I pulled the plug!!

[maple flats]

Wow, my longest season ever. I just pulled the plug yesterday as the buds looked like they were going to open yesterday or today.
I boiled it all down, except for what is in the pans. I'll have a total tonight on what I made. At this point I'm at 305 but I still have some in the finisher, the draw off tank and the front and back pans. Now I'll need to haul some water, drain the flues pan, fill with water and boil it down in the syrup pan. Then to finish it off in the finisher. While it will be my most ever (already is) I had several issues that cost me plenty of syrup, vacuum problems, closed valves etc., but that is another topic for later.

[PerryW]

Sounds like we are on the same schedule. Last gather yesterday and last boil this morning. Should end up just shy of 150 gallons, almost three times last season's total. Best years since 2000 and fourth best season in 24 years. Virtually no problems this season other than the a few small leaks that were fixed early in the season. No pump or valve issues here because I have no pumps or valves. I'm thinking of picking up 50 more buckets for next season as they ran so well on those big field trees.

[maple flats]

I just finished off what had been in the pans, and then the finisher. My grand total was 334 gal. I wonder what it would have been if my vacuum had not given problems and one bush had the main line valves open when the crew tapped. Those valves were closed 10 days, all but the 2 that I showed the workers how to do it. My vac pump had fuel line issues and kept quitting so I thought the low totals was from no vacuum. That 2 man crew won't work unsupervised again!! My rough guess is it cost me 30 +/- 5 gal of syrup. (I studied the totals from tapping date to valve opening and compared that with the totals after the valves were opened as compared with another sugarbush about 2 miles away) Expensive error for sure!!!.

[PerryW]

That's why I work alone.

[maple flats]

I worked alone when I had up to 425 taps. Now I'm getting older and at 1250 I find it necessary to have help. Without help I'd need to quit my full time job and the maple doesn't pay enough to pay my own health insurance, thus I'll keep hiring help. I'll just monitor them better, or at least walk the lines shortly after or near the end of the days they work. I was busy doing other things while they tapped.

[PerryW]

I would have had a hard time doing the full-time job this year with the sap runs we had. Luckily, I work for myself doing survey work and septic design work which is slow this time of year. I have worked 40 hours weeks in the past and did my sugaring, but I didn't put up the buckets and was not able to walk my lines and boild up the sap as quickly.