The Sweet Spot
01-05-2013, 12:17 PM
Ok here is three pic's that may may help everyone understand what our choices are. Our sap shack is semi finished, we tapped about 200 trees in 2012, and only made 9 gals. Worst year on record according to our local old timers. We were inspected by the dept. of Ag. on a Thrusday, and by Monday it was 90 in March. We are hoping for a much better year in 2013. One pic is just our topo, one with black hatches is what we tapped in 2012 (not including roadside buckets). The pic with the blue hatches is the proposed tappings for 2013. I have tubing on hand and help coming next weekend. Most of our 40 acres was selectivly cut about 10 years ago, 3 years before we bought it. High balled for the most part. We have about 30-40 tappable trees per acre on average. We live off the grid so please keep this in mind. I do not have the extra money to install vacume or an RO at this time.
You get to help me decide: WHAT BUSH DO WE TAP?
1 upper right: This bush has about 450 taps and is north facing. there would have to be two seperate mainlines as there is a ridge that would seperate about 1/3 of the taps. We would have to pump to the sapshack, or into a tank on my truck. This stand was not cut during the last cutting. It is older and has much less underbrush. The end of the bush is about 500' from our shack, and 137' lower.
2 lower middle: This bush is capable of to 1000 taps. Although this is also the north side, the peak of the hill is just off our property line to the south, so this area gets lots of direct sunlight. There are two ridges that sort of run east to west. This stand was cut, and has alot of undergrowth. I do have a great weed wacker on steroids, but it is still extra work. About 1/4 has been cleared of underbrush. This bush would gravety feed into the tanks right outside my sapshack, and in most places would drop about 50' coming off the lats. The main line would drop about 25' in 700.
Thank You for your time. The Sweet Spot
You get to help me decide: WHAT BUSH DO WE TAP?
1 upper right: This bush has about 450 taps and is north facing. there would have to be two seperate mainlines as there is a ridge that would seperate about 1/3 of the taps. We would have to pump to the sapshack, or into a tank on my truck. This stand was not cut during the last cutting. It is older and has much less underbrush. The end of the bush is about 500' from our shack, and 137' lower.
2 lower middle: This bush is capable of to 1000 taps. Although this is also the north side, the peak of the hill is just off our property line to the south, so this area gets lots of direct sunlight. There are two ridges that sort of run east to west. This stand was cut, and has alot of undergrowth. I do have a great weed wacker on steroids, but it is still extra work. About 1/4 has been cleared of underbrush. This bush would gravety feed into the tanks right outside my sapshack, and in most places would drop about 50' coming off the lats. The main line would drop about 25' in 700.
Thank You for your time. The Sweet Spot