Erie County tapping

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
Set about 200 taps yesterday and gathered 185 gallons of sap today. Also tapped the remaining 350 taps this afternoon. Hoping for a run Friday. Looks like its time to get to work:) All systems seem to be working. Will try to boil Friday afternoon. Had a loose wire in the remote sap pump switch that was repaired tonight.
Our grandson Mike is helping make syrup this year and I may send him to gather tomorrow.
Hope things are good with everyone starting this season.
My prediction is for a short season. Based on the fact that we have not had a deep ground freeze the winter.
Regards,
Chris

[Gary R]

Sugarmaker, thought you got lost:) Great to here your tapped. We've got to get it while we can. Good luck!

[Dan W]

Get at it Chris! Sap is flowing real well here in Allegheny county. collected 250 gallons last night and the one bucket I checked on the way to work had about a gallon in it already. Boiling Saturday morning.

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
I know your pulling as much as you can from the nice sugarbush of yours. Enjoy that new sugarhouse!
Dan,
Good to hear the sap is flowing down south.
We are in rest mode today:) Friday and Saturday we were busy and have made 23 gallons of ultra light syrup from about 1200 gallons of sap. Burnt just a little over a cord of wood (pallets). Boiling rate is somewhere just over 100 GPH? Sugar content is good at 2%+. Almost had a serious problem last night as the auto draw stuck open and almost drained the front pan. A quick 5 gallon bucket of sap into the pan saved it. And the draw off valve had to be moved up and down to allow it to close. Yikes that was close. Almost no sugar sand build up on the bottom of the front pan. Looks like next week should be a good week for syrup in Erie County.
Regards,
Chris

[Bill]

Hi Chris
We have about 70 more taps to set. We collected our first sap Sat. about 530 gals. We boiled about 9 hours and are very pleased with the syrup.
Bill and gang
Ft. LeBoeuf Maple

[Sugarmaker]

Bill,
Glad to see you on here!
I just picked up another 36 taps about 1/2 mile from the house. Was building new tubing system for those taps tonight. Hope to get them up tomorrow afternoon:) Should be some whare close to 600 ish????
Regards,
Chris

[Gary R]

Sugarmaker, nice sap haul. Those trees sure run great. Keep it up and you'll be getting an RO:lol: I'm over a cord of wood also. The chainsaw and I have been spending some quality time.

[Sugarmaker]

Made this last short run tubing system on gravity with 36 taps. Good slope. Will see how that works. Going into a 45 gallon container. Folks in this neck of the woods should get a couple good runs this week.
Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

At 46 gallons of light syrup
AOF, steam away may need tweaks next year.
just finished boiling for 10 hours on 800 gallons of sap.
minor weld failure on structure for truck dumping station. Repaired.
Have fun making syrup
Regards,
Chris

[hepocole]

i just started tapping trees today...do you think its too late...live in mercer county?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Chris,

Would think you could get a better rate than that with your water reduction unit. I am running 90 to 96 on my 2x8 with a steamaway with startup and shutdown. I am still tweaking but I think that is about what it is going to do.

[Gary R]

Sugarmaker, how about an update? Please empty your inbox:)

[Sugarmaker]

hep. Your right on target. Still lots of season left!
We hit 85 gallons of light syrup last night.
Will head out to the sugar house in a bit to check sap run today and get some things done for Taste and Tour.

[deacm]

Hung my 50 buckets last Thursday (Feb 23rd). Had 100 gallons of sap by the next afternoon and boiled about 8 hours in my 2 x 4 Leader. Then it ran well earlier this week: another 100 gallons and another night of boiling. Finished it off inside this afternoon for 3 gallons of great clear, light amber syrup. Not sure why, but every year I am always closer to 60 gallons of sap per gallon of syrup vs the 45 you read about. My sap was 2% this week. The new edition this year is a "Smart Splitter"....Swedish made manual firewood splitter that saves a whole lot of time and much easier on my back than playing 'Whack a Mole" with a teetering log and an wavering maul in my hand.

[Sugarmaker]

Deac,
Great to see your making some syrup.
We hit 91 gallons last night. Still light syrup.
visits from son-in-law Mark and granddaughter Marly. Plus Jim and Chase stopped by too. Also a friend from Bowling Green KY learned about the syrup making process.
Brandon,
This old rig is about like me some days it runs good other days not so much:) I think its boiling faster than without the steamaway but its just never quite fast enough! More taps more sap and still the same number of hours in a day!
Hope your season is doing well. We have several weeks left. I hope to have sap to boil for our open house March 24 and 25 th. You should come up.
Gary I tried to clean out my mail box.
Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Collected 185 gallons of sap last Friday, made another 2 gallons of syrup (went to medium grade) plus whats in the pans. Hope to get a run about Wednesday.
Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Guess I havent posted for a while.
gathered 16 times
600 taps
91 gallons of light
150 gallons total all grades but good taste in all
finished 3-12-12
6683 gallons of sap
7.5 cord of pallets burned
11 buckets of nails collected.
Tore the sugarhouse apart to clean for the tour.
300 to 350 folks stopped in for the Taste and tour last weekend.
Jim Bortles made cotton candy fo r the T&T.
All the kids and grandkids were here for the weekend.
All tubing was rinsed and hung in the sugar house.
All the totes have been washed
cut a half cord of wood to start to replenish the syrup wood shed.
Other than that its been calm:)
Regards,
Chris