Hung buckets in Acra

[ponderingjunkman]

Well, We put out 225 buckets today. Some were running, but most were not. Didn't seem to warm up as much as forecasted. Another 59 taps to go yet, enough to fill our home built 2.5 by 7 evaporator. Good fun! Looking to beat our output of 42 gallons last year. Made some changes since filling out my signature line below!

[ponderingjunkman]

Put another 25 buckets out late Saturday, after a couple last minute auto repairs... Gathered Sunday afternoon- almost 200 gallons! Boiled that in 5 hrs- 40 gallons per hour average- Double that of last year! The improvements helped! Drew off several times, but we didn't have propane for the finishing pan, so a couple gallons are sitting there waiting for finishing. Sap is a little better than 2%. Also got willing permission from a neighbor to tap more trees- maybe we will see 300 buckets soon! Joy!

[ponderingjunkman]

Pulled all our taps today. We have not had freezing temps since last monday, so almost a week of warmth. Froze last night, but about half were not running, most of the rest were cloudy, and the few that were clear did not taste good. It is TIME!! Pulled all 281 this afternoon, with some help.

Had a great season! 14 runs, averaging 200 gallons each. The biggest run was 550 gallons. We ended up making 93 gallons of light syrup! The new flue pan and the preheater worked very well, once warmed up, we boiled 53 gallons of sap per hour. All of this didn't go unnoticed tho- a neighbor brought DEC over! Thanks Buddy! Guess it is not illegal to burn pine to make syrup, so i wasn't hassled any, in fact the DEC cop claimed to make syrup too. Who knows...

We still need to clean the buckets and such. Already planning improvements, and a switch to lines where possible. Then we can catch up on everything we have neglected for the last glorious month!