Justin Turco
04-13-2006, 12:48 PM
A while back I left a post that G.H. Grimm was closing it's facility in Rutland. The latest news I have is that this site will remain open. This is good news to me.
On another note: I am always learning. I put a white pvc pipe in the sugarhouse to move sap from the truck tank to storage in the sugarhouse. You know: quick disconnects, nice installation, very handy. Of course this tubing is all glued together. Well, the moral of the story is: if you don't want to ruin your first two batches of syrup, please be sure you let it sit for more than two days and run more than 5 gallons of water through it before using it. A neighbor said he let his set, then flushed it, let it set, flushed again....5 times. The glue is really slow to "completely cure".
Also, I lost a day of sugaring when a plastic cap popped off a fitting just above my main gathering tank out in the woods. All the sap ran on the ground. Darn! I guess if your not a huge operator and you have time it doesn't hurt to take a walk in the woods every now and then during the season. (do a little preflight) also, I would of caught this if I had checked that tank in the morning to see that a normal flow was coming in. (I know generally what I should be seeing for flow.)
We didn't tap everything this year because of the the forest tent caterpillars. So our production was down by a third. But we made some nice syrup. 28 gallons of lt amber and fancy and about 5 gallons of good flavored B right at the end and when we finished what was in the flue pan. I now yeild my sugarhouse back to the deermice and nesting birds. I am going to miss it. Can't wait for next year.
On another note: I am always learning. I put a white pvc pipe in the sugarhouse to move sap from the truck tank to storage in the sugarhouse. You know: quick disconnects, nice installation, very handy. Of course this tubing is all glued together. Well, the moral of the story is: if you don't want to ruin your first two batches of syrup, please be sure you let it sit for more than two days and run more than 5 gallons of water through it before using it. A neighbor said he let his set, then flushed it, let it set, flushed again....5 times. The glue is really slow to "completely cure".
Also, I lost a day of sugaring when a plastic cap popped off a fitting just above my main gathering tank out in the woods. All the sap ran on the ground. Darn! I guess if your not a huge operator and you have time it doesn't hurt to take a walk in the woods every now and then during the season. (do a little preflight) also, I would of caught this if I had checked that tank in the morning to see that a normal flow was coming in. (I know generally what I should be seeing for flow.)
We didn't tap everything this year because of the the forest tent caterpillars. So our production was down by a third. But we made some nice syrup. 28 gallons of lt amber and fancy and about 5 gallons of good flavored B right at the end and when we finished what was in the flue pan. I now yeild my sugarhouse back to the deermice and nesting birds. I am going to miss it. Can't wait for next year.