Dumping buckets

[bairdswift]

How many buckets do you empty on your own? I will be collecting by my self and curious how many other people do on there own. I was thinking about collecting everyday but only doing half each day unless its 80 again like last year. What do you figure you can empty an hour for one person?

[jmayerl]

We had 800 last year at three bushes, it took 4-6 hours with 2 people. Should have 1200 this year and no help........might be real interesting.

[bowtie]

last year did 160ish, somedays i had help(one guy) the whole process by myself took around 2 hrs but my taps are mainly on side hill, some very steep. this year i will trying for 300-350 will probably take 4- 4 1/2 hrs at most hopefully. not sure how i will do this with work but unless i recruit my father-in-law i won't be paying for help. i could do the 160 in one trip most days,short of a big run, will have an additional trip with 300-350 tap. then i will have to transport home and transfer to holding tanks/tanks. i just might talk mself out of this if i think anymore about it. not sure how you would do 1000 by yourself in one day and have time to boil, or breath for that matter but that is my goal in 3-4 yrs.

[adk1]

so how do you guys spend all this time collecting then have to boil? You must do the collecting after work right>?

[mike z]

I can do about 100 buckets in an hour by myself. I usually have help and tap 200 trees.

[Flat47]

We do between 70 and 100 and I usually collect daily after work - that means in the dark with a headlamp. No big deal. Takes about a hour total. Boil every 4 or 5 days, sometimes after work. I prefer the Saturday or Sunday boils over the 6pm to 1am boils after work, but it's sugaring - sometimes it runs you and not the other way around.

[Big_Eddy]

With 3 helpers (me on the tractor with tank, them going tree to tree) we could collect 100 trees in about 30 minutes on a normal day, 45 on a big run.

Me alone - It takes an hour or so to do 100 trees - 5-10 trees per loop along a main trail. I find it faster to take 4-5 buckets and drop them along the trail when full then come along after with the tank. Repeat until done.

[whitetail farms]

i get 125 done in an hour,i do have a dumping station that takes half of my sap to the bottom of the hill before it reaches the sugar house...what a time saver that is....i like doing it by my self cause im afraid if otheres help some buckets will be missed and I dont know what trees are running good and witch ones arent. but it can get hard with school and baseball

[northwoods_forestry]

I do between 150 and 200 buckets by myself. By myself I can gather these and the 3 tubing tanks in 1.5 to 2 hours. With help from the neighbors it takes 2 hours +!!!

Early season I head out after work around 4 pm to gather then home for dinner. After dinner it's to the sugarhouse to boil starting at 7 or 8 pm.

[Tweegs]

I’m doing 100 buckets in about an hour and a half, almost always by myself.

I can get within about 10 yards of every bucket with the Gator, 15 gallon pail hanging off the back.

Dump the buckets in the pail, pump up to the tote, move on to the next.

[edscout78]

I have 103 5 gallon buckets with drops that I pick up every other day. By myself it takes 1 to 1 1/2 hrs. With my father we are done in 45 min. I use a 30 gallon drum w a transfer pump to the truck bed tank. Its tough to get done after work before dark sometimes but I would still like to add 40-60 more!

[jimsudz]

I have a 150 buckets that are in 5 different yards. All the yards are on my way home from work.Usually leave work about 1/2 hr early, around 4:00 I get home around 5:20-5:30,13 mile ride.If we have a lot of snow or a big run it may take a little longer.I use 6 gallon buckets to gather and try to keep up a good pace. Luckily most of the trees are near the driveways.After getting home I have to pump 2 tanks into the shanty tank,and light fire. This year I will be running the RO first.I seem to loose a few pounds This time of year.

[steve J]

Well I have 50 buckets but have no vehicle with gathering tank to haul it with . In my case I pur into 6 gallon waater cans and walk them back to sugar house. By next spring I expect almost all of them to be on tubing to much pain in butt to be dealing with them.

[Galena]

I feel like such a lightweight, with only 18 buckets of my own. However when I was learning from my mentors, who run approx 180 buckets on various chunks of property, I drove the sap truck in which rode several food-grade plastic pails and depending on time of day, anywhere from 2-4 kids riding along to help. With them it would take about 40 minutes, on my own it would be about 1.5 hrs.

[lastwoodsman]

Last year 150 bags took me about 3 hours picking up and filling head tank. This year I have 200 and I figure that is enough to do by myself with the boiling and collecting from the vacuum and gravity.

[johnallin]

If I'm solo it takes about an hour and a half for 150 on sap sacks, with help it's about one half that time.
Most are within 30' or closer to the gator. It's the six or seven at the bottom of that /@#% hill that get me. I ended up tying 1" rope between a couple trees - one top and one bottom- to help me back up, and it works better than I would've thought.

[smokeyamber]

I am a lightweight, only 60 buckets, all on a hillside, added dumpstations last year and that made collecting about 1 hour ( in the dark ). Kids slow the process... but make it alot more fun :D

[PFHII]

We have 2100+ Buckets we have our woods split into 1300 and 800 so we usually rotate unless it's one of the days and qwe need to get them all. It takes 5-7 hours to do the whole thing with Just the "family" gethering but weekends are much better.... when we get friends that want the excercise :)