Sweet and Sour Dill 2012

[Dill]

Its valentines day. Or known as the day that I usually give in and tap.
Just going through the last 3 years of tapping threads, I usually start today. I put out 60 taps this morning on a gravity run in Northwood. They are stonewall trees and the squirrels had a field day chewing, a couple drops chewed right off, plenty of nicks in the tubing as well.
Hoping to put out a run in Lee tonight as well. It wasn't running much, the holes were wet but not gushing. Still can't tap the vac bush, the owners seem to be on the worlds longest cruise, I really don't want to run a generator over there, due to the proximity to neighbors but I might have too.

[Dill]

I ran the front section of tubing down at my folks yesterday afternoon. The lack of snow meant that was the fast that piece of tubing has ever gone up. I have 2 more woods sections to put back up down there. I tried to leave them up last year but the cows thought it should come down.
My little brother is working his tail off finding bucket trees at some other local farms. He's going to be hauling a bit of sap if all goes right.

[Dill]

I think I'm going to concede a section of tubing to the squirrels. They are chewing a drop off a night. And the neighbor's have an issue with me shooting.
Or I'll try trapping them.
Still nothing on the vacuum bush, gravity is running alright not huge. Hoping to do a cleaning and test boil tonight and start actually boiling this weekend.

[SSFLLC]

Dill a small dish of good old antifreeze will take care of that problem. Make sure its high enough so neighbors pets can't get to it.

[BlueberryHill]

Oh, I love the antifreeze idea! These tree rats just love chewing up my barn. Shooting, poisoning, drowning, and they still thrive. Antifreeze dispersal will take place tonight. Any other sweet squirrel eradication techniques to share?

[Dill]

I was thinking rat traps on trees with peanut butter. I have some subsonic 22 shells, that I think are quiet out of my single six. I've just never seen squirrel damage like this. One drop got chewed off yesterday, then the rodent started gnawing on the tree branches, sap everywhere. I hope he doesn't find the tank.

[Greyfox]

On the subject of tree rats, this is the unfortunate end of one who tried to exit a hollow pine tree and managed to get her head through a hole that her butt couldn't pass through. These are NOT appropriate for the faint of heart. I first noticed this when I saw the whitish area on the tree. Apparently the rodent tried, in vane, to claw her way out, thus the lack of bark. I took these last year and forwarded them and a bunch more to a buddy of mine who posted them on Youtube. This is NOT photo-shopped.

5418 5417

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I thought this might be of interest.

Back on point: ethylene glycol poisoning is a bad way to go. It's a nasty way to die and it isn't species specific so songbirds, housepets, bats, etc can be harmed. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a tree hugger; I happily shoot every coyote, porcupine and beaver that I can. Try something like a #50 conibear or a #40 round body grip trap for the squirrels; it's a humane kill and the hind quarters can be breaded and pan-fried and served with maple gravy.

[red maples]

I have had alot of tree rat chews as well this year. worst I had since I installed the tubing. I think it might be due to lack of nut crops this year. very little to no acorns or hickory nuts this year!!!

[Dill]

Finally done tapping. Still hanging a few buckets with my brother this afternoon. That 7/16s bit really sucks down the battery drills. Put another 40 out with old brace but that gets old fast. Don't know how the old timers did thousands of buckets.
Ended up running the same RV2 vac pump that I used that year. The SP11 I bought is setup for 220 only and I just noticed and don't have time to wire the owner's house.
I tapped yesterday without the pump setup and had some ice in the mainlines today. But that little pump was chugging along pulling 23 inches at the releaser.
Not enough sap to boil tonight so I have the work light crammed into the evap hopefully it stays off a hard freeze.
The annual pancake breakfast at my wife's church is tomorrow and I had buy in syrup from Amber Gold.

[Dill]

What is it about vacuum leaks that get your blood pumping? I find myself trying to work way too fast when I hear that hiss.
Finally got the mainline thawed out. I tapped sunday without the pump and plugged it in Monday, unfortunately the mainline froze up hard. Its not running hard tonight but it should tomorrow.

[Russell Lampron]

Alden the reason vacuum leaks get your blood pumping is because you think of all of the sap your not getting because the leak is there. It never got as warm today as the forecast said that it would. I still got a small run though.

[Dill]

Unfortunately I didn't collect the mother load at lunch that I expected. The gravity taps here in Northwood really haven't done much, I expect more tree rat issues.
And my releaser must have froze up early this morning, I got the dreaded 0 inches of vac when I got there at noon. Fortunately that little blue racquet ball saved my pump again. I picked up 100 gallons and it was running nicely. The office is beyond dead today, so I'm taking tomorrow off to finish running a new lower line at the vac bush and install my first sap ladder, it should add 100 or so taps.

[red maples]

We got a freeze here last night which I wans't expecting. and the sap was running really good for a while. the ground is still pretty frozen onlty really the first inch or 2 is thawed. The sap is slowed up now but still managed to get about 115gallons so far and it should run all night!!! pending the releaser doesn't get stuck!!!

[Dill]

Ended up with 175 gallons in Northwood and 60 in Lee. Not drowning by any means. The wife has class tonight so I have the kids so I'm not boiling. Odd 2 nights off in a row. So the sap goes to Josh. My brother also got 200 gallons on 150 buckets down in Epping. I still don't think the trees are turned on yet.

[Dill]

I got my best run ever 375 gallons in 24 hours out of the vac bush. Spent yesterday building my first sap ladders, and adding about 40 more taps. Now I probably should have only built 1 sap ladder but I'm planning on expanding some more.
Boiled off 150 gallons yesterday having some wood issue like usual. The dead stuff I put in the shed in Dec, some of its dry as a bone, some of it isn't. Hopefully I'll get a drawoff tonight.

[red maples]

There is always wood issues I get the same stuff... 1 row is dry then next isn't the next dry ????? who knows!!! How much have you boiled so far. I have been through about 1200 gallons so far. I got 50 gallons yesterday hoping for a better day today and a really good day tomorrow!!! Hopefully anyway!!!

[Dill]

I boiled until 11 saturday night, but it was so cold that everytime I went out for wood, I killed the boil in the 1st compartment of the syrup pan. This morning I went out to everything froze solid. Bad enough that I had to bring the feed lines into the house. Unfortunately we had a showing this afternoon, so I had to scoot around with a towel under my boots to try and eliminate footprints. Boiled down another 200 gallons today, so close to my first drawoff but not quite there yet. Not sure why it takes this evap so long to make syrup the first time, then it'll bump 6 or 7 gallons and settle right in. My thermometer said 7 over boiling but the hydro just wouldn't bounce.
A neighbor with a hobby setup stopped by to use my sap hydro, just to prove that the good old mother nature RO of letting the buckets freeze really works. His sap was 4.5% that's worth tossing the ice imho. He's collect sap this year in the back of a minivan using poland spring 5 gallon jugs, which actually works pretty slick.

[red maples]

I got the heat wire, for my feed lines works great, as long as its not too cold I can boil anytime. This morning would be tough teens are rough to get the sap to move through anything.

I boiled of a quick 50 gals because I knew I wasn't boiling today and didn't want the sap to sit. Well it was tough boiling in that cold wind I'll tell you what. the stack kept fluctuating something awful, just tryting to get through 50 gals man tough.!!!

[Dill]

Got 75 gallons of sap yesterday thanks to the vac pump.
But more importantly I finally got my first draw off, made 4 gallons of dark amber, which I attest to all the start ups and shut downs. If this is like last year, it'll lighten up by the 3rd draw off.
Always awesome when the hydrometer bounces for the first time!

[Dill]

Good to hear I wasn't the only one who didn't get much for sap yesterday. My releaser hung up before noon, and the pump was unplugged until 3. My moisture trap didn't stop the sap flow. The ballast tank had a ton of sap in it. I ran the pump backwards by hand which seemed to push a lot of sap out. It looks like the pump survived, but it gave me quite a scare. Had second showing on our house. The young couple wanted to walk the lot. It was pretty funny listening to their agent talk about making syrup out of the big trees on the property line. Too bad they are giant old red oak.

[Amber Gold]

You can make syrup from oaks...interesting.

We got a decent run yesterday. We started the day w/ >300 gal, about 200 gal of it is from yesterday. Sap started running today about noon time.

[Marc Duclos]

Hay Josh Marc from Deerfield, what dose the Atlantic Fluidics A10 lr vacuum pump run on gas or electric?

[Dill]

He runs that pump on 220 electric.

[Dill]

Well the season has officially started for me, the reason later.
I collected 750 gallons off the vac bush in 24 hours, the best run I've ever got out of there. I was going to spend yesterday afternoon at the office until I checked at noon and found an overflowing tank. I boiled from 1 to midnight, which means I need a bigger rig or an RO. Botttled 5 gallons, ran out of jugs and left the rest in the canner.
But how do I know the season is offically running? Blue lights in the driveway for the 3rd year in a row. Last year no blue lights just a an officer at the door. This year it was everything short of a siren which if it wasn't 11 pm, we probably would have got a siren.
Nothing however is better is than listening to a cop, yelling in his radio "Possible Chimney fire, headed to residence now to alert homeowners!!!!" and then 5 seconds later "Dispatch ignore that fire, its a sugarhouse". For some reason they never yell that 2nd part.

[Dill]

Had my best run of boiling last night, picked up 200 gallons at 2 from the vac bush, lit the fire at 2:30. I dug through the woodshed back to my special reserve of 2 year old slabs. Picked up another 200 gallons at 5. And had it all gone by 12:20, which I think is pretty **** good on a 2x6. I had the doors glowing and 4ft of fire out of the stack.
I've just hit 20 gallons for the season, which is about 1/3 of my usual crop, but I think we are done this week. The sap was running hard this morning I picked up another 200 gallons that I had to bring to Josh. But the flow has dropped right off even with the vac. And I saw my first buds, heck they were almost leaves up in Concord yesterday.

[red maples]

yeah pretty much done here too we might get a frost wed and thursday night but heard a lone pepper today. Sap is very cloudy white tasts a bit nasty right from the releaser syrup seemed OK but I drew it off a little light by mistake so we'll see how it tastes after its done. but there is just no sugar I boiled off close to 275 gallons today and have 2.5 gallons ot show for it. it was just barely trickling on this morning. so I shut her down.

[Dill]

Today was one of those odd vac days. I started pulling the gravity taps around noon, some of the holes were still wet, but nothing had run into the tank.
I had checked on the vac tank at noon and there was about 50 gallons in there. By 4 is was 79 out, and I had 200 gallons in the tank. Left the pump on tonight there might be enough to boil tomorrow.
The sugar house was more of a sauna today. Must have been 100 in there at least. Spent a couple hours sitting out front the shack while I boiled.