November journal

[steam maker]

Just got done canning another 15 gallons, sellin pretty good!kicked this whole 4 wheeler track thing all around in my head lastnite as i layed awake with a teething baby. Lookin like im gonna get them. Other than that just kinda pickin away in the sugarhouse today got the woodstove going and making a list of what needs to get done. Mite need another sheet of paper😄

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

Check Craig's list there are a bunch on there. I won't own a snowmobile again after getting tracks

Scott


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[maple2]

spent yesterday going through an old cider mill.Came home with 2 s/s tanks and a bunch of mics. stuff. Was going to make an offer on the press and grinder. Anyone know what an old wooden press is worth? Plus 1000 apple boxes? I will also have to convince my wife to add cider making to our list of ventures

[unc23win]

I am not sure what exactly the press you were looking at is worth but they are not cheap a new one is $1000 easy I have seen some older mills more complete set ups for over $2000. A friend of mine has one made in 1806 and it is very nice it has a huge fly wheel on the grinder once you get it spinning it moves easy. We made about 60 gallons of cider in 2 afternoons it was fun. I am thinking about making more cider next year. I guess in PA and maybe in MA as well if you run a UV light you don't need to pasteurize it to sell it so that cuts down on the production costs. Everyone in my area is talking about the abundance of apples this year.

[Maplewalnut]

Well i forgot about daylight savings change again. My to do list didnt get longer but will definitely take longer to finish since I just lost 1 hour plus of daylight I became used to finishing little jobs after work.

It also hurts now that turkey season is upon us in Pa and my woods are a prime roost spot. Nothing like working on lines with a shotgun propped up against a nearby tree. Its like the movies... the turkey spots you, you spot the turkey, you look at your gun 15 feet away, the turkey looks at the gun 15 feet away.... Turkey runs away, you run for your gun... LOL

Still planning on being ready tap Jan 1.

[whitetail farms]

my list seems to be getting longer but it wouldn't be fun with out scrambling around intill the last minute to get everything ready to go, things have turned around a little bit sense the land owner shut me down on the new woods I was gonna have the DAY AFTER I BOUGHT ALL THE TUBEING I was able to get all my neighbors on board to let me tap there land and will have close to 300 taps at my sugarhouse ,I was also able to rent a vacuum system from another producer for 100 bucks, still have tubing to run to 200 more taps put the tank in place and hook up the vacuum do a little tweaking with the evaporator and find a filter press, but I still will not need all the tubing I bought so is anybody interested in 1000 foot rolls of leader 3/4 inch mainline as well as saddle fitting,wire ties and wire?....... but I might be able to achieve my goal of 200 gals. This year ,good luck and happy holidays everyone

[PARKER MAPLE]

Well I haven't been posting for awhile so seems now would be a good time to catch up with you guys. I have in our woods thinning brush and doing repairs lines. might considering adding another 1200ft of mainline to that spot and grabbing up another 500ish at some point. I pour a new concrete floor this year in sugarhouse its awesome. and added a room for the RO and another room for observation and filtering and canning. Still not the biggest of operations but every little bit of room help a lot. All the wood is in and split. have an extra 2cord so far but planning to cut and split some more after deer season.

Selling one of my vac pumps this week should allow me to finally buy our new filter press, and another canner.
will have one canner for the light and one for the dark.lol.
Maple Rookie

[K.I. Joe]

Finished stringing wire today for my new bush, tubing coming in for next week, Permit for Sugar shack is being held up which at this time of the year is a big deal, brand new D&G 3X8 evaporator coming soon, order Bricks next week, Start working on pumphouse tomorrow, I hope I make it before the big snows come. LOL

[maple flats]

My sales have gone crazy. About 2 week ago I placed a simple 2 line adv. in the "for sale" section on a non maple forum I'm on. In the last 2 weeks I've sold more syrup than my total sales in the previous 3 months, just from this one ad. I have canned from bulk 65 gal total since Nov.2 and have shipped the most of any year since I started making syrup 11 seasons ago. I never thought I'd get this much response from a 2 line adv.

[K.I. Joe]

And where was that ad? :lol:

[noreast maple]

Cant give up all the secrets K.I.Joe,--everybody would jump there and then daves sales would drop!!!!!!!

[sjdoyon]

Finished running 7,000 feet of our 2" wet/dry line last week (took four loggers, one farmer and a desk jockey five and half days to complete) and was able to get 17,000 feet of 1" mainlines done in four days. Have 30,000 feet of lateral lines left to do but sure glad to not have to pick up a 500ft roll of 2" pipe again this year.

[unc23win]

That's awesome work sjdoyon. I have been working on my sugarhouse during the day time weekends and nights after work and then making drops while watching tv ha. I hope to get started on installing some mainline this weekend not 17,000 feet though.

[maple flats]

Sorry, can't say. All I'll say is that I should have thought of it sooner.

[tuckermtn]

busy day of jugging yesterday. A good friend Heather spent most of the day helping me jug up 30 gallons for a custom glass order and another 15 gallons of plastic quarts and gallons.

Custom glass was for a non-profit based in Mass. that supports folks (and their families) with ALS. Special thanks to Bill and Marsha at Artisan Printing for their contribution to the project.

Mark is coming over this morning to work on setting the pellet arch in its final resting place and hooking up pellet feed auger and blower duct work.

I get tired a lot easier these days, but still have a lot to do before we will be ready for the season. Thanks to all who had chipped in so far, especially Mark (Ragged View) and Parker

[sjdoyon]

8119

View from the top section of location of wet/dry line, approximately 2,400ft elevation. Ran some mainlines another 300ft higher.

[Dennis H.]

Wow it sure has been awhile since I did any updates on what is going on down here in South Central PA.
Well, here are a few things that I have done.
I now have the evap ready to go, all the pans are back on the arch with new gaskets, just need to give the pans a quick wipe down and lower the hood and good to go.
I raised the sap tanks so that the pipe that feeds the pump for the head tank no longer has a low spot where the sap freezes.
I am working on hooking up my new Lapierre hobby releaser. I got this last season but it came just a little too late to be able to put it in to action so I had to use my older version of the hobby releaser.
Syrup sales are slow but steady, I only have about 3 gals left to bottle up before I am sold out.

[brookfieldmaple]

81238124
Been pretty busy in NW Tioga County, PA. Installed new Lapierre RO and new Lapierre Piggy Back.
Now I just need to add another 1000 taps so I have enough sap to run everything.

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

Started bricking my arch yesterday. All long runs of tubing are up only need to make a few short runs. The best part stopped and secured more taps from a neighbor today. Next week finish bricking and power to the shack.


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[maple flats]

8119

View from the top section of location of wet/dry line, approximately 2,400ft elevation. Ran some mainlines another 300ft higher.
That looks steep enough that I think the wet/dry should climb the slope on an angle At about 2% climb. Then the mains off it should be every 100' of elevation rise and should also rise at 2%. Then the laterals should go up as steep and straight as possible.
The wet/dry and the mains don't want to be real steep or you get turbulence in the sap which is not good.

[spud]

8119

View from the top section of location of wet/dry line, approximately 2,400ft elevation. Ran some mainlines another 300ft higher.

That is some real nice country up your way. Your elevation is high enough to get a good run in June.:lol:

Spud

[ennismaple]

We picked up 2 pallets of glass bottles on the weekend - no more worrying if we have 500mL or 1L bottles in stock! Next time we take the trailer because the pallets weigh 1200lb each!

8125

We stretched most of the tubing in a section of new woods - 123 taps plus about 30 more on another piece of mainline. I expect this section to run like crazy because we've got short laterals and probably average 4 taps per lateral.

[Dennis H.]

Now that is a truck load of glass stacked high! I guess no drive-thru on the way home.
Were you worried going under bridges?

[ennismaple]

The only bridges in our neck of the woods are over rivers! The total height was still lower than that of a semi-trailer so the only worry was making sure it was well strapped down.

[whitetail farms]

had a first snowfall tonight and pretty cold out in the sugar bush today ill wait till middle of the week when I have thanksgiving break from school and the weather is a little better to finish up the tubing at my sugar house, then I have to start a 200 tap wood just down the road, today I picked up a sihi vacuum pump so I have to get the setup hopefully I can get the motor switched over from 230 volts, then I have to find a filter press and get everything cleaned up and ready for the season, doesnt look like there much time in schedule to find that buck though

[steam maker]

Well had a good day today with faimly eatin turkey tommorow its off to pittsburg nh to drop sled off for the winter! Then its back to sugarin stuff till new years !!!

[maple flats]

After setting since spring melt off, mt sled had sat. On Wed. we pulled the rope (no electric start) several times until it wore my 19 yr old well muscled grandson out. Then I pulled once (surely not as fast) and it fired (stale gas and all), 2 more and it ran. Even though we only had about an inch of snow on the ground I had him run it around for 3-4 minutes and then we parked it. Now Ive got to get some fresh gas before running it more. In the next 2 days we will likely have enough snow to run it longer to help clean everything out. Next we need to try the ATV, has also set several months, but that has electric start. Might need to top off the battery first.

[Shawn]

Hung more line during the summer and did all the sugar wood for sugar house, and cord wood for house, we did some repairs on the arch prior to hunting season, bagged a small buck on opening muzzle now will hunt with bow, all set but get jugs. Make sure to put some of that stable stuff in your gas for sleds and four wheeler to protect them from the gas eating up your engine. Spent Thanksgiving at Camp in Pittsburg NH, had hard rain Wednesday with high winds and lost power for four hours, changed to snow and have around four inches up here now and its cold, zero this morning here, sleds ready to fire up and go.

[steam maker]

Shawn we will have to meet at the buckrub for a boiling soda and talk sugarin😃

[Shawn]

Or you can stop over at my garage so called THE MAN CAVE that is insulated with wood stove going. It fills up during the winter:cool:

[steam maker]

Well we r getting geared up for buck rub ! Headed there for dinner tonight . Camp we rent is right on rt 3 before spruce cone campground. And a new riding destination is always welcome hate to venture to far from woodstoves its cold in the north country

[K.I. Joe]

Putting in mainline and starting on the laterals tomorrow. 500 Taps going in and then on to the new pumphouse.

[steam maker]

So we leave the great northwoods tommorow at some point and we r headed down to stewartstown and taking 114 to island pond , my question is is on that route there is a mint lookin sugarhouse with all sorts of nice lines set up as u climb the hill when u take the left by the border patrol mansion ! My question is is does anyone on here know whos sugarhouse it is or is someone on here the owner? I am jealous everytime i drive by

[Shawn]

Do not know who owns those sugar KINGDOMS but they are some nice. There is a second one above that one on 114 going up the hill also, looks heavy duty to me. Back home today from the great north woods. Report for civil jury duty in morning, not fun, still hunting and suppose to head to VT to hunt at end of week:(