Steaming drill bits- 2012

[tuckermtn]

guess I should get this thread started. We put our first taps in on feb. 6th. 400 or so tapped in by Feb 8th at our salisbury bush. No real runs their yet despite being on vacuum since the 8th. - probably 400 gallons in their all told- have not pumped out yet. Added another 275 as of Feb 14th, but vacuum their yet. All tubing with CVs. Should have another 125 in tomorrow.

Got new 802maple designed arch installed over the weekend. Lots of bricking and blanket later, and we boiled on it for the first time tonight. boils hard, gets hot quick. Need to get a stack probe thermometer to see how hot its getting. need to move blower outside as its pretty loud. Lets of tweaking to do, but love it so far.

We ran through around 1000 gals. of sap from Parker this evening- still have another 200 or so sitting in the tanks as ice. One pass through RO and it was 7%....was pretty sweat to start with with all the ice. Had to open up the output on the RO as the rig was doing a better job at keeping up.

Made about 6 or 7 gallons- looks pretty dark.

tapped a week earlier this year, and had our first boil only a few days earlier than last year, but if the arch had been in place this past weekend, we could have boiled then. So realistically we are one week earlier than last year...

Best of luck to all-

Eric

[SSFLLC]

Good luck Eric. Sounds like your on your way to shorter boils and more boiling soda's. Keith & Michelle

[tuckermtn]

Keith- to give you a sense of how much of a scramble its been to get things going, the PBRs that we had for boiling sodas last night were ones that we had left over from our last boil of 2011. Tasted just fine...

was at bascoms this afternoon to pick up a leader style watertight roof jack. done with them collar style roof jacks.

not much of a run here today...Kat began tapping our third bush this afternoon- should have 800 tapped by tomorrow afternoon.

[Russell Lampron]

With the temps that we had yesterday I'm surprised that it didn't run better.

[SSFLLC]

Hi Eric, ya the roof jack is are next investment also. We didn't start getting any sap till around 2 in the afternoon. The main that runs up through the pines never started to run. Maybe 75 gallons or less. Michelle managed to lock her self in the sugar shack last night. Very pist off when she got back to the house. Door repairs for today. Keith

[Amber Gold]

Keith...that's not good...is the door still in one piece?

Eric...new arch?? I didn't think you were getting one this season. Looking for a full report on how it runs and gph.

[tuckermtn]

Josh- yes wasn't sure it was going to happen, but about 3 weeks ago the guy who does my welding said sure, lets do it. We copied the one Ryan, from Breezy Lane Sugarworks made with the help of 802maple. It has a high pressure blower, two dampened air circuits, and the thing just rips. The lower air circuit puts air under the fire, where we used drilled fire brick instead of grates. The second air circuit puts air to the door, above the door, along both sides just below the rails, and on the vertical wall at the end of the firebox. One layer of 8lb ceramic blanket on the sides with firebrick inside of that. Two layers of blanket around all air nozzles and in the door. I think I might try and double up the blanket because the sides do get pretty hot.

as for GPH, I could only guess based on RO output. The first night we boiled we started with about 50 gallons in the feed tank and set the RO to around 1gpm of concentrate output. The RO was not keeping up. So we set it to 1.5gpm and it was about even. So I am guessing in the 80-90gph range? All I can say is that the feed tank empties a lot faster and there is way more steam in the sugarhouse than last year.

We worked on our salisbury bush yesterday, fixing the releaser that would not reset after it dumped. adjusted the spring tension on lever arm on the main chamber cover and away we went. Pumped 300 gallons out of that tank. Picked up 300 from parker and we boiled it all in last night. Think we are in the 15-16 gal. range so far. still need to finish and filter.

Looking at the 10 day forecast it looks like it might be time to hang some buckets. Sure felt like mudseason around here yesterday. Squishy dirt roads and all. Have already heard of some towns posting their roads.

goal for today is to get second vac system up and running, then see if we have enough to boil again tonight.

Cheers-

Eric

[tuckermtn]

well, didn't get the second vac system up and running yesterday as hoped. problems with the new-to-me BB4 over in salisbury set the tone for the day- lots of little set-backs. Did manage to hang probably 100 buckets with my girls- a nice antidote to vac problems- just drill a hole, put in tap, and hang bucket. Like the simplicity.

did manage to boil in 100 gallons from salisbury, 100 from putney rd, and 600 from parker. sugar content low- 1.6

after finishing and filtering, the first batch of syrup has a funny taste. need to try and pin point if it was from early sap, not enough rinse of perservative out of membrane, or something else.

vac pump repair and vac set-up this morning, then cleaning everything this afternoon once it warms up...hoping for a better day today...

-Eric

[tuckermtn]

day of vacuum- reassembled BB4 after getting head valve re-machined. cleaned up and new oil, so hoping for best with that one. Got spare SP-11 head repaired as back up. Set up Putney road vac system. Need to chase leaks there once things thaw out tomorrow. quick and dirty update...

[SSFLLC]

Good luck Eric. Sounds like everything is coming together over there. Why are you getting Parkers sap? Is he not up and running or to much for the mighty Marvin? Keith

[Maplewalnut]

Keep at it Eric, I hear you about the simplicity of buckets. Biggest problem sometimes is 'how did that moth get in there'!

[tuckermtn]

well, BB4 fix was unsuccessful so the sp-11 back-up head will be pressed in to service tomorrow. PITA.

struggled to get the new roof jack in place this afternoon before the rain tomorrow- seems like the top of the jack which is crimped to allow a 14" section of stack on top of it is a little too big. nothings easy...

Keith- I've been buying sap from Parker as he is not set up yet to boil. Think that tomorrow is going to be his first boil.

near 42 deg this afternoon and not much running. Pulled in 100 gallons from buckets- but most of that was from Saturday afternoon and Sunday...

keep on keeping on...

[tuckermtn]

last night was the first night things seemed to really click. 1000 gals of sap, 3 hours. Jugged up medium with good flavor. Stuff coming off the evap last night looked pretty light. 33 gals in kegs and jugs. 12 or 13 more in finisher...

RO output last night was 1.75gpm and evaporator was keeping up...that evaporator really rips- thank you 802maple and Brendan Newton the fabricator...

[tuckermtn]

hung 40 more buckets over last 2 days. Vac systems seem to be running well. Gathered 750 gallons yesterday afternoon- not bad considering I had not expected anything to run. Feed line from RO in barn to sugarhouse (runs overhead about 250 feet) froze last night so had to put concentrate in to tank and truck it over to SH. PITA. making some pretty light stuff-
had first shoveling out of coals last night for this season...cold here this morning- not much maple happening- heading to DC with my girls for a few days. Have not been to air and space museum in 30 years- looking forward to it.

[maple maniac65]

I tapped 544 in Littleton Hicks Farm yesterday and it was bitter cold with the wind blowing. I don't see the sap running here for at least 1 1/2 weeks. I just do not have time to tap during the week it is weekeneds or nothing.

[tuckermtn]

Bodie- do you know if anyone else up north is getting any sap? Fullers or Faddens?

[PerryW]

I just do not have time to tap during the week it is weekeneds or nothing. Most of my taps are also in Littleton and they have not yet woken up. Even if I tap next week, it will still be earlier than normal. Wake me up in a week or so.

[tuckermtn]

a week since last post- unfortunately not much sap to speak of. Kat gathered on Tuesday the 28th about 300 gallons and I finally boiled it all in last night. Think we are pretty much all tapped finally- have to add it all up, but guess we are in the 1300 range.

Today looked and felt promising, but I think Kat and I set the record for the most time spent gathering for the least ammount of sap- 2 people, 3 hours, 250 gallons of sap. dismal..

need to keep reminding myself that it is early March and I have made more syrup to date than I ever have before- but I don't have a good feeling about this season so far..but hard to have a nice day like today and have almost no sap...hum...

trying to keep the faith...

[maple maniac65]

Boiled in 387 gallons last night and made light amber. Only got 1 gallon and lost a 1/4 of that in the press until next time. Sugar content was 2.6 which is good. We did not get any rain this weekend but it did snow after dark last night, but only about an inch. Things look good for Wednesday thru Friday.

[tuckermtn]

good to hear you are underway Bodie...hope you all up north have a good season.

[PerryW]

Boiled in 387 gallons last night and made light amber. Only got 1 gallon and lost a 1/4 of that in the press until next time. Sugar content was 2.6 which is good. We did not get any rain this weekend but it did snow after dark last night, but only about an inch. Things look good for Wednesday thru Friday.

sounds about right. It was running okay yesterday when I was tapping my bush in Littleton. Another producer in Lyman got 150 gallons of sap from 400 field trees from sat/sunday's run.

[tuckermtn]

we gathered late in the day yesterday. About 1400 gallons from 1200 of our 1350 taps. Rest we will pick up this morning. 2.2% sugar. very little sugar sand. all done in 5 hours. 30 gals but don't know the grade yet.

was 57 deg. when I refilled vac pump at 11:45pm last night. Its 31 deg. now at 6:45. wicked front came through last night- some kind of windy...

[tuckermtn]

About 750 gals gathered by late afternoon yesterday. Held it over night so we can boil this afternoon and put the signs out at the end of the road. Bucket rodeo yesterday morning after the front came through overnight on Thursday.

up to 110 gals. Nice medium in the barrel last night. 28 and snowing here this morning. Supposed to be 50 tomorrow- go figure.

[Backyard Sapper66]

Hey Eric,
Sounds like everything is going good for you this season. Read about the changes you made to the evaporator, sounds awesome!!!!
Nothing doing up here on the mountain, just way too cold still.
Good luck this season!!!
Doug
:)

[tuckermtn]

surprise run yesterday. forecast was for it to not get out of the mid 30's, but buckets were running strong by 11am. Got pumps running- probably got 200 gals off our 400 tap bush, and 175 gals from 140 buckets. Will boil that in later today. Few other local sugarmakers stopped in yesterday- nice to chat and catch up on how other folks seasons are going. Made 25 gals yesterday- hope for another 20 plus today. Tonight looks like last freeze for the week. I sure hope they are wrong...

[tuckermtn]

froze just barely on Sunday night. Had our 1st, and probably only, 2000 gallon sap day of the season this year. Had the RO and evaporator running pretty much straight from 2pm till 12 midnight. Had filter press issues on Sunday night but figured it out yesterday and put 55 gallons in to stainless last night- no bad for one set of papers on that 7inch short bank. Season total so far is 181 in stainless and probably another 25 still to finish. Hoping to hang on here in Andover...

[PerryW]

Yeah, yesterday was a 575 gallon sap day for me, hopefully not the last. I did notice there was not much glop in the filters. Usually a couple big handfulls plops out of the prefilter when I dump it on the snow, but there was none of that yesterday.

[tuckermtn]

hadn't gathered since wednesday afternoon, so today we got 500 gallons from Hattens (we pulled the reds there, so are probably down to 350 taps there) and 125 from Putney(down to 250 there since we pulled reds here also). They are our only two vac bushes this year and the only ones that seem to be doing anything. Sap is a bit milky, but still at 1.8%.

we are up to 239 gallons in barrels and jugs, and another 15 in the canner. LAst batch to get filtered was B, but I think this next batch is going to be darker. I think 275-280 gals. is realistic but our first forecasted freeze isn't until next Sunday. Leaving taps in till at least March 31st. Keeping the faith...

[tuckermtn]

buckets woke back up today. Some were 3/4 full at 8pm after being empty at 8am. gathered 525 gals total. never had so many bugs in the sap.

[tuckermtn]

a bit slower turn out for 1st day of maple weekend. We used some water and permeate with off flavored syrup diluted back in to make some steam. few big purchases meant that we still did our second best sales total for a maple weekend saturday. Couple of folks buying their holiday syrup now figuring supplies might be short come december. Rain today may put a damper on things, but we will still be making steam.

cold snap coming in Monday through Thursday of this week. time to dump some buckets and wash some tanks...

[Russell Lampron]

Good luck with the run after the freeze. Most of my trees are reds which are well past the bud stage now. It's not worth dirtying everything up again to make some mersh.

My 1st day sales were similar to yours. People that came in the afternoon said that there weren't many people at any of the places that they had stopped at. Hopefully the crowds will be out in force today. I'll be dumping a little bit of syrup for odor purposes into the evaporator today again as well. The steam from the simmering evaporator should show up better today with the clouds and cooler temps.

[tuckermtn]

slower turnout today than yesterday. Still fun to chat up maple any chance I get.

just washed five tanks- either I am getting a jump on end of season clean-up or getting things ready for the "second half" of the season.

doubt it will be like this this year, but buy 3/25 last year we had made only 228 gallons. We ended up the season on April 7th with 519 gallons.

good luck to all still at it...

-Eric

[tuckermtn]

all tanks and releasers cleaned, buckets dumped, reds pulled (10 days ago), pumps fueled, wood in woodshed, 250 gals of empty barrels...

I'm ready for whatever comes...

[Parker]

Duck and cover! Its gonna runnnnn!

[tuckermtn]

think we have about 1000 taps still in- and if we gathered it all, we might have 15 gallons of sap. One pump still on, one shut off for the night. Was 40 and overcast today. Plan on keeping vac on till Saturday but I am not very optimistic at this point.

[tuckermtn]

80 gallons of woodsy smelling sap being boiled in now. Got some cold PBR, some loud country music and 1200 deg stack temps....at least I'm going out it style...

[Backyard Sapper66]

Eric,
You are the MAN!!!!
Hope the messed up season didn't hurt you too bad.
Doug B.

[tuckermtn]

We are done. Had the vac running on a 250 tap bush from noon till 8pm and the releaser dumped once. Pulled all buckets and short tubing runs. Buckets washed and put away. Will pull vac bushes this week with vac on. Think we will be around 270 gallons- our worst ratio of syrup/tap yet. As a life long Red Sox fan I grew up saying "there is always next year"...

-Eric

p.s. Parker is still at it. His north facing, higher elevation bush in Hill is still running...He WANTS IT....