Tapped in Rowley

[sams64]

I had to travel last week so I am a little late to the party, but time to drag myself off the couch and get some trees tapped. I should be able to get about 25 taps out today and probably add another 10 or 15 tomorrow depending on my bucket supply.

Sam

[eustis22]

Good luck, Sam.

I tapped in Haverhill 10 days ago and have over 150 gallons so far....today is my first boil-and-finish after sweetening the pans wednesday

[MapleLady]

It looks like we're still very early in the season around here with temps just beginning to get a little milder. This weekend's snow might change that a bit. Welcome to the party and wishing you a good season!

[sams64]

Thanks for encouragement. My youngest daughter came out and carried buckets for me this morning. We got 22 taps hung and ran out of buckets. I may grab milk jugs and hang another 10 tomorrow until I can get some more white 1.5 gallon pails. Probably limit my self to 40 taps this year that is well beyond my reasonable boiling capabilities.

Next year I will build that new evaporator I have been thinking about. This year will be back on concrete block with a 22x40 cross flow as my only pan. It did okay last year and I think I have some thoughts of how to make it run better this year.

Sam

[sams64]

So I decided that I will builda n arch for the 2x4 cross flow pan. I have 70 gallons of sap already and expect to have a at least that many more before I can boil on Sunday. I had better get cracking on building this arch. Steel is already here and I have plenty of tools so hopefully I can pull this off.

Sam

[eustis22]

I'm running out of wood!

Time to chainsaw up some more deadfalls.

I should have made my woodpile twice as high as last years instead of the same height :))

[eustis22]

Arrrgghhhh....my brand new 2 X 3 divided pan arrived with a quarter-sized dent in one angle....(&%*&$^*%ing FEDEX......should I send it back?

[sams64]

Its a tough call. I am not sure if/how it will affect the performance.

Can they send a new one out right away?


Also I have tons of pallets in Salem, MA if you want to come pick some up. All I burn is old pallets from the shop and I don't even make a dent in our waste stream.

Sam

[eustis22]

I let the vendor know I was mulling sending it back for a new pan

I will be happy to take some pallets off your hands...I'm available next weekend...um..what do you do about the nails? do you break up the pallets or saw them up...with what?

[sams64]

Just don't cut any place where there is a nail. I cut all the cross members free of the stringers and then cut teh stringers to desired length. I start with the circular saw and finish with the chain saw.


I can leave some out on Friday night and give you an adress or you can grab them from me during the week. Send me a PM and let me know how you want to hook up.

Any other people who can get by Salem to pick up I will be happy to provide pallets.

Sam

[eustis22]

well, the good news is the vendor is willing to ship me a new pan...thought I was going to have a fight on my hands....

Sam. I'll get in touch with you early next week about a pickup... I have to go to maine tomorrow and then have a ton of sap to boil on sunday....

Ric

[sams64]

Sap has been slow since Monday. Still had about 120 gallons af sap to boil today. I ran out of pallets before I ran out of sap, but got a solid 2 gallons of syrup out of the 90 or so gallons I boiled. The new arch is not perfect, but probably runs about 12-15 GPH with flat pans.

Sam

[sams64]

It looks liek we had a little run yesterday, but things have been slow overall for about a week. Is anyone seeing some decent runs?

First batch came out nice and I am anxious to get some more sap in the tanks for another boil. If it ios fast and furious I will boil midweek. If it takes all week to get 150 gallons of sap I will wait unill Sunday.

Sam

[eustis22]

sam, I drew a few gallons yesterday, so the rate has slowed way down with the weather....the weekend long range forecast looks better

ric

[sams64]

I tapped 10 more trees yetsreday to bring me up to 32 taps. Some of these trees were is a swampy area that always runs early. They were dripping right away from the time I placed the taps. Collected about 20 gallons of sap from the existing taps. Finished the day by filtering and bottling the syrup from Sunday's boil. I missed the two gallon mark by one 1/2 pint jar.

All in all not a bad few hours of sugaring.

sam

[eustis22]

I can't tell if I have a run today, my buckets are under 14 inches of snow :lol:

[sams64]

I would go and check them. I checked a few on the way in the door and they were half full or more. Tomorrow is going to be a big run and Sunday should be a 100 gallon plus boil. I haven't checked sugar yet, but if it holds up I could be looking at 5 gallons finished by Sunday afternoon. That would be pretty cool for 30 taps and my new home brew arch.

Sam

[sams64]

Now I'm tired. Just broke trail to all my taps through a solid foot of snow. Then I buried my sap tanks in a huge pile of snow that should last through at least a week of warmish temps. I'm thinking that wrapping them in a reflective blanket might also be a good idea.

Sam

[eustis22]

are anyone's trees budding?

[sams64]

I haven't seen any buds yet, but I also have not looked.

Boiled off about 90 or so gallons yesterday and have about 2 more gallons ready to be filtered and bottled.

sam

[sams64]

Bottled 2 more gallons tonight. That was after losing a 1/2 gallon or so to a boil over in the kitchen. (Wife not pleased, but I was going to upset her one way or another.) I already have 70 gallons of sap in the tanks for next boil. Let's see how long this holds up. I am note sure I will make it to 10 gallons, but 8 gallons might be realistic.

Sam

[eustis22]

I dumped about 75 gallons into the tank...this may be it for my season

[sams64]

Nothing today, but the end of the week looks like it could be a decent run.

Syrup was darker this time, but sap is still looking clear. Hopefully another full week here before trees start to bud.

Anyone else expecting another week or two?

Sam

[sams64]

Temps dropped below freezing last night and it looks like we will have temps in the 40's this afternoon with some sun witht he same pattern setting up for the next 3 or 4 days. Hopefully this will give us at least 1 more good run. I am expecting to have 130 + gallons to boil on Saturday so I'd better get to work cutting up some pallets. I'm going to need a lot of them.

Sam

[eustis22]

tomorrow is logging day to try to finish one, possibly two more boils....I may be too tired to fire :)

[sams64]

Still not much of a run since the weather cooled down. If you told me warm temps would have been harder to come by than below freezing nights I would not have believed you.

Sam

[sams64]

Boiled about 100 gallons of sap from this week and ended up with a little over 2 gallons of very dark syrup. Weather looks like we should have another decent week and then I think I'll be done.

Sam

[mouseydew]

I tap in Gloucester; only two. By the looks of the weather forcast, I agree that we probably have another week.

[sams64]

The weather looks like it woudl be good to get one more week in. After making 9.5 gallons this year out of 30 taps i am tired and headed out of town next weekend so my season has ended. This is the most syrup I have produced by far. Next year I'm jumping to someplace between 50 and 75 taps. Now I have to decie if I will expand capacity by going to a bigger arch with drop flues or keep my arch and add RO.

So far I have been using or giving away all of my syrup. If we I expand as plan some of the finished goods will get sold. I just need to figure out what the bets outlet is. I am considering just setting up my daughters with a little road side stand and have them sell for a few weekends and see what happens. The other options is to look at local retails outlets such as teh bakery where people mught grab a pint at the counter when they are doing their shopping.

Sam

[sams64]

I still have not tapped. Based on the weather as forecast today I am thinking that I will tap on Wednesday or Thursday. Probably go for 40 taps all buckets this year.

Where are other Essex County guys at? Have you tapped yet? Have you had many good runs? etc..

I'm feeling a little off my game this year. Its been very cold with the exception of a few days and I'm not sure if waiting to tap was the right idea or not.

Sam

[eustis22]

In Haverhill, I tapped 20 taps on 10 buckets during the last warm spell....got 28 gallons dumped into the holding tank which promptly froze. It started running again yesterday so I put out my last five buckets. I need 100 gallons to sweeten the new pan before beginning in earnest.

[bjff32]

All tapped in West Newbury just wait for it to warm up.

[eustis22]

My spiles leak...I'm sure I have them as seated as far in as they can go yet I still don't grab every drop of sap. 5/16 metal tapping bit, 5/16 Ecolo spiles..what did I do wrong?

[sams64]

Tomorrow is the day. I am taking a half day because the kids have one and we will start drilling holes after lunch. We will have to see how many they hang in for before the get bored.

sam

[eustis22]

so here's the horns of an enema: the 28 gallons I got from the last mini thaw froze nicely, in the holding tank....I have no idea how long it's gonna take to melt enough so I can draw it out....and of course the valve is now blocked so what do I do with the NEW sap?

[eustis22]

Only another 28 gals for the three warm days.....seems to be happening all over....I just dumped them on top of the frozen stuff in the tank. Doesn't look like I;ll have enough to boil until Saturday.

[sams64]

I emptied buckets for the first time last night and put 50 gallons in my tank. if I had emptied them on Sunday instead of going ice fishing I would probably have another 25 gallons in the tanks now. I was too lazy to put a hydrometer in it and check sugar percentage.

Time to start cutting up pallets and I need to make a new door for my evaporator this week as well.

sam

[eustis22]

Boiled 60 gallons yesterday, and will do another 40 tomorrow evening. Still working out the kinks with the new pan. I need to insulate my door. Co-boiler destroyed two coats touching it.

[sams64]

I should have boiled the 80 or so gallons I have on Sunday, but worked on my door instead. I may try and do some boiling one night this evening. The stuff in the tanks should be staying plenty cold, so I may just end up waiting until Friday afternoon. Start then and boil Saturday. I am guessing I will have about 130 gallons by then.

Sam

[eustis22]

Holding tank froze up again :)

I'm hoping it thaws by Thursday.

I would say I've tanked 100+ gallons only so far. When it warms, I avg about 3 gals/bucket.

[wmtodd70]

Posting from Topsfield, MA and new to this forum. Tapped 5 trees last year and boiled on a block arch with 2 steam table pans and got 4 gallons of syrup which lasted us almost one year. Tapped 5 trees again on 2/18 but it has been a very slow start this year due to the cold. Finished my arch (3 pans this year) today and had planned to boil the 20+ gallons I have collected so far tomorrow but found my holding tank was frozen solid. Only one tree was running today and I don't think I will be able to boil until next week. Wish I had tapped more trees this year.

[eustis22]

93059306

40 gallons boiled last night...ready to start drawing off sunday

Also, is it me or does the long-range forecast indicate the season will end in two weeks or so in Essex County?

[sams64]

It looks like we should have a decent run at the end of the week, after that I don't have a clue. I will probably tap another 10 or 15 trees tomorrow to make sure that I get what I can from this next run. After that who the F knows. Doesn't feel like enough sugar has comeback up into the trees for it to finish up, but I have no real idea.

There are 4 gallons in my kitchen all set to bottle up. Mope for one more batch that size and I will have more than enough for the family, gifts, and trading.

Sam

[sams64]

I was just doing some mental math and I feel like the sugar content has been pretty high in the sap I have gathered so far. While I didn't put a hydrometer on it I have 4 gallons of syrup from what I expect was a little less than 150 gallons of sap. What is everyone else seeing for sugar content?

sam

[WESTMAPLES]

2-2.2% is the highest ive seen so far this season, im just hoping for another 1000 gals of sap, if not more. but who knows , the season hasn`t ended yet .

[sams64]

Well they have adjusted the forecast here up by a few degrees. As of now night will be 33-38 until early next week with plenty of rain. I'm boiling outside and only have about 50 gallons of sap in my tank. I'm hoping for decent flow so that I can put up 150 - 200 gallons to boil next Wednesday. After that I'll be all done.

Sam

[WESTMAPLES]

just picked up another 325 gal plus at 3% things are looking up, atleast for now

[eustis22]

I have 40 in the tank i'm boiling with the reenginered stove tomorrow, and prolly another 40 in the buckets hopefullI can have 60 for Sunday

[eustis22]

adding a pic of the re-worked innards I'm curious as to how the draw might be affected with the reworking. I'll see tomorrow...I need more grate and have to trim the heat shield some so it's more flush...I'm worried about that wall. Only refractory cement is holding it up and the refractory cement, which is allegedly good to 2000 degrees, was gone from a lot of my upper bricking.

9488

[sams64]

Drop a couple of concrete blocks behind the heat shield. It will keep you from knocking it the partition over.

Sam

[eustis22]

well the wall didn't fall over...I finally got some boil in the back of the pan but not as much as I'd hoped so I will raise the height of the baffle one more row....the concrete block is a good idea...I'll give that a try. I'm getting about 10 gph, near as I can tell. I think I could do better.

[eustis22]

Boiled another 30 gallons last night.....I don't have enough AUF so nect year a new blower....I cracked the door open a bit and with the wind it helped a lot. But I need to split another six barrows of wood to get me thru tomorrow night's boil and leave enough for what I expect is the final boil sunday. Looks like temps at night will help but a lot of my buckets are empty. I definitely tapped way too early this year.

[eustis22]

is yellowish sap indicative that rain got into the bucket?

[WESTMAPLES]

probly rain, but could be bad its getting to that time of year. to me i would throw it out just on principal, because i look at it like its not worth spoiling 280 gals of good clean sap with 1.5 of bad or dirty sap. but others have interesting methods also of testing, lets see what they say...........

[Quagmire33]

Id dump the yellow. A few years ago before I had a sap hydrometer I boiled 6 gallons of yellow sap down to a half pint. Hardly any sugar in it. Everyone always said dump it but couldn't tell me why, well I found out. Now I dump yellow sap. I don't think its rain because my buckets don't have a way for rain water to get In.

[eustis22]

I'll dump the yellow before tonight's boil....I;m hoping it's not the last one of the season

[sams64]

I pulled about 25 gallons out of buckets last night that was still nice and clear. Temps have been near freezing, but not below the last few nights so hopefully everything stay fresh in my tanks until Friday afternoon when I can start to boil. Should have about 120-150 gallons for Friday afternoon and Saturday session with the evaporator. The wife and one daughter are headed to VT so it will be me and my almost 5 year old daughter for when I am boiling. It will be challenging to babysit the evaporator and parent at the same time. We have already discussed the fact that Saturday I choose what we do and Sunday she will choose. Let's hope she does not forget that by 10am.

sam

[eustis22]

Got thru 20 gallons before I ran out of gas so I will finish tonight...most of my buckets are empty so I suspect Sunday I am pulling taps :( I have about 8 gallons of sweet to finish, hopefully I can get 4 out of that. Not a great season but wait til NEXT Year!

Lessons learned:

1A) Don't tap too early. I suspect tapping during the February warm spell ruined the end of March for me.

1) Raise the back of the arch another brick width toward the bottom of the pan

2) Get a bigger fan and a better way to distribute AUF.

3) Run the pan a bit shallower....2+ inches is way too much to get a fast roiling boil

4) MORE WOOD! Ima be logging all summer and fall now

I think next year is the make or break year for this stove for this pan. I never got the gradient, I really never drew off anything close to syrup. Part of that is me, but I'm wondering if a bigger stove with a bigger fire will make the investment in the continuous flow pan worth it.

[harrison6jd]

Got thru 20 gallons before I ran out of gas so I will finish tonight...most of my buckets are empty so I suspect Sunday I am pulling taps :( I have about 8 gallons of sweet to finish, hopefully I can get 4 out of that. Not a great season but wait til NEXT Year!

Lessons learned:

1A) Don't tap too early. I suspect tapping during the February warm spell ruined the end of March for me.

1) Raise the back of the arch another brick width toward the bottom of the pan

2) Get a bigger fan and a better way to distribute AUF.

3) Run the pan a bit shallower....2+ inches is way too much to get a fast roiling boil

4) MORE WOOD! Ima be logging all summer and fall now

I think next year is the make or break year for this stove for this pan. I never got the gradient, I really never drew off anything close to syrup. Part of that is me, but I'm wondering if a bigger stove with a bigger fire will make the investment in the continuous flow pan worth it.

i think this would be a great topic for a new thread. THINGS WE LEARNED THIS SEASON. or something like that. i dont want to hijack but i think alot of people can learn from a thread like that.

it is sad to see the season end.

[sams64]

Checked a couple of buckets when I got home yesterday and thought that it had been a decent day. Looked further this morning and it looks as though that good flow was isolated to one small set of tress (7 buckets). It did drop below freezing for several hours last night so I am hoping for one last run today. In any event I have plenty of sap to boil on Saturday and the weather feels like it is keeping it cool enough to stay fresh for the weekend.

sam

[wmtodd70]

Finally got my first boil in yesterday. First day I was off from work and my sap wasn't frozen solid. This year I lined my cinder block arch with bricks and it seemed to really help keep the heat up and help keep the steam table pans at a full constant boil. I seemed to use a lot less wood this year as well. The sugar content seemed higher this year. Last year I averaged 40:1 and this year closer to 20:1. The sap is still running so I am hoping to get one more boil in before the season ends.

[eustis22]

so yesterday I pulled 13 unexpected gallons out of the trees and today may be more....it's gonna be tricksy to calc when to time the stop of the boil so it coincides with last of the sap. What'll I'll prolly do is finish off all the sap at 2+ inches in the pan and then boile that down to the last inch and hope to time it so I draw out 99% of the concentrate and reflood the pan with water to avoid scorching.

I'm gonna need more boiling sodas, I can just tell.

[sams64]

I just boil down to a comfortable level and then let it cool. Once it is cool I boil it all down and then finish it on the stove or turkey frier. That's tonight's job for me is bringing down the last 5 gallons of concentrate to 3 or so gallons of syrup. Then bottle up and clean everything to get put away for the summer. Then its boat time.

sam

[eustis22]

yeah, I shoulda done that..I let it cool down and with an inch left started taking it out....of course I had to raise one side to get the last of it and for a brief moment the uplifted side started to foam and burn...dropped it in a hurry, leaving possibly 1/4" in the pan and dashed 4 gallons of water in there as a buffer...I am sure the maple gods decreed that that last 1/4" was my best syrup, too. so now it's on to finishing all the concentrate I have. I also pulled buckets and taps and NATURALLY every tree was running. Mother Nature laughs at me. Used to be when I looked in the mirror, now it's just all the time.

[eustis22]

2015 is HERE!

a) I have a LOT more wood stacked...about twice as much as last year, and cut wrist sized vs arm sized...even then I am not quite sure I have enough :)

2) I altered my arch from a sand ramp to a brick wall in order to get more flame closer to the pan.

c) I chanced on some stainless stove pipe on craigslist vs the black and like the look/gauge a LOT better.

d)I have a new blower and now need to decide if I want to try that square angle iron grating someone elsethread recommended. The cast iron gets bendy

V) marked 10 more trees for tapping so more buckets! if I have a good season I will strongly consider relocating the sugar shack to the bottom of the hill for gravity feeds.

And, in a sad note....my sugaring partner and Maple Muse passed last June suddenly. I will dearly miss her companionship, inspiration, and inputs. Godspeed, Shauna.

[Ravenseye]

Sorry to hear of your loss but I appreciate your honoring her here with us. All the best to you and hope your season is the best ever!

[eustis22]

well here I am eager to boil and the cold weather is holding off my tapping. so I'm mulling that I have about 3 feet of snowpack nearly level with old tapholes and should I dig out my trees? I don't want to tap too high and then have the snowmelt drop my buckets away from my tubes. Also if I dig them out they'll be sheltered from the wind as I still don't have an anchor method perfected.

The good news is the sap pump works and the new bilge blower I am using for AUF is almost all put together (I had to rework the piping from last years gutter downspout jury rig to accomodate the new fan).

The g/f dug out the sugar shack and I gotta say, looking at it half buried behind the snow berms she shoveled makes it look kinda cool. Pics later.

[wmtodd70]

Placed my first tap in my largest maple yesterday although I think the weather does not look too promising for the next week or so. Mostly did it for my kids. I am going to have to do a lot of digging out to get to my wood pile and to clear a spot to make my boiler. I lined my concrete block arch with brick last year which seemed to help a lot with heat retention. I still plan on having five buckets this year, some day I will try to move up to ten.

MT
Topsfield, MA

[sams64]

From 10 it goes to 20, from 20 it goes to ..... I was able to handle about 15 taps on my block arch with catering pans until I stepped up and built a real evaporator. I'm planning to tap as much as I can get to on Staurday. My sister is getting married the weekend after and we've got plenty of snow to keep the sap cold and fresh.

I also need to get going on some arch upgrades before I am ready to boil. I need a new door to keep the flames inside the unit instead of losing heat out the front. I have been using galvy duct mterials for my stack and I am tired of replacing it each year. My plan is to build a steel pipe lower section and then use galvy for the top 6'. Hopefully i can find it under all this snow.

sam

[sams64]

I made big progress today. I found my tapping bit and the work belt I use to carry spouts.

Sam

[eustis22]

dug holes and stuck in 7 taps.....what the heck

[eustis22]

14 more taps yesterday,...struck sap on a few trees...I'm pretty happy. I'll finish the rest of my bush this weekend.

[sams64]

My taps finally get here. Now I need to find some tap trees this weekend, which is going to be hard as my sister is getting married. I should be able to get the first 30 or so out at least.

sam

[sams64]

Still behind the 8 ball here, but, recovered enough from my sister's wedding to get about 30 taps out yesterday. I'll hang another 25 or so this evening after work. Temps look great so I should have plenty of sap to boil next weekend.

Before that happens I need to fab a new stack transition piece and redo my preheated. Oh yeah I'd also like to fab a new door, but, that's starting to look unlikely, unless I can get someone else to cut pallets for me.

I'm a also getting worried about the weather for next weekend as I boil outside and I'm looking to send moisture up and not to have it falling down.

Sam

[eustis22]

looks like a great week weatherwise so I'm hoping I can pull enough to sweeten my pan this weekend.

[sams64]

If the weather does what it is supposed to you will be doing a lot more than sweetening your pans this weekend. I would be surprised if I didn't have a few hundred gallons to boil out of 50 taps.


Sam

[sams64]

Got to 48 taps tonight. I also found out I may well be surprised. Today was pretty warm and reasonably sunny, but, still very little sap. Is the snow covet keeping the roots too cold to get things flowing?

Sam

[eustis22]

what I collected + what I left in the buckets I would guestimate 18 gallons over the 22 buckets. My big sugar maples haven't started yet.

[Maple Douglas]

Wow that's a ton of collecting to date, I have a 1/4 of sap if that, in my gallon milk containers.

[eustis22]

I have a divided pan on a homemade 1/2 pint. I need 100 gallons just to START

[sams64]

Flow was a little all over the place today. Some buckets at 1 gallon plus, others near dry. That's not so unusual for my bush as I have a wide variety of tree sizes and the ones down low near the creek tend to flow early, while others are not so active. The south side of big trees had the most sap. Makes sense along side my thoughts about snow keeping the ground gold.

Let's see what tomorrow holds.

Sam

[eustis22]

I'm thinking yesterday would not have been a good day as it never got below 35 at night.

[sams64]

Emptied some buckets and ended up with about 25 gallons that I collected and left some on the trees. I didn't feel like empting 1 quart per bucket on this low ones. It will start eventually.

Got stuff in bound to tap another 15 or 20 trees. I may end up around 70 taps this year. If it's quick I'd like to catch what I can.

Sam

[eustis22]

pulled 25 gallons toiday...couple more days like that and I can start the sweetening.

[sams64]

I got somewhere around the same today. Also threw 10 more taps in and probably add 10 more tomorrow. I think I'm somewhere around 65 taps right now. If it really starts to run I will be buried. For the moment that does not appear to be an issue :(

Sam

[sams64]

Just finished up emptying buckets. A little closer to 50 gallons between last night and today. I'm planning to finish up prep Friday afternoon and start boiling on Saturday.

Sam

[sams64]

Wind was an issue today. This evening I went and collected buckets that were blown all over the place.

Sam

[handtapper]

I leave some sap in my buckets to prevent that if its going to be windy. Hard to do when there is little to no sap of course

[eustis22]

the downside to that is that if the sap in the bucket freezes. In that event I let them sit in the house for a day to thaw out. I will probably have to warm some sap to pump into the holding tank in order to thaw that out for boiling this weekend.

[eustis22]

yep...froze solid....so now Ima have to warm up some sap and dumop it into my buckets to loosen the ice blocks so I can thaw THOSE and dump that warm sap into my holding tank to thaw out THAT ice

maybe boil sunday

[eustis22]

well I spent yesterday thawing out my buckets in the house enough that the blocks could be dumped into a pot over a burner and then pumping the warmed sap into the tank to thaw out the iceberg in there only to have temps dip into the 20s last night. I'm kind afraid to go look see if it refroze :)

on the plus side I collected 15 gallons just from yesterday which bodes well for when the weather turns again. Hopefully the 100 gals in the tank is still wet enough to boil today.

[eustis22]

ok...went thru about 90 gallons in a little less than 8 hours, so 10-12 gph I figure. Not bad for a 1/2 pint. The blower made all the difference but ye gods does this thing eat wood! I burned 40% of what I put up. The 50 gallon batches will take less of course but any kind of decent sap year means I have to cut and split another amount at least equal to whatever I had put up. Also, pallets. My stack temps ranged between 900-1000. Too much heat may be getting out the stack so I'm going to add a layer of brick in the back to force it closer to the pan.

And my digital thermometer bit it. Couldn't handle the steam. It was brand new, too. Gonna have to see what others use. I can't use a threaded analog as the connection is out of the sap....unless I screw it in and then bend the stem down.

The only other thing is my door needs insulating badly....the pvc pipe connecting the fan to the exhaust pipe won't hold up under that heat. Gotta change that out for metal.

I should be able to start drawing/finishing wednesday.

[sams64]

Spent a bunch of time on evaporator maintenance that I was not planning on. Didn't get to boil, but, not too worried as temps are so low everything shoudl stay fresh until next weekend. I am trying to pick up a new 275 gallon tote to hold sap in as I am running out of tank space. Nest weekend is going to be a lot of serious boiling as I try and catch up.

Sam

[sams64]

Tried to empty the buckets last night as I will be out of town for a few days, but, they were rock solid and would not give up their sapsickles. I swapped buckets that were full with less full buckets so there was additional capacity on the better flowing trees. From the looks of the weather I should be able to empty them all out when I get back in at midnight so that they can keep flowing for the end of the week.

Sam

[eustis22]

Pulled 50 gallons tonight...but I'm not going to boil til saturday...I have ice in the tank to hold the cool.

[sams64]

Back in town and emptied most fo my buckets this morning. had a few issues and needed to get into work so some buckets will just have to sit full and overflow today. I hate to lose sap but, I can't pay the bills with syrup and I can buy syrup if I NEEDED to, so I'm at my desk. :(

sam

[eustis22]

BTW, do NOT get those alleged "cast iron" grates from TSC. Last year they warped like crazy so I had to invert them every boil. My first boil this year has apparently incinerated most of one of them. I had to spend 2 hours yesterday cutting up some 2X2 square tubing for an emergency grate. I read else thread they would stand up to the heat, only I haven't turned them diamond side up. We'll see if these hold up or if I have to spend seripus $$$ for a real grate.

[sams64]

The ground must still be frigging cold under all this snow. With Temps today well above freezing, but no sun flow was pretty much stopped. Oh well, I'm finally ready to boil. 200 plus gallons in barrels and it even precut my pallets. Hopefully I can crank through it all tomorrow. Best I've seen is about 17 gph, so it's going to be a long day.
sam

[eustis22]

boiled 40 gals yesterday, took -2 gals off...do another 50 today and finish in the kitchen tomorrow night

[eustis22]

50 gals today, took another 4 gals of pre finished

finish inside the next two nights...hoping for four gallons

[sams64]

My arch has settled off level so I just went ahead and batched it yesterday. Ran through about 150 gallons of sap and have about 7 gallons to finish off on the turkey fryer. Hoping for 4 or so gallons of finished syrup.

Yesterday's boil went pretty well, but, I have a few tweaks to make so things will speed up a little bit.

Sam

[eustis22]

pulled 52 gallons tonight, left 10-12 out in the buckets.....getting hard to keep up :lol:

[sams64]

I pulled off 75 -80 gallons last night. Another day like that and I'll be at capacity again. I may have to get some night boils started, especially if it's going to rain on Saturday.

Sam

[sams64]

Well yesterday did not flow like Monday day, but, there was a bit of sap to collect. Today has promise, now I just need to hope the weather starts looking better for Saturday and Sunday as I pretty much need 2 days to boil the sap I have.

Sam

[eustis22]

It never got below freezing night before last. Last night and tonight should provide for decent runs for today and tomorrow. But...it's SAP and has its own mind.

Last night my BIL and I finished 1/2 of the 4 gallons I had pulled and ended up with just under 1 gallon of product, which means that I need to wait until my digital thermometer in the pan is at 219 vs 217 (may be a cpl degrees off true) when pulling going forward. I am leary about waving my brittle hydrometer around near the stove which is why I am not using that as a guide (maybe next year after laying in a couple spares).

I will finish the rest tonight in anticipation of a similar amount.

Pull tonight and tomorrow night,then boil friday night and saturday. More WOOD!

[eustis22]

between Monday and last night I've gathered 130 gallons so it'll be a long weekend boiling. Finished the rest of what I'd drawn and made, again, just less than a gallon. I'm definitely drawing too soon. This years crop is lighter in color than prior years, probably because of not batch boiling but it tastes amazing.

I'm so gravity lining that fricking hill.

[eustis22]

so I boiled 50 gals last night and never got near to drawing....I may have to clean my pan. I had to rebalance my pan and I seem to have lost the gradient, too.

[eustis22]

and in yet another small setback, a couple of firebricks got loose from the walls so I have to patch THAT before continuing. I still have 20 gallons in the tank and prolly another sixty in the buckets to pull so IF I can find some firebrick mortar I can patch the walls and use this oppo to get a pan cleaning in (last few pulls have been very dark). This will probably be my last pull of the season (running out of wood....AGAIN) which would put me close to 400 gallons. I don't think I'm going to get much over 8 gallons of syrup but we will see.

[sams64]

I boiled 200 + yesterday and finished up at about 2am. Not sure the syrup output, but, I shoudl have that fingured pout this evening.

Eustis,

The COOP in Ipswich has fire place cement. The other option is to just skip the bricks. I had a few come loose and restacked what I could and tossed the rest.

Sam

[eustis22]

Thanks sam....I have a place in Lawrence where I get my firebrick. I'm wondering if the splits are too skinny to stay put and I should go with fulls for next year.

What size is your evap?

[sams64]

My evap is 2 x 3.5'. I've pushed it as far as I can with rates in the 18gph range when I am really cranking. Next year i'll probably go to 2 x 5 and use arch board and some new super low profile insulation.

sam

[eustis22]

do you have air over and under? that seems a phenomenal rate to me....I thought I was doing good when I was getting 10-12 (now Im about 8 with the niter build up).

[sams64]

Just air under. I jumped up to a bigger blower this weekend and it helped out a ton. I absolutely tearing through wood though. I also think that burning pallets helps, as the wood is a decent mix of soft and had, very dry, and shaped well burning.

When I have a decent boil I cannot see into the pans because of the steam.

Sam

[eustis22]

how much more CFM? I gotta think the act of cutting up pallets is very time consuming, just COLLECTING them.

[eustis22]

this week will probably be it for me

[sams64]

I just ask the guys in the shop to put pallets aside for me instead of in the dumpster. I skip pallets that have big spaces between slats as the yield is very low. To cut them I take the splitter, fence, blAde guard etc.. off of a crappy table saw and just slide it through on either side of the stringers. Then I cut the the stringers with my HF chop saw. Much faster than the years I cut them with a circular saw.

I'm done after this week as well. Sugaring wears me out.

Sam

[eustis22]

so I patched up the firebrick with more refractory, cured and fired it, rejiggered my AUF to use an old gutter elbow vs the 90 PVC which wasn't standing up to the heat from the door, and cleaned the pan. Finished just under 2 gallons last night, with 5 gallons of concentrate and maybe 50 gallons of sap that I will finish boiling today and that will be that for 2015.

Lessons learned:

Stop Underwooding!!
take off at 219 on the therm vs 217
not every maple needs to be tapped

I should have about 370 gallons collected, with 7-8 gallons of syrup.

Next season's goals.....3/16 gravity system on The Hill, a new pallet woodshed/windbreak chock fill of hardwood, and a methodology of sap hauling with a craftsman tractor

[sams64]

Well, that's pretty much a wrap around here. I'm not quote sure on numbers, but, it looks like I've bottled up about 6.5 gallons and another 1 - 1.5 gallons once I finish off this last batch tonight or tomorrow.

I am starting to collect wood now to build a shack in the offseason. I want to start doing this inside so I can go boil for a few hours every few nights instead of standing in front of an arch for 14 hours once a week. We get a number of 8' pallets with dimensional 2x4 runners, so those will be my framing and I may use pallets, or at least pallet board for my sheathing. In my town you can built an out building under 200 sqft without a permit so this should not be a big deal. I will pour a small slab for the arch to sit on.

I am also planning to build a new arch that will go from 2 x 3.5 to 2x5 or so with a flue pan and syrup pan. I think I have learned enough from arch 1.0 that I can build something that will give me similar performance to a commercial rig. Now I just need to see if i can weld well enough to build my own pan.

sam

[WESTMAPLES]

all done in westfield shut pumps down yesterday and boiled off the last 300+ gals of buddie sap another great season

[eustis22]

Well, it's the 2016 wood-gathering season and the sugar shack calls to me as I load up my new woodshed. I had to re-mortar the firebricks (AGAIN) and I added another layer to the wall to make less space under the back of the pan. While doingthat I discovered my stove had settled enough to throw the leveling off so I need to re-level again. I don't have a lot of room to work under the stack and I'm wondering if it's just simpler to level the top of the stove so the pan sits level. Some welding needs to be done as some of the top seams are opening up and hopefully that's done next weekend. I also want to weld some flat strips on the edge of the door to seal the door seam. I may also add some archboard to the inside of the door but I'm worried my logs will destroy it when I close the door.

This year I'm laying two lengths of 3/16 tubing down the hill and feed them into a 55 gallon barrel I will outfit with a spigot. From there I will run a length of PVC pipe to my driveway where it will dump into a 35 gallon holding tank I'm carrying in my trailer and use my tractor to haul it up the driveway. I'm getting too **** old to hump 5 gallon buckets up that hill.

I figure to load the tractor tires with a saltwater mix for ballast and add some tire chains. Hopefully that will be enough and I won't need to buy a used ATV.

That's this years improvement, at any rate.

[eustis22]

well, the barrel is set up and I just need to have some welding for the homemade tubing tool in order to cut in the drops. I'm mulling tapping early on the gravity line as it looks like the weather will be cooperative...I see the boys over the state line have started tapping....this would be the earliest I've ever tapped.....what are others in the area thinking?

[sams64]

I'm thinking of a similar rig on some of my trees, except that they will drain away from where I need to go, so i need to figure out how to get it back up hill. I've been watching CL for used ATV's, but, hoping not to have to go that route. Even if I have to hump it up hill to my evap, at least I am not walking all over with my 5 gallon pails.

I am also building a sugar shack, but, seeing as I am still working on the deck, I am most likely boiling outside again this year. Maybe it will teach me not to procrastinate, but, again none of the other lessons have taught me yet, so why would this.

Sam

[eustis22]

My plan is to slap chains on my tractor and drag a sled with a 35 gallon tank on it up the driveway and over to the holding tank for pumping..

Plan B would be a used ATV.

Plan C would be load the buckets into the truck to get 'em up the hill :)

[eustis22]

Tapped in Haverhill....9 buckets and 20 lines out..the drip was pretty stead and miracle of miracles, only my first taphole leaked....I must have accidentally done something right.

However, all attempts to build my own tubing tool have been laughable failures so I have bitten the bullet and ordered one. The problem was not with the welder, who merely followed my dyslexic instructions. I do not know why I had such a hard time with this, but we've invested way too much time in it.

I anticipate adding another 20-25 drops to my 3/16 and possibly 3-4 more buckets.

I doubt I will have 100 gallons by Sunday for sweetening the pan.

[eustis22]

Now I'm antsy waiting for Bascoms to ship my tool so I can put my drops in. Would have been quicker for me to drive and pick it up :D

[BFD5]

Morning,
This is my first year trying a run at this. I made an evaporator out of 55 gallon drum with 2 pans. Tapped 5 maples in my yard this week, only 1 of them is running so far. I have about 5 gallons collected in the fridge, probably going to boil it down today and see what I get. How long can I leave the taps in the trees if they are not running? Will the holes scab over or anything if we get a cold spell and the trees stop running? Like I said, really new at this. I did some reading and have half an idea of what I need to do. Like most things, I'll figure it out. Thanks

[eustis22]

o, abandon all hope NOW

The taps will stay productive until the trees bud. Your 5 gallons, depending on the sugar content, will produce 1/2 to 1 quart. The rule of thumb is 44:1 sap:syrup ratio. Freezing is good.

Welcome to the madness.

by the way, got the tubing tool, put in 19 drops on the 3/16, and watched pne of the columns work its way down the hill to my collection barrel....I'm pretty jazzed.

[BFD5]

o, abandon all hope NOW

The taps will stay productive until the trees bud. Your 5 gallons, depending on the sugar content, will produce 1/2 to 1 quart. The rule of thumb is 44:1 sap:syrup ratio. Freezing is good.

Welcome to the madness.

by the way, got the tubing tool, put in 19 drops on the 3/16, and watched pne of the columns work its way down the hill to my collection barrel....I'm pretty jazzed.

Morning,
Thanks for the reply. I ended up with a little over half a quart of syrup out of the 4 gallons or so of sap I had (not a full 5 gallon bucket). For my first time and not screwing up too bad, I'll take it. Didn't take too long with my home made job either. Hopefully I can get a good stockpile of sap next time so I can run all day. I have 1 sugar tapped the rest are red maples. When the weather is good, they should all produce a gallon or more of sap from each tap right? I have 2 taps in each tree, they are pretty big maples.
Thanks again. Good Luck!

[Maplesedge]

BFD5, I've had really big sugars give 5-6 gal per tap, per day, on the peak flow days, but only a gal or two per day most of the time.

[eustis22]

well, looks like we have a freeze coming on for the next week so taps will run slow if at all....my collection barrel feels pretty heavy and needs to be emptied but I think I will store in 5 gal buckets vs the holding tank to make it easier to thaw out.

I'm really tickled over the tubing results.

[sams64]

Heading out of town this afternoon. Hopefully this freeze will hold up until the middle of next week. That way i can get back and ready to tap on the first warm day. The early thaw had me worried that there wouldn't really be a season this year, but, it looks like things could be okay.

sam

[eustis22]

be back by tuesday, sam...that's when things warm again

I have the idea to mount barbed fittings on my bucket lids in order to minimize the amount of rain that gets into them now.

I found a cheap way to ballast the tractor to haul the tank up the hill. I still don't know if this is going to work yet. I can totes see hauling the loaded sled up the driveway with my truck

[BFD5]

be back by tuesday, sam...that's when things warm again

I have the idea to mount barbed fittings on my bucket lids in order to minimize the amount of rain that gets into them now.

I found a cheap way to ballast the tractor to haul the tank up the hill. I still don't know if this is going to work yet. I can totes seee hauling the loaded sleep up the driveway with my truck


Glad to see you guys are making progress. Do you know if anyone around here sells sap? I have some frozen, but not enough to run. I have time this weekend to boil before the baby comes next week, then all bets are off. I'm in Georgetown will travel in the northeast MA/southern NH area.
Thanks guys

[eustis22]

great...more rain for my buckets

[sams64]

Finally tapped a few Friday and more yesterday. Got about 80 gallons of sap by this morning and missed a lot that overflowed the buckets. I'll get the rest tapped this afternoon and then get ready to boil next weekend. Sugar shack is not complete, it will be another year outside for me this year.

Sam

[eustis22]

dumped 90 gallons into the holding tank but catastrophe has struck

first my shurflo pump died and w/o that I have no way of getting the sap out of the tubing collection tank. I'll disassemble it in a little bit to see if thats the issue. in the meantime I will need another 12V pump and fast.

secondly the whole 25 year old 12hp tractor to haul the 35 gallon holding tank up the hill went kerflooey as the tractor just isnt strong enough at its age. I had to unpium from ythe holding tank into buckets thereby not avoiding what I wanted to avoid namely humping the (**&^ing buckets up the (*&Y*&0ing hill :)

so now I am mulling alternative plans from picking up a stronger used tractor to putting the tank in my truck and then just offloading into buckets at the top of the hill....which I STILL don't want to hand dump into the tank

anyway, taking tomorrow off to boil the 90-100 gallons to get the pan sweetened

[sams64]

I still need to hang about 20 more buckets, but, sap is running well so far. I have about 150 gallons in the tank and need to do a little bot of tuning up so I can fire this weekend. I will probably get everything ready on Saturday and then boil Sunday and Monday.

All of a sudden the weather looks good for the next 2 weeks or so. There are a few warm, wet over nights, but, lots of 40's during the day and high 20's at night.

Sam

[eustis22]

Well, I ended up going to Home Despot for a new electric pump and now the guy who sold me the shurflo says he will send another one so I will end up with two, one for the collection barrel and one to load the buckets into the holding tank. tomorrow I finsh off the sweetening and sunday should start to make syrup. I'm a little concerned about my stack temps as the Tru Temper stack therm I have registers at 270 before I start firing and will eventually lap the 1000 degree mark and push out to 200-300. I'm almost positive I'm not running 1400 degrees in my 2X3 and I'm wondering if I should block the stack more. Can't get a straight answer on a decent stack thermometer from the forum so Ima go by the seat of my pants for bit.

I will empty the barrel into the truck tank tonight then pull buckets tomorrow and dump for Sunday as I am headed to OOB for the weekend.

[lpakiz]

I believe that Auber Instruments makes a digital stack temp monitor that is reasonably priced.

[eustis22]

for now I'm ignoring the stack..boiled 80 gallons today and drew off 8 gallons of concentrate. I'm hoping for 5 gallons after finishing

[sams64]

I took about 200 gallons down to 10 and hope to come away with about 5 gallons finished from that. Temps look good for the week, so hopefully I should have another 200 to boil next weekend.

sam

[sams64]

Not much flow this week. I have about 80 gallons to boil at the moment. Will probably wait until Sunday as tomorrow has promise for some good flow.

Sam

[eustis22]

I'm sitting on 50 in the tank and hoping for some more tomorrow. Right now I'm setting up my finishing for outside vs the kitchen as I don't think my stove gets the syrup hot enough

[sams64]

I boiled off between 80 and 100 yesterday and also tossed the almost syrup I had from last weekend back in to get everything down to about 8 gallons that is off by 3-4 brix. Hopefully I can fire up the turkey fryer and get everything finished tonight and start bottling tomorrow. Then we should get one more good for a nice boil next weekend and I will be done with what I need for the year.

Once sugaring is done I can get back to work on the sugar shack.

sam

[eustis22]

yeah I'm gonna dump what I pulled saturday back into the pan..no way it's close. I did find and clean a black spot over the weekend...Came up with some water/vinegar mix and a good 2 hour boil. Turned out to be a small dent in the bottom. Possibly an over-zealous wooding. At any rate, I rotated the pan so that the dent is on the coolest part of the stove. After the season I'll have to see what can be done.

So far I've collected about 225 gallons and boiled all but 10.

[sams64]

Humping sap tonight is going to be a serious work out.

sam

[eustis22]

hope so as I only pulled 25 gallons last night in prep for tomorrows boil.

Frickin 12V pump died after one session. I hate these things.

I have to dump 4 gal os concentrate back in..my POS thermometer was way off when it called out "219". Prolly 214.

[billyinvt]

Humping sap tonight is going to be a serious work out.

sam
You're not kidding!

[hudsoncider]

If tomorrow is the last day I will probably have totalled around 280 gallons of Sap from only 8 taps.
Crazy season

[eustis22]

holy god HOW?

[jrm]

If tomorrow is the last day I will probably have totalled around 280 gallons of Sap from only 8 taps.
Crazy season

I'm not that far from you in Acton... My 12 taps have totaled about 55 gals including the 10 I've had yesterday and today. Your totals are amazing... That said, I don't think my barrel evaporator, nor me, would have keep up.

[BFD5]

What's the consensus on how long sap can be stored for before it is boiled off? I keep it covered in food grade 5 gallon buckets in my detached garage, which stays pretty cold. I also have a mini fridge in there that I store 1 5 gallon bucket. The bucket in the fridge is about 10 days old, and the 2 in the garage are about 7 days and 4 days old. The older stuff is starting to get a little cloudy. There isn't any foul smell or anything, but I wanted to run it all this weekend, I should have another 10 gallons by then. Do you guys dump all the cloudy sap and only run clear? Or is it OK to use?
Thanks

[sams64]

Take a cup of it and flash it off in a pan on the stove to see what you get. 10 days seems like a while, but, if it is cold you might be okay. I have boiled sap with some cloudyness in the past with no issues. Once it gets ropey, you are in trouble.

sam

[jrm]

Once it gets ropey, you are in trouble.

sam
I've seen the term ropey a number of times on the forums. I get a visual from the term, but is it an unmistakable look?

I only boil clear, as I don't want to take a chance ruining the rest, given I am small scale hobbyist. I only boil on the weekend, so I've kept for 7 days max, but that's been either buried in snow - I buried under 30 pounds of ice during the first warm up, or I freeze. I had some in the fridge, but it will be about 4 or 5 days between that and boiling.

[eustis22]

ropey means the bacteria has formed visible strings within the sap and it should be dumped. Cloudy CAN be ok but it depends on the taste. Cloudy where you can't see the bottom of your 5 gal bucket = dump.

So I've reduced my 8 gals of concentrate to 4+ gals of near syrup awaiting only the finish prep...my prior thermometer was WAY off. I will boil tonight and hope to collect enough for two boils this weekend then I think that will be it for me. Acquired a new 120V pump and narrowed the distance under the back of the pan with more firebrick. Was a day, I guess.

Hopefully the metal workshop in town can take care of that dent.

[hudsoncider]

holy god HOW?

No idea. I tapped early and today has brought even more than expected.
Hoping the sap won't go bad before I do another boil Friday night

[hudsoncider]

I'm not that far from you in Acton... My 12 taps have totaled about 55 gals including the 10 I've had yesterday and today. Your totals are amazing... That said, I don't think my barrel evaporator, nor me, would have keep up.
I only have a barrel evaporator too. It's tough. Pulled an all nighter the other weekend.

[jrm]

I only have a barrel evaporator too. It's tough. Pulled an all nighter the other weekend.
I'm afraid if I tried an all-nighter that they'd find me face down in the pan... The proverbial nose in your soup.


ropey means the bacteria has formed visible strings within the sap and it should be dumped. Cloudy CAN be ok but it depends on the taste. Cloudy where you can't see the bottom of your 5 gal bucket = dump.

So I've reduced my 8 gals of concentrate to 4+ gals of near syrup awaiting only the finish prep...my prior thermometer was WAY off. I will boil tonight and hope to collect enough for two boils this weekend then I think that will be it for me. Acquired a new 120V pump and narrowed the distance under the back of the pan with more firebrick. Was a day, I guess.

Hopefully the metal workshop in town can take care of that dent.

Good luck with your boils. Depending on what, if any, the next few days bring, I'm thinking I'll be boiling both Sat and Sun. Maybe next year, I'll try keeping near up and working finishing multiple batches together. Probably more efficient.

Thanks for the great description and explanation of terminology. That helps me out. I can say, so far I haven't experienced either, but it's nice to know what to watch out for.

[sams64]

I've got about 230 gallons in my tanks so I am at capacity. Now I just need to keep it cold until the weekend. I tossed a bunch of buckets in the chest freezer last night and made less ice than I wanted to. Put that in the tanks this morning and more sap into the freezer. Its not going to be overly warm and it won't be sunny, so the sap should keep just fine.

I have boiled plenty of cloudy sap with no ill affects. Ropey is another story.

sam

[eustis22]

Well, that's it for me. I pulled taps Saturday. But what I stupidly did when I dragged the last buckets to the shack was dump them into the tank without looking in the tank first. Actually, there was no need to dump in the tank for one day as I could have just fed the preheater right from the buckets. Turns out the sap in the bottom of the tank had started turning on me (Lesson learned..ALWAYS drain the tank and don't tank the last pull) with floating patches of tan foam and some ropes hanging in the sap. Ended up pitching most of it and keeping the last draws separate from my earlier ones. So this year I had 10 buckets with 24 + 19 on tubing taps out vs last years 26 and 51 and ended up with about the same amount of sap, 325 gallons, give or take, with 8 less taps. I'm ok with that. Other than the pump fiascos and the tractor transport plan going FUBAR it was an ok year. But I noticed one corner of my roof joist is pulling away from the support joist so this summer's project will be to reroof the shack vs putting in a small home RO.

It just goes to show you, it's ALWAYS Something.

[eustis22]

It may not be it for me as I am extremely disappointed in my net production.....almost 300 gals of sap and I'll end up with about 1+ gallon of syrup (detailed elsewhere). I have a number of trees I DIDN'T tap and I may mount buckets on them for this weekend's freeze and see if I can't coax a few more gallons into the pan.

[eustis22]

Good news...I think I'll have 30+ gallons of good sap for at least one more boil Wednesday night.

[eustis22]

Time to get this parted started!

Wood laid in? Check

Shack roof shored up with 4X4s? Check

new 5/16 tubing lines set up out back? Check

front 3/16 lines checked for squirrel damage? Check

DAMAGED front 3/16 lines replaced? Uh, no

New door for stove? TBD

Hose and pump acquired to reduce bucket carrying? TBD.

Bring on the snow!

[eustis22]

And we're OFF!

All the 3/16 is tapped, and just the 5/16 is left to do. I'm hoping today will flush the tubing.

[eustis22]

I am trying a couple of runs of 5/16 on a low slope out back and last night I got them tapped (with a side benefit of snowshoeing to break out to them). Dr Tim has said that 5/16 will facilitate gravity feed on low slope so I'll see what the next few days bring. Just in case, does anyone near Haverhill have a shur-flo vac setup I could take a look at? I've seen pics and I know/have what I need for a set up but the mechanics escape me.

[eustis22]

Well I don't need the pump as the 35 gal tank filled nicely from the 5/16 after I tensioned up the lines a little with some bungi cords. yesterday I tried my first boil but ran into a glitch. Actually I have a number of them:

Issue...the ends of my stove are separating from the top leaving up to 1/4" gap into the firebox
Cure:...welded angle iron all around to seal the gap
Result: because the angle iron isn't flush against the sides, flames are shooting out the gaps
Task: remove the angle iron and seal the seams with refractory cement and live with it for this season. In hindsight, angle iron was the wrong material...I should have used flat pieces all around.

So the plan to pump the downhill barrels into a barrel in the truck to bypass lugging buckets up the hill worked ok. The extra pump I bought is unnecessary so if anyone needs a brand new 120V 1 HP pump let me know. The only issue is it takes a while to drain the barrels into the tank...could be hose diameter, could be size of the pump I am using, I'm not sure. I will live with it for this season.

I have about 80 gallons collected so far with the sweetening to resume once I fix the stove.

[eustis22]

, this has been the most fitful start I've had in a few years. I think (and hope) that I finally have solved (for this year) the excess flamage issue from the sides of the pan....

I've also used some ceramic blanket on the door side of the stove to try and prevent any more warping. I will probably re-brick next year to fully insulate all the way around. Tonight will be the test before the part saturday.

I had to let my taps run onto the ground for a couple barrels as I have 70 gallons in the tank, plus another 55 in one barrel, 35 in another and 4 full buckets still to collect. I hope to get thru that sunday so I can start collecting again in time for the resumption on normal conditions. I'm a little alarmed at how warm its gotten so fast, though. Usually I get 350+ gallons a season.

[eustis22]

Welp, the front of the stove is too warped for the door to close tightly now. I've had to turn off my AUF to preven flames from shooting out the gap. Reluctantly this will be the last season for The Stove That Started It All. The stove will do for the rest of the season.

I will bite the bullet and get a new hobby xl from Bill Mason which comes with a pan so I'll sell my Phaneuf at the end of the season.

I will finish the sweetening tonight.

[eustis22]

Bumping this thread...I wonder whatever happened to Sam? Well, in Haverhill my sap has been running down my tubing like mad, but I'm nearly out of wood so anything coming out now is gonna go on the ground, sadly. I think maybe next year I wait a little bit longer before starting (yeah, good luck with that) so as to take more advantage of the sap later in the season. The early sap was only 1-1.5% and the current seems to be up to 2% at least. I will definitely go with a homemade RO system next year as I'm tired of running out of wood before I run out of sap. So far I've finished about 4 gallons, with 4 more near to process, plus at least 100 gallons more sap to boil. I will have final numbers by next week, I think.

[eustis22]

pulled taps yesterday, 50 gallons still to boil.

[eustis22]

We visited Bill Mason's shop yesterday and I put in my order for his 2 X 3 Hobby XL. Now to sell my Phaneuf pan.

[eustis22]

new 2X3 Hobby XL bricked and ready:

http://mapletrader.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=16887&stc=1http://mapletrader.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=16888&stc=1

[johnpma]

new 2X3 Hobby XL bricked and ready:

http://mapletrader.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=16887&stc=1http://mapletrader.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=16888&stc=1Looks great!!!! Is the rear of the unit solid brick or is there a void under the floor of bricks?

[eustis22]

I had a few bricks leftover so its all solid. I may replace them with vermaculite and just cap that off

[johnpma]

Should certainly help retain heat for the back of the pan. Do you use a pre-warmer?

[eustis22]

I preheat on a propane stovetop butmy new Mason now has the preheater pan directly over the fire. Can't wait to see how that works out.

[johnpma]

I preheat on a propane stovetop butmy new Mason now has the preheater pan directly over the fire. Can't wait to see how that works out. My Mason unit has the pre warmer but it is over the pan.....being directly over the fire will perform much better I'm sure

[eustis22]

Tapped in Haverhill....flowing pretty good.

My drillholes, however, all leaky as I have the worst portable drill ever.

[eustis22]

So my second boil on the new Mason 1/2 pint XL went so great I wanna boil again this minute. The preheater-over-flame kicked in and my pre-heated was actually boiling as I fed in the sap. Got about 10GPH and its much more efficient on wood than I thought it would be. Tonight I finish assembling the RO and we see what that does.

http://mapletrader.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=17724&stc=1http://mapletrader.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=17725&stc=1

[sams64]

That new set up looks great. I finally got to tap last weekend. Pulled about 50 gallons off the trees on Tuesday night, then only had about 10-15 last night. There is no cold in the forecast for a while, this could be a very short season. I'll live as i have a couple of gallons of syrup in stock. As long as i can make 3 more gallons I will be good for the year.

sam

[eustis22]

I'm hoping sap returns going into the weekend....my pan is finally sweetened just as the sap ran out. Already have to clean some mold outta my storage tanks

[eustis22]

Still no sap as of last night

Frickin' warm spells.

[sams64]

Its been chilly, but, I'm not sure its been cold enough. Hopefully we get one more run. I'll be lucky to get 2 gallons if we don't.

sam

[bigschuss]

I'm hoping sap returns going into the weekend....my pan is finally sweetened just as the sap ran out. Already have to clean some mold outta my storage tanks

I was in the same boat last Thursday. Got my 2x4 sweetened....then the that first Nor-easter, a cold few days, and now a 2nd Nor-easter and cold temps. through the weekend. I made 3 gallons of syrup and then drained my pan and will finish on a fryer today. I don't want to risk losing my sweet. I'd probably be fine letting it sit. Just don't want to risk it.

[sams64]

Had a few small runs this weekend and boiled about another 80 or so gallons. I will probably pull that out of the pan and finish it one night this week. It will probably slow for a few days after the storm and then get flowing again. I will try and pile up a bunch of snow for sap storage over the next week or so.

sam

[eustis22]

I will be pumpong about 140 gallons into mny holding tank tonight....sap ran great the last 3/4 days in haverhill.

[eustis22]

Still running great. I'm hoping my RO pumps gets here before I amass 200 gallons. I['d like to thin out my sap herd.

[eustis22]

I shut down my lines last night. I on't yet have season totals as I pumped 140 gallons into the holding tank for ROing tomorrow. My first ROing ran thru 110 gallons over 9 hours giving me 35 gallons of 6% sap. Turned into a 3 hour boil. But I had a heavy niter buildup going on in my syrup channel so I had a hard time with foaming. Took a tour of some Maine sugar shacks over Maple Sunday and asked the pros to sample my syrup. 2/3 said it was very tasty (I wil concede the pros do it much better as the samples I had were amazing). Third guy "Burnt". Me: "What????" It was a letdown, yes, but I learned my lesson. Clean after every boil. Burning all pine helps a LOT with cooldown time so I'll be doing that next year going forward. I love my new Mason and getting pretty fond of the RO.

[eustis22]

Tapped in Haverhill!

sap was flowing well so I just cleared the lines, fixed some leaks, unblock some bug jams. lines froze last night but when they start up I'll be ready. I will try to get some pics of the new Shaque D' Sucre later.

[sams64]

Glad to hear things are starting to flow. I'll be tapping the next few nights, should be able to hang about 50 before Thursday.

Then I just need to get everything together to boil.

sam

[eustis22]

Dunno how those collecting barrels are gonna thaw out. Today I will re-plumb my 5/16 lines which have way too many flat spots and point them straighter down the slope.

[sams64]

I pushed tapping back until last Sunday due to cold temps the week before. It looks like maybe I should have waited another week.

Sam

[berkshires]

I'm planning to tap this weekend. It's felt like a long wait, but in the Berkshires it's just been too cold for buckets until now.

Gabe

[eustis22]

http://mapletrader.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=19633&stc=1

New pavilion

[eustis22]

I thought I'd posted here...tapped the 3/16 lines last weekend and pulled and boiled 65 gallons...sweetening is in progress. Now two days of freeze and IU've got ice in my barrels and I'm wondering if I did the right thing leaving any sap in them vs the holding tank. Oh well, you just never know