Boiling At Night

[mapleman3]

I'm just curious how many of you boil at night after work, I know it's a silly question as most of us have the routine 9-5 days... whats your schedule like? Mine starts collecting around 5-5:15pm do half on my way home from work, stop and pick up the kids at home and then collect the rest with them, so we finish around 6:30.. then I'm home dumping it into the holding tank as I start the evap... sometimes grab supper on the way home or my wife brings it out to me.. Boil till near midnight or more if I can finish the sap I have.... I used to save sun, mon and tuesdays sap and take off wed from work and boil... then save the other days for the weekend boils.. but now am trying every night.... how do you all work it...???

[Father & Son]

So far it really depends on how it runs. I work a 10 hour shift and that gives me 3 days a week off. The run we could have this week will hit just right for my days off. Will collect and boil Wednesday after work. Don't know how late I will go maybe an all nighter since I have Thursday and Friday off.
Jim

[Russell Lampron]

I have always boiled at night. I work an 8 to 5 job that is 45 min. from home. My family starts gathering around 3 and usually the RO machine is running and the evaporator lit when I get home. Before the RO machine it was common to be in the sugarhouse until midnight or later. With the RO machine I can usually finish up by 9 or 10 and get that much more sleep. I always boil my sap as soon as it is gathered as that is when it makes the best syrup.

Russ

[Dropflue]

I’m in the same boat as most of you. I can get home around 5:00PM, start gathering, fill the holding tank and fire up the evaporator around 6:30-6:45. I try to boil everything that same night. A friend of mine works a swing shift, so on certain nights he can stay up past midnight if need be. Of course the days of a good sap run, he is most likely working. I think cleaning the equipment (i.e. Holding tanks, filters etc) for the next days run is the biggest hassle to do at night, but it as to be done to make Blue Ribbon Syrup!

[Johnny Cuervo]

Hi Jim I do the same, boil Wednesday and Sat, Sun. What made you want to try every night, quality or time? Let us know the pros and cons.

[wdchuck]

We generally boil starting late afternoon and going for as long as it takes to finish that days run. I'm self employed and sugaring is part of my income, so usually my regular work is slow or can be handled by the help this time of year, so I tend to devote 100% of my time to the more mapley pursuits.

[Rob Harvey]

I can go into work early (4:00 am) on days I think it will run and that lets me get started in the early afternoon. That usually has me done by 8:00. I really hate getting up early, rushing home only to find that it didn't run like I thought it would.

[Sugarmaker]

Jim (mapleman3) How much syrup so far?

I take some half days of vacation and start gathering by 2:00, If we have a crew to gather Cheryl or I start boiling after the first 325 gallons is brought in, usually by 4:00. If we don't have a lot of help the gathering may not be done till 6:00 or even 7:00 on a big run. We try to boil it the same day so 8 hours of boiling is not uncommon. Plus then clean up and tank rinsing. We try to be done by midnight if possible. I am really lucky that I have some flexibility in taking vacation and several guys cover for me at work.


Russ, That RO sounds pretty nice from a time standpoint.

Chris

[maplehound]

I am a meat cutter and work from 7-3 most days with every monday off and every other sunday off. Syrup season comes at a good time of year though, Feb & March are tradionally very slow so I often get out early. When I get home my father has the sap hauled down from the woods and put into storage tanks just waitng for me to get home. (He won't boil without me) But days like today when nothing goes right, Generator wouldn't run right, pump lines were froze up, and his diesel tractor wouldn't start. We jsut say the heck with it and hope to boil tomorrow.
Ron

[mountainvan]

I've boiled most nights for the last 14 years. When I had a real job during sugaring season, it was running a sugaring operation for a y camp. I'd get there at 8 start boiling and teaching classes till 4. head down the road and collect "my" sap on the way home. get back around 6 and boil till 12. big flows/overnight up at 5 to collect, to work, collect on the way home boil till it's all syrup. had a streach in 98 36 hours straight of sugaring, no sleep. now I don't have a real job, just a sugarer, start most days at 8, collect to 12 or 1, boil till 8 or beyond and if still flowing collect till 1 or 2 in the morning. the main problem with sugaring is I just keep adding more trees. yesterday 50, today 150. just can't stop tapping.

[brookledge]

I'm in the same boat. Most of the time I get home from work at 4 pm and begin boiling. But when I need to I take time off from work to boil in the day time.
Keith

[mapleman3]

Johnny C, I like it so far, I do think the syrup quality will be best if boiled right away, no time to let it fade!! I'll keep ya posted

Chris, I have 5 gals in the canner tonight, not much of a run today, were just getting started, I had to shut down the woods, got a frozen pipe near my transfer pump I didn't drain good enough, so the vacuum was off today 8O need to fix tomorrow. I would like to make 5-6 gals a night ... that will make me happy.

some of you are lucky to have others collecting before you get home.. My wife has offered to take my truck on certain days and start collecting earlier than when I get home.. I'm pretty happy about that.

[VA maple guy]

I'm in that same boat. I'm a one man operation most of the time. I get home around five and start collecting sap. My trees are spread out all over the place so i have to drive to about five different places and gather in six gallon buckets, load them in my pickup, drive home, and then gather from the trees around my house. Four of my best sugars are 25 miles away, My dad will usually bring me the sap from those trees. I'll usually try to boil when i've gathered 100 to 150 gallons. My girl friend will help me boil once in a while or she will bring me dinner. (she thinks i'm nuts) Most of the time i finish boiling around two or three in the morning. I finished at four one night, work was not much fun the next day. I see a 2x4 or 2x6 in my future. :D :D
Gerry

[maple flats]

I generally boil at night. Out of work about 4p, collect til about 5:30 and start the evap, boil til tank is empty. When the runs get good my wife boils all afternoon and i collect from work til done, and then take over the boiling. My wife doesn't like me to boil after about 10 so if there is a lot of sap for the next day I shut down and she has started to boil as early as 10a. I drive school bus so i have from about 9a til 1:30p off to collect or boil if she is going to take over from 1:30 til about 5:30 while I drive and then collect again. Works good so far. This year I have gone from 160 to 300+ taps, we'll see how this year goes. First real flow should begin about noon today and tomorrow might be from mid morn til it gives up with no overnight freeze forcast for a few days. I hope i get all I can handle. Have added UV this year so should be able to store longer and have plumbed it so i can run thru UV whenever I think it might help during storage.

[ibby458]

When I was working, I'd take a 2 week vacation during sugaring, but we still did it the same way after I had to go back to work.

Boiling the days it's gathered is obviously better, but cold sap stored in a CLEAN SS insulated tank overnight doesn't deterioate much. We'd gather after the kids got home from school, filter it into the storage tank, and clean the gathering tank and evaporator, while my wife made supper.

In the morning, my wife would get the kids on the bus, and go start the evaporator, boiling until I got home at 2:00 pm. If she finished the sap, she would help us clean the storage tank, then go gather with us.

On my days off, I'd start boiling at 5:00 am the next day. (I'm an early bird, but gotta get to bed by 9:00pm) Now that I'm retired, that's the way we'll do it. THe kids always have homework in the evenings, my wife needs time for laundry & cleaning, and I need time to catch up on repairs, etc.

By cleaning & disinfecting everything everyday (a peroxide rinse after washing does wonders to keep bacteria down), and keeping the sap cold, we make just as much light syrup as anyone else, on a schedule we like much better.

[markcasper]

I have always taken vacation from my night job during the season, the probalem is timing it with the sap run. And i always am tapping more than I can handle.

Usually, I'll start gathering in the early afternoon. Will pick up about half of my tubing sap and then go gather bags if those are tapped. When I get done with the bags, between 4 and 6, I'll start cooking. If the saps running good, I often have enough to boil 12 -14 hours non-stop. In that case, my brother comes by after he is finished with the dairy farm chores and runs the evaporator between 11 pm and 1am, then I go and regather half of the tubing sap and or get the tubing sap that was left from the afternoon. This way I start with empty tanks for the following morning.

And usually I don't get done cooking until 7-8 in the morning at which time I go to bed for a few hours, get up at noon and start all over again.

In the case of present. I figure I will have sap to gather by Friday and some of that will already be 3 days old. I have to work fri, sat, and sun night, 12 hours shift, 5am-5pm. I'll probably gather Friday, let it sit overnight some more and boil Saturday morning. I don't figure I'll have all that much, if there is, then gathering tomorrow and boiling tomorrow night will be at hand as its suppossed to be 54 here on Friday. Mark

[Russell Lampron]

Jim, glad to here that you are finally making syrup. I'm still waiting for enough to gather and boil. It has been too cold at night for it to run good although it has been running some since sunday, maybe tonight.

Chris, I was a little nervous about purchasing the RO machine at first because it was alot of money but now that I have it I wish I had done it sooner. It used to take me 5 or 6 hours to boil in 150 gallons of sap. Now with the RO machine I can do 400 gallons in 3 to 4 hours. I am boiling on a wood fired Algier 2x6 evaporator and have a 150gph Lapierre RO machine. I have increased the number of taps I have from about 300 to over 500.

Russ