West Sumner Sugar House 2014

[West Sumner Sugar]

Got about 130 taps in last weekend in Auburn. Had some decent run this week with the warm weather. Collected about 50 gallons yesterday on the main line and probably another 30 on totes. Noticed a lot of leaks on our swivel saddles. Headed out today to get the leaks taken care of. I'm sure we will get some run today, but the rest of the week looks pretty cold.

We have still yet to get our Sumner taps.

[abbott]

Leaks on the saddles? You didn't put your tubing together with those stupid tubing stretching pliers did you?

Sometimes my swivel saddles have vacuum leaks - on new tubing I only use solid saddles now.

[West Sumner Sugar]

No they are the zip tie style...not sure what you call them. Come to find out they just needed to be snugged up to get a seal. The swivel wasn't leaking at all.

We are hoping to get up to Sumner this weekend to get the taps in up there.

[West Sumner Sugar]

Had a busy weekend getting more taps in, changing drop lines and testing our new sap recovery vehicle. Total tap count is now 352. Still have a few more to put in this week.

[Maple Ridge]

I am going all in this friday. It is about to happen and I think it may not last long if the weather changes. I hope I get 4 weeks, but will take 5.

[West Sumner Sugar]

Well we collected what we had which wasn't much, and fired up the evaporator. Ended up finishing and bottling 2.75 gallons in 1/2 pint bottles. This way we will have some product for Maple Sunday all ready. Hoping to have a good run this week so we can have a good boil for Maple Sunday. Don't even have a drip in Sumner yet, luckily the taps in Lewiston/Auburn are running.

[abbott]

Surprised you don't have anything in Sumner yet. Must be a colder spot over there.

Are you hauling the sap from L/A to boil in Sumner?

[West Sumner Sugar]

Surprised you don't have anything in Sumner yet. Must be a colder spot over there.

Are you hauling the sap from L/A to boil in Sumner?

We are in a valley and it seems to be really cold. The maples we tap are in the woods and its pretty thick in some place. I think we are a little higher in elevation than you are too.
Yeah we truck the sap up from L/A in 300 gallon totes. We do a cemetery in Auburn and some good size maples at some of our houses.

[abbott]

I doubt you're higher up than me. Sap house is 685 ft and the trees are all uphill from there. For comparison, Morrill farm is only at about 525 - I'm not sure how much farther in you are. Everything is on an ENE slope, so we get the morning sun, but it shades up early in the day. It usually stays warmer overnight than in E Sumner village. Exact saphouse location is 44*21'21.12"N 70*23'32.80"W. This is all according to Google Earth.

Just looked up your facebook page - nice to see you like me :cool: How do you get bottles printed with your name on them?

[West Sumner Sugar]

I just checked and our sugar house is at 482ft and most of our lines are running between 525 and 540 facing E/NE. We are about 1/4 mile past the Morrill Farm on the right. We really want to do a vacuum system but with no power it would be difficult.

I did those bottles last year in my sandblaster.

[abbott]

I just checked and our sugar house is at 482ft and most of our lines are running between 525 and 540 facing E/NE. We are about 1/4 mile past the Morrill Farm on the right. We really want to do a vacuum system but with no power it would be difficult.

I did those bottles last year in my sandblaster.

So they're basically etched, then? Nice job.

I'm 2000 feet from electricity - I made it a priority to build downhill from the trees so I wouldn't have to haul sap. My vacuum pump runs on a gas engine - but obviously that requires more attention than electric. At a lot of trips down the hill to check on things. When the season gets going it isn't bad because I'm there most of the time anyway.

For 1/4 mile you might consider having the pump at the electricity and running tubing to the releaser at the sugar house. The cost wouldn't be to bad if you could work out the details. Maybe a booster tank/moisture trap right before the releaser to keep vacuum more constant.

[twitch]

I know that on New Years day I went ice fishing over to Bryant Pond and the coldest place we went through was Sumner village it was 31 below it was 24 below on the Ice. We did catch some nice fish so it was worth it, even crown royal slows down in that temp. I would say for some reason that is a cold spot But it will warm up eventually.
I just checked and our sugar house is at 482ft and most of our lines are running between 525 and 540 facing E/NE. We are about 1/4 mile past the Morrill Farm on the right. We really want to do a vacuum system but with no power it would be difficult.

I did those bottles last year in my sandblaster.

[West Sumner Sugar]

Boiled off another 130 gallons of sap today. Hauled up about 90 gallons from L/A and gathered about 40 gallons from Sumner. Pretty wet morning at the sugar shack, rain and sleet mix then wind picked up in the late afternoon. All in all we have 8 gallons filtered and bottled. Hoping for some big runs this week so we can do a full out boil weekend next week. Ended up removing the preheater today and installed a new sap feed line. Got the new autodraw dialed in. Hoping to have the valve body built for next weekend to give it a try.

[West Sumner Sugar]

Finally made some headway this weekend. We were able to put up over 400 gallons of sap from the good runs this past week. Boiled and bottled up 12.75 gallons putting us at just shy of 21 gallons for the season. Hopefully things hold out another few weeks to get us where we need to be. Got to try out our new home made auto draw. Had good results with it. Temp probes got kind of gummed up which threw things off a little till we cleaned them. We really need to get some better filtration going. Running into clogged valves and sap feed lines into the evaporator.

[West Sumner Sugar]

Looks like we will be finishing up this weekend. Easter is coming and so isn't all kinds of other outdoor work. We pulled our taps from L/A this week. Looks like we might get some sap running on Thursday and Friday. We are going to boil off what we have Saturday and pull our taps. We've made some huge improvements this season with more efficient filtering/bottling. Improved tap lines, sap filtration, sap pumping and the new home made auto draw. Should finish off around 30-31 gallons. Not a banner year but considering the weather, not a bad one either. Already looking forward to next year.