Open House?

[Dill]

Who is headed up to St Albans/Swanton this weekend? I'm up in the air. But don't we usually have a thread about this?

[Bruce L]

Wife and I re planning on driving to Plattsburgh Fri. night, then heading on down Sat. morning.Stock up on more cv's,mainline,etc.

[DrTimPerkins]

Who is headed up to St Albans/Swanton this weekend?

I'll be presenting at the Leader Open House on both Friday and Saturday. Will likely stop by the CDL and Lapierre Open Houses on Saturday late-morning. Everyone should feel free to stop me and introduce yourself. Always happy to chat with maple producers.

[sam1234]

I will be at the CDL USA open house. I will be outside in the evaporator area. You are more than welcome if you're shopping or just curious about our products. If you already have a CDL rig and want to discuss about it, I'll be there all week-end!

See you there!

[Dill]

Right now its looking like Amber Gold and I will be headed up. Probably starting at Leader since we are also picking up a round baler at the dealer next door. Still not completely convinced cause 2 saturdays in a row to the same road in Swanton gets to be a lot of driving. Anyway, red truck, red round baler on a trailer, and Spring Harvest somewhere on a hat/shirt/etc.

[Ski Bum]

Headed North in the morning. This is our fourth open house at Leader and wouldn't miss a trip to Vermont. To me it's like a trip to Rendezvous in the Rocky Mountains but without the beaver pelts! Such a great landscape and so much history. Those that live here must be proud. Looking forward to the " Confections" with the Hill's, and all the other great events scheduled. May the sap be with you!!!!!

[TheMapleMoose]

Was really hoping to go this yearn because leader is supposed to have our new evaporator on demo. However, with a 16 month old and 3 week old at home this year, and a 12-14 hour one way ride, I suppose I need to stay home this year. Keep your sticky fingers off the 3x8 rear fired, I don't want any finger prints!!!!!! Enjoy the weekend!

[Ski Bum]

Hi Moose, this happened to us three years ago. Ours was a demo at a local fall fair. You will need a roll, no two rolls of paper towels and a bottle of Windex!!!! A cattle prod might be handy to keep them from the Shinny!!! They love to touch. Best of luck with your new rig and love to the little ones. They will be hauling buckets before you know it! Your sugaring friends in CT.

[TheMapleMoose]

Thanks Bum. I'm certainly hoping my little syrup guzzlers will want to carry on the sugaring tradition. I am sad I'm going to miss the warm maple candy buffet via the Hill bros!

[Amber Gold]

Is 3 Lemnah Drive in St. Albans the correct address for CDL? I've been there once, but forget how to get there.

[sjdoyon]

We'll be boiling all weekend. Hope to make the Lapierre Open house in mid May when we will definitely be all done even if the trees don't cooperate.

[Bruce L]

Just got back from open houses. We first started out at cdl, bought a couple of vacuum gauges ,some stainless fittings, but one complaint for CDL from my wife as well as many others I witnessed there, no prices on anything, had to look up everything in the catalogue and or go stand in line at the counter to ask. Next D&G ,quick look around,sold out on tapping bit I was after. Next on to lapierre , picked up a syrup tank in the used tent, got to have a long chat with an older gentleman who is looking to get back into sugaring.Finished up at leaders picking up enough cvs for a couple of years, as well as more mainline to replace older lines that have started breaking down, finished the day by sitting down in the tubing seminar

[lakeview maple]

We went to the open house's on Saturday and we started at Leader , I was looing at there plastic plate filter press and I liked what I saw and the price wasn't as bad as I expected, I talked with Andy at there vacuum setup and he explained a ton , the forums are great for questions but to have hands on and see how it all works was really helpful. We headed south to CDL and they had a nice display going outside and inside, I don't know why Leader had nothing running but oh well, I looked around CDL and talked with there vacuum guy ,looked at a couple different pumps and collected contact info . We headed further south and hit D&G up, they had there pellet arch going outside and there electric going inside. Both were impressive ,but with the cost of electricity I cant imagine there electric is a big seller, I wanted to catch there seminar on 3/16th laterals and I sat through it ,great information and the numbers were very impressive . I have a new bush to run this year and I think Ill do it in 3/16th ,about 300 taps . The whole open house was great , I have never been so it was a good time all around . Al

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Anyone besides D&G announce they were offering 3/16" tubing at the open houses?

[super sappy]

Cdl handed out a flyer and a sample 3/16 tap ,T and ,Hook connector . The flyer said tubing as well .... I did not see it in the store for sale but could have missed it and already picked up some at D and G -ss

[Dill]

We only stopped at Leader and Lappierre. I got enough clearance reducers to last 5 more years. And I'm really impressed with Lappierre, handing out free stuff along with lunch before we even spent a dime? I'm sold. Plus I got tubing for 14 less a roll than Leader. I was planning on stopping at Maplepro, but I really didn't want to get stuck parking on the side of the road with that load on the trailer. Looks like I've got plenty of drop lines to start making up.

[Burnt sap]

Went to Leader Saturday nice display no bargain buys this year. The 10% discount is nice but was all tapped out from this season so only bought a few dollars worth of fittings we needed. Over all worth the drive over.

[wsugar]

I didn't get a chance to attend your meeting on tapping below the lateral line. What was the recommendations for this

[wsugar]

I'll be presenting at the Leader Open House on both Friday and Saturday. Will likely stop by the CDL and Lapierre Open Houses on Saturday late-morning. Everyone should feel free to stop me and introduce yourself. Always happy to chat with maple producers.

What are the recommendations for tapping below the lateral line

[Brian Ryther]

We got to see our new evaporator at leader. Cant wait to get it home. 14264

[DrTimPerkins]

What are the recommendations for tapping below the lateral line

As I believe I said earlier, this work was sponsored by the North American Maple Syrup Council, so it will be published (in print) first in the Maple Digest, probably later this year, although we will be presenting it at conferences.

[levasse12]

Dr Perkins, are you going to be in any quebec dealer open house this year, maybe dominion grimm.

[Bruce L]

Arrived at Leader's at 10:45, looked around for awhile, picked up rolls of ceramic blanket to put under the pans, couldn't find any discontinued check valves. Had lunch, then waited for Bruce Gillilan to finish his seminar, then went upstairs to his office and ordered a steamaway, then bought a vacuum pump which Bruce dropped $1100.00 off the price that I was told down in the showroom. Time we took our turn in the line-up and got the pump loaded we headed over to Lapierre, probably around 3:00,not much of crowd there, saw the tent up, my wife walked towards the tent and said it looked like it was just for seminars. We went inside looking for a cream machine, a gentleman showed us where they were, asked for a price, clerk at the counter quoted a higher price than I could get them for here in Canada. Headed towards D & G, but stopped at CDL first since they were closer, picked up an oddball fitting to hook to the 2" bulk tank down to the 1" transfer pump, bundle of wire ties, then asked about a cream machine, somebody looked for me, said they were sold out. When we were checking out the clerk asked if we had found everything okay, told her about the cream machine, she said she was sure there was one, radioed for someone, after waiting about 10 minutes two men carried in one. She gave me a great price so I bought it. Didn't make it to D & G then as it was late and we had picked up everything we were after, and the Highlander was filled. Hopefully the cream machine works good as the hole in the bottom of the hopper looks pretty small. For service I would say CDL # 1,Leader #2, Lapierre #3 Put Leader at #2 only because they are always so busy you have to stand around for a long time if you need to talk to someone, but got great deals there for waiting around

[DrTimPerkins]

Dr Perkins, are you going to be in any quebec dealer open house this year, maybe dominion grimm.

No, I have not been asked to speak in Quebec. I am told I "scare" people there. :)

[n8hutch]

I hit all the open houses, I got to lapierre around 10. Picked up a part for my moisture trap, went to leader around 11 or so checked out the RO'S, then stopped at H20 innovation and got a quote on a odd looking 8" single membrane RO, 7,600 brand new. Then rode down to CDL & checked out there hobby RO " a friend of mine wanted to look at it. Bought a few odds & ends there and headed down to D&G.

I have to Say D&G had some aggressive pricing. It was also nice that all their RO'S had the Price on them. They had 600 GPH units for 9995? Only downside I could see was not a lick of English written instructions. All in All I think Leader probably has the best show but I think folks at CDL are probably the most helpful. The guys at H20 were very nice and they were kind of a soft sell not too pushy. My younger brothers that tagged along also commented on there pulled pork sandwiches. I swear those kids didn't miss a meal anywhere we stopped.

I also liked how leader had flow rate charts right on there RO'S.