Pittsfield,NH

[gearpump]

Had a great start with the new sugarhouse. Processed at least 1400 gallons of sap thru the new R.O. My system of having the sap feed the ro from a 300 gallon tank and putting the permeate in a 200 gallon gallon tank works out great. By the time the 200 gallon tank fills up the 300 gallon tank is empty. The only problem I have is not having enough time for finishing the syrup in the finishing pan! I am drawing off a gallon of syrup on my 2x6 every 15 minutes. No time to tend to other projects. I have been putting the syrup that is ready to be finished in 5 gallon pails to finish off when I get free time. My dad was the one who ran the evaporator and I did the finishing, but he is too ill with cancer to run the rig this year. He did come out saturday for an hour, but got too tired and had to go back to bed. I am having to learn how to run the whole process by myself this year. It did seem great to see him out there, which might be the last time that we will be sugaring together.

Marty

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Marty,

Sure hate to hear that about your dad. It was tough on me not hardly having my dad around any this year. First year ever that he has hardly helped any but it was because he is building a new house and trying to get into it soon to advoid any more temporary rent.

Best of luck to you and a speedy recovery to your dad. I know that would about kill me to see him in that condition. :( :(

[Russell Lampron]

Marty sorry to hear about your dad. Cancer is a terrible disease and I hope he has some good days where he can help you boil. Sugaring is one of the things that my parents look forward to each year.

Glad to hear that the RO is working out for you. I've had a couple of good runs here too.

Russ

[chris]

Marty,
Sorry to here about your Dad and I hope everything works out. If you need help with finishing your syrup give me a call I will load my finisher in the truck and head up one night after work and give you a hand.
Chris

[mountainvan]

Marty, Please give your dad my best wishes that he gets better and tell him to hang in there with any treatments he's getting. Glad to hear he is out in the saphouse. I have a nice comfortable chair in mine that's just right for taking naps, not when I'm boiling though. Try to keep your own spirits up, I know that's tough to. This may sound girly, but give your dad lots of hugs and let him know how much he means to you. Seeing how much those around care for you when you have cancer helps. at least it does with me. good luck and best wishes, your friend in sugaring, van

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Marty,

My dad had cancer a few years ago and since then, he has been cancer free. Sure glad as he is only 55 and I hope to have him around many more years as he loves making syrup and sure missed having him helping much this year, but know if God allows me to make syrup in the future, he will likely be there to help if all goes well. :)

[gearpump]

Thank you everbody for all the great support. Had to admit my dad to hospice house today. He has taken a turn for the worse needs 24hr. care. I wanted to take time and finish some syrup tonite, but spent some quality time with him instead. I also found out today that my mom has to go back to Dartmouth this friday for another procedure to help her out. She has stage 4 cancer too. Its times like this that thinking about full sap buckets, and tanks and boiling into the wee hours of the nite with nothing but the hoot of the barn owls that gets me thru the day.

Marty

[Brian]

Marty, I am sorry to hear the news of your parents. My thoughts are with you and your family.

[gearpump]

Finished and canned 31 gallons of syrup so far. The evaporator has only run 17 hrs so that just over 1.5 gallons of oil per gallon of syrup this year. Gotta love the R.O.! I also drained the syrup pan and was going to soak it to remove sugar sand, but found that the pan looks good as new! It seems with the more frequent draws from running 8% sap that the pans clean themselves! I did find that I could only get two to three gallons of syrup thru the flat filter into the finishing pan. I am going to have get another filter so I can keep up the cleaning and not get slowed down by a clogged filter. I probally don't have to filter going into the finishing pan because I put the syrup thru the filter press after finishing, but I am sure it helps to remove a lot of the gunk before the final finishing process. Tryed the blind taste test with syrup from last year and the R.O syrup from this year on a couple of good testers, This years syrup won the test.

Marty

[Russell Lampron]

Marty,

How are Your folks doing? I hope they are doing good.

I found the same thing to be true last year when I started using my RO machine. After 3 boils this season I can still see the bottom of my front pan but I am changing pre filters on my filtering tank after every draw off. The RO sap is alot easier to boil as well, I don't have the problem of making syrup in the middle sections of the pan as much as I used to.

Russ

[mountainvan]

I cleaned my whole rig yesterday, syrup pan had a slight coating of niter. I've made about 100 gallons of syrup. Not sure what it is about ro sap, but I love it!!

[gearpump]

My parents are not doing well at all. My dad is getting weaker, and my mom is going in the same direction. Time spent with both of them is counted in minutes. I did get about 100 gallons of 3-1/2% sap today. Had to toss about 25 gallons of sapsicles blocks. I could have saved the sap, but I would rather start fresh. Looks like the weather will be in our favor for the open house maple weekend. I guess I should get out the stainless steel polish and brighten up the evaporator!

Marty

[chipa]

There is a nice article in todays Concord Monitor about Marty .

[mapleman3]

We are praying for you and your parents Marty,and finish up the season with lots of syrup

[Russell Lampron]

Marty,

I'm hoping that everything is allright over there. Give me a call if you need any help. We are praying for you.

Russ

[sweetwoodmaple]

We'll be thinking and praying for you, Marty. I haven't had to deal with this yet with my parents, so I can't say that I understand.

Tough stuff, but a good example for us all to cherish the moments with our loved ones. I know that I spend time complaining and griping over stupid things.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Marty,

You have been on my mind and in my prayers all season. I understand to a certain extent what you are going thru because my dad has always been there with me to make syrup and he wasn't this year but not because of the same circumstances but it did put a big damper on the season. He had cancer a few years ago and was able to overcome it. Hopefully he can stay cancer free for many more years. :)

Wish I were closer and I would definitely give you a hand.

[gearpump]

Thank you all for your prayers. My dad passed away today. It's the first day so far I have not felt like boiling, but finished in 400 gallons of sap tonight. It's kinda hard reading a hydrometer thru wet eyes. I miss my dad.....

Marty

[brookledge]

Sorry to hear that. My thoughts are with you.
Keith

[Parker]

I am sorry to hear of your tragic loss,,my thoughts are with you.

[chris]

Marty,
Sorry to here about your loss, Are thoughts and prayers are with you.
Chris & Kim

[mapleman3]

Sorry for your loss Marty, sounds like your Dad was a great Man.

[Russell Lampron]

Marty sorry to hear about your dad passing away and I am saddened even more to know that your mom isn't going to be around much longer either. If you need any help or just want to be away from home for a little while you've got friends just down the road. Maybe we can get together to pull taps and clean up everything.

On the lighter side, congradulations you made the front page. How Is the RO running at the higher pressure? I bet it's pushing the sap through now.

Russ

[gearpump]

Had some time to "be" in the sugarhouse today. Got my tallies kinda added up. If anyone is questioning if they should get an RO read on.

Made 130 gallons of syrup. The RO ran 44.5 hours. This includes all concentration, rinse,wash,rinse time. The evaporator ran 46.5 hours and used 139.5 gallons of oil at 3 gph. Thats just over 1 gallon of oil per gallon of syrup! And the kicker is my electricity bill was only $60.00! After the usage fees it was only $27.00 for the power for the month of march!

The RO time could have been cut down a little since I was "babying" the machine at the start. I thought 250psi on the membranes was enough, but soon found out 400psi worked a lot better and cut down on the concentration cycle time. Thanks Russell for the hint!!

I would highly recommend a small evaporator and RO combination. The only problem I faced was the lack of places to put finished syrup! A 2nd finishing pan is on the list for next year, and maybe and auto draw off to free up some time.

Marty

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Marty,

Way to go and glad you had a good year. We were all pulling for you with everything you have been going thru. Are you done yet or waiting a little longer with the snow that is hitting??

[Russell Lampron]

It's good to hear from you again Marty. It sounds like you are still babying your RO machine alittle. I run mine just below 500psi, just low enough so that it won't shut down. That was where I was told to run it by someone that has had a Lapierre RO for a few years.

It sounds like you had a good season. Have you pulled your taps yet? I hope everything is going good for you now.

Russ

[gearpump]

Finally got the last bit of tubing taken down and stored and all the tanks washed up this weekend. The pans are soaking with pure water in them and I can say this season is over. I thought this year was going to be a poor year, but ended up .288 gallons of syrup per tap. Not bad for changing over to 5/16 spiles and not having any vaccum setups.
Russ, I tryed to get my RO to 500 psi, but even with the by pass valve closed it maxed out at 400. I checked the pure water and it was not passing any sugar. Could be new membranes? I was also cleaning them with soap every day and rinishing them every time my 200 gallon permeate tank filled up. I got the membranes out and I am going to have them cleaned and washed by Lappiere this year. The first one is free and they give you a performance chart to tell you how well they were maintained. We will see how well I did!

Marty

[Russell Lampron]

Marty,

I don't know which valve you are calling to as the by-pass valve. Is it the knob you use to control the concentrate flow? Mountainvan has asked the question about Lapierres cleaning service so let us know how it works out for you. I too just finished washing all of my tanks and have just switched front pans on my evaporator. The spare one is soaking now. The clean up is the hardest part, it seems like I am never going to get it all done.

Russ

[gearpump]

My mom joined my dad early this morning and passed on. I can now think about cleaning up the rest of the sugarhouse and finish packing up the rest of this years syrup. I met Chris(mapleguys), and powerdub this weekend at Bascoms open house and got to talk about maple stuff. I was hoping to get to St. Albans this up comming weekend for Leader and Lappiere open houses, but my moms services are friday nite and Saturday. I have been looking forward to this weekend for a long time. I might try to go up on Thursday and then be back by early friday. I wonder how much it would cost to rent a lear jet for a day?!....

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Marty,

Our thoughts and prayers are with you. It has been a very difficult four months and I pray the rest of the year will be much better!

[Lance]

Marty - I'm so sorry to hear about your mom; it's sure been a rough season for you! I live just off I-89 about an hour south of St. Albans. If it'll make it any easier for you, you're welcome to my spare room Thursday night. Let me know. 802 244-5086. God bless........

[Russell Lampron]

Marty,

Sorry to hear about your mom. Hopefully 2006 will get better for you now. If you need anything I'm right up the road.

Russ

[Fred Henderson]

My thoughts and prayers for you and the family.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Hang in there Marty- I lost 5 relatives during a 6 month period one year-Started with my brother during March/Actually i was boiling when my wife came to the sugarhouse and gave me the news=end of the program for that day right there. Grandfather next month then and an uncle 2 weeks later-then a cousin a month later and my dad the first of August. Surely all will be missed.

[maple flats]

Marty, I am sorry to hear about both of your losses and so close together. My prayers are for them and you and the rest of your family. Cancer is HORRIBLE. My wife is now going thru chemo after having a lumpectomy and having several lymph nodes removed. She just had her first chemo session yesterday (and it hit her like a ton of bricks) and has it every 2 weeks for 9 times followed by a few weeks of radiation. I sure hope she makes it thru this ordeal and has a long life after.
Maple Flats, Dave Klish

[powerdub]

Marty, it was such a pleasure talking maple with you the other day. My prayers are with you as well.

[Parker]

Marty- My thoughts and prayers are with you during this time of tragic loss,,Parker

[gearpump]

Thank you everbody for all the prays and loving support. Yes Cancer is a horrible thing. I keep telling myself something good will come out of this process.
I cleaned up the sugarhouse today and now I am sitting here wishing I was in VT at the open houses. Man this maple bug sure grabs onto you! I went riding around town today and just like Parker told me the maples are easy to spot since they are the only ones leafing out right now. Maybe a couple of prospects for next year!

Marty

[Al]

Sorry to hear aboout your Mom. We're hitting the open houses tomorrow. The oldest is trying to talk me into tubing. He's tired of buckets. Told him it builds character. :D
If you ever get up this way please call or stop in.
Take care