

[Dennis H.]

Good to hear Turtlecreek about the inspection, not to bad was it.
That is funny to hear that he has to come back out when you are boiling. The buy that did mine told me it didn't matter when he comes out and that he has put me now on the calender for Jan next year.

[Dennis H.]

Got thru all my sap today that I collected yesterday, took me 6 hrs. Not to bad. I was able to draw off about 1 1/2 gals.

The trees were running nicely. I have a small Bender releaser next to the sugarshack and I was timing it at about 3 mins per cycle! Filled up a barrel with able 40 gals.
I ran out of daylight to go check on the buckets, will do that in the morning.

KVSAPPER how are you making out over there? Did the trees run for you also today?

[Turtlecreek]

I think he is just curious how it all works. He admitted he knows zero about making maple syrup. There are only three of us in this county that he is inspecting we are lime McDonald's sodas small medium and large. I would be the small one so it is easier for him to understand I guess.

[FunnyFarm]

210 tapped right now hoping to add another 40-60 on Saturday. Looks like perfect weather for the foreseeable future.Good luck all...

[Dennis H.]

Man is the sap running!
Collected about 150 gals this morning and managed to get it all boiled today.
I have about 3 gals of syrup that I will finish and filter tomorrow. I will be cleaning the syrup pan also. The sugar sand this year is crazy!
While I have the filterpress out I will run the stuff that is in the syrup pan thru it to get rid of all that sugarsand.

It is not to get below freezing tonight so the vac will be left on. We hit 60 degrees today, very strange to see that in Jan.
But come Thurs we will be back to the 40's and 20's.

[KV Sappers]

Got thru all my sap today that I collected yesterday, took me 6 hrs. Not to bad. I was able to draw off about 1 1/2 gals.

The trees were running nicely. I have a small Bender releaser next to the sugarshack and I was timing it at about 3 mins per cycle! Filled up a barrel with able 40 gals.
I ran out of daylight to go check on the buckets, will do that in the morning.

KVSAPPER how are you making out over there? Did the trees run for you also today?

Dennis, I collected a little over 13 gal. yesterday and another 12 1/2 today. I boiled down today and ended up with another 1/2 gal.of syrup. I'm now at 1 gal. of syrup. Not bad for me being only 1 week into tapping. Weather is looking good later in the week. This 60+ temp. is crazy right now.

[Turtlecreek]

I got 15 tapped tonight after training at the fire house. I think I have somewhere around 30-40 buckets left. I tapped one around 4:00 tonight and it was almost a steady stream of sap tonight I checked it and it almost had 2 gallons of sap in it.

[umpwood1]

I tapped 30 trees yesterday..the sap is runnin' like the dickins. Collected about 40 gallons this morning. The weather here looks great for the rest of the week.
Woody

[molineutu]

Im with you upwood tapping Thursday

[waysidemaple]

Got 260 taps in today. Didn't get to turn the vac on because I had to come back to school but boy was it running!!! First thing friday morning I'll have the pump going and finish tapping Friday and Sat. First boil set for this Sat! The season is here for good I think 40 20s for the next 15 days at least!

Scott

[Turtlecreek]

Collected from those 15 taps I put in last night, and got about 30 or 40 gallons! Finished prepping 30 new buckets and discovered that I only have 24 more spiles, oops, guess I have to buy a few more of them just don't tell my wife!

[Dennis H.]

Finished and filtered more syrup. I am having a good start to the season.

The only thing that is worrying me is that the sap is already getting cloudy. I think it will clear up once the temps go back below freezing tomorrow night.
I'll have to wait and see.

It now sounds like sugar'in season is on in PA!
As PATheron says "You got to want it".

[Paddymountain]

I finally got some taps in this morning. tapped one at the shack yesterday and it's overrunning the bucket. I need one sensor yet for my vac setup and I can get it up and running.
I know I missed two good days, but I was out of the country til Sunday 3:30am. I thought I would at least have a week or two to get ready . Time to drink more coffee and get at it!

[molineutu]

Just got in from tapping. 38 on buckets, the main line will have to wait till saturday morining,darn work it just gets in the way sometimes. sap was running well and its just above freezing here.

[Gary R]

We're over 6 gal. of syrup. Boiled another 150 gal. last night. not much today, a little to cold. The sun will help the next few days. Still having vacuum pump issues. Limping along, but making syrup:) 1% sap is rough.

[Dennis H.]

Catching up on boiling, was able to boil for about 3 hrs this evening. Still have sap in the milk tank and the small tanks at the releasers.
I am hoping to get that all boiled up in the morning after work. I was able to get another gal of syrup also!!

I turned the vac off around 4pm the trees were just not running. I might have got able 5 gals of sap in the one tank! We have had well above freezing temps for now 3 nights.

Hey kvsappers, I see you were asking about syrup jugs. I need to order some for my self I am almost out. If you need some let me know, unless you are only going to buy a full case.

[Paddymountain]

I got about 30 more taps in last night, need to get another property tapped on Sat. need to give the evaporator one last cleaning, I think I'll be ready for
SuperBoil Sunday!!!!

Dennis H: how much syrup have you made so far?
I hope your season goes on for a little longer.
weather has been crazy to say the least

[Turtlecreek]

Paddymountain, let me know if you will be running Sunday, I plan to be evaporating on Saturday, so maybe I can swing by on Sunday after church sometime.

[Thad Blaisdell]

Started tapping today..... 600 done

[PATheron]

Running good here where Im at. Got 4400 in and have the shed working good other than havent got my latest ro on line. Sweetened the pans and filled 5 55 gallon drums so far. Got the heavies on the leaks done so I could operate and started really finetuning leaks tonight and plan on just doing that this weekend. Good looking weather, shooting for a banner season. Theron

[Dennis H.]

Paddymtn I have now made about 7 gals as of this morning. Not to bad for the 1st week.
This warm spell we had this week caused the trees to all but stop. I checked the bucket trees this evening and alot were dry and the rest were just starting to flow again.
I think tomorrow will be alot better. It has giving me the chance to boil all the sap that I had.

Since I will not be boiling in the morning on Sat I may run up to the trees that I will be tapping next season and see what the sap is like with a few test holes.

[Paddymountain]

Dennis H that's a pretty good start to the season. I tapped yesterday morning and evening, tonite I gathered about 70 gal @ 2.5% . My friend has about 40 sugars tapped and I think between him and I we'll probably start boiling Sat nite. I need to get a sensor from the son to start up my vacuum system. I only have 31 taps on it . I'm thinking that will be good to get the bugs worked out before I get all my mainline and lats run. I have another property to tap tomorrow, about 60 taps ,that should be enough to keep me out of trouble til spring!!!
Turtlecreek; I'll let you know if I boil on Sunday

[Gary R]

Boiled another 110 tonight. Sap is 1% at best:( limping with the pump. Good thing is I bought another pump today. I should have it by the end of the week.

Dennis, put some serious suck to them trees. They'll run for a week at high temps.

Theron, thought we lost you:D Heard from Wayside you were tapped, first in the state? Congrats to the super start.

Thad, I hope you have some help with that number of taps. Good luck on the season!

[waysidemaple]

Got 700 in now. Collected 550 gallons and boiled that tonight. Got 5 gallons of syrup thats nice light stuff. Sugar was 1.2. Still have about 300 gallons in my woods takes ill collect tomorrow morning. Then tap 300 more to get 1000 and call it good till I get the bugs worked out. New rig worked great!

Scott

[PATheron]

Scott- Allmost came down to see you boil last night but too pooped. Ill have two drums down to you before you wake up this morning. Keep up the good work! Gary- I might have been first one tapped in. Most people dont start that early around here. I dont blame them becouse early season sap is a pain with freeze ups but with my setup right at the house I kind of have a little bit of an advantage that way. Easier to keep up with stuff. I started half way through january but thats pretty much normal for me. With the vacuum the holes wont quit before I do. Im going to try to really go the distance this year. Lots of changes to make my life easier so I dont get so tired. Gotta WANNNNNN IT!!! Like parker says. Gonna spend all weekend on leaks. Got another 100 taps to put in today and thats it. Not doing my little bushes this year. If I get the main bush the say I want it I may go back to putting in new line and hooking up more trees in my bush right during season. Have access to 1000 more taps that will run into one of my releasers now that Ive moved it. Want to make as much syrup as I can and this is really early. Theron

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

Sad to say that it didnt run alot yesterday. I only had alittle above 15 gallons of sap so i boiled and it got down low, in the pan when i got back even with no fire, water was added to thin it up. I went to draw off the rest and the stupid filter cone went sideways and dumped about a pint of close to almost syrup. :mad: I brought the rest in the house and will finish it today, sugar tested at 1.3-1.4 in the sap. I hope to get more taps in for this week and the coming week after is going to look godd i suppose.
Had a rough night in the sap house, but ill still have syrup. ;)

[Dennis H.]

Gary, I have the pump running at 22" of vac anymore and I start getting problems with the Bender.
I love the new lapierre released I got so I can see another one in my future.

Paddymtn. you getting 2.5%, that is awesome. The best my trees can do is 1.5%!

Well the temps here got down to 27 last night so i am hoping this will get the trees flowing again. Right now I have about 25 gals of sap waiting, heck the evap won't even be warm yet when I finish that.

[calsum2]

Hay guys...never done this before and will be setting 10-20 taps as a rookie.....wish me luck. I taped 1 tree a few days ago and as of yet my test tap has been bone dry....so are my pancakes....lol I have three Red Maples on my property the rest of the trees I will be tapping are going to be at my in laws and a couple of taps set along random "stealth roads side locations".

Last night it got just below freezing and yet to see a drop.......getting kind of anxious and worried that my test tree is a dud....but I am holding out hope that I just need to be patient......looks like the coming week will be 40s day time and 30 to 33 at night......is this cold enough to get the sap to flow.

Any other advise would be appreciated.....I have a propane turkey fryer with a 12x24 stainless pan for boiling......hope you don't mind me hopping on your thread.

Thanks, Mike

[Gary R]

Calsum2, freeze at night, thaw during day is what you want. West wind is best. Red maples can be finicky. Some of them won't run on buckets. I have a few that won't put out a gal. all season. Hopefully that's not your case.

Clark Farm, that's a bummer. We all hate losing the precious syrup.

Cleaned all my tanks and the syrup pan this morning. Almost no niter in the pan. It is all coming out with the syrup as I draw. I also changed my front hood stack. Hopefully I won't have a room full of steam any more. We're going to filter and pack the 8 gal. or so this afternoon.

[calsum2]

Thats a real bummer about the REDS if they won't run on buckets.....tapped my second red today.....and will try to scout out a few maples on the road side today....

Unfortunately I won't have the advantage of seeing the trees with the leaves on to determine the type as I would like to stay away from Reds based on the info you provided.....if this doesn't work out this year I will spend a little time this summer scopping out a few good donors.....results are always dependent on the prep I guess.

[Dennis H.]

Had some free time today so I went up to the woods that I will be tubing this summer for next season. There is actually 2 different stands of trees.
The 1st one is at my dads cabin, found that the trees up there are just staring to run. I did a few small test holes. Found one tree running at 2.5%.

The other stand is half way to the cabin at a friends place and found those trees are running. So if I plan things right I could start with my trees here at the house and about a week later tap the trees at my friends place then another week later tap the trees at my dads cabin. Could end up with a long season.

Anyway back at home here, went to collect the bucket trees and found nothing! The trees on vac ran good though. I think between the sun not coming out and the high pressure system coming into the region the buckets just didn't run.

I will be boiling in the morning now that I have about 60-70 gals of sap from the vac trees.

[waysidemaple]

Trees didn't run as good today collected 525 gallons from 600 taps. Got another 240 in on gravity that will be vacuum once I get my releaser problem figured out then ill tap in the 120 tap ladder bush that will be on that releaser. Up to 10 gallons of syrup with awesome taste but really light color. Got cold quick today, already below freezing here. Good luck to everyone!
Scott

[ClarkFarmMapleSyrup]

I finished my syrup, got 1 1/2 pt. and 2oz extra for my little syrup jar in the fridge. I have got alittle over 1/2 gal this season so far. I hope to get more boiling this week as i tapped 15 more today and i believe im getting alitle natural vac. good luck to all pa. producers who have tapped early like me!
J.C.

[KV Sappers]

Collected about 2 gal. of sap this morning. Trees are just starting to run again. Boiled that off and finished what we had on hand. Got another 44 oz. of syrup. Now have 1 gal. 44oz. of syrup. Trees seemed to be running good tonight. This week is looking good. Hopefully by this time next week I'll have another gallon of syrup.

[Paddymountain]

collected another 45 gallon today, put about 40 more taps in, got my vac system up and running, boiled about 200 gallons of sap tonight. we didn't get to
draw off any syrup ;but was really close to doing so. still have to go down and drain the flue pan, just need to get off my feet for little bit.
hope everyone is getting started up with this early season

[Turtlecreek]

Evaporated about 40 gallons of sap today and got a quart and a half of light amber. The pan is still sweet an close to being able to draw off again. If we have a good run tommrow I'll be boiling Monday night again. I have to get my pan up to a boil faster need to play around with my firebox configuration a little, I may make it a little shallower, and or add another section of stovepipe and see if that works, also have some major smoke leakage issues with the firebox door I need to address.

Paddymtn, nice to hear your up and running, I may still run out tommrow and see how your doing I'll give you a call if I'm comming, it won't be until after church and we have a potluck lunch afterwards so it will be early afternoon at the earliest.

[Dennis H.]

Boiled the rest of the sap that I had from yesterday and finished all the syrup that I had along with what I took out of the syrup pan when I cleaned it.
There is something different this year with the sugarsand. There is a crap load of it. Along with that I am getting a calcium build up on the pan. It reminds me of hard water calcium build up that you see on tubs and sinks.
Atleast I am trying to keep ahead of it.

I am now just a hair under 10 gals of syrup and it has only been 1 week 3 days since I tapped!! That puts me 1/3 of the way to what I made last year.

[waysidemaple]

Collected 190 gallons today. Unfortunately my vacuum was down all day with releaser trouble, got that worked out and had the vacuum on for about 30 mins tonight. Sap was running okay. Tap count will be 950 by tomorrow at noon, 838 right now. Boil tomorrow! Watching the superbowl tonight so taking a little break.

Scott

[Paddymountain]

collected 100 gallon of sap today, my friend has about 60-70 gallon for the day ,holding off boiling til tomorrow nite. looking for some good draw offs then.
Dennnis H. 10 gallons looks pretty good considering its Feb 5

my vacuum on 31 trees pulled in 10 gal in about 4 hours don't know if that's very good or not, trees may not be running in the woods that good yet.
tomorrow looks better

[theschwarz1]

I know people are warning about jumping the gun too early. But this warmth isnt just a flash in the pan. Its been at least 2 weeks of constant! I wished I had been all tapped by now. I am going to do more today. I have no evaporator though. I have go get wood from a friends house and set up a temporary outdoor burn pit. I hope my boiler friend gets his stuff tapped and evap burning soon!

[Dennis H.]

46 today and the trees are running.
Have about 120 gals for tomorrow to boil.
So far it is looking like a good year for us down here, even though we haven't had a winter yet.

[KV Sappers]

Collected over 16 gallon past 2days. Will boil down tomorrow. Trees are alive and flowing again.

[waysidemaple]

Made 11 gallons today. Still about 600 gallons in the woods for tomorrow.

Scott

[Turtlecreek]

Boiled again tonight, I made 2 1/2 quarts that brings the total up to 1 gallon total for the year. I am on track for a record year. The little half pint is reall pumping out the syrup this year. Just to think last year I wasn't tapped until the 15th.

I also had my final inspection by the department of ag guy today and passed with no problem. He commented on some copper pipe I have running from my preheater to my pan. Does anyone know if this is an issue according to pa law, the inspector was not sure what the law was without looking.

[Paddymountain]

boiled about 325 gallon, made around 8 gallons of syrup

[Dennis H.]

Turtlecreek I showed the inspector my preheater with about 60' of 1/2" copper pipe under the hood and all he said was wow.

Sure looks like everyone is finally making some syrup.
What grade is everyone getting? Mine is leaning toward the Medium to Dark. Haven't made a drop of light.

[Turtlecreek]

I'm making all light so far with a really good taste. That seems to be the way it usually goes for me I make a bunch of light from the get go then it gets darker as the season goes, usually I don't even make any dark amber I guess I'm lucky that way, although I do have people ask for darker syrup.

Dennis I think it was you that was commenting about the surar sand this year. I too have noticed a bunch of it when I draw off I run it through a prefilter just to get some of the undesirables out of it, and I have been clogging that filter up pretty quick. After I filter at the evaporator I'll finish it then when I put it into the canner I run it through 4-6 prefilters and a orlin filter, even they are getting clogged up. It does seem to be worse this year, and I have been noticing more calcium typ deposits in the section of the pan from the steam this year.

[Maplewalnut]

Ours has been all light. UGGGhhh. Even my son asked when we were going to get some syrup with taste! Low sugar% and lots of sand

[molineutu]

Looks like a little cool down coming . this will give me a chance to get caught up.

[mapleack]

Drew off a couple gallons of light amber last night, some of the best syrup I've ever made. Very little sugar sand.

[theschwarz1]

I'll be boiling just a little tonight maybe...tapped a few trees and it was running like crazy yesterday.

[Turtlecreek]

Just got in from collecting, some of the trees were really running. Looks like I'll be shut down for a little with this cooler weather comming in, but that's ok it will allow me to do a couple of small modifications boil the rest of my sap, and clean out the pan for the main event. I have also not tapped all of my trees yet, I have almost 20 more to tap, my idea is to hold off just a bit until my usual time to tap then tap the rest. It's kinda a two prong attack if you will, that way if my earlier taps dry up I'll still be in business!

[Dennis H.]

I'm with you turtlecreek, I too am planning what I can do with my buckets once these trees stop. I am looking at placing some at my dads cabin and go collect every other day. His trees are on the north side of the ridge so they will be late staters to begin with. That may extend my season by maybe 2 weeks.

We'll see how tired I am when the time comes.

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

We have made over 20 gallons of syrup so far and are sitting on almost 400 gallons of water. hopefully it will still be good to boil tomorow evening. The tempurature of it was 40 degrees. doubt it will run tomorrow. Time to catch up!

[Paddymountain]

Gathered around 100 gallons of sap today, quite a bit slower than it's been ,just got done boiling pulled off about 2 gallon . tomorrow nite is filter/bottling nite. looks like
a respite for a day or two. everyone step back and catch your breath,we're just gettin into it!!!!
so far boiled a little over 600 gallon.

[Paddymountain]

Turtlecreek : I have a two pronged attack also

1 GATHER SAP!

2 Make Syrup!

[Dennis H.]

Trees really slowed down today even though it was in the low 40's.

I managed to boil for a few hours this afternoon. I will finish up that tomorrow well I guess that will be today now that I see what time it is!

It looks like we will be getting a short cold snap down here. That should help the trees I guess.

[Gary R]

I've boiled 900 gal. of sap so far. Only about 7.5 gal. of syrup. At this rate I'll probably make about 12 gal. for every cord of wood :o I might have to rent 5 cord a day Ray! I will definitely have to add a second steam stack. Still tough to see and any paper is soaked.

[waysidemaple]

Hit the 40 gallon mark today. Got through all my sap. To cold today but the next two days look good. Collected 2600 gallons of sap of 838 taps so far. Pulling medium Amber so far. Back to school tonight. Boil On Friday.

Scott

[PATheron]

Update from Pierce and Sons Maple- Started tapping January 10th. All tapped by the first of Feb. Most of it done with a flashlight. Roughly 4400 taps. Three releasers, one pump. Had trouble with pretty much everything initially but all working good now. Been getting lots of sap for the time of year. Pretty much if it gets above freezing usually get 2500 gallons or so so two days to equal one good run day. Sap weak like normal so thats good. Keep the ro's lubricated. Been working steadily on vac fixing probly 50 to 100 squirrell chews becouse of my kids have been dropping the ball with the shotguns. Something about school work and some other nonsense. Anyway everything going great. Got a new 10 press, best investment ever. Pressing is real easy now. Made up my mind not checking sugar content of sap, gallons of sap or anything else this year just concentrating on getting as much sap as possable and getting it into barrells. Everything going great, confident of a banner season. Over 400 gallons so far in the barrell and a barrell in the evaperator and its only feb 7th. Gonna go for big gallon count. Made up my mind at the end this year single passing to the evap at 8 percent and paying the oil bill. Gonna try to make the worst syrup at the end Bruce Bascom has ever had the misfortune to taste with his turkey baster if Parker hasnt already. Theee( gonna get the vac so high gonna suck the leaves back in in April)roon

[KV Sappers]

Boiled down 16 gal yesterday, ended up with 32oz. of syrup. Two weeks tapped and so far have 1 1/2gal. Collected 9 gals. of sap yesterday. Sap tested at 1.3. Did not collect today, trees running slow. Next 2 days looking good, then cold snap for three days. Next week looking good. Have about 1 inch of snow on the ground.

[Dennis H.]

KVSappers that is great to hear that you are up to 1 1/2 gals looks like a good year for us.
I had a guy stop by the other day to tell me that he makes syrup off his dads trees out by the Boy Scout Camp. This will be his 3rd year I believe and he wasn't going to tap until soemtime in Feb but when he heard and saw what I had made so far he went out last weekend and tapped his trees and made 1 gal of syrup the 1st boil! He is using an outside fireplace with steam pans.

Theron, holy cow man you made 400 gals so far and this is early. This looking up to be a banner year.

I managed to finish the remainder of sap that I had in the tank and now have somewhere between 1 1/2 - 2 gals of syrup waiting to be finished.
It is looking like what sap I get tomorrow and maybe Fri will be it for a few days. Todays temps never got much above freezing so I didn't even turn on the vac.

[KV Sappers]

Hey Dennis, the propane guy was here yesterday while I was boiling down and he said he was on this one road and there were all these trees that had buckets hanging from them. I said to him, was it Greenbriar Rd and he said yes. He now knows what all those buckets are for.

[Paddymountain]

Just got done filtering and bottling all the syrup we made so far; looks like 9 gallon total.
boiled just a tad over 600 gallon sap.
will have to wait til tomorrow to grade, need some good outside light to look at my grade set.

[happy thoughts]

Sounds like everyone's doing great and glad to hear it :)

Now with just 2 taps in a single tree, a report from the little people :cool:.

Tapped on saturday, had 4 days of good runs then slowed down yesterday. Cold weather for this weekend so I don't expect much to run again until Monday but then looks good until the next weekend. So far collected about 9 gallons. I'm using my crockpots to reduce volume overnight like I started to do last year. That's working pretty well though I don't expect any light syrup because of the long cooking. It sure beats standing over a propane stove then having it scorch when you turn your back.

Because my production is so small and my livelihood doesn't depend on it, I'm going to treat this season as an experiment and wait to tap other trees later in the month as I normally would. I'd like to see how volumes compare between early and late tapping. By then I should have a block arch set up.

Keep up the good work guys and keep that syrup coming:)

[Maplewalnut]

No sap yesterday but today and tomorrow look good followed by another cold snap. I like the couple days on and couple days off schedule, gives lots of time to clean up and get ready for the next round. Still waiting on tapping the buckets. Looking like a blitzkreig bucket attack if this crazy weather continues. One day i will decide its all in and hope the holes dont dry up

[mapleack]

Vacuum pulled in 320 gal yesterday, recirculated the RO for about an hour and fifteen min, fired up and boiled 12% for 45 min. Pulled off 5 gal of nice syrup. Love the RO!

[holstein]

Its been a rough start to the season but i am all tapped in. The ro when i first started to rinse it, i was still pushing the air out with the feed pump when i realized that the pressure pump had froze and cracked. The housing was brass so i was able to solder it. It sure is nice to boil 12 % concentrate when the evaporator works right. The blower i used last year was to large so it was replaced this year with a smaller one. My first two boils the front pan didn't boil right, the air just went to the front of the ash box, through the grates in front of the wood and bypassed the wood. I placed a deflector in the ash box to force the air up through the grates. That made a big difference and i finally made some syrup last night. I also put vacuum on a woods that was gravity before, i was able to get the vacuum all the way to 7" hg before i ran out of time, have to chase some more leaks down in that system.

[PATheron]

Happy- You have a darn good system. If your sugarbush(tree) slows down you can put a whole nother bush in new whenever. You could fall tap too and make syrup half the year. Theron

[happy thoughts]

Hi Theron- right now making syrup half the year sounds like heaven. :D Say that in a month or so and I'll probably want to harm you :lol:

You have a great season!

[Gary R]

It's froze up and probably will be for 5 days or so. I need to get an electric heater tomorrow. I'm going to stick it in the arch. I don't like the idea of draining the flue pan. I'll be crossing my fingers. I haven't even thought about cleaning buckets yet.

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

We have hit 27 gallons. Good year for us so far. The new(to me) 3 by 10 boils pretty good. 85 gallons per hour. My cousin in somerset hasnt tapped yet that i know of :0 although last year at this time i wasnt tapped either.

[Turtlecreek]

I took a late night drive through the bush tonight with the sap hauler and collected about 10 gallons or so, the buckets were frozen so I had the natural ro working for me. It was a beautiful night to be in the woods no need for a light with the snow on the ground and a bright moon. The Bly thing that was a bit eerie was when I got off the tractor in the upper half of the bush I turned on my head lamp and had 6 eyes looking at me thankfully they were the resident deer that ocasionaly play with my buckets!

[Maplewalnut]

The Bly thing that was a bit eerie was when I got off the tractor in the upper half of the bush I turned on my head lamp and had 6 eyes looking at me thankfully they were the resident deer that ocasionaly play with my buckets!

Its when you have only two eyes looking at you and you notice the outline is black and bigger than you that you get concerned. Then you notice a musty smell and you really get concerned!!! By the way those critters like to play with buckets to.

[Turtlecreek]

I was hoping that those 6 eyes didn't belong to 3 black things that just happened to want to wake up and take a nice wintertime stroll!

[waysidemaple]

Tap count is now 950. Was able to get another 100 in this morning, I now have everything on the new system tapped in and at 20" of vac. Sap is running but not that hard, only collected 125 gallons from yesterday that ran gravity from 850 taps. I think the big problem is it doesnt get above freezing quick enough, by the time the lines thaw out its freezing up again. Should have enough for a short boil tonight then thats it for a few days. Highs for tomorrow and Sunday are 26 and 25 then back up to 35 on monday.

Scott

[Dennis H.]

Trees were actually running today. Didn't wamr up until around noon here but the trees did start to run.

Collected all the sap from the buckets and sap tanks.
I had a stupid moment happen to me though. I cleaned out the milk tank the other day and when I do this leave the drain valve open to let all the water drain out.
Well I bet you can see where this is going. I was empting the sap hauling tank into the milk tank and when I had maybe 5 gals left, OH $#!& the valve.
Lucky the drain valve is a 3/4" and the pump puts in more sap than the valve can take out on it own. I figure I lost about 15 gals.

I got rid of a lot of ice so that should help in boiling the sap tomorrow. It looks like this will be the last of the sap for a few days. I will actually get a weekend with the family. I may make a trip over to KVSappers to see if they are boiling.

[Gary R]

Off to help Jim Brown and family tap tomorrow. Plan on helping Daryl on Sunday. Folks are getting ready over here!

[KV Sappers]

Trees were actually running today. Didn't wamr up until around noon here but the trees did start to run.
I got rid of a lot of ice so that should help in boiling the sap tomorrow. It looks like this will be the last of the sap for a few days. I will actually get a weekend with the family. I may make a trip over to KVSappers to see if they are boiling.
Hey Dennis, come on over. We boiled down what we had in the tank today. Gonna bottle tomorrow. Our trees did not run that good today. I have a little sap in the buckets yet but will probably stay frozen till Monday or later.

[Turtlecreek]

Good luck up there Gary!

[Paddymountain]

things are moving at paddymountain sugar shack ,between me and my friend we gathered 200 gallon today,just finished boiling about 15 minutes ago and made about 5 gallon of syrup. need to drain the evaporator and get to bed, have two pigs to butcher tomorrow!!! no rest for the weary

[Turtlecreek]

Going to go out and boil today I want to use up all of my sap then drain my pan for a good cleaning. Better get moving can't get anything done sitting here on the trader.

[KV Sappers]

Temp. did not go below freezing last night and had a high of 40 today. Trees ran good last night.Collected 12 gals of sap today. Bottled 26oz. of dark amber from yesterdays boil.

[Dennis H.]

KVSappers, sorry I couldn't make it over today. Today ended up being a family day. Shopping, went out to eat, did not get back to a little while ago.
I did not even get the chance to boil the sap down. Planning on doing that in the morning if I can get it out of the tank.
Maybe I'll try in the afternoon tomorrow.

[KV Sappers]

KVSappers, sorry I couldn't make it over today. Today ended up being a family day. Shopping, went out to eat, did not get back to a little while ago.
I did not even get the chance to boil the sap down. Planning on doing that in the morning if I can get it out of the tank.
Maybe I'll try in the afternoon tomorrow.
Hey Dennis no problem. How did your trees run today? As I said earlier, I got 12 gal. of sap today. I could not believe they ran that good. Here in the valley we never went below freezing last night and I had a high of 40 today. Now with the temps in the 20's, I'm sure they have stopped for a couple of days. I'm probably not going to boil again till Wednesday. Hopefully what saps in the buckets now will be thawed by then and I can add to the 12 gal I have now. Later.

[Dennis H.]

I didn't even get a chance to check the buckets. I had the vac running though and I got some sap from them.
Well at least until the Bender froze up and started to suck sap up into the vac tank next to the pump! Probably about 3 gals worth of sap there.

I am hoping to get some ice in the milk tank of sap, I want a little of natures RO action!

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

The tempurature here never went above 25 all day. too cold for a run. Cut wood all day. Still probably wont have enough. Off to cut again tomorrow. Then splitting through the week. Probably will have enough sap to boil tuesday. I have to get 300 gallons before i boil and like to have more than that with the bigger evaporator.

[Springfield Acer]

Hey Gary;
Are you planning on leaving your avatar as the old great pumpkin? It would be a shame to see that go!:cool:

[Gary R]

Springfield Acer, ever since the software change I have not been able to post a picture:evil: You know, we aren't that far. You might want to buy the great old pumpkin. I always stayed warm in it. Keep us posted on this thread. Good to hear your progress.

Way too wicked today for tapping. I was at Daryl's helping put his evaporator together. He's setting up for big production.

[Dennis H.]

What I day I had yesterday.
I had sap that I needed to boil but it was stuck in my milk tank! The pump line out of it was frozen solid.
So I rigged up a hose from the sap pump into the milk tank, good to go, but wait There must have been a tiny bit of sap in the sap pump. Frozen up.
Unhook the pump take inside run hot water thru it. Spins free, Good.
Back out to the sugarhouse. Pumped sap into head tank. No sap thru preheater, found low spot in pipe to preheater. Luckily it was copper so put torch to it.
Now I have sap going into float box.
But wait Float box frozen up with what sap was in there from 2 days ago. Put kerosene heater under floatbox, sit and wait!

Finally got sap to flow into flue pan. Took about 1 1/2 hrs to get to the point where I could light a fire!

I did boil for a little over 3 hrs and drew off about 1 gal of syrup. So all in all it was a productive day even though it started out not looking so good.

I also had to make a batch of maple coated peanuts. The father-in-law was asking when I was going to make some for him and I have had a 2lb container of nuts sitting there waiting. So today was the day. Ended up making 4lbs of nuts.

It is looking like I also will be doing the bucket lid rodeo in the morning after work. The wind has been howling here fro the past 2 days. I didn't even want to go look yesterday, so I can just imagine what I will find in the morning. I had to go out Sat night around midnight to attach the cover to my one sap tank, The wind kept blowing it and making a heck of a noise. Metal on metal banging I guess keeps the wife awake.

[Maplewalnut]

A lot of the same things here. Everything is frozen up solid. which is good and bad. I like the couple day break to get things back in order but hate trying to thaw everything. Plus my collection tank is half full of solid sap so that just dimiished my holding capacity for a few days until it thaws. Looks like it will start back up tomorrow or Wednesday for a few days before it gets cold again.
Bucket tapping this weekend regardless of weather!

[Paddymountain]

I did some thoughtful replumbing preseason to take care of the spots that give us problems freezing up. Now I can drain everything down fairly easily to a 55 gallon drum ,which I would much rather have freeze up than all the pipes and tank for the evaporator.

[Dennis H.]

I have a good and bad situation here this morning.
The Good, I only had 5 lids that needed to be found from being blown off with all the wind that we had here. Out of 119 buckets only 5 I count myself lucky.
The Bad, I guess the trees ran at some point over the weekend and there are buckets that are 1/2 to 3/4 full and are frozen solid! What in the world am I going to do with that!

The temps today are to get close to 40 so I am hoping by this evening when I collect the sap from the buckets that most of the sap will be thawed.

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Just so I am clear; I have read somewhere in this forum that ice in the bucket is all water. Sort of nature's RO. Since that post, I have been tossing ice out and pouring what is left into my holding drums. I guess that leads to less boiling and a higher sugar content as well as a lighter finished syrup. What do you mapler's think?

[Dennis H.]

Yes, the ice is water.
Unless it gets too cold for too long and the entire bucket freezes.
The ice will hold some sugars but very little.
If you pick up the ice, sap will flow out of it for a few seconds, I keep this liquid sap.

How I deal with some ice is I have a sheet of cheese cloth streched over the top of my sap collecting barrel. It catchs the ice from the buckets and it lets the liquid sap flow out of it. I leave it there until I come back to empty the next bucket full of sap and I toss the ice.
Now how to deal with the entire bucket turned to ice, I'll let you know. I am currently waiting to got collect as late as possible this afternoon so that some of it will melt so at least I can get it out of the buckets! I will probably take a rubber maid tote along with me and toss the large chunck into that and let it melt and see what I get from that.

Yesterday when I was boiling the sap kept skimming over with ice because it was so darn cold so right before I needed to fill the head tank I would skim off the ice.

[waysidemaple]

It got up to 39 here today, but is now dropping off. Sap is running with the vaccum on right now but not really that great. Started to run around noon or a little after so I turned on the pump. I prolly have 180 or so gallons from todays run when its all said and done. Plan to boil that Tomorrow night with whatever runs tomorrow. Its been kinda windy all day which isn't really helping. Cleaned the bulk tanks this morning so we should be good to go.

Scott

[spud]

Just so I am clear; I have read somewhere in this forum that ice in the bucket is all water. Sort of nature's RO. Since that post, I have been tossing ice out and pouring what is left into my holding drums. I guess that leads to less boiling and a higher sugar content as well as a lighter finished syrup. What do you mapler's think?

I have 800 gallons of sap in my tank and two days ago it tested at 2%. Today i broke through about 1 -1/2 inch of ice and retested at just shy of 5%. I am going to melt some ice and then test that just to see if there is any sugar in it. My guess is there will be very little to none. If this is the case then any sugarmaker that has the ability to remove ice out of a bucket or tank should do so. I will try to let you know in a day or two as to how much my ice test out at.

Spud

[Springfield Acer]

I found the same thing. I emptied all my buckets and saved all the ice and sap. The sap that filtered out was 4.5%. I melted down some ice and it was 0.0%. However, some of my buckets were frozen solid. If I can catch it before that happens, I'll discard the ice.

[cyblood]

Here's one of several threads on the sap ice debate:

http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?12620-To-throw-ice-away-or-not

[KV Sappers]

Collected little over 5 gal. of sap this afternoon. Discarded ice floating on top. Will boil down 17 gal tomorrow. Sap seems to be running good.

[jrthe3]

Started tapping in waterford today finish up tomorow

[Paddymountain]

gathered around 85 gallon of sap, dumped the ice on one batch and came up with 3.6% the other was 2.7%
filtered/bottled 4 gallon 6 1/2 pt tonite.
hoping to get a good run tomorrow!

[Gary R]

Very little sap for us yesterday. Hopefully today will be better. Daryl and I went on a road trip yesterday. He found four vacuum pumps for sale. We bought all four at a great deal. Can't have too much vacuum:)

[spud]

I have 800 gallons of sap in my tank and two days ago it tested at 2%. Today i broke through about 1 -1/2 inch of ice and retested at just shy of 5%. I am going to melt some ice and then test that just to see if there is any sugar in it. My guess is there will be very little to none. If this is the case then any sugarmaker that has the ability to remove ice out of a bucket or tank should do so. I will try to let you know in a day or two as to how much my ice test out at.

Spud

I melted my ice and it tested at .0% Yesterday i got about 1000 gallons of sap and it is testing at 2.2% I should get sap for the next 3 days. My Vac is running at 29 at the pump and 28 in all the sugarwoods. I hope and pray things run this good all season long.

Spud

[KV Sappers]

Boiled down 17 gal. of 1.4 sap today. Ended up with 2 pints of grade A dark amber. Man the trees ran today. Collected 14 gal. of sap. Will probably boil again on Friday. Rain tomorrow. 2+ gal. of syrup for me so far this year.

[Dennis H.]

Things are picking back up after that cold spell last weekend.
While collected the sap from the trees that I have on the ridge top I noticed that the leaf buds are starting to look bigger!
Now the trees at the house and the ones down in the hollow on buckets still ok. I think I may have another week or two on the ridge top trees. But I will keep boiling the sap that they will give.
Once they stop I will move those buckets up to my dads cabin. Put them on some sugar maples and see how they run.

Finished off the syrup that I had taken off the evap over the weekend. Looks like it will grade out to be lighter Dark or maybe just make a Medium, I'll check it later today.

KVSappers, how is this year comparing to last season? You added trees right?

[KV Sappers]

Things are picking back up after that cold spell last weekend.
While collected the sap from the trees that I have on the ridge top I noticed that the leaf buds are starting to look bigger!
Now the trees at the house and the ones down in the hollow on buckets still ok. I think I may have another week or two on the ridge top trees. But I will keep boiling the sap that they will give.
Once they stop I will move those buckets up to my dads cabin. Put them on some sugar maples and see how they run.

Finished off the syrup that I had taken off the evap over the weekend. Looks like it will grade out to be lighter Dark or maybe just make a Medium, I'll check it later today.

KVSappers, how is this year comparing to last season? You added trees right?
Dennis, this year is 100% boiling better then last season. Going from an electric stove to a 3 burner high propane stove made a big difference in boil time. I'm at 2+ gals. of syrup this year in 3 weeks as compared to 1 1/2 gal. in 4 weeks last year. That being said, I've added 9 more trees this year so I should have more syrup. The buds on my trees are starting to get bigger also. I'm figuring maybe another week if the temps stay like they are. If we start to get temps in the 50's, those buds are gonna bust open. Just wait and see. I checked the buckets this morning and they had a decent amount in them although they were slowing down. Will empty this evening and add to the 14gal from yesterday. Boiling tomorrow for sure. Checked buckets again this evening, collected 10 gal. Big boil for me tomorrow, 24 gal.

[Dennis H.]

Took Friday off work to catch up on things.

Just got back in from boiling. Was not able to be thru all the sap in the milk tank.
I also did not get a chance to collect the buckets today, will have to do that in the morning before starting to boil again.

KVSappers, yeah I think we may have another 2 weeks at most. Just checked the weather forecast and next week looks like a warm spell. So far for me it has been a really good year, ouln't be happier.

[Paddymountain]

Boiled about 200 gallon of sap today, after cleaning our pans ,drew off about 3 1/2 gallons. Fri & Sat look good for sap runs;
hope everyone is hanging in there.to date we have boiled a little over 1000 gallons of sap in 2 weeks, last year we totaled 2500.

[Gary R]

I've been struggling over here. Missed out on a lot of sap over the last two days. Both days I came home to find the mainline frozen just before it enters the building. I've got to get some heat on that spot. Then after I cleared the ice yesterday I went and helped a neighbor tap. I came back and found no sap. A coil for one of my solenoid valves burnt up on the releaser. Thankfully I had a spare. I have about 100 gal. of sap now.

[mapleack]

Brought in 375 gal of sap yesterday, Ro'd then boiled for an hour. Bottled 9 gal of very light range medium that tastes amazing. It was 44 deg when I left the sugarhouse at 11:30 last night, ran until about 530 this am, was 30 deg at 7:00. Probably 700 gal in the tanks this am, will be a season maker of a day today!

[happy thoughts]

Things are finally starting to pick up again here. It was either too cold or too warm with no freezing temps since the weekend. We had a decent overnight sap flow last evening. I woke up to over 2 gallons of sap from my measly 2 taps on one tree after collecting just a couple of quarts late last PM. So far have made about a quart of syrup from a little under 10 gallons of sap. It's between light and medium amber and some of the best tasting syrup I've ever made with a strong taste of vanilla.

Life is good and the robins are singing! :) Weird on the robins since it's only mid Feb. Like the sap flow, they're about a month early for these parts, but you gotta take and enjoy what God wants to give ya:) Hope everyone has a great season!

[waysidemaple]

Sap ran today. Collected 600 gallons by 2 today. Got most of it boiled down. Started filling barrel number two today. 65 gallons of almost light amber. In hershey pa now for a concert. I'll start boiling early tomorrow morning. The new intenso fire is running well at about 125 to 130 gallons an hour. Going to try to get my gravity stuff tapped in the Sunday but will see.

Scott

[Gary R]

Vacuum is working better now. I got 200 gal. in 24 hours. Rig is boiling great. I did 232 gal. in four hours, start to finish. I made about five gal. dark. I even sold a pan while boiling:) Plan on visiting SDURF tomorrow AM. He will be boiling today's sap. I'll probably put a few buckets up Sunday.

Mapleack, good to see the gas is boiling better. I need to get down there sometime.

Waysidemaple, you sure do get around. It must be nice to be young and ambitious.

I've heard of a couple other guy's tapped. Hopefully they'll chime in.

[Dan W]

Collected 200 gallons tonight and still left my 60 bucket woods for tomorrow morning. Ran everything through the RO and have 250 gallons to start in the morning. Once more through the RO and I should only have a couple of hours boiling tomorrow. Thgese buckets are killing me! Next year some tubing for sure. My plan is to boil of everything tomorrow and bottle up whatever I have on Sunday. So far It's been a great start to the season. I'm glad I tapped when I did. Have over 1000 gallons of sap so far.

[Dennis H.]

Dan when did you first tap this season?

[Dan W]

Dennis, I tapped January 28 & 29. I have a lot of trees that just wont give it up. My best day this year has been 250 gallons. I seem to average 200 gallons on a good one or two days. Boiled off everything I had today-cleaned the bulk tank (it was pretty slimy)-changed the pre filter on the RO and cleaned the sap filter. Ready to go like new for the next batch.

[Turtlecreek]

I am back in the saddle again!! Trees are really running after a bit of freeze up. Yesterday I collected about 60 gallons or so on top of what I had collected out of the frozen buckets. After my last biol I drained my pan and batch finnished what I had. I totally cleaned my pan inside and out, I had a couple of scorch marks inside I had to deal with so the slow down cam at the right time. I am boiliong as we speak, I didn't get out to collect todays run so Ill have to do that either tonight or tommrow before church.

Well got to run time to feed the fire Yipeee!!!!!!!

[Gary R]

Boiled another 110 gal. today. Tomorrow is filter and canning.

Dan W., need to get you on some short run tubing. Sugarmaker uses it and it seems real nice.

Dennis, don't be talking about the end:D It's not even March yet!

[Dennis H.]

It's not the end yet! My plans are to relocate some buckets a little farther north to my dads cabin.
Well its not that much farther north the trees are located on the north side or a large ridge.
I figure when mine wind down or get really nasty sap I am moving some there.
May give me another week or so, but I still have at least another week or two here. Monday will be 4 weeks or steady sap flow with only 2 times when sap stopped for longer than one day.

[Dave Y]

Finally starting to get things going here in Forest County. We have out 4800 taps so far and will try to finish up tapping tomorrow. this is the third weekend we have spent tapping. Today the "bucket brigade" hung 1731 buckets. had a good day. Now on a bad day I should have 2000 gal of sap.

[KV Sappers]

Sap ran good Wed, Thur and Friday. Boiled off all the sap on hand, got 1/2 gal. of syrup. Trees only gave me 6 gal sap today. Hoping to get at least another week maybe 2 at most. Will see what mother nature says.

[Paddymountain]

Just came up from the sugarshack after boiling since around 2:30; I figure we boiled about 300 gallon. we're at about 1350 gal for sap so far this year.
looks like we will have around 20 gallon of syrup when we get this last batch bottled.
hope everyone is having fun!!!!!!

[waysidemaple]

Boiled 700 gallons today. Still 300 left in the head tank and a 100 or so in the woods. I'll collect in the morning and finish up before the week begins. I think I'm right around the 80 gallon mark. Headed to bed.

Scott

[Dan W]

Gary, I really would like to go to tubing on the 80 tap woods I have. I think once my season is over I am going to take ride up to see Chris and his tubing set-up. Like him, I will have to take mine down every year .

[Turtlecreek]

Boiled finished and bottled 1 gal. 1.5 pt. today. That brings the grand total so far just over 3 gallons! I think that will almost cover my cost for supplies for the year. This week looks like its going to be busy, my tarp blew off the wood pile so now I have damp wood that is slowing we down until the arch gets so hot that the wood just vaporizes.

[Gary R]

Dave Y, that's a lot of buckets for the day. This week looks great. I hope to see your steam from my house:)

I hung 35 buckets yesterday. I don't know why. All sugar maples. I hope it will improve my sap quality some. I've also been cutting wood.

[mapleack]

Had a pretty good sap weekend, plus we wore ourselves out adding an all new 95 taps on vac expansion. We have about 691 taps on vac now.

[Paddymountain]

we didn't gather sap yesterday ,it was just a little too cold for a good run. hope this week looks good, we have groups coming from the Boy Scouts, Library,
and some home schoolers. we are half way there compared to last year. I think if it runs into the end of the first week of March we'll break the 50 gallon mark!

[Dennis H.]

Did not get enough sap yesterday to fire up the evap so finished off the syrup that I had sitting there.
Ended up adding 4 gals to my yearly total.
My jugs came in so the syrup went right into them, I need to start filling the orders that I have.

The forcast this week is now showing it to be really warm. Something like 4 nights not below freezing.
This may be the end of the seaon.

[Turtlecreek]

Anyone else getting a whole lot of sugar sand? This stuff is killing me I must have goat a raquetball size wad out of mine when I filtered out of the evaporator then a golfcall size when I final filtered it!

Dennis, That will be enough talking about the end of the season!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Where is Chris(sugarmaker) at??

[PATheron]

Dennis- Is this way early to be the end of your season down there? Theron

[Gary R]

Boy if there was ever a need for a BIG SAP alert it would be for the coming days. Got your swimmies on? How much you up to Theron?

Sugarmaker's been quiet. Check out the Erie County thread.

Father and Son, did you get tapped yet?

[KV Sappers]

Dennis - Thanks for the tour of your sugarshack. It was a pleasure to finally meet and talk with you. I came home and made some maple nuts. Now thats some good eating. Collected 9 1/2 gal. of sap this afternoon. Better than I had expected. Probably last week for me with temps going into high 50's and lows in mid 30's. Would not surprise me if tree buds open up this week.

[Dennis H.]

It is a little early. I ran into March last year. But I was making some nasty smelling syrup when I was boiling.
Tasted really good but smelled really nasty while boiling.
So I am only off by about 1 1/2 weeks.

I am watching this week closely, tonight is the last night to go below freezing till Fri night. It should run really good though tomorrow and Weds.
The sap is still running clear but just slowing way down.
I have a plan for later this week if my buckets trees stop, well wait and see!


BTW, It was really nice to to finally meet you KVSappers. It broke up the day of work here at the house.
I had a bunch of things that were not maple related that had to get done so it was nice to break the day up with some Maple Talk!

[PATheron]

Gary- I know Ive been dropping the ball on the alerts. Things have been going good for us here. Weve been getting steady shorter early season runs but they have added up. Were between 5 and 600 gallons now and thats a record by far for us this early. Im feeling good about the season even though the temps have been warm early. Im looking at next week its saying 50s without freezes but I have a plan for that that I know works. Starting next few days when it really opens up just keep walking around fixing little leaks and keep the pump well cooled and with the high vac it will make the sap run whether it freezes or not. I actually like that kind of sugaring becouse its less of a pain with freeze ups. Itll be less sap than the freeze thaws but what do you do. Cant change mother nature might as well enjoy the weather. Hit a real milestone last night. Finally got my new to me used ro all hooked up and running and it seems fine. So this next run Ill find out how much 15% I can make by just starting up machines. Im thinking 4 gallons per minute and if thats right I can just come home from work, start things up and be boiling in a couple hours with no early concentrating. That will be pretty great if it works out. Were having a fun season and sounds like everyone else is too. I think the next couple weeks are going to be great. Theron

[Paddymountain]

We have all of our syrup bottled up now, 22 1/2 gallons. tomorrow night we will have probably 200 gallon to boil.
according to accuweather it looks like sugaring season is gonna keep going on.
Dennis H , KV Sappers you guys can come up and dump buckets with me when yours run dry!!!

[Turtlecreek]

Ding ding ding round two. The second phase of the attack on the maple trees has begun. My trees were slowing a bit, now I'm not sure if they aren't warming up since they are on the north side or if they are drying up. Either way I tapped another 14 trees tonight, I am now out of spiles, but I still have a bunch of buckets.

[Dennis H.]

Easy fix, Run to the nearest McDon's and grab a pocket full of straws, cut in half and you are all set.
Make sure that you don't grab the small short coffee stirrers. I know they look like those "health" spouts but stick to the larger ones OK!:lol:

[Daryl]

We will finish tapping this morning. It looks like 200 on vacuum and 280 with sap saks. I should to have enough to fire up the new evaporator tonight and get the RO going tomorrow.
My son-in-law (Kentucky) and his Dad (lives in ST. Louis) are coming tomorrow night for the rest of the week to help. It should be a good run this week.
Daryl

[Dennis H.]

Good luck with all that new stuff Daryl. Take it easy also wouldn't want to harm them right out of the gate.

[Maplewalnut]

Batten down the hatches fellow PA sugarmakers, looks like a 48-72 hour or more deluge coming this week. Already prepped my colleagues at work that a few half day vacations may be in order this week if a state of sap emergency is declared by the wife closely monitoring sap levels at home! This thread should go quiet until the state of emergency is lifted sometime this weekend, if you have time to be on here the next four days you need more taps!

Mike

[cyblood]

@TurtleCreek Re: Sugarsand - Yes, I'm seeing much more than I did last year - really clogging the filters up...

[Gary R]

Maplewalnut, very funny! I put in my extra taps, buckets to boot. I hope to multitask and keep up on the trader. Those half days sound real nice. I may have to try some:D

I had a great Uncle and a couple of his grand kids over tonight. Boiled 140 gal. Shutting the lights off now, but the pumps on all night!

[Dan W]

After a glitch in theRO I ran 300 gallons through the RO tonight.!50 gallons ready to run through again. Man, this Ro rerally cuts down on the boiling time. Looks like the next 48 hours will bring a lot. Up to about 1800 gallons of sap so far. This is what it is all about!!!

[Paddymountain]

boiled about 200 gallon tonite ,made about 4 to 5 gallons of syrup; I know ,I'm starting to sound like a broken record.
just checked the weather,I don't think my wood pile is going to take me through to the end.

[Turtlecreek]

Heck when I checked the buckets tonight I had ice in them! My bush is on a north facing slope so I'm thinking that I'm not getting the proper temp swing. I may be looking a few more weeks of this, I could be swimming in this stuff if it all goes right! I have to boil tommrow due to some scheduling issues later in the week, if I don't get rid of the sap I have stored I will need the swimmies.

[Daryl]

We have 200 gallon ready to start this morning. 100 of that was from the vacuum over night. We should have 400 on the sap saks. will fire up the RO after gathering the sacks. Looks like we are set to go.
Daryl

[Maplewalnut]

Looks like the deluge has begun, woke up to a full sap tank this morning. Trees never quit last night and are still going strong.

[mapleack]

Definitely looks like a good day, sap ran all night, I'd guess about 800 gallons there this morning. Temperature dropped to 28 at 7:30 and the sap flow almost stopped but I'm sure it'll be running hard soon, back up to 34 already. Going to start the RO recirc'ing at lunch time, hopefully my dad can keep hauling sap to it all afternoon.

[Gary R]

Holy sap flow! I'm just getting ready to shut down. In 24 hrs., 300 gal. on the vac and 55 on the 35 buckets. The buckets are all sugars and running about 1.7 brix. I made over 5 gal. tonight. My wife wasn't too happy with all the sap:rolleyes:

[KV Sappers]

Well ... not dead yet here in Central Pennsylvania. The sap gods worked all night and gave me 12 gal. by early afternoon. It's getting close to the end, but not just yet. Will boil tomorrow.

[mapleack]

Over 1500 gal of sap yesterday, probably another 600 right now from over night, still running slow. Not supposed to freeze until tomorrow night but after that the next week looks like a great sap forecast!

[Paddymountain]

We didn't get the big flow yesterday; we got about 110 gallons and will gather and boil tonite. I'm kinda wondering if we will get the BIG run this year
sap seem to just be coming steady. up to about 27 gallons of syrup so far

Gary R: do you have a (gal per tap) figured so far on your vacuum reds?
right now I'm at 8.5 gal. I only have 31 trees hooked up to 22" of vac. they are reds in the woods ,sort of like I think yours are.
I have about 100 trees to get on vac ,but time and $$$ didn't allow it this year,but I am gaining some experience this year so I can live with that.

[Dennis H.]

Collected sap today and the sap is turning cloudy so cloudy it is getting that yellow look.

I do now have all sap boiled off except the sap I collected this afternoon. Just got look at this coming forcast, not to promising.

Holy cow paddymtn, 27 gals already great job.

[KV Sappers]

Boiled all my sap today. Trees barely ran today. I've pulled 2 taps that haven't given any sap the past couple of days. Extended forecast is depressing. Looks like end might be here.

[Dennis H.]

It sure looks like this past week was the last big sap we will have doesn't KVSappers?

[Paddymountain]

Dennis H: after bottling tonite we have a little over 29 gallon.
we had an open house for a Boy Scou troop tonite, it was really neat, they were really interested.
I still have about 150 gallons to boil that I'm saving for Sat.
just looked at the weather and Sun-Tues looks great, no run today and probably none tomorrow

[KV Sappers]

It sure looks like this past week was the last big sap we will have doesn't KVSappers?
You got that right Dennis. I think the 12 gal I got on Wed. was the swan song of the sap gods. Today, I only got 2 1/2 gal. which I boiled down with the 12 from Wed. Sap is starting to get cloudy. Looks like Sat and Sun are to be in the 40's but next week right back in the 50's and low's most of the week in the mid 30's. I'm pleased with what I got this year, hit the 3gal mark. If I get more great but I'm not holding my breath.

[Gary R]

Boiled another 140 last night. I seen steam coming from Old State Farm on the way home yesterday. Maybe Joe can let us know how the new Force 5 is working?

Paddymountain, 27 gal. is a great job. As of last night I'm at 14.1 gal./tap. I tapped Jan.22 and had some good sap for a week after that. I think I'm around 26". Every gauge I've bought (5 of them) is broke:evil: I would like to try my other pumps and get to 28". I haven't spent much time in the woods. My tubing is only one year old and a small system. Easy to find any problems. I have 15 sugar taps out of the 136. All are woods trees with small crowns and down to 9"DBH.

I don't know how many more weeks I'm going to go. It's taking about a cord of wood to make 10 gal. of syrup. I don't think It's worth it.

[Dennis H.]

My plan for today is to pull all my buckets, give them a quick clean, boil the taps again and head up to my dads cabin tomorrow with fresh clean buckets and taps.

I still have some nasty late season syrup for my self from lastseason, I want to make syrup that I feel good about selling. So i am going to see how relocating them to new trees work, they are even sugar maples! Hoping that may help push up my numbers for the season.

[Dan W]

What a week! Collected 350 gallons on Monday and boiled it off on Tuesday. 450 more on Wednesday and boiled it all last night. Looks like another big day today with boiling tomorrow. 28 or 29 gallons made so far. Hopefully will get some finished and bottled on Sunday.

[waysidemaple]

Just capped barrel number 2. Sap isn't running good today so I should be all caught up by tonight. Hopefully it freezes up tonight so we can get some good runs tomorrow!
Scott

[Dennis H.]

Operation Bucket Relocation is now complete.
All 119 buckets are on sugar maples at my dads cabin.
It took us a little over 1 1/2 hrs to hang them all and then checked 1st bucket and found 1/2" of sap already!

I'm hoping for a good week this week.

[KV Sappers]

Operation Bucket Relocation is now complete.
All 119 buckets are on sugar maples at my dads cabin.
It took us a little over 1 1/2 hrs to hang them all and then checked 1st bucket and found 1/2" of sap already!

I'm hoping for a good week this week.
Smart move Dennis. I do believe our season is over. Keep us posted.

[Turtlecreek]

What an awesome day surging, well sort of. After a long night of boiling, I was up to 3:00, I slept in till 9:00 I love my wife!

Then I took the kids out to visit Paddymountain, while we were out there he had a tour with the local library, that we helped out with a little. The kids tried to "help" him make some syrup, I still have a little training until they will be a real help, but hey at least they try. We had a great time out there, it was nice to see Dennins and his wife and talk maple.

Then I came home and took a nap, I mean put in a ceiling fan. Then I came home and finished and bottled a gallon and a half of good dark amber. I am up to 4.5 gallons this year and I still have some in the pan. The next couple of days are looking good then I think it is all over for us but we will see.

[Gary R]

Been froze up for a couple of days. This coming week looks even better than last week. Been hearing of some challenges. Off to help Father and Son hang line and tap.

[Dan W]

Last night I finished 20 gallons. 10 in bulk and 10 in glass. Got everything cleaned and put away for the next time. Looks like this week will be pretty good here. I am beginning to wonder when things will stop. Since 2008, I have been done as early as March 12 and as late as the 20th. Time will tell.

[Dennis H.]

Today was a day to catch up on things. I got all the nasty yellowish sap that I collected on the trees here before I pulled the buckets boiled down.
Made another 2 1/2 gals of Dark.
Once the sap was boiled I gave the milk tank a good cleaning. I also gave the syrup pan a good cleaning, I will have to spend more time with it once the season is over.
I think I am done with all my trees here at the sugarhouse, I haven't truned on the vac in 2 days. Tonight it is to get back down below freezing so may try to run it tomorrow. If it doesn't run good that will be it.

[Etown Maple Syrup]

Done in Elizabethtown, Pa Northwest Lancaster County. No sap for the last four days and the tap holes are all dry anyway. I was able to go four weeks this year starting on Jan. 24th. I made 4-1/2 gallons. Add that to the PA total!

[Dennis H.]

Kind of a strange season wasn't cassel farms?
Started out early and weather looked really good then we got those 2 warm spells. I think since we didn't really have a winter hear those few warm days got the trees going into overdrive.
It looks like you didn't quit make your last years totals.

[Dennis H.]

Hey Gary R check your inbox, it's full.

[Paddymountain]

We had a group come yesterday from the library, 18 kid 8 adults, had fun showing them about the process of tapping ,both traditional bucket ,and modern vacuum.
it's always a treat to see the kids faces when you give them a sample of syrup right off the evaporator. We tried hard but just couldn't get to a draw off. I finally pulled
2 kettles off and finished them on the turkey fryer. Today I finished another kettle off; looks like it's going to be about 3 gallons of grade B. Our sap had sat from
Wednesday, so that we would have enough to boil yesterday. Today I rinsed out the head tank, gathering barrels and also give the evaporator a scrubbing, it looks
like Mon & Tues are gong to give good runs; hopefully we'll get enough to sweeten the pans and maybe make a little more syrup. The buds on the Reds show some signs of
budding, but the Sugars look fine. I think we have 2 weeks yet and that might be it.

[Dennis H.]

It looks like like my bucket relocation may pay off.
The sap is running and running clear. Sugar content is right at 2%!
The sap on my reds were averging 1.2% and let week it stayed at 1%. So this may help me make some litter syrup.
I'll go collect tomorrow and then boil on Weds.

[Paddymountain]

Call me crazy ,but I put out 27 more buckets tonite. We gathered around 125 gallon of sap for the day and it was still running like mad!! This may be the tsunami.
We bottled up what I finished Sat & Sun on the turkey fryer. came to 4 gallon even. that puts our total at 33 gallon 1 1/2 pint. I'm not sure how much sap we boiled, I need to update that total.

Dennis H: sounds like (operation bucket relocation ) is a success! it might just get you another good week.

[Gary R]

I pulled in 202 gal. today. Should be shutting the lights out soon. Some good things have happened. Father & Son found my tapping bit I lost in the snow yesterday and I have a couple of half days this week. Maybe I'll boil in the daylight:) I'm over 2000 gal. for the season already.

Paddymountain, get all you can, while you can!

Where is everyone from NWPA?

[waysidemaple]

Brought in 1000 gallons of sap today. Got about 950 of it boiled and made 17ish gallons of medium amber. Had trouble this morning as one of my saddles came apart but after that it went well until tonight. Went up to shut the pumps off and found my hobby releaser had messed up. The bottom flap wouldn't reset so it sucked sap up the vac line, good thing I put in the moisture trap. Not sure why it did that but it did. Totals for the year so far, 7560 gallons of sap, 130 to 140 gallons of syrup made, testing at between 1.5 and 1.8, 9 cords of wood burned, cleaned the pans three times, lots of gas to run both generators!

Here's to hoping we go well into March! Gotta Wan IT!!

Scott

[KV Sappers]

Season over for me. Pulled all taps today, cleaned up holding tank, buckets, and pans. All and all not a bad season, ended with 3+ gals. from my 15 taps. Wish sugar in sap would have been higher but when your dealing with Red's you take what you get. Ratio of sap to syrup was 64 to 1. Already planning ahead for next year.

[Dennis H.]

Collected more sap from the buckets up at the cabin. Still running nice and clear. I now have maybe 125 gals of sap to boil down. Checked the sugar content in the milk tank and it is right at 1.9% That there makes me very happy.
I will have to boil that down tomorrow. I hate to go a day without collecting the sap because a few of the buckets were all but overflowing in a day but I have to get that sap I have boiled down.

It is kind of quiet here from PA so where is everyone? I guess they are all out boiling!

[Maplewalnut]

Someone throw me a life preserver!!!!

[Springfield Acer]

Yesterday, the trees brought me 74 gallons which is a great day for me and my 50 taps with tubing/buckets. Today was a disappointment with only 30 gallon. I scrounged up another 14 buckets and lids and made up 14 more taps to boost before the end of the week which will likely be the end here. I'd really like to have 200 gallon to boil this week and weekend if this is the end. I'm still running at or close to 2% on all sugar maples by the hydrometer but my 50:1 ratio suggests a little below 1.8% for the season average. Seven gallon finished so far and fearing the end is near.:(

[Paddymountain]

Just got done boiling 300 gallons of sap, after having the pans clean we were still able to draw off about 2 gallon of syrup.
firewood pile is looking a little small
hope everyone is still having fun!!!!

[waysidemaple]

Boiled 660 gallons in just over 4 hours tonight. Made another 11 gallons. Firewood pile is small here as well....started cutting more this past sunday!!!

Scott

[Gary R]

Maplewalnut, I'll send the life preserver if you send me the RO:lol:

KVsapper, That's good production from 15 taps.

Springfield Acer, It aint over yet! You'll get a freeze and be back in business. Stop over some time if your sapless.

Yesterday was slow. I only boiled 107 gal. However, I checked the tank this morning. I had over 150 in it. I filled the head tank so my bulk tank won't over flow. I will have a long boil tonight.

I checked in with Sugarmaker. Sounds like things are worked out and everythings going well. He was smart and took today off from work.

[JBurkett]

First post on the Trader, seemsthe alot of the sugar makers from NW PA have been hiding so far this season. Just a quick recap. We finished tapping about the 15th. We have been going strong for the last two weeks. By the end of today we should have 500gals in the cooler.
Gary the force 5 is working great, you have to get used to not opening the doors every 10 min.
Hope things hold on for a few more weeks.

[Turtlecreek]

Pass the swimmies or ro please! I moved 10 or so buckets on sunday to some sugars and that was the trick!!! I have around 100 gallons to boil off tonight, my wood pile ran out last week, so I'm running on my emergency pile, whitch is ome nice ultra dry stuff I have been saving! I may clean my pan ad fining it on a fryer, because I think the stuff that is in it will maks grade b and the sap I have looks like it may be worthy of making light to medium.

[Dennis H.]

Sounds like things are running nicely for everyone.

Turtlecreek isn't Paddymtn just down the road. Maybe you two can share a life raft!

[Gary R]

Joe, welcome to the trader! Glad you joined us. If anyone is traveling down I-80, his place has the GIANT electronic billboard by the road:) Great to hear the Force 5 is running well. If you have spare wood I could use it this year (just kidding!).

Just finishing up. I got 242 from the VAC and 40 on the buckets. Made over 4 gal. of syrup.

We still haven't heard from Dave Y. I bet he is in need of an RO:o

Father and Son, have you been able to boil?

[mapleack]

Got another thousand gal of sap yesterday, total almost to 12,000 now. The weather forecast sure looks scary, I'd like to make it two more weeks. I bet DaveY is wearing swimmies and getting RO price quotes.

[Maplewalnut]

Watching weather and its getting worse by the day. Too cold here the last few days, may get a small run tomorow but back in freeze for a few days after that. Long range is calling for mid 50's and no freezing nights by mid next week for 4-5 days straight

Any strategies for keeping the trees going until next freeze? I think I will leave the vacuum on to try and keep holes clean if we do get a freeze to recharge the trees. Buds are still tight here even on the reds.

Mike

[Gary R]

Maplewalnut, you must be at pretty high elevation? Your weather seems to stay fairly cold. We had a small run yesterday, 85 gal. There was ice on the puddles this morning but I don't know if the tree tops froze. We will turn cold late tomorrow. So far it looks like 2-3 days of no freeze mid-next week. I keep my pump on. I may only get a quart a tap on warm days, But, it's still sap!

I spoke with Andy P last night. Things sound like there going well for him. Lots of syrup and light to boot.

[Turtlecreek]

I'm pulling the plug, most trees are starting to run kinda cloudy, my forcithia bush's buds are about to pop, the weather is marginal, I'm backed up on other stuff etc.....

Tonight the plan is to chase the sweet out and finish what I have in the pan then bottle the stuff I have finished. Then it is time for the dreaded clean up!

[Z/MAN]

Watching weather and its getting worse by the day. Too cold here the last few days, may get a small run tomorow but back in freeze for a few days after that. Long range is calling for mid 50's and no freezing nights by mid next week for 4-5 days straight

Any strategies for keeping the trees going until next freeze? I think I will leave the vacuum on to try and keep holes clean if we do get a freeze to recharge the trees. Buds are still tight here even on the reds.

Mike

Mine ran good Thursday and some today. Maplewalnut, don't trust the weatherman!!

[Dennis H.]

Finally got he sap boiled that I collected the past 2 days. I haven't filtered the syrup I made from it yet but it will be toward the darker side of light or medium!
What a difference 2% makes!

Turtlecreek you don't have to clean anything if you keep it ready for the NEXT sap run!! I dread the clean up also.
I plan on cleaning the tubing this weekend, they have been done for about a week now I just haven't had the time.

[waysidemaple]

Had a surprise visit from the inspector today. I guess someone turned me in for making syrup without a license. Owell no big deal I passed inspection and now I'm in the system should get my actual license in the mail in a week or so. Boiled 850 gallons of sap today and collected another 150 tonight. Refueled the generator and we are good to go for the night. Its raining now but not suppose to freeze. Syrup count is 175 gallons. All in all a good day.

Scott

[Dennis H.]

The guy who inspected my operation told he that if he sees any thing food related being sold any place that he can contact the producer for a licence and if none exists then he will tell them to shut down until one is on hand.

I was worried whn I applied for one and in the end not a big deal.

[Dennis H.]

Getting ready to head out door to collect my buckets, took a look at the for cast and looks good up until Thurs.
Here's hoping for a good week, maybe the last week.

[Dennis H.]

Just got another batch of 1.8% sap that is still running clear!
I'll boil this off tomorrow.
I am so glad I moved the buckets about 1 week ago.

I see DanW called it quits, I figure you guys up that way would be still going strong. This year has been strang to say the least.

[Paddymountain]

Just got done filter/bottling 3 gal 6 1/2 pt . We boiled about 70 gallons of sap today, pretty weak sap run here but this week coming up looks good.
Have everything rinsed out ready to go. Still looking to make 50 gallon, going to let out all the stops,gonna be working into the house firewood to make it!!!

Denns H: good to see your still at it. pretty good season for southern Pa

[Gary R]

Filtered and canned 7 1/2 gal., then boiled 148 gal. Sap looked bad today. Afraid to check the sugar. Hopefully this cold spell will clear things up some.

[Dennis H.]

Made another 3 gals of syrup. I figured it would be lighter than it was. I ended up with Dark still??
It's ok dark tastes better anyway.

Going to go collect the buckets later today, hoping to make a few more gallons before I call it quites.

[Dennis H.]

Went to collect the buckets trees and found ice in the buckets!
That was a nice surprise. I may get yet another week out of them.
Did not get enought to make it worth while to fire up the evap so will wait till Weds. I should then have enough.

Where is everyone anyway? it looks like I am the only one with free time!

[KV Sappers]

Made another 3 gals of syrup. I figured it would be lighter than it was. I ended up with Dark still??
It's ok dark tastes better anyway.

Going to go collect the buckets later today, hoping to make a few more gallons before I call it quites.

Way to go Dennis. Moving them buckets to your dad's was a good move. I checked my trees that I had tapped and there are only 2 that have some sap dripping yet, all the rest the holes are all dried up. Extended forecast is not looking good hope you can hang on and get a couple more boils. Later

[waysidemaple]

Not much going on here the last few days. Got warm yesterday for about 2 hours untill a snow storm came through then froze up and been froze up since. got about 125 gallons in those 2 hours but not enough to fire up. Cleaned the whole evap today, man what a chore. I think th eflue pan will be good to go for the rest of the season. Not looking to great weather wise but we will see. I would bet we have two to three weeks left if the weather stays as is. Might try to put in another 100 bonus taps at the end of the week since I'll be on spring break. As of now I have 180 gallons in the barrel. Checked my records and this time last year I had made a grand total of 18 gallons!! Met my goal of tripling production this year so I guess next year I will shoot for the same goal. Its been a pretty good year, my best year on gravity was .185 gallons per tap and this year as of now I'm at .19 so thats good. Keep it up Dennis, hang in there as long as you can! Every drop counts!

Scott

[Paddymountain]

Not much going on here either. We gathered 60 gallons today, tomorrow looks better.
Wayside; would like to triple my production,but unfortunately work seems to get in the way.
We made about 46 gallons last year and would like to get 50; we'll see!!

Dennis H ; you should be at about 100 gallons,right?

[Dennis H.]

100 gals, I wish!
I'm hoping to make at least what I did last year. The lower sugar content sap was killing my numbers. I have already boiled off as much sap as I did last year and I am still 5 gals short.

[Gary R]

Things do not look good over here. Our forecast does not show a freeze in the next 7 days. A couple of days near 60. We made more syrup last year on a flat pan with less taps and selling 1000 gal. of sap. I may finish the entire evaporator and start fresh if it ever gets cold again.

[Maplewalnut]

Gary- I am with you.

Unless the weather forecast changes drastically I also will make less syrup than last year with more taps and higher vacuum! Ouch. Low sugar percentage killed me and other than a big run last week most were modest and did not last more than a few hours. Very strange year indeed.
I plan to go into the warm up with the pump on and take it from there, if there is no cold spell in the horizon this time next week, I'll pull the plug. If there is a cold snap, we'll see how well the cv's work at keeping a clean tap hole.

[Dennis H.]

Man the sap gods have smiled down upon me today. I am glad I dropped off the 35 gal spray tank at the cabin the other day.
I ended up collecting 125 gals of sap! Filled up the twin 55gal drums and put the rest in the 35 gal tank.
Checked sugar content and that will add about 2 1/2 gals of syrup to my year tally once it is boiled down.
Todays cache of sap along with what I collected the other day I may a long boil tomorrow, about 6-7 hrs!

I have no idea why I haven't tapped this trees before. They run like crazy and even with the warm temps that we have been having the sap is still crystal clear.

These are the same trees that I plan on put on tubing next year with vac, so I now know what to expect. It is getting me excited around fro next season. But it may mean I might have to get an RO! The wife isn't going to be happy to hear that.

[Gary R]

63 and sunny today:mad: Sap run was weak. I collected a total of 150 gal. I did pull off about 4 gal. of syrup. We're making "B" now.

Dennis, fresh trees are a great help. I'm looking forward to hearing about your vacuum on those!

[Paddymountain]

We're still holding on in central Pa. boiled about 175 gal last night ,and about 150 tonite. We have gotten close to 6 gallon ,I believe.
will know better tomorrow nite when we bottle it. weather was 61 today and 66 tomorrow. I might go gather in the morning as they are calling for rain around noon.

Dennnis H; hang in there you'll get to 100 gal by May!!!

Gary R; sounds like your almost at the end also, squeeze out all you can!!!

we're up to 2500 gal of sap,hope to get a little more over the week-end
but I'm thinking that will be it.

[Dennis H.]

PaddyMtn, 2500 gals! not bad.

Gary, I found I like Grade B to eat but it can be a real challenge at times keeping that stuff in the pans why boiling.
Last year I used more defoamer the last week of boiling then the entire 4 or so weeks before that.

[Springfield Acer]

I had a great run yeaterday with some buckets overflowing. I averaged 1-1/2 gallon per tap and 1.7%. Got 5 hours of boiling to cut the stock down to about 25%. I checked the buckets at 10:00 PM and found them 1/4 full again so I went out this AM and emptied the fuller ones to avoid run overs but I think the best of the flow quit sometime last night. Maybe Sat and a little Sun and I'm done. 770 gallon of sap so far this year.

[Maplewalnut]

Hang in there guys, it was 8 degrees colder at my house this morning than it was supposed to be. A couple more mistakes like that next week and we may extend the season a little.

Dennis-drop your float a little and use less wood if you havent already. Grade B likes to simmer!!! Its aged like fine wine

[mapleack]

Good run yesterday, still running this morning. We're up to 15,300 gal of sap collected, but somewhere under 200 gal of syrup. Sugar content is really killing the syrup total.

[waysidemaple]

Boiled last night for 6 hours and got rid of 800 gallons. Collected another 600 gallons this morning before I came back to school. Pumps are on and it was running when I left so will see what I get when I get home at 5. Weather looks good till Monday then the freezes look to be over for quite a while. Right around the 190 gallon mark for syrup. Wood is gone so I'll start stealing the house supply tonight. Hang in there as long as you can guys!

Scott

[Maplewalnut]

For everyone wondering....report from the homefront says the sap is still running OK. Pretty good for second day in a row approaching 60. Turned on the box fan above the trusty sp-22 for a little extra cooling and turned her up a little. running at 24hg now, the end is near give her heck. To quote a once frequent and now notably absent PA sugarmaker who will go nameless...THERON..YOU GOTTA WANT IT

[Dennis H.]

Yeah where is Theron?

Ah he probbaly is relaxing on the beach chair beside the new stream flowing down by his house coming from the RO sipping some kind of fruity drink while his dad is running the show!!

[Springfield Acer]

Last night I was glad to have a simple backyard operation boiling outside since I could do so with no coat or hat while watching the full moon and chatting with a few friends.
Tonight I'm envious of everyone who has vacuum or gravity tubing right to the shack since I gathered for an hour plus in the dark and rain and mud.
The good news is that the sap still ran through the night and today for a while. I managed a gallon per tap on 70 buckets though it has shown more cloudiness than yesterday. Sugar is right around 1.5 to 1.6%.
Time to boil and savor the sweet end.:D

[Gary R]

Well I had about 190 gal. and planned for a good night. We had a couple over that never seen sugar'in before. While talking, drawing off and firing, I BURNT MY PAN:mad: One whole compartment scorched. I really don't know what happened. The temp kept climbing and I saw blue smoke. Nothing would come in the front float. sap was going in the rear but, when I opened the hood door, no sap covered the flues. It took about a minute to find something to dump in the pan. I really showed them newcomers. Pans drained and vinegar in it. I'll clean and start over tomorrow.

A couple guys called tonight. Sorry I didn't get the phone. The only words I knew were swear words. Time for a beer and plan for a better day tomorrow.

[Paddymountain]

We filtered/bottled 4 gal 5 pint tonight. didn't bother gathering sap as it rained pretty hard this afternoon. I made the decision to dump that little bit tomorrow, because we're supposed to go down to 25 degrees Fri & Sat night. Gonna collect Sat & Sun after church,and that's going to be it. That will give me time to get everthing boiled down.
Season's end is drawing near!!!

[Paddymountain]

Gary R sorry to hear you scorched your pan, I did the same Tues nite, we were drawing off and the temp went up to about 10 or 12 above the 7 mark! splashed some sap from the flue pan in and avoided disaster. Syrup was OK dodged a bullet there. anyway drained the pan and put a little vinegar in ,til morning all the scorch floated off.
It's nice having company at the sugarshack, not so nice to be distracted.

[Dennis H.]

Oh Gary, hope it didn't warp the bottom of the pan. I scrotched my syrup pan last year, I guess I had to break in the new pan somehow.
Luckily I was stand by the float box when it went wrong and was able to hold down the float and flood the pan.
I found when someone stops by to chat I slow way down firing the evap.

Gary didn't you also have a hood made the new rig? I have a hose from the hood going into a 5 gal bucket that I dump outside every so often.
I now see that having that bucket full of water is a plus, emergency water to add to the pans if needed.

Hopefully the pan cleans up good as new.

[Dennis H.]

Almost got thru all the sap from yesterday, I have about 1 1/2 hrs of boiling to go. I will waut now till I collect the buckets later today.
I managed to draw off about 3 gals, I am getting very close now to what I did last year.
Fri and Sat night is to back down below freezing but after Sun the forcast doesn't have any more colds nights, it looks like it might be the end I will have to wait and see.