FEBRUARY JOURNAL

[themapleking]

Just got done snow blowing The road down to the sap line tank area. Glad I have a big tractor with a 7 foot blower, and it still made it work.
I did see a sign of my lines. I'll have to hire the neigber kids to help dig the lines out. The fun part will be crossing the 2 creeks to get the far bush tapped. Jim & wife know what it's like the cross them with out snow.

FOR SALE complete maple operation with snow.

[syrupmaker]

How much for the operation without snow vs with snow then i'll decide if it's worth it. :P

Rick

[mapleman3]

Can you fax me the operation with the tubing all set? or at least just fax me the sap!!! DAILY PLEASE, I'll pay for the long distance charges

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Joe,

Just think of it this way. When the snow starts melting, your R.O. won't be big enough to keep up with all the sap. It will probably run better than you have ever seen it.

One thing I have observed over the years and is that the more water trees have and the more sap they produce, but the lower the sugar content. In New England in 2002, most of you had a fairly bad drought and that may have been one of the reasons why you had such low sap production last year but it was probably the reason the sugar content was at its highest because of less sap production and lower water content in the soil. Down here last season the trees ran like they were possessed and around the middle of Feb, we had a about 10" of sleet on the ground. It was so heavy you could walk on top of it and it warmed up enough to rain, so we had a big flood in the middle of Feb. I have never seen a flood like it that time of year but we had so much water the trees ran like crazy. The months prior to last season were extremely wet also. Of course my ratio was around 50 to 1 and that was tapping only sugar maples. We have had another extremely wet spring, summer, fall and winter and I am sure the ratio will be about the same this year but I also could probably make close to 100 gallon of syrup or more from 285 taps without vaccuum because the trees will run like they are possessed! :lol: :lol: Of course that is taking into consideration that it is a normal year and I was not working so much. :(

I am curious to see what others think of my observations! :D

[backyardsugarer]

Ran my first main line ever. It was tough, but boy it looks nice. I also started to run some of the 5/16 line to it but there is much of that ahead. I should have around 70 taps to it by the time I am done. It will save me some of the bucket work.

I had to shovel off the sugar shack roof because there was about 3 feet of snow on it and I did not want to take a chance.

How much sap should I get out of a good run with 70 taps in a day? any ideas. Just curious.

Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Chris,

For me on a good day with 70 taps, I would get 150 gallon. If I got a really good day, I might even push 200 gallon that is if they ran for 16 hours or more. One a normal day, you will probably get around 50 to 70 gallons.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have all mine lines out and am planning on tapping next Sat, Feb 7th which actually happens to be my bday. I rolled out the rest of my lines yesterday since I was able to move the cows out of that area last weekend. Nice bday gift to be able to put close to 300 taps in those beautiful maples. I got my first run last year around the 10th of Feb, but didn't get much after that till the last week of Feb.

It was extremely cold here last year all winter and has been really cold here this year in Jan, so who knows what the weather will do. I hope to have at least 200 or 300 gallon or more of sap the following weekend for the first boil! :D :D

Good luck to all! Sure is getting close for everyone! :D :D

[powerdub]

WVM. Last year being the exception, according my records and those of my grandfathers on years that we have had a dry or drought like year the sap has actually run the best. It has also typically run real well on years very little or no snow. Last year, for me we had a huge ammount of snow and no frost in the ground. The sap quanity was real low as well as the sugar content. The weather this year has been a lot different to this point. I have seen the sun a lot more and the wind is blowing out of the west a lot more than it was last year. I have never seen a year where the weather did not cooperate the season like it did last year. I am looking forward to this season as I am seeing signs of a good year coming up.

[mapleman3]

well hopefully it is a great year... I just got in from running 1500 ft of tubing, with the help of an 11 year old neighbor who want so much to do maple, he was alot of help for sure, so I'm going to set him up with some buckets and taps, book videos ect. then let him and his dad figure out how he will boil when he's not boiling with me.we used snow shoes for half of the tubing then ditched them for the rest... we did about 4hrs out there. and looked at his trees too. nice to see them young and eager to learn!! also got the new storage tank set and pumps are clean, getting ready !!!!! and it was a great day weather wise, almost 34... nice running tubing !!

[backyardsugarer]

The 10 day forcast does not have us getting out of the 20's here in NY. Hopefully it will warm up before presidents week or else I will be tapping cold trees which I do not want to do.

Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I am going to try to tap tommorrow, but I am really concerned and a little scared at what I might find. We got a ton of ice down here and a ton more where I tap. I am scared the ice might have broken up some of my trees and I am sure a lot of my lines are down. Fortunatley, most of my lines I just roll out on the ground and roll them back up after season, but I rolled all the remaining ones last Saturday, so they are under several inches of snow and ice.

If the trees were broken up, does it hurt to tap them and will it affect sap flow :?: :?: :?: :?:

[mapleman3]

Don't know :(
Hope all goes well and everything is fine.
Rick and His family got in ok here today, after a 7 hr drive in the mess. we will head out around 5:30 am to VT and the Boiling sem. we'll see ya all there, and Brandon, don't give up hope, I foresee you doing some boiling on Sunday... take lots o pics for us!!

Oh and I got a nice gift today!! Rick brought me a Delaval Vac pump !! all I need is to pipe it up and pop a motor on it, he did a real nice job rebuilding and painting it!! looks like new!

[themapleking]

Installed another light in the suger house, and installed one under the the roof for the wood pile. Redid the pumbing and wireing on the filter press. Built a bracket to support the releaser in the tank, and started to hook up the pumbing for the feed tank.
Started to dig the lines out. Gave up real fast :evil: Everythings under 3-4 feet of hard snow, that you can walk on top without snowshoes. Maybe I can get some of my freinds to help dig them out. :lol: yea right- where did every one go :? :?:

[imclean]

Well just got another 4" Of snow today. Going to be a sad year for me :(
We are going take a break from sugaring this year. I had to plots of land I taped but this week i learnt that I can't tape one of them. I was taping 1100 tapes. But with losing my biger one now i won't have enough sap to run my arch. I use a R.O with Oil fired 3x8 arch. Going to sell 3x8 and buy a 2x6. Dont think there willbe enough time to get every thing set up for this year.

How it hurts to see the Maples and not be able to tape them. But lookout next year


Ian McLean
Newport Vt

RO
3hp Vaccum pump
3x8 raised flue oil fire
All pipe line

[forester1]

That's too bad, Ian. Last year I bought a 2x4 finishing outfit from a couple that lost their sugarbush. They were tapping 2000 taps and the owner didn't tell them that he was going to have it logged. The logger not only cut all the maples, he ran over and felled a bunch of trees on the tubing, smashing it all. :cry: They were very sad. I felt so bad I didn't try to get the price down any more on the finisher.

[Al]

Sorry to hear about that Ian. Hope you find a good deal on your next rig. Hey if you get the withdrawels to bad come on down to Fairfield and help me play on my 24 x66 rig. It be good for a laugh or two anyways to see me run it. :lol: :lol:
Take care

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Ian,

Terrible to hear about the trees. I am so thankful every year that I get to tap because I don't own a single one of them. In the past, they have select timbered some of the areas and cut a lot of the trees and it breaks my heart. I am tapping quite a few new ones this year to try to discourage them from timbering them in the future. All of the trees I tap in three sugarbushes are owned by different people and they are all family members.

Hopefully you can find some other trees. I don't have a single tree that runs to my sugarhouse and I have to transport all of my sap, so maybe you can find someone in a few miles. I envy some of you guys that have a lot of sap running to your sugarhouse, but I am also very thankful for what I do have. :D :D

[mapleman3]

if I was ready I could have tapped and got some boiling in this week, a little early but we have been un seasonably warm, thank god it's going to get cold again, I should have all my tubing and hopefully the drops on too this weekend, I figure I'll get out there with a set of headphones and a walkman and just go to town. I ordered some more quick connects for my 2 sap pumps hopefully get those all set as well...oh and many 5 gal buckets to clean and have ready too... boy this is a busy time of year!!

[syrupmaker]

WHAAAAAAAAAAA.... :cry: My brother met the new neighbor yesterday and he informed use that our one mainline is on his property. Only by 9 feet and block wrapped around one of his trees. At least he stopped by and not just cut it all to heck. Well after looking it over,we can change the angle to run up towards the gas line and low and behold add some more taps.

Might as well as long as we are in the process. $ here and a $ there we'll be as big as Desjardins Maple in no time.


Rick

Homemade arch
Stainless flat pans
Stihl chain saw
Rigged De Laval vac pump
and releaser
and just another dumb idea
(with a vision)
still no UPS,FED EX or USPS
person with chickens

[backyardsugarer]

I still have to put up my drop lines. Hey Jim, how long did you make yours?
I just cleaned out my 400 gallon stock tank since it was above freezing here finally. I still have 5 gallon pails to clean so i will be ready at a moment's notice. It's just a matter of weeks now.

PS I am glad that my neigbors all let me on their land ( a little free syrup goes a long way). :lol:

Chris

[mapleman3]

Chris I made mine 30-36"
I drilled a hole in one of the trees near work to see if it would run, it's been 40 the last few days... I'm happy to say NOT A DROP it didn't even get moist, so that makes me feel a little better , I don't think I'm missing anythig yet :) still time to finish up

Hey Ian, if you don't turn on the RO maybe you'll have enough to boil and still enjoy, sure it won't be as fast or as much but hey.. still would be fun right???

and thats what it's all about!!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Ian,

That is an idea that since you have a nice 3x8, why not sell the RO and keep the evaporator since it is already setup. That way in the future if you ever decided to expand again, you could just buy another RO or keep the one you have just in case.

I would love to have a 3x8 even if I just had 150 to 200 taps because I don't boil every day and a couple of days runs or one good run would be plenty of sap!

[mapleman3]

Had to make a trip up to NH today for work, should only be a half day, brought my camera hoping to find some sugarhouses in the Manchester/Londonderry area...I'll have to get on the NH producers page... otherwise I'll get home early and start putting my drops in, I bought a line repair tool so that should make life easier. I tried a few yesterday it worked pretty good, I'm going to get a couple cheap visegrips and put a heavy string between them and use it when I do the drops, so the lines won't get away from me

[mapleman3]

spent all day out in the bush yesterday, mid 30's out, rau 1500 ft of tubing, put stainless ties on the mainline to get it sag free(worked great) lost my vise grips in the snow:( but it's back out there this morning to do droplines and branch connectors on the mainline... I am now feeling better about warmer weather coming next week, I may be more ready for it now.

[themapleking]

Finaly got all of the lines dug out. Had to repair the grand canyon main line. Something fell on it and droped it down 10 feet. Only took about an hour to fix. Got the holding tank set up.
Just need to clean up in the shack and start tapping saturday 21 fst . Going to get into the high 30's at the end of the week.
Personaly I like to have the trees warm up for 2-3 days before I tap. They realy don't run much those first warm days. And theirs less chance of spilting the bark.

[Parker]

was out in it all day , finished mainlines, laterals and got all tubing up, cut in 80 drops from 4:50 till dark ( Me and Scott) another 300+ to go . That drop line tool is amazing just clamp it on, cut the line with it and crank her back together!!! Still need to hook lateral mainlines into main mainline and put enterances on.. Then go to Hattens and set up 400 from scratch... and log hard befor mud time hits and..,,,, 8O 8O 8O :mrgreen:
Parker

[mapleman3]

Parker,
what type of mainline entrances do you use? the clamp on style? I have both on mine and am finding I like the clamp on ones...they go on fast once you get a rythym. Joe Mapleking got me into using them, he set me up with a sample peice of pipeline with one clamped on and tubing coming off of it...(thanks Joe) I too still have about 100 drops left to cut in , that should be done mid day Sat and maybe I will tap too!!

[imclean]

OK OK I can't take it. Tommorow off to the woods to dig out the pipe line.450 taps is better than none. what i will do is collect my sap then run it threw my RO. I can't see the point of not useing my RO. Last year on our best day we made 40 Gallons of fancy in 8 hours. Not to bad on a 3x8
I have Leader coming over to look at my 3x8 to see what I can get for it. My is starting to think of keeping the 3x8. Unlike some of us my wife would love to have a wedding in the sugar house. It's inher blood her Birthday is March 14. the day after she was born she was down in the sugar house with her mother. She tells me she was put in a crib down ther eso her mother could boil.So I do belive she has maple in her blood.

So time to fire up the snow shoes,clean off the vaccum pump, put filter in RO and go tap tap tap

Saw those micro spouts can't belive they are going to work that great.
One person told me that you have to make sure you hit them stright on or you couldl get a splinter in the hole and block it. I don't about you butI love every drop of sap don't knoe if I want to take a chance of blocking one of them.

[mapleman3]

imclean where are you located? you tapping this weekend?

oh what to do.. what to do?? maybe this weekend for me, in the meantime I'm cleaning out the Barn so we can have our Scouts Pancake breakfast here in March, I figure after this week I may not have time to be cleaning it out.

I live 8 miles from the canadian border in Vermont. We tap the last wek in Feb. Some times it's a bit early but most of the time we get the first big run. The times have changed it use to be you taped after town meeting day but by that time you lose the first run or two. We also have all our trees on pipe line so the air doesn't get to the holes as bad to dry them out. If I had buckets I would wait longer. Also my bush faces the south so once the snow starts to melt it goes quick. I am luck I have all the toys to play with. Filter press, RO,Vaccum and all pipe line. I work 12 hour days at my job so I needed to make it as easy as posible. The longest we every boil was 9 hours. I love My RO

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Guest,

Sounds like you have a nice setup. Good luck this year and why not join the trader so you can chat and we will know your username! :D :D

[Parker]

Jim- The enterances I got this year are the multifittings that have the snaps built onto themselves and the peice you hook the line to rotates, Same as yours? I used the inline 4 holers (frogs) last year but glenn was down on them at the seminar as a bacteria trap. If you are useing the same fitting as me, Do you put a wiretie around each end of the fitting when you are done?? And where did you get stainless wireties?? The ones I got at Bascomes are junk, cant wind them up very tight or they snap!!! I used to tie rebar and those steel ties were rugged but I think they would rust fast.... Dont Know.......Your making me nervous with this tapping talk...I dont seem to be able to get away from work to finish up,,,,,Oh the stress of it all :) :) :)

[mapleman3]

Parker, they are the same ones I am using, I like them, as for the ties they are the ones that glenn goodrich is selling, I think they are stainless, but true they are thinner than the steel ones, I had bought some from a farm store near here , but thought they would rust too fast, and your right they wouldn't break as easy. yes I'm tiying them around the fitting too, can't see not doing that, don't think you would get a good seal otherwise. I know what you mean about the tapping talk, it is driving me nuts too, do I or don't I...when when when... but I figure why not, maybe I'll get some sap next week......

[michaelh05478]

You guys are right about the wire ties. They do break easy, i put some pressure on the ties as i twist them, it seems to work better.. they work real well if you double them up...Hope to finish up the lines and put the stack on this weekend.....Still need to get ahold of the burner set up guy....looks like a test boil some time next week......Still have to put the new battery into the 844s tractor...look like the snow will be packing down this weekend mbut a cool week next week.......Ill still tap the first week of march.........

[mapleman3]

mike
for your test boil you could set up the burner by eye for the first time, but you want to have it setup right for sure during the boiling season. you want the correct draft through the burner, flame set right , smoke at absolute minimum with correct co2 % going up the stack and stack temp... all that equates to the best efficiency per gallon of oil, ... being an oil guy(but don't admit it much) I wish I was much closer , I'd bring over my combustion kit and do it for you... but at first you can set it up for a nice crisp flame (with air band on burner)and if you look across the top of the flame you should see barely a wisp of smoke. but not too crisp either, it's actually easy to get it close then fine tune with instruments. Good luck

[michaelh05478]

Jim, Thanks for the info!! I wish you where closer, id have you set it up for me!!! Hey IMCLAEN, Im on the VT border in Franklin....Your probally not far from me........

[imclean]

I think I am close to you I live in Newport Ctr. What they say about oil fired is true. At the price of oil you don't want it going up your stack. Also you don't want it so it doesn't start up right away. I use to work as an oil burner Tech. It has come in handy in and Oil rig. Let me give you some advise what ever nozel you use in your Burner get a spare and tape it on to your oil line. If that nozel gets cloged it will be on a sunday evening when you have alot of sap to boil. With my RO I got my evaporator tuned so it took 1.25 gallons of oil to make a gallon of syrup

On my main line I use the manafoilds that you drill a hole in the line then the manafold goes into the hole and is tied down by what looks like cable ties. I found in using these you need to use pliers to get them tight enough

[michaelh05478]

Imclean, Thanks for the info....i would like to use 1.25 gals of oil per gal of syrup..with 550 gals of oil i could make some serious syrup.. 8) ..I have a 3x10 with a carland 601 burner....i think ill be using a 6.5 nozzle....does that sounds right to you....its what the dealer recomended....wish you where closer id hire you to set it up for me...thanks again..Mike

[imclean]

Sounds rigth to me I am using a 5 GPH on a 3x8. and that is what I mean your local store won't carry a spare nozzel that size where do you live

[Parker]

Just pulled in with the surge-alamo75 vacume pump, some other vacume pump with an elec. mtr. on it and a sap suker with a gas moter on it. The sugaring gods are smiling on me (I THINK???) any suggestions on going over the surge and the other one befor I try to fire them up? How much oil do I run in the surge? What type? Also--any idea the RPM's I should be running? I have a honda 5.5 that I was thinking of useing.
Thanks, Parker

[michaelh05478]

Imclean, im about 2 miles from lake carmi, on the canadian border..

[mapleman3]

Well, took half the day off from work to finish up droplines... did 90 today, tapped 5 for ha ha's but the sun was already starting to go down, it's supposed to be crappy weather tomorrow, not sure what my shedule is, tap anyway for sundays run or wait for nicer weather sunday to tap???

got the second tank set and mainline into it, so besides my pump from the lower bush to the sugarhouse, I'm Ready!!!!

vacuum may happen just not at the begining.

[Parker]

got a bad case of srping feaver and skipped out of work and headed to the bush at noon got all the mainlines hooked together, put in 180 drops,,,,looks like i will hit 350 +/- taps (more than what I thought). Tommrow Ill finish up on Hoit road and go to the 2 bushes allready set up and give them a Goodrich tune up {BIGGER MAINLINES} then off to Hattens for 400 (I think)

[Parker]

Brought a lot of dry clothes and worked in the cold rain and snow from 6:30 till I could not see from the darkness. I figured I would be done by 1 or 2 but MAN there are a lot of little details when you get to the end of a new set up.. I still need to put end manifolds on 6 of the latteral mainlines and run the tubing into them,, all the drops are in (385), I noticed about 40 more taps I could pick up but the main system is up and ready to tap,,,,need to do a little gradeing on the lines.....NOW here is a question for the vacume heads...I plan on putting the Surge-Alamo-75 on this line, the stand is full, all day southern exposer and has not been tapped in the last 15 years trees have nice tops average tree size about 16 to 18 inch any ideas on how much sap per tap, ballpark?? I was planning on the 1000 gal. Vertical tank at bascoms for the dump truck but 385 +275 on vacume. and 75 W/O vacume .I have to haul the sap to Warner (about 1 hour in the red rocket) and only want to make 1 trip a day. And sap weights 8 LBS per Gal?

[saphead]

Parker when I read that you're thinking about a 1000 gal. verticle the question of what you have for a truck comes to mind. The farm I help out at used to use a 1000 verticle in an f-350! Talk about a scarey ride! The advantages of a verticle tank are; cost,footprint size in the truckand you can put it up front in the dump body to keep the weight foward. Disadvantages; pain in the neck to clean,top heavy load,height.If I had the resources I would go with a horizontal; built in places for tie downs,low center of gravity,work great on a trailer,no ladder to clean,etc. Remember 1000 gal. is 4 tons,I hope you have good springs if your truck is small. I have my CDL so I wouldn't have an excuse of ignorance if I was stopped and overweight.

[Parker]

Both of my trucks are 2 cord haulers (74-77 IHC 1700's) so 2 cords green red oak=about 6-7ton, not too worried about weight BUT top heavy makes me nervous. This afternoon I got an 1000gallon bulk tank but the way that is set up I think it would be too top heavy also...the horizontal tank is $365 more,,,Ill have to look at them when Im over there. I tried to finish the littel I had to do on Hoit Road but I had the troops with me and, well, lets just say they were not into it. Ill get it in the A.M. Put a tap in the tree in my door yard, it ran a little over a gallon......the long range forcast is looking kinda cold though.....hope Bob has the 5x16 ready to rock caus its comming..any ideas on vacume pump prep and what kind of oil do you run in them??? So is it really realistic to expect 2 gollons per tap with vacume??
GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!!
Parker

[powerdub]

Just to give you an idea. I have 1100 taps out on a south face hill on vacuum. They run into a 1000 gallon tank and I have only overflowed it once. Partly that is because I can start processing the sap at 3 in the afternoon if I have to. My trees are not as nice as yours by the sounds. I think you will be fine with a 1000 gallon tank on 400 taps. Those days where the sap has run in at over two gallons a tap are rare at least for me. If this the first year with all new equipment then your sap will run a lot better and longer than it will in the years after.


Lobstafari: You are putting 7000 lbs. on your 2500HD? 8O Dang dude!!

[backyardsugarer]

132 taps in, I still have about 70 to go but I will wait until the next thaw (Thursday) for that. It looks like a great weekend here in NY with temps in the mid 40's both sat. and sun. How long do you think it will take to wake up the trees?

Chris

[WF MASON]

I agree with Powerdub , little or no snow , with the right temps of course , means plenty of good sap, years with alot of snow , the sap runs slow , and last year it ran into April here .

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Chris,

Hard to say about the trees waking up. I have had about 10+ days with temps 40 or above this month and a couple above 50, and the trees just seem to be waking up now. It is different by location, but hopefully it will be better for you!

[wdchuck]

Accuweather says a warmup for us next Sun/Mon, barely into the 40's. That might help to wake things up a bit here, but I'm in no great hurry to tap and I've got 2000 to deal with. 1st week in march looks like high's in the mid 30's- nice weather, but not enough for a sap run, even in my east and south facing bush. we've had a lot of REALLY cold weather up here and that seems to delay things until a really good warm-up comes along.

[Salmoneye]

Ayuh...

I have 'feet' of frost here, not inches...

Till the wells around the trees are good sized and getting wetter, I am not worrying about getting 'good' runs...

[backyardsugarer]

I hung 30 more taps today (stainless) with the old galvanized buckets. I love the sound of those first drops of sap hitting that bucket. The lines are nice, but there is something to be said for the "old" way.

Chris

[mapleman3]

Chris, I know what you mean, I have a dozen in front of the local church for that special charm.... most of my other roadside are in plastic pails with tubing running to them just for ease of gathering.

I just sold 20 galv buckets to a real nice couple who called me today from the eastern part of our state about 1.5 hrs away, they were looking for buckets and having hard time finding them in their part of the state... they saw my name called ... I was glad to help them out, I love meeting new people especially other sugarers... :) :)

[themapleking]

Finished the hard part, digging the lines out and tapping. Got the vacuum system set up. Need to do a final rinse on the storage tanks and clean up in the sugar house. I should have over 2000 gals by this weekend. Start boiling :lol: it's finaly here :D
Shooting for 300-400 gal of syrup this year.

I bought 2 20bbl tanks at Sunnyside maples in loudon, the releaser should be there today and Im going to bascomes sat. to pick up the horizontal leg tank plan on tapping out by sat.morn hooking up vacume and mabey have some sap to haul on sunday??? never a dull moment
FULL TANKS TO ALL

[Parker]

that last one was me I forgot to loggin
Parker

[Al]

Nice day here today. Still to cold for the sap to run. Looks like the 40' s for Sat and Sun. Waiting to see a longer weather prediction. Shut in the house today and tomorrow so this morning I made up a big apple crisp for the wife. Just had a big bowl and a cup of coffee. Boy is that stuff good. :D
Going up to 60 buckets and have to resodder my pipes. It didn't take in the cold and I have a couple of leaks.
Take care

[mapleman3]

Al, what pipes are you soldering? feed pipe to the evap?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Talking to Randy at Leader today who is in VT and he said they had about 3 feet of snow on the ground, but no frost line. When it warms up there, look out belowwwwwwwwwwwwwww.........

[Al]

Hi Jim, them be the ones. Any suggestions?

[mapleman3]

no, just was sounding like it was from the buckets :lol: , otherwise, just clean the joints real good , flux good, and use non lead solder and go for it.

[imclean]

Well Randy is right I live in Newport Vt. Dug my lines out of the snow and hit the bare ground some times. seems the ground wasn't frozen at all. But still 3 plus feet of snow. Going to use my 3x8 for the year but found a way to keep my sap cold till I boil it. The farmer down the road gave me a 400 gallon bulk tank. It still works so we set it up in my barn and got it running. I put a float switch on gather tank so when it fills up it will pump to bulk tank. OnceI get 400 gallons of sap I will Run through my RO so I can boil the 100 gallons on concentrat. That should be good for an hour or 2 boil. The it looks like it's going to be in the 40's on sunday and monday. I might be be sick on sunday I hear the woods calling

[syrupmaker]

Al...be sure to heat slightly behind the joint your trying to solder and let the heat draw the solder to it. :wink:

Rick

[Al]

Hey now that's a thought!! :D Of course I thought about that in the house after my first attempt. I also thought instead of running the pipe down the side of the evaporator I work on to bend it around the stack and run it down the other side and over the front to the regulator. It won't be in the way if I did that. This is what happens when you get zoned in and then sit in the house trying to figure out a better way. Of course by now my wife thinks I'm nuts!!!!!! :lol:
Just when I had her fooled too!!!!!!
Take care

[Parker]

Where does the time go??I ran around 3 diffrent orchards today, Hoit road still has 60 left to tap, the battery packs arnt what they used to be. Got Putney hill maineline changed over to 3/4" and ran 4 new latteral mainlines and picked up 40 new taps, now it is ready to tap and Scott tapped 80 or so out of 300. Set up wire and ran new mainline on Emery road, still need to hook that all together and set that tank. Have not had a chance to work on the vacume yet....there is about 200 gallons in the tank on Hoit road from today...the season is upon us in Kearsage reigon of New Hampshire my friends Parker

[Parker]

picked up 2, 525 gal horizontal leag tanks at Bascomes yesterday (they were out of 1025 gal ones). WOW are the roads rough!!! I got in my truck at 12:30 and did not get back from delievering sap at Bobs till 10pm. I plan on finishing foultons today then setting up some vacume........Parker