Spring Harvest 2013

[Amber Gold]

Mostly tapped in at ~700 and pulling ~22" of vacuum when I decided to call it quits. I still have about 100 taps to put in tomorrow morning that are already hooked to mainline, then 50-75 more that need to be tied in. Been busting hump the past two days getting everything in. Yesterday Dil and I got about 550 taps in, and I tried a new releaser stand, and that didn't work, so that was a waste of time. Today, got the vac. running w/ no problems, but had frozen sap in the vac. line...two hours there. So far, things aren't going smoothly to start the year. This is one reason I tap early...get the bugs worked out now.

[sjdoyon]

With temps around 38 degrees yesterday, turned on the vacuum pump. Only a few hundred gallons came in. We've got the pans sweet and have 80 gallons made to date for the 2013 season. Cold temps scheduled for next ten days, hopefully some warmer temps after.

[red maples]

Did you ever get the bigger RO???

[morningstarfarm]

Hoping to fire up and boil mid week....will give you a call if you want to see the Ro in action...let me know ..good luck...

[Russell Lampron]

Same here on the tapping early to get the bugs worked out. So far the only problem here has been a broken tongue on the sap trailer. I guess 150 gallons of sap in a 275 gallon tank was too much for the old light duty trailer.

Did you get a bigger RO Josh?

Good luck with the new season.

[Dill]

Yes he did get the bigger RO, had a plumbing snafu with it already. But should be all set by the next run.
I had to run all over and dig through some old dairy setups to find a new/50 yr old stallcock for my vac pump.

[Amber Gold]

It's been an interesting startup this year. Probably the slowest going one yet. I did get the bigger RO, and spent time last week trying to figure out why it wouldn't run, when it turned out to be a bad breaker. Also, after we got 900+ gal of sap processed on Saturday (permeate tank overflowing) I discovered I had the plumbing backwards...perm. going to conc. tank and conc. going to perm tank. Called it a night and drained everything back into the conc. tank...lost about 200 gal of sap. Replumbed Sunday morning and things went well although it was cold. I cracked a gate valve on my preheater plumbing, which a little JB kinda fixed. About the only thing that's gone without a hitch this year is the vac. pump and evaporator started just fine. On the evap. I installed new arch rails to remove the bow and it's helped the front float to seal mostly all the way. Yesterday we sweetened the pans and made about 4 gallons. Really disappointed I missed most of last week's warm spell getting tapped in.

Chris, I'll make it over when I get a chance. Likely not until next weekend. This weekend I have another 50+ taps to get online, and any sap we may get processed. Glad to see you're up and running.

Forecast looks good for a run tomorrow and Friday.

[tuckermtn]

Yes a few hiccups here as well, and we haven't even fired up the RO yet!

Good luck Josh- may you make 600 gallons!

[Amber Gold]

Yesterday started with ~200 gal of a block of frozen sap in the tank. Sap started to run about noon time, but didn't doo much....maybe 150 gallon through 6pm. Sap flow started to pickup about then. Sap ran almost all night and probably got another 200 gallons, but still have this frozen block in the tank...it'll melt someday. The nice thing is it's keeping the sap nice and cold.

Yesterday, I turned on the two lines w/ sap lifts on them (~100 taps total) and got them walked and tight. I found anything I tapped Sat. morning when things were frozen needed to be pounded back in, but everything tapped last week when it was warm is just fine. Have almost 800 taps online now. More to come this weekend. So far rodent damage hasn't been too bad.

Noontime report from the woods is it's running good and pulling only 22"...need to get it back up to 26".

[Amber Gold]

Collected 525 gallons yesterday and was able to drain most of the liquid from the woods tank. Still have a large chunk of ice in the tank. Sugar's about 2%. Boiled last night and made ~5 gal of syrup. First boil's syrup almost didn't make a dark amber it was so dark, but last night things lightened up a lot so I'm almost making a medium. Things are coming together and working well.

[Russell Lampron]

Hi Josh, What are the details on your new RO? How do you like it? Inquiring minds want to know.

[red maples]

curious too!!! did you go the new H2o Inv. 600? I think you said you were looking at a used one as well...

[Amber Gold]

1996 Darveau Turbo Compaq. 1hp feed pump w/ 5hp pressure pump...no recirc pump. Used but tested Mark 1 membrane (haven't confirmed if it's passing sugar or not). It processes >600gph at first, and will stay there until the concentrate's around 7%. Issues so far is the pressure gauge was shot when I got it (new one coming in), and the feed pump leaks (think there's a bad seal). Also, as experianced the last time I ran it, the feed pump's low, then pump's up to the filter, then drops back down to the very bottom of the membrane tower...you can get an air pocket in this section of line and need to bleed the air off (crack a fitting open), for the RO to work. Only happened once so far. It's a nice machine, simple, and it's remarkable how much faster a 600 is than a 250:) Since the pressure gauge is gone, I haven't pushed it too hard...just been recirc'ing 50/50 to get the conc. level I want.

[bkyrdmpl]

I've been waiting for a Spring Harvest update for a few days. How are they running?

-backyard in Strafford

[red maples]

he's either drowning in sap or just busy getting it right!!! before we finally get going!!!

[Dill]

Its been busy over in Barrington. I'm hauling all my sap over to him this year since I haven't got the new place up and running yet. My brother in Lee is hauling a bunch as well.
Lots of new lines in Josh's sugar bush also. So it will be interesting to get a final tap count. I think the total for syrup so far has been about 15 gallons, but the sugar content has gone up to around 2% from 1.5 which will help.

[Amber Gold]

Been busy. Two days of training for work and getting home late make for a day/night of rushing around.

We boiled about 700 gallons Monday night and made some syrup...just made MA. Boiled another 580 gal Tuesday night and made more syrup that just made MA. For some reason, syrup's darker this year and I can't get into a LA or well into MA. It also seems like the niter's heavier this year. Syrup total so far is one keg filled and maybe another 25 gal bottled. Sap for us actually ran good yesterday and last night...got about 600 gal in the tank this morning. Sugar's around 2%. Our tap count TBD, but on vac. we're somewhere north of 800, w/ some more to go this weekend. Also adding in a 60 tap gravity woods. Tap count for Mark's and Alden's sap coming to our SH is TBD. I figure we'll be north of 1500 in total after this weekend.

This morning on the releaser, I found the plunger end of the manifold lying next to the releaser...first time this has happened and no clue why. The moisture trap was full of sap and no tracks in the snow, so not like someone took it off on me...weird.

Everything's coming together and working well. Woods is working splendidly. Been pulling 26.5" all day with little time spent checking for vac. leaks, and haven't been in the woods since Saturday...feel pretty fortunate. RO's working well, and with all the sap getting delivered late in the day, I do appreciate being able to process 600gph...it's faaaaaaaast. The downside is the amount of permeate it dumps into your feed tank during a sugar rinse. Had a breaker tripping issue the other night, and once I let the breaker cool down all the way, it ran cool the rest of the night and stopped tripping. Not sure why, but new electrical feed and 60 amp breaker...had similar issue last year with the 250.

[Dill]

The Dill's had some hiccups yesterday. I had about 70 gallons in my tank at 8 when I checked the pump and releaser, evidently I'm running near the top end of what that hobby can handle. Cause when I got there at 4 the moisture trap was full and I had zero inches of vac. Got that straightened out, and the releaser dumped about 10 times in 10 minutes running full bore, but I didn't get most of the heavy run ended up with 100 gallons.
This morning the elbow was froze solid, the vac line to the pump was froze up, and the top of the water filter housing was froze. Quality ice chipping time, but its already flowing good.
My brother had some tanks just about overflowing in Lee, but I think he's ready to get rid of that old homelite waterbug. It took forever to catch a prime and your pretty much going to go deaf listening to it scream before it catches. He had to leave a barrel because it wouldn't pump the last one.

[Amber Gold]

Collected >1000 gal from our woods yesterday, and boiled down almost another 250 gal from Mark and Alden. Finished up about 1am and made about 20 gal of syrup. Just crossed the line into dark (bummer), but had little flavor...odd. Tasted like it should've been a light, but it's dark. 300 gal in the tank this morning and only a little freeze overnight. Hopefully it runs good today. I'd like another 20 gal night.

Releaser was pulling 22" when I collected sap yesterday. Found a spout pulled out. Fixed that, and a few squirrel chews on the way back out, and back up to 26"

Met with PSNH this week, and going to try like heck to get electric down there this year, more to test it out and see how well it works. Big benefit is it'll keep the pump near the releaser (easier troubleshooting) and it'll eliminate the vac. line and it's issues.

[Amber Gold]

Things are going surprisingly well here. Spent Saturday in the woods and got the woods back up to 26.5"...just finding little vac. leaks here and there. Tap count is around 830 and probably won't go up too much higher from there. Saturday we boiled in the late afternoon so we could go to the UNH hockey game with my oldest daughter...UNH won 4-0...awesome! Sat.'s boil was fast and furious 13 gal in 1.5 hrs from startup/shutdown. We collected ~500 gal and Dill brought another 250 gal more.

Sunday was spent getting material's for the electric service, hauling sap, and getting the SH somewhat cleaned up...it's slowly coming together and looking presentable. We collected ~900 gal and had another 300 (I think) delivered). Made about 25 gal of almost MA.

Syrup total this year is approaching 100 gal. Syrup's been darker than it tastes. Yesterday's boil was starting to creep back up into a medium, so maybe we'll get back up there.

We want another 800-1000 (or more woods), but I wonder how I'd find the time to manage it properly. I wouldn't want to add another woods to sacrifice production out of the woods I have.

[Russell Lampron]

The syrup has been surprisingly dark here as well. The flavor is getting more like the color but still mild. My syrup was statring to lighten up some last night too. Gonna try drawing the first draw off real early and finish it in the finisher after all of the draws are mixed together. The first one is always the darkest.

Your last sentence is why I stick with what I have for taps. If I tapped everything that I have on my property the task would be overwhelming and the fun would be gone.

[red maples]

the same here I know I only have 380 taps or so. but when its just me. its still alot of work. things get easier and easier every year. As we all do things to make our time in the sugarhouse easier and more enjoyable. I haven't spent enough time in the woods this year. as I have been tweeking stuff in the sugarhouse but I got out yesterday fixed a few leaks, found a few loose taps and got the vac up by a 1.5 inches need to work in the woods again this morning to get it up more. have to replace a leaking ball valve taped the hell out of it until I can pick one up!!!

[Amber Gold]

Russ, just need a bigger RO and the stress goes away. If you can start it at 5:00 with 1300+ gallons coming in and be boiling 11%, it's not bad. We had delivered all of our ~900 gallons of sap by 6 and was recirc'ing with that. The remaing ~450 gal came in at 7pm. If I was smart, I'd have sent come of the concentrated ap to the feed tank about 6:30 or so when the sap was sweet. Unfortunately I didn't and the conc. I had built up got diluted. Started boiling a little after 8:30 and shut down about 11:00-11:30. Filled a keg and left more in the canner.

~1350 gal processed last night into 25 gal of syrup. Still can't get it into a medium though. Flavor's very good.

[Russell Lampron]

A bigger RO is in the plans for the future. I am thinking that a 600 will do all that I want and I won't have to upgrade in a few years like I would have to If I got a 250. A 400 might be big enough but I would rather have too much RO then not enough.

I don't think the bigger RO is going to happen for next season though. My wife and I are coming up with the money to add on to the sugar house this year.

[Dill]

Actually Russ I think your the exact operation that needs to look into an energy grant.
You wouldn't have a line on a used single releaser would you?

Sap was really breaking loose about an hour ago, the sun just went away and its slowing down a bit.

[red maples]

I am gonna look into an energy grant see what I can get!!! Gonna start to get the ball rolling on that right after maple season. finally getting good sap here geez took long enough!!!

[Amber Gold]

Sap ran great yesterday, at noon time we were getting 120 gph through the releaser...hardest I've seen it run yet. The upper manifold was almost filling up during the dump cycle. I'd like to see it run at 0.2gpt/hr...200 gph through a single vertical must be impressive! Picked up 1000 gal and had 200 gal delivered.

Sap ran good overnight as well. Went to the woods and found another 600 gal in the tank w/ the sap still running, although much slower. It should be a good day. Hopefully be able to bring another truck load home or two this afternoon. Sap's at 1.7%...higher would be nicer, but I'll take it. It doesn't make a difference to the magic squeezer. Been boiling ~12% most any night and getting ~80gal syrup/cord...at this rate we could make almost 1000 gal.

Wood's has been holding steady at 26.5"....best I've consistently been able to keep it. This morning it was 27.25"...highest I've ever seen it when it was running. Everything in the woods is working smoothly...with the plan of getting electricity down at the tank this season, I'm wondering if I should rock the boat.

[Amber Gold]

1000 gal in total collected from our woods yesterday and another 475 gal delivered made for a good night. About 30 gal of medium produced.

Just entered all the data into my spreadsheet and the season total as of last night is 11gpt for our woods (~9k gallons) and another 1800 gallons of sap from Alden and Mark. Syrup total is about 170 gal, but based on my records, it should be ~230 gal (includes what's in the pans...~10 gal)...not sure where the sugar's going. I haven't tested the perm. yet, but I was told it came with a good membrane.

[red maples]

very jelous!!! we can't get a good run over here to save our lives!!! only about 4.5 gpt on vac here so far!!! Best run was 230 gallons which I just got on tuesday. what a difference a few miles can make on temps!!!

[Russell Lampron]

The report from home is that we got another 300 on vacuum today dispite the 34* high and cloudy skies. The buckets need to be collected too. The trees want to give sap and I want to take it.

[Amber Gold]

Same here. The trees ran for a bit, and gave up some sap. Tank has about 400 gal in it now (started yesterday w/ 150-200 gal), so if we can get a little bit of a run today, we'll have enough to boil. Looking at the forecast, I doubt we'll get much today. May have to carry it over another day and just boil a lot on Saturday. It would be interesting to see 2000 gal of sap go through the RO/evap. Most we've done in a night has been about 1500 gal.

The past two days, I've found the moisture trap full. Today, it worked like it was supposed to, yesterday it sealed off-center, so some sap got in the vac. line. I don't think much got by since I'm still pulling good CFM levels.

Long range forecast looks great.

[red maples]

It took a while but sap is coming in pretty good we actually hit about 38* but its already starting to cool off. a good freeze the next 2 nights which should be good to get things going then its gonna run for several days before the next freeze up unless the forecast changes that is. ended up with 13.5 inches of snow here!!! was expecting 3-5. hmm a little off!!!

[Amber Gold]

Wicked busy weekend. Friday we boiled down a bunch of sap..forget the total. Saturday was a bunch more...somewhere around 1800 gallons...filled two kegs and some containers. Sunday boiled around 1800 gal and filled another two kegs and left some in the canner. At this point, we've boiled more times than we did last year, we're approaching 20gpt of sap out of our vac. woods, and ~260 gal of syrup produced in total. Been making about 10gph of syrup, which is nice since I only boil for a few hours on these 1800 gal runs. Still have plenty of prep. and cleanup before/after though. Spent some time in the woods checking for vac. leaks...not much to find and vac's been holding steady at 26 to 26.5"...I think I see the dia. of the trees getting smaller...

Syrup pan float last night wouldn't seal properly and kept flooding the pan. It made it about impossible to keep the draws consistent. I think these are probably the worst float designs ever.

I thought I was losing sugar, but not sure where...sap to syrup ratios weren't coming out right, but are pretty close now. I tested the perm. and it's pretty close to zero when reduced...same with condensate. If it matters, I haven't tested the perm. when I start getting to high conc. levels.

Brad, I stopped watching the weather for snow forecasts...they can't get it right. Temp's they do a pretty good job on, if you can pick the forecast that's right.

This has been an unbelievable winter for getting sick. My oldest daughter's in first grade and has been bringing cold's home every couple of weeks since December. So far, I'm last in line for the latest one, and crossing my fingers that I don't get it.

[Amber Gold]

Yesterday ran good. Collected another 1000 gal and had almost 500 delivered. Made almost 30 gal of syrup. Down to a DA. Sugar's dropping off too. Woke up to 600 gal in the tank and vac. at 27.25", but not running very hard since it was running all night. If things pick up, this may be a three trip day. We'll pass 300 gal tonight.

[Amber Gold]

Another 1040 gal collected yesterday w/ another 200 gal delivered. Our SSC is holding at 1.7%. Not great, but not bad. Sap total to date is ~18gpt out of our vacuum woods and 303 gal of total syrup produced with at least all of March to go. It looks like we might get a break from boiling on Sunday, which will be nice. Still waiting for the mega 2-3gpt/day run.

[gearpump]

Josh, do you have the old style float with the bushing and thumb screw? I got the new design with the screw handle on the top and it has made a world if difference. I now can run the front pan about 3/4 to 1/2" deep and not worry about it flooding or sticking up. The $79 price tag was worth it.

Marty

[Hop Kiln Road]

I read this thread and went to bed to read on my a current project - the connection between Beethoven's 5th and Moby Dick, when it hit me! 303 gal of syrup ytd with a 1996 600 ro and an old wood fired 2.5x8!! I'm stunned. I'm going to try to grasp this, but I think I need some medication...

[Amber Gold]

Marty, problem at least mostly solved. My float's the old z-arm style w/ the rubber stopper. I had a pan fabbed for me last season. I gave him my grimm pan to copy, but the wire the z-arm hooks on to must be off just a bit. On the new pan, the sap comes mostly out of the back side of the float, and it doesn't seal tight. Last night, I swapped pans...figured 300 gal of syrup on a pan and it's about time to change it...the pan wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Boiled last night on the old pan and it was beautiful...perfect gradient across the pan, regular draws, and etc. Post-season, I'll run some measurements between the two pans and see what's different. I'll be running the old pan for the remainder of the pan. Marty, running 1/2"-3/4" just seems to shallow to me. If I ran that low, I wouldn't have any room for the float to fall when drawing off because it'd be hitting the bottom of the float box.

Bruce, My evap is from 1994, so we're keeping the 90's going strong here. I'm not going to jinx myself, but we're off to a great start. We collected another 1000 gal yesterday, had another 140 gal delivered, and made another 20 gal of syrup. SSC is dropping off since we haven't had a good freeze in a while.

I ran some projections assuming we run at least until the end of March, and we're going to run short on syrup storage unless we have a monster of a maple weekend in sales. If anyone has extra drums they can spare, I'd be interested in them.

[tuckermtn]

Josh- good to hear things are going well. We took last night off, but plan to boil tonight as we have a tour coming to the sugarhouse. I have the same problem with my Mason pan and not lining up well with the floats. Put the new Leader pan on the other night and its better, but not perfect.

I too wish I had more containers for bulk- especially more kegs! Good problem to have needing more storage...

good luck with the rest of the season...

[Amber Gold]

Collected another 775 gal from our vac. woods. Trees were running OK. Sugar's down to 1.4% which sucks. Hopefully this freeze kicks things back up. Grade's down to a B...early for that. I found setting a tank level when the ground's frozen doesn't work when it thaws out. My new tank was listing pretty good, so yesterday, my daughter and I leveled it back out. Cold today with little opportunity of a run, so taking tonight off (kind of), to make a batch of cream and candy, and do misc. things around the SH.

I didn't realize the float pivot point was so critical for it to work properly. Same to you Eric...finish the season strong.

[Amber Gold]

Was able to collect almost 500 gal on Saturday, and with another 110 gal delivered, so we were able to boil last night. Sugar's still down though...1.3%. Going to make for a long rest of the season if this cold weather doesn't kick it up a few notches.

Still had a busy weekend doing misc. tasks around the SH. Made a ton of cream and candy for maple weekend. still have a few batches to go. The cold weather coincided well with a cold I got from my daughter...again...didn't feel like doing much of anything Friday and Saturday. Sunday, rearranged the canners, added shelves, and picked things up a bit. Still plenty to do before we're ready for maple weekend.

Just think, last year at this time, it was mid-80's...this year it's in the single digits...hitting the extremes. It looks like we'll easily make it into April, and then some, this year.

[red maples]

yep too cold slow going here too I was suprised to get as much sap as I did over the weekend. yesterday wasn't much just windy and cold but the sun was enough to warm things, gravity had slowed quite a bit need a good warm up for that. Sorry youre sick again. I am not going to press my luck and say anything about me on that situation!!! :) I remember when my kids were little until they were 2-3 we were all sick every few months and it would just travel around the house. Sugarhouse steam works well but not when its too cold thats just sucks!!

[Amber Gold]

Yesterday, we were able to scrounge together enough sap to boil. We brought home about 375 gal and had another 300 gal delivered. Sugar's back up to 1.6%...thankfully. Hopefully with the primo weather the forecast shows, it'll stay up. Season's up to 21gpt of sap and hopefully we get a strong finish to the season.

[Russell Lampron]

Yesterday, we were able to scrounge together enough sap to boil. We brought home about 375 gal and had another 300 gal delivered. Sugar's back up to 1.6%...thankfully. Hopefully with the primo weather the forecast shows, it'll stay up. Season's up to 21gpt of sap and hopefully we get a strong finish to the season.

Like you I am hoping for a strong finish to the season. The snow that we got yesterday will make the mud bad for the open house weekend but I think we will be thankful for it 2 weeks from now. I have a feeling that we will be making syrup well into April here. My trees aren't showing any signs of budding yet. 21gpt sounds good. I haven't had the time to figure mine out but I'm sure it isn't even close to what you have gotten.

[Amber Gold]

Russ, the sap goddess was kind to me earlier this season, and hopefully she is for the next couple of weeks. I'm into record keeping, so everything goes into excel and it makes it easy to tally up this kind of stuff. Thinking about putting my sap collection records to a graph and see how each season's daily runs compare to each other.

Usually, it's too warm and we don't have any sap to boil for maple weekend, this year it's too cold and we don't have any sap...can't win. Hopefully we can put together a few hundred gallons so we can at least boil all day Saturday. I don't think we're running the RO, at least on Saturday, hopefully on Sunday we can get 1500 gal so we can.

[red maples]

yes I waited to boil until today and might boil a little tomorrow. sap is still coming slow. there is still snow stuck to the side of the trees. and lots of mud for the weekend!!! trying to get some snow cleared away for parking!!!

I am about 10 gpt. Been a rough go here to get sap. And still haven't had a really good run yet!!! lucky guy with 21gpt. I would have been out of wood if I got that much but should be going into april here maybe at the least we'll go to next weekend.

[Dill]

The sap is running! The sap is running!
Well kinda, there is a bit more a trickle coming in the releaser. But no tsunami by any stretch.

[Russell Lampron]

If the sap keeps ebbing in at the pace that it is now I will have enough to boil Saturday. I'm taking a different approach this year. I am going to do a single pass through the RO and boil until the sap is gone. Once that's done I will run it through the filter press and can it. If I am done boiling before the day is done so be it. I'm not going to clean out my wood shed to simmer sap all day.

[MapleLady]

It's beginning to run over here! Slow, but most taps are wet. Big improvement over yesterday! Hope this is a good sign! :)

[Greyfox]

It's beginning to run over here! Slow, but most taps are wet. Big improvement over yesterday! Hope this is a good sign! :)

Same here; getting a trickle but that's better than the ice sculpture that I've had for the past week! The week ahead looks awesome! I think we're in for the best run of the year from Sunday through Thursday of this week. Good luck all.

Doc

[Dill]

Tune in to WOKQ tomorrow at 7:40, a certain barrington based sugarhouse operator is going to be on.

[red maples]

Hey nice job on the radio!!!

[Dill]

I thought so too. The cream sounded like a big hit as well.

[tuckermtn]

yep- better make some more cream after the DJs were all over it.

Also nice piece on NHPR that aired about 5 minutes before Josh was on OKQ. Only mistake was on the NHPR piece they quoted the wholesale price for gallons (they said 35-37 per gallon). Hope folks don't show up at my sugarhouse looking for syrup at $35 per gallon. I will tell them they have to buy 40 gallons at a time - and bring their own barrel.

[Dill]

I switched over too early from NPR and missed that one. The 6:30 break had the woman from the Hippo talking about open surgarhouse events. Some cool stuff going on.

[Russell Lampron]

yep- better make some more cream after the DJs were all over it.

Also nice piece on NHPR that aired about 5 minutes before Josh was on OKQ. Only mistake was on the NHPR piece they quoted the wholesale price for gallons (they said 35-37 per gallon). Hope folks don't show up at my sugarhouse looking for syrup at $35 per gallon. I will tell them they have to buy 40 gallons at a time - and bring their own barrel.

I hope that there weren't too many people listening to the NHPR piece. Syrup hasn't retailed for that little for quite a few years. I wonder where they got their information for that price?

[tuckermtn]

The commentator was describing syrup at 35 to 37 a gallon and that a barrel was worth 1800+, and therefore worth more than crude oil. **** right it is...

While some of the stuff we made when we burt our pan at the beginning of the season looked like crude oil (tasted better thought), I resent the analogy.

I agree- lots of excellent promotion going on this year for maple weekend...bring it on...

[TRAILGUY]

good job but was was the pancakes?

[Amber Gold]

Thanks guys. I haven't listened to it yet, so not sure how it sounded. Everyone I've talked to though said it went well. It was pretty cool being able to do it, and I have the wife to thank for it. It was her idea and she set it up.

1000 gal in the tank when I went to pick sap up this afternoon, so the sap actually ran pretty good. Spent the day getting ready for Maple Weekend. Bottled up three drums, cleaned the SH, and did misc. other things. Here's to a good weekend.

[Russell Lampron]

Sounds like you are ready for the weekend Josh. I hope that you have a good turn out.

[Dill]

Well, every year there is more attendance, and the stream of people on the driveway this morning was impressive. You'd think there was a guy at the top giving away syrup or something. Josh's mother usually has a clicker to count people coming in. And it was just too busy to even start to keep count. Sap came in surprisingly well in Barrington and Epping. My bush in Northwood seems to be mostly froze up still. I had to chip through ice in a olive barrel like I was going ice fishing so I could pump it.
Came home to an interesting broken tree top, right next to the road and the sugarhouse I'm working on. Not sure how but it fell in the opposite direction and landed on 2 gravity lines. Lots of tree and all that broke was 1 stubbie.

[Amber Gold]

Wiped out after this weekend. Thanks to all of our friends and family that helped...huge help. Great turnout this weekend, and don't know why this weekend was so much better than year's past...did. Yesterday was fre*king windy and cold. Today the wind wasn't bad to start, then died off...much warmer. Today, Dill lost his voice, but he still kept talking. Hope everyone had a great maple weekend.

Sap ran well great over the weekend. I think we collected 1000 gal for yesterday's boil, plus had a bunch delivered and we brought in 1500 gal for today's boil and had a bunch delivered. Not sure how much syrup we made this weekend, but it was a lot...say 50+ gallons, so we should be at, or over 400 gal for the season. Boiling sap makes maple weekend much more interesting, but it went surprisingly well and didn't burn anything.

Forecast looks great to get another two weeks out of the season. Can't beat it.

[red maples]

I was sending people out to you and chris when I ran out fairly early. Everyone still had a great time just could get syrup!!! big clean up with that many people though. little tasting cups and styrofoam cups all over the place still finding them. Congrats on your do-gooder award not really sure what that is but you made it on the cover of foster's.... Excellent!!!

[Amber Gold]

I was presented with the award because we're carrying on the sugaring tradition in Barrington. There was a producer in Barrington that retired from it a couple years before we got into it and the Do-Gooders think it's great that we're keeping it going. I knew I was making the paper, but wasn't expecting the front page...pretty cool.

Picked up another 1100gal yesterday, but had to leave 200 gal in the tank because the pump picked a rock up and siezed...got it home and took care of it. Had another 400 gal delivered. Made another 25+ gal last night of barely DA...glad to see the grade came up a bit. Even with the cold weather, the sap's coming into the releaser cloudy.

[Marc Duclos]

You have said some big numbers Josh. 25 gal. on a 2.5 x 8! What is the evaporation rate for that little evaporator?

[Dill]

675 gph, its amazing what an RO will do.

[Marc Duclos]

I havent seen any waer that is the case. I have a 4 x 12 soderd drop flue pan and have 400 taps no ro. 250 are sugar maples. sap is real clear and running as good as it gets with out high vac. I manage 5 hg in my gravity. took me 8 hrs to colect and evaporate 400 gal. of sap. 8.8 gal of syrup medium b.

[Amber Gold]

RO's been running about 550gph until the conc. gets high. The evap does somewhere in the 90gph range. She's doing alright this year.

Pulled in another 1000 gal yesterday and had another 300 delivered. Made another 20 gal of syrup...just over the line to a Grade B and looking at the forecast, I don't see it coming back up. Really need to get my spreadsheets updated to see where I stand this year.

Should still have plenty of season left. No sign of buds or the peepers.

[red maples]

Sorry josh have to but in here. Marc you said it took 8 hours to collect and boil 400 gallons of sap on a 4 x 12 ???? With a 4 x 12 I would think your boiling rate rate would be somewhere around 180-200 gallons an hr give or take??? so why 8 hrs? on my 2 x 6 it would take me 10 hrs and a sore back to get through 400 gallons of sap in one shot. just curious.

[Marc Duclos]

Well I start by walking 1/2 mile on one of my bushes at 8 am. shake and brake ice. Then cross the beaver dam 1/4 mile and continue to shake and brake ice. Then return to the quanset hut and turn on the 110 power to the sap suckers that pull 5hg. Useraly it is 10 am. and the colection begins. Out comes the bukets and oh while on snow shoes I cary two five galon buckets up to the slaped up shack. This gose on untill I have at least 250 gal. in the head tank. I load up the evaporater with 40 inch 2 and 3 inch logs. Fier it and put the snow shoes back on and go get some more sap. On a good day from scratch 400 gal of sap gets me two inch longer arms and raped up by 5 pm. No ro no vacumb. am hopping to get some mane line across the beaver pond. I am on my third year and am only 52. as papylon said how am I looking?

[red maples]

Yeah you need to make that a little easier on your self!!! more tubing and mainlines and suck that sap in the evening instead of the morning then it won't be frozen!!! then you are all ready to go in the morning.

[Marc Duclos]

Yup 400 taps never give a gal pr tap per night. I got up to 550 taps last year when my logging road was wide open. Since the blizid I need a huff the open it up the 1/2 mile in. Last year I was abale to pull up to the tank and pump the sap at night when ever. I had plans to try and get up in taps. I believe I could have a 1000 on my 22 acers. I have seteld with say 400 for this year. When boiling I have to slide a 3/16 dimond plate between the flu pan and the 40 x 60 syrup pan when the sap is to short. I have been a mason for 30 years and the rapid chimney move with some caos. I am not child pruff.

[Amber Gold]

No prob. red.

Collected another 500 gal yesterday, left >100 in the tank, and had another 150 gal delivered. Sugar's at 1.4% which isn't great and trees just limping along now. Hopefully they'll pick up a little bit more today. Had 400 gal in the tank this morning, so got a bit of a run overnight. I'm starting to wonder if freezing nights are a thing of the past. Had a bunch of snow in the yard, but that disappeared real quick. Still have 6"+ in most of the woods though.

[Amber Gold]

Been collecting 0.75gpt/day. It got into the 20's last night, but just got the same amount in a shorter period. Sugar's down to 1% and syrup's getting pretty strong and dark. Forecast looks good for the week. Sugar buds look tight, the red's are starting to swell, but some of them are real big. We'll see how long it lasts.

[Amber Gold]

Still getting sap every day, but holding it over a day to make it worth my while. Yesterday, we hit 30gpt of sap in the vac. woods and 500 gal of syrup produced overall for the season...of that the vac. woods is close to 0.5gpt of syrup, and this doesn't account for what's in the evap. Syrup's just starting to get a bitter flavor. We'll taste it when it's cold and see if it's still there. Sap's still boiling well, so we'll still boil it down. Unless we're still getting a decent amount of sap, planning on pulling taps this weekend.

I agree with Bruce, a lot of good runs, but no great runs this year...disappointed in not getting a real flood of sap and a 2gpt day run.

[red maples]

no good runs but 30 gpt and .5 gpt syrup for your vac woods... those are just crazy numbers!!! Good for you!!! I will pulling taps this weekend as well. and working in the sugarhouse the next few days to get things cleaned up.

[MapleLady]

Sap started to run her again on Sunday -- slow, but most of my buckets were full to the top this afternoon -- still tasted sweet on all but 2, that tasted like leaves.. :( I collected the sweet stuff, not sure if I will do another boil. I definitely plan on pulling my taps this coming weekend. Time to clean up my buckets, etc.

[Amber Gold]

Trucked in the last load of sap yesterday. It went from being cloudy the previous day to snotty the next. Picked up 660 gal yesterday and boiled it down last night. It was a bear trying to keep the foam knocked down in the flue pan, before now it's boiled nicely. Odd thing is as we were wrapping things up, the syrup pan lightened up considerably, and very noticeable when we shut down. Also, wasn't getting the mud in the syrup pan like we have been...makes me wonder what's in the last batch of sap to make it change so much. Weird. Boiling off the flue pan in the syrup pan and will have final numbers and thoughts on the season later this week.

One good thing about having a cold right now is I can't smell the sap as it's boiling off...my wife says it's pretty strong.

[Dill]

I have to admit, I was saying to keep the pumps on and the sap flowing. But I started pulling taps this morning and the stuff coming into the releaser is looking really nasty today.

[MapleLady]

Was able to squeak in one last boil on Friday night and have a little over a gallon of 'near syrup' waiting final finish on the kitchen stove. I pulled all of my taps on Friday. It was time. Now am looking forward to planning for next season!

[Russell Lampron]

I have to admit, I was saying to keep the pumps on and the sap flowing. But I started pulling taps this morning and the stuff coming into the releaser is looking really nasty today.

I had to unplug my vacuum pump yesterday because the front bearing failed in the motor. The sap I got before I pulled the plug was real cloudy with some cottage cheese mixed in. I don't think I missed much today.

[red maples]

Trucked in the last load of sap yesterday. It went from being cloudy the previous day to snotty the next. Picked up 660 gal yesterday and boiled it down last night. It was a bear trying to keep the foam knocked down in the flue pan, before now it's boiled nicely. Odd thing is as we were wrapping things up, the syrup pan lightened up considerably, and very noticeable when we shut down. Also, wasn't getting the mud in the syrup pan like we have been...makes me wonder what's in the last batch of sap to make it change so much. Weird. Boiling off the flue pan in the syrup pan and will have final numbers and thoughts on the season later this week.

One good thing about having a cold right now is I can't smell the sap as it's boiling off...my wife says it's pretty strong.

You still have a cold.... geez you got hit hard this year!!! but your lucky about not being able to smell end of season sap boil....man it gets stinky!!!

[Amber Gold]

Russ, I saw that the bearing went...good timing. Do you have a backup in case something happened mid-season? After thinking about what I'd lose from not having a spare pump, I bought another LR pump I can just connect and go.

Brad, this has been something else. I got a cold during the cold spell (great timing), got over that in time for maple weekend, only to have my daughter get sick again the following week. I thought I was in the clear, but then got sick last week. I think anyone who has kids in 1st grade, should keep them quarantined somewhere else. They're a breeding factory for germs. I wasn't complaining then about the cold, and I can't taste much, so I had Lisa taste the syrup...guess it was pretty bad

Shut the pump off late yesterday, and still got 0.5gpt! They just won't stop. That sap looked really bad though. Brought it home to leave in the pans for a month or so.

Season total of 538.7 gal of syrup produced and ~34k gal of sap processed. In breaking out our vac. woods, we collected almost 33gpt of sap, and produced ~450 gal of syrup...not bad out of ~830 taps...final tap count to be determined when I pull taps this weekend.

[Russell Lampron]

Josh you sure had a good season. The bearing that failed is the front one in the electric motor. I found a replacement motor online for $153 with free shipping and will order one soon. They also stock that motor at Tractor Supply and if it was an emergency I could have the pump running again in a couple of hours. As it was it was late Saturday afternoon when the squealing got bad enough for me to have to shut it off. The bearing had been making some noise off and on for a couple of days.

The last sap that I boiled really stunk up the sugar house. The syrup has a bitter bite to it too. I don't think that it was much of a mistake to turn off the vacuum when I did. I heard that Bascoms is only going to pay $.75lb, minus $.05lb for 5 gal containers, for off flavor syrup so I don't want to make it anyway. At density that comes out to $8.25 per gallon.

[Dill]

Guess the season is really over, I just took the tank out of the truck. Which means I have to cart the giant pile of trash I've accumlated to the dump.

[red maples]

8.25 a gallon for mersh....not worth the time, energy, wood, electricity etc. in my opinion anyway.... thats only 41 for a 5 gallon!!!

[Russell Lampron]

8.25 a gallon for mersh....not worth the time, energy, wood, electricity etc. in my opinion anyway.... thats only 41 for a 5 gallon!!!

That price is only for buddy and off flavor mersh. The good stuff is still $2lb.

[jgrenier]

The lowest price Bascom's quoted me less than a week ago was $1.75 per pound for unfiltered commercial syrup.

[Amber Gold]

I was planning on it being $2/lb which is why I was making it. $2lb is worth it, anything less no...especially at $0.75/lb. The mersh I made actually filtered and fine, and didn't boil as bad as mersh in year's past.

[Russell Lampron]

The lowest price Bascom's quoted me less than a week ago was $1.75 per pound for unfiltered commercial syrup.

Did they say anything about buddy or off flavor syrup? Last season they said $.75lb for buddy and a friend of mine said that that will include off flavor syrup this season.

[Russell Lampron]

I was planning on it being $2/lb which is why I was making it. $2lb is worth it, anything less no...especially at $0.75/lb. The mersh I made actually filtered and fine, and didn't boil as bad as mersh in year's past.

I do believe that filtered mersh is still $2lb but I haven't called to verify this. They have never asked me if the mersh I brought in was filtered and paid for filtered. I did filter it though.

[tuckermtn]

just confirmed at Bascoms- 2.50 for B and 2.00 for commercial.

[Russell Lampron]

just confirmed at Bascoms- 2.50 for B and 2.00 for commercial.

Did they say anything about buddy or off flavor syrup?

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Russ/Eric. Last year they paid me $2 for buddy syrup. This year it's in kegs, so I won't get docked the $0.05 Last year, I saw someone bring in say fifteen 5-gal jugs and understand why they doc those....it took forever for those to get processed.

[Russell Lampron]

Thanks Russ/Eric. Last year they paid me $2 for buddy syrup. This year it's in kegs, so I won't get docked the $0.05 Last year, I saw someone bring in say fifteen 5-gal jugs and understand why they doc those....it took forever for those to get processed.

Thanks for the info. I only bring syrup down in 15 gallon or larger sizes now. The last time I was there I saw a guy bring in a galvanized barrel. I wonder how much longer they will take those?

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

The last time I was there I saw a guy bring in a galvanized barrel. I wonder how much longer they will take those?[/QUOTE]

My understanding is that this is the last year that Bruce will accept galvanized containers.

[jgrenier]

Ty have never said anything to me about buddy or off flavored syrup being any less in price. I guess I just figured that is what commercial syrup was(buddy or off flavored)