Taped in Gilmanton nh

[SSFLLC]

Got all the vac taps in today (349) and adding more. No buckets yet. It's to early for them. Ran the vac pump all day. I think the releaser only dumped once. High of 36. Got the new hood last night getting that put on tomorrow and maybe try to get some kind of preheater put in it? Happy V day. Keith & Michelle

[Russell Lampron]

It started pretty late here in Loudon today too. I think I got about 50 gallons today. It isn't supposed to get as cold tonight and it is going to be warmer tomorrow so it should start running again. Good luck with the new season.

[Redmaple]

I tapped about 10 trees in Peterborough and no sap came out at 3pm today. Im going to hold off a few more days before doing the other 800. My ground is so frozen solid I couldn't even scrap a little for seating a new storage tank.

[SSFLLC]

32 degrees here now. Going to turn on the vac pump and grab the pellet gun check lines. Got my self 7 tree rats the other day. We did not have the damage like some of you have had. I think maybe 3 fittings from squirrels and 1 lateral line from deer. Looks like once the pump goes on it will be on till late saturday night. Let the boiling begin. Keith & Michelle

[tuckermtn]

Good luck Keith and Michelle- yes not much of a run over in Andover either yesterday...which isn't a bad thing- still working on plumbing newly configured pans a running new arch. 675 taps in so far.

[Amber Gold]

Hit it hard this year and enjoy the new evap.

[SSFLLC]

Ok no sap today. Hit a high of 38 at the house 34 in the woods. Did eliminate 1 more tree rat. Walked all the lines no damage and no leaks. Tomorrow looks like it is going to run like it did today. So back to the firewood pile we go. Michelle is talking gardening already. Time to start plants for transplanting. Keith

[SSFLLC]

We have 29 degrees here this morning. Very short night here. The ghost in the house desided to play messages on the answering machine from back in December that where already earased. Not sure what was up with that. But the dogs did not like what ever it was. Kept us up most of the night backing. Still looks like no run today! Good luck Keith & Michelle

[SSFLLC]

After managing to lock myself in the sap house for 15 minutes and managing to bust myself out, I snagged this picture of our new evaporator and hood. Sap is slow to poor in the tank - only about 50 gallons so far. Itching to get these new pans fired up.

[Russell Lampron]

Where's the pic? I don't see one.

[SSFLLC]

It won't let us dealete the other pic's we used last year. So the space is to small to up load a pic. We will as soon as we can figure this out. Micelle

[SSFLLC]

5412 test pic up load

[SSFLLC]

Fired up the new pans today. Looks like well get 55 hr with out a pre heater. Michelle is out there now to finish up. Left her a phone so she don't have to kick the door out again. The hood works great. A little tough starting the fire with no draft door but we got her. Off to my paying job in 5 hours. Keith

[red maples]

Pic is a little difficult to see but it looks good!!!

[Russell Lampron]

The new evaporator set up looks good. I can see why you can't wait to boil.

[SSFLLC]

Brad theres a better pic of it on are facebook Still Seeking Farm LLC. 325 gallons to sweeten the pans. We were so close to draw off and had to shut here down. Should be good this week with the weather. Michelle says it don't feel like maple season. Put a request in with mother nature for snow. Spent most of the yesterday thawing the transfer line to the Sugar Shack 1100 feet. That wont happen again. Forgot to open the drain valve when we where done. Very nice not having to spend 8 hours to boil off 225 gallons of sap. 1 releaser problem today. The float imploded and filled with sap. Thanks to Sunnyside Maples in Loudon we had her back up and running in less than 1 hour. Keith

[SSFLLC]

Not much of a run today made 50- gallons. 36 degree's here at the house now and ice starting to suck into the releaser. Shut it down till tomorrow. looks like it will be much better than today. Keith

[SSFLLC]

Got about 100 gallons today. Boiled that off to make 2.5 gallons of very light medium. Light maple taste. Saps running in at 3 percent now. That makes it nice will boiling. Seem to have developed a vacuum leak on the switch over piston. See if we can remidy that in the morning. Sap wasn't running to heavy here when I checked it at 6:30. Hope fully it will pick up tomorrow. Keith

[red maples]

You guys still supposed to get a freeze up there tonight? 37 here but thats what it was last night when I went to bed and this morning it was 29* It was running pretty good here nothing great managed to get 125 gallons today last I checked, gonna go now and make sure everything is running good before I hit the sack!!! I think only about 1/2 my trees are running OK (the swamp ones) the others only a little. I am just hoping the ground breaks up a little so the roots can suck in some water once the they get recharged on the next freeze in a few days!!!

[SSFLLC]

It's 37 here also. They say 35 for a low so pump stays on tonight. Took most of the day for the inch of snow to melt off. Tomorrow looks better. Keith

[SSFLLC]

Sap ran good last night. Never went below 37 degrees. We got about 250 gallons on vac and 15 on gravity. Working on the releaser leak as we type. Keith

[sugaringman85]

DONT ask for break up yet...we still have the month of march. its slow here to but steady...made 26.5gallons in three boils gathered about 2200 gallons of sap so far, started at 1.8 % and last night it moved up 2.2% and was pretty excited about it. 32 degrees when i went to bed, 38 degrees when i woke up. Checking the tanks before tree killing time starts.

[SSFLLC]

Boiled off 125 gallons of sap today. Made 3gallons 3 quarts and 1 pint of vermont fancy. Very tasty and smooth. Tuesday I start on the preheater. Not much running today shut the pump off at 4:15 pm at 34 degrees. Temp droped to 29 now back up to 34. Maybe well turn it back on to give Michelle some boil time. Keith

[SSFLLC]

Saps running. 35 degree's here and snowing. We got 200 + - gallons over the weekend. Boiling that off today. Dosn't look like much maple weather for this week over here. Thats not a bad thing setting up the glassed in porch for garden plants. Also starting the preheater this week. Keith & Michelle

[SSFLLC]

Made it to 35 here for a couple hours. Turned the pump on got about 15 gallons of sap before it started to freeze up again. Tomorrow should be a little better with the rain coming then partly sunny. Got the preheater done. Now just need sap. Keith

[Dill]

So what do you figure your new gph is with the max pans?

[SSFLLC]

Untill we started drawing off it was around 50+. Once we started drawing off it drew in so much sap that it cooled the back pan down to 180 degrees. So with the hood and preheater that should remeady that problem. With the drop in temp in the flu pan at draw off it droped the gallons per hour to around 35 to 40. Keith

[SSFLLC]

Not much happening here last few days. With that said I sure hope all of you with the releaser problems have it straitened out. We have a major sap storm on the way the rest of the week. Eleminated a chichen kill this morning. Got it before it got them. Wasn't even dead for 15 minutes and the crows were after it. Now off to the woods to do a quick line check before the sap storm hits. Keith

[SSFLLC]

Saps been pouring in here pretty good today. Once the wind change and was blowing strait up the valley were most of the trees are. Now if I could just thaw out my feed tank. Wife told me it was empty. I guess still having 35 gallons in it was close enough for her. So much for keeping up with whats coming in. Gravity taps by the house. Looks like just under a gallon a tap. Havn't made it back down to the 1100 gollan tank in the woods since 11:30. Keith

[SSFLLC]

Still waiting for a good run here. First run was 175 gallons. Today was 100 and still running. Gravity line seems to be coming to life with 20 gallons on 19 taps. Keith

[SSFLLC]

Good run yesterday 400 gallons. 34 here now but still froze up.

[Russell Lampron]

Good run yesterday 400 gallons. 34 here now but still froze up.

We had a fairly good run here yesterday too. With Sundays run figured in we got a little over 1gpt.

[red maples]

had an OK run here. we just aren't getting the good night temps I hope things change...this wind off the ocean is just killing night temps it needs to change back to normal!!! yesterday and this morning it smelled like salt air here!!!

[SSFLLC]

Glad to hear you guy's are doing OK so far. We made it to our half way point of last years total last night. Been changing up how we fire to see witch way works best. Last night is the way we will fire from now on. We were getting a steady 60 gallons an hour. Keith

[Russell Lampron]

I'm at about a 1/3 of what I made last year here. I've also got the concentrate from 425 gallons collected yesterday and will be boiling that tonight. I just got a report from home that we need to gather the buckets tonight and that there is 300 plus in the woods tank. It's starting to look like the year before last here. Bring it on!

[SSFLLC]

Was here most of the day. Left at 1:45 for the winter farmers market and sap wasn't. Just got home 7 gallons in the tank with the 19 taps on gravity. Now down to 30 degrees and not a drip coming in.

[SSFLLC]

Just pumped up another 225 gallons and still 250 left in the tank thats 700 so far for today.

[Ridgeland Farm]

Glad to hear people are having a good year! Its been crazy here. All we can do is hope it continues like this for the season. I had a little squirrel damage and a good amount of deer damage this year. but vac is finally up and holding good! Have had a couple days close to a gallon per tap with the rest averaging around 3/4 per tap. I added a lot more taps this year so its hard to tell but I would say I'm at about 75% of last year so far. Keith, where abouts are you? Would love to come by and check out your setup!

Stefan

[SSFLLC]

317 Loon Pond rd

[SSFLLC]

Had visit from Russ Lampron and his son inlaw yesterday, Thanks for stopping by made just under 3 gallons of B on 180 gallons of sap. Bruce T. would like to thank you for showing me around. Very nice place and we think at this time a new H2O 200 is the way we will go on the RO. or if we could find a used one around that size for the right price.

[SSFLLC]

25 degrees here this morning. Buds are just starting to look like there swelling. If these temps hold we should make it through next week. Best run of the year was a couple weeks ago and that was a 1 day total of 550+ or - a little. Good luck to all Keith

[Russell Lampron]

25 degrees here this morning. Buds are just starting to look like there swelling. If these temps hold we should make it through next week. Best run of the year was a couple weeks ago and that was a 1 day total of 550+ or - a little. Good luck to all Keith

It's a little colder than that here at 22* this morning. I don't know what is going on with the trees this year. It seems strange that we haven't had any really big sap runs. We did get one big one a couple of weeks ago but most have been in the 1/2 to 3/4gpt range. I'll take it though and make syrup until the sap stops running.

[SSFLLC]

Sorry to here that some of you Maple masters are out of the boiling. On the other hand we got 400 gallons of sap in the last 24 hours. This is are second biggest run so far this year. The silver maple by the road has opened. The rest are holding steady for now. Good luck Keith & Michelle

[SSFLLC]

Were up and in the running again this year. Tapped in the back 360 in the last two days and ran 2 more main lines in the Wilson piece that we are leasing for the next 10 years. Today back to the building of the post and beam barn. Then latter today when the wife is home run another 800 ft of main out in our bush to pickup more taps. Good luck to all this year Keith & Michelle

[red maples]

busy time!!! good luck have a great season!!!

[Russell Lampron]

Good to see that you have tapped too Kieth. We got all of my tubing done over the weekend. All 712 taps are in. You got your RO ready to squeeze some sap? I've got a little more plumbing and I still have to put the membrane back in. Other than that we're ready to turn on the vacuum pump.

Good luck with the new season and have fun with that new RO!!!!

[SSFLLC]

Not yet Russ. Should be easy enough it came with the header already made up. So just have to pipe it to the tanks.

[SSFLLC]

Just back from plowing out. The weather guys got this one way wrong over here 18 inches of the white stuff. Should make it very tough now.

[Russell Lampron]

Just back from plowing out. The weather guys got this one way wrong over here 18 inches of the white stuff. Should make it very tough now.

Yup they said 4" to 7" here and we had well over a foot when I got home from work at 5:30. Glad we got all of the tubing tapped last weekend. It was tough enough then.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Unreal how much we got in Merrimack....I started tapping the other day, will get back out there this afternoon, but its gonna be tough getting through my woods.

[BlueberryHill]

Buried in Raymond too. Over the weekend I got 50 taps in gravity feeding 20 pails scattered throughout the woods. I only did the easier access trees because it was all on foot. Can't get my 4-wheeler out there. Not looking forward to hauling all that sap out of there by hand 2 buckets at a time. Uphill of course. Trying to get my dads snowmobile started so we can pack down the trails. Not sure if that's gonna happen or not though, she is old and tired.

[red maples]

yeah we were supposed to 4-6 and ended with close to a foot. I was out tapping in it and lost my one handed tubing tool... now I have to bring the big 2 handed tool.... oh well I sorta know where it might be but we'll find it in April when the snow is gone.

Actually I have to say its easier getting around in snowshoes now and its easier to get to the higher taps!!! and with well over 2 feet of snow in the woods it will hopefully stick around and extent the season which is off to a late start, and we will get this tease then back to cold for at least 5 days!!!

Keith did chris come out for a start up with you on your RO yet? Just did mine on Monday.

[SSFLLC]

No Chris here. Trying to get him to do anything is like trying to pull your on teeth. Took me 10 months just to get paper work on the RO. Guess if you need or want his help you need to spend the extra money and buy new from him. Sorry to here about your one handed tool. We always carry the 2 handed tool. Wife lost her wedding ring sunday while tapping. Tried to find it with the metal detector no luck. Got an 1 inch of snow today in half hour. There calling for 1 to 3. Probably get the 4 to 7 they predicted yesterday. Blueberryhill seems a little early to tap on gravity looking at the forecast. Im waiting on my gravity till maybe march 1.

[BlueberryHill]

Yeah, I know it is a bit early but I could not help myself. I am not very patient. Hope things get flowing good enough today so that I can get a good first boil going this weekend. Still not sure of exactly how many I am going to end up tapping, but I am about 1/2 in right now. Have not tapped a tree on my own land yet, so there are still plenty of trees and plenty of time I think.

[SSFLLC]

Finished running lines and tapping. 400 on vac and 427 on gravity. Should be more but out of Maple funds for now. Could grab another 100 plus with more tubing. Good luck to all this coming week as it looks like the start of the season is now here. Thanks Keith & Michelle

[Russell Lampron]

The high temps for the coming weekend look pretty good but the overnight lows look too cold to get much of a run. It looks like it is going to get cold again on Monday or Tuesday after that. I hope that it gets warm enough to thaw the 175 gallon block of frozen sap in my woods tank.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

I'll come take it off your hands :-) I went through my frozen 20 gallons in just a few hours and now I'm jonesing for more! Lol

[red maples]

I am planning on finishing up tapping the last 125 or on Friday morning. I still have to cut in a few drops but I need some fitting that should be here today... I hope. I know I bought them last year and can't find them anywhere.... I even went back to look at my Bascom invoice and they are there... I'll find them after the season is over I am sure. I will also get all my buckets and gravity tubing tapped on Friday AM as well. Can't wait to the sap again.

Yeah looks like a little freeze up again mid week for us southern guys. right around 30 for the highs. Need sap badly 2 weeks 'til maple weekend hoping for some GOOOOOD sap runs!!!

[SSFLLC]

Sap is trickling in here. Not enough to call it any thing maybe tomorrow. Keith

[Russell Lampron]

Same here but I didn't expect much.

[red maples]

same here I think got maybe 20 gallons and that would be a lot. and it all came when the sun was the warmest for about an hour in the afternoon. I am sure you guys were colder but it was -1 yesterday morning... that takes a couple days to thaw that especially since we had those a few days in a row!!! today will be good 21* here this morning 45 today!!!!

[SSFLLC]

Just hit 34 here things are starting to trickle in so at this rate we will have some sap for maple weekend if it thaws back out in time.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap is trickling in here too. Took a long time for it to get started but at this point I'll take what I can get.

[Shawn]

Ran a little here, some pipeline still frozen and buckets frozen, and they say some snow on the way and then cold

[SSFLLC]

Just turn the vac on 30 here now. We got about 300 gallons yesterday. Would have been around 100 more but the valve on the truck tank split and lost most of what was in it. Looks good for today if the wind doesn't pick back up.

[BAP]

Ran here until past midnight, dropped down to 30 and right now at 31. Hopefully it froze enough to run good and hopefully it warms up enough to run well.

[Russell Lampron]

It didn't run as good as I had hoped here today. The forecast looked good but what we got was totally different.

[SSFLLC]

Just got the call from Pleasant valley maples they have 100 gallons to be picked up tomorrow. So we will have at least that to boil on sunday.

[Russell Lampron]

We're going to gather our buckets and whatever we get on the vacuum today and hope to get enough to boil for a couple of hours. I'm not going to drain the evaporator and boil water just to make steam though.

[Bill'sSugarShack]

We're going to gather our buckets and whatever we get on the vacuum today and hope to get enough to boil for a couple of hours. I'm not going to drain the evaporator and boil water just to make steam though.

Bet a number of others will be boiling water too!

[Russell Lampron]

Bet a number of others will be boiling water too!

We were able to get about 170 gallons of sap to boil today. Just enough to do a single pass through the RO and boil for about 2.5 hours.

[SSFLLC]

We had a good turn out I think for are first year. We also made another 9 gallons of syrup today. Got a little run of 100 gallons out of the 3 sugar bushes. Russ my son will be back monday night with your drums so you can start making syrup faster now.

[Russell Lampron]

We had a good turn out I think for are first year. We also made another 9 gallons of syrup today. Got a little run of 100 gallons out of the 3 sugar bushes. Russ my son will be back monday night with your drums so you can start making syrup faster now.

Hopefully we can have sap to boil and I can check out your new RO when I come over to pick them up. I will probably wait until the weekend to come over because as you know all to well the extra storage isn't needed right now.

[SSFLLC]

Leave them here to long I might fill them. Just kidding

[SSFLLC]

Michelle just gave me the totals we made for the weekend 21 gallons and 1 quart. Not sure on season total right now.

[Russell Lampron]

You beat me by 1 gallon and 1 quart. I made 20 gallons on the weekend and 29 for the week. The total for the season is 44 gallons.

[SSFLLC]

I think you have me beat on the over all amount. That would be were the vac on all your taps will pay off in the end. Still making B but was starting to lighten up yesterday towards the end of the day.

[Russell Lampron]

You're making dark syrup too? It seems that a lot of producers are this season. With the bubblemaster I have only made medium and because we forgot to open the feed valves to the evaporator and front pan yesterday we made some dark amber. Yeah the front pan got a little hot but I couldn't see any burnt spots when I was done for the day.