Who's drilling?

[5050racing]

Think I'm going for it time is moving on even next week below but Sunday 40 rain low pressure maybe something what do u think

[Agb]

Think I'm going to do it this weekend too. Ever have problems with taps drying out if you tap to early?

[5050racing]

I'm just a hobbie guy but in my area I'm always done first week in April like the 1st so from what I read n hear 6-7 weeks maybe 8 before there dry, we only have about that much time so gota catch it as soon as it starts maybe Sunday for me so I'm DRILLING!!

[Agb]

How's your 275 evap work? It looks good. Thinking about trying to build one this year.

[5050racing]

Build one it's great the door needs insulation but the rest is all fire brick! It has a blower plumbed under the grates that make the world of difference !!! A must,I would say my evaporation rate with all good oak,ash,beech etc dried 3-4 years is 7-8 gallons/hr just a guess maybe more.look at homemade fourm here lots of great ideas but did I say put a blower on it?? That door would not glow without it. Pm me or I can send photos to you look on my profile,I used turkey cookers then this,I finish my syrup right on here no turkey cooker all 14 gal finished by regulating blower speed and wood in firebox n one trick I slide sheet metal under the pan to shut it down when finished or to cut the heat while finishing!

[sweetmoomoo]

im still holding off on tapping for another week, dont want to walk threw 18" of snow to try to get one days run of sap. hoping the warm weekend will melt some of the snow down.

[jbravo54]

I agree with sweet. Although I may tap the yard trees, since they are close and am tired of waiting.

[5050racing]

I hear ya about the snow not fun walking in that much,I walked thru the woods to fix bear damage to one 1/2" main it's a job walking,rode the snowmobile thru most but still have to get off n walk tree to tree,but with this weather there maybe more to go thru if u wait seeing how this winters going???

[dcast99]

Not tapping yet. Running a liitle behind this year. Still have to do the final wash on a couple of holding tanks. Hope to get that done this weekend and get them in place during the week. The brush fire that wiped out 600' of tubing set me back. Don't know if I'm going to be able to get a new 30 tap run in or not.

[5050racing]

Well the weather is on your side maybe Sunday run but frozen after that good luck,my damage is bears chewing the 1/2" main this year,we have 2 bears around always.

[sugarwoodacres]

No drilling in Hardwick, the last frontier , yet. Frozen trees . Maybe end of next week I hope . This season is going to be quick but hopefully high sugar content cause of cold

[jerzeemaple]

I was out replacing spiles last night and the drifts are 4' deep in spots. 6 below zero tonight, might take a few days to get things moving. Forecast out two weeks still not looking good, lets hope they are wrong on long range. Not sure when i'm going to tap either, definitely not tomorrow that i do know.

[5050racing]

Yeah changed my mind also I think forecast now colder Sunday not worth one day if it would run anyway to cold short season !!!

[jerzeemaple]

Looking like it is going to end up being a short season as you said, hopefully the sap will come in a giant heap for us before buds break! I'm hoping to be ready to rock after this weekend. Come on mother nature....

[sweetmoomoo]

this weather is killing me, new shack new taps and buckets ready to go. every day i walk into the sugar shack and just stair at my buckets sitting there empty. im sitting here now watching the snow come down another 4-6 tonight and cold again next week.

[5050racing]

Same here mopping around stuf to do but wish it was syrup related

[sirsloop]

I tapped 10 reds today... had some free time today so what the hell.

[5050racing]

Keep us posted if u get any run Sunday ,where are you in NJ ?

[Agb]

Looks like it's Wednesday for me. Gotta start sometime.

[Dr Sugar]

Tapped a few on Sat and they are running on today. Maybe will get a bit more on Wed. Expect that next weekend will be the real start based on 10 day forecast.

[5050racing]

I bet we missed a good short run but what do you do???

[njwoodsman]

Looking like Saturday is gonna be the day for me. Weather seems like it may be shaping up for a decent run next week.

[caoutdoors]

Going to try tap fri, or sat should have a good run next week

[5050racing]

My final answer tap now by Friday n just go with it SHORT SEASON unless something funny happens but I'm sure the trees are going to bud around the same time???

[sweetmoomoo]

im going for it this weekend, going to put in somewhere around 40 taps hope to have a run sunday and monday than i think its going to cool down again. have to wait and see.

[5050racing]

Just got in after pulling the cub cadet all wheel drive buried pulled it out with IH1066 the used the snowmobile to get up there n snowshoes the rest to fix 1/2" main chewed in half by bear then tapped 6 BIG sugars on my way do the rest hopefully Wednesday for the weekend big run!!!!10736 I packed the snow down earlier with the snowmobile thinking that I could drive on top NOOOO!10737

[sugarwoodacres]

Making a go this weekend also. No sense waiting. It takes 6-8 weeks for a tap hole to dry out. Agree with trees budding same time. Hoping for 4 good weeks and take what I get. Good luck to everyone.

[5050racing]

Yeah I'm always done 4/1 or the day after or so taps will be good from here.

[jerzeemaple]

Saturday for me, even when i lived up in the catskills, no matter what we tapped no later than march 1 when the season is pushed out this late. Hope everyone has a great season! 👍

[5050racing]

Finished all my tubing taps,nothing running yet,just have my single walk in trees to do no rush now!

[dcast99]

Dug out my low hanging lines Tue & Wed. Will tap this weekend.

[sweetmoomoo]

tapped 20 mid afternoon today and was surprised to see some of them running, going to put in about 20 more tomorrow.weather looks good for most of next week .gotta start boiling the neighbors are getting hungry.

[5050racing]

Tapped 10 more trees today nothing running here,going to buy some 3/16 tubing to reach some that I couldn't not realizing u can run 700' with the elevation drop I have,adding 5 more trees but putting some that I carry sap out into collection tank instead,also bought vacuum gauges for each run to see,when I pull taps at the end of season I hear the hiss from the vacuum,I have about 75' or so of drop,

[jerzeemaple]

All tapped n ready to boil!

[Agb]

Where do you buy your tubing. 5/16th.

[5050racing]

My 5/16 was Leaders,but I'm going to try the 3/16 from CDL n stay with the check valve taps so a 3/16 tee with n 5/16 side of the tee for the drop?this will let me reach into the woods better from what the experiments say so as not to carry buckets out that's why I didn't tap some of these trees in the past,claim you can go 700' n I have good elevation change to really make it work?

[njwoodsman]

Hung 24 buckets yesterday afternoon while the snow came down. Nothing running yet but nice afternoon to be out in the sugar bush. My oldest son came along to help. Fun times just taking in the scenery and teaching him a thing or two. Hoping to have gotten a bit of a run today, we'll see when I get home.

[5050racing]

Just took a rip on the snowmobile to check and nothing maybe a couple drops,maybe 38 here later in the day the bush faces north west still waiting!!!

[Dr Sugar]

Not much flow here either, even for trees getting lots of sun. Surprised given that the temp got to high 30's today. Maybe too cold last night?

[njwoodsman]

Same here, few drips is all. Gonna take a couple days like today to get things going.

[John-NJ]

Nothing much from my 50 taps today - maybe 2 gallons total.

[5050racing]

See the first post welcome to the best site and addiction,where in NJ are you?

[Cape tapper]

I posted on another thread that I had started last weekend, but since I'm in NJ I thought I would jump on here. This is my first year doing some tapping. I'm way down south on the Cape. Lots of big Red Maples around here. Some are about 36" in diameter. I've had everything together and did my first taps last Sunday (2/22) when it was up into the 40's. A couple were dripping right away. Managed only about 3 gallons of sap in that afternoon from about 12 taps. The next day was cold and everything was stopped. I took that home and did my first ever boil that yielded a little over 1/2 cup of syrup, but it was awesome! I checked them yesterday as the temps got into the high 30's. I am up to 20 taps. A few were running pretty good but most were not doing anything. I hope to see some action today and tomorrow before this cold gets in again.

[5050racing]

Nice have fun it will start n then you will be looking where to store it before u no it,we all HOPE!! When I joined the addiction on here there was NJ state listed and I asked and they put here!

[sugarwoodacres]

Nice have fun it will start n then you will be looking where to store it before u no it,we all HOPE!! When I joined the addiction on here there was NJ state listed and I asked and they put here!
Thanks for the tank guys # 50/50 I went and got 2 on Sunday

[5050racing]

Cool they r nice good price,I may get a couple more just bought 2000' of 3/16 tubing Shawn at D&G was very helpful and said it should work great this way get all but 5 trees into one main to one tote tank so I can collect without taking the dozer up the mountain to plow the path it gets SO muddy the belly pan touches plus I can relax that it shouldn't overflow if I work ot.

[sugarwoodacres]

I just bought 1500' last year of 5/16 so i wont switch to 3/16 for about 3 years . I want to put up a 1" or 1 1/2 "main line for the whole property. I can max out at about 180-200 taps but the issue is collecting it in crap weather like were getting now. The plan is to pipe it all in to a 275 then swap it with empty one . I'm building a sugar house Sunday. Better late than never . Lol

[5050racing]

We always work better the saying is the less time I have to do it the more I get done! Do u have elevation u may consider 3/16 I have good elevation drop to gain vacuum hopefully greater than what I have now,I'm installing gauges on my 5/16 and one new run of 3/16 that I never tapped to remote but they say 500'to 700' is do able with good results ,be interesting to see if vacuum gets better,I will switch some 5/16 out maybe in a freeze up this year

[Shawn]

Finished up pipeline yesterday and finished up buckets today and twenty something in buckets to do and get pans in place and ready to go deep snow but worth it

[5050racing]

Never done but I guess ready??

[John-NJ]

Hi all - Name is John and I am in central NJ between Flemington and Hopewell. I have a bunch of Red Maples, and some Black Birch that I may try out this year.

Currently I have 51 taps set, may do some more depending on how ambitious I feel when things start going. Equipment here is a Mason 2x3 evap, plus a 100 gal tank and pump setup I put together this year.

Ongoing project (planning for next year) is putting together an RO system (my Reds tend to turn out sap in the ~ 1.5% concentration, so there is a lot of boiling to do...). Also I need to think of a better way to do filtering than the felt....

Anyway hello to all!

[5050racing]

Welcome aboard you may be lucky with 1.5% sap up where I'm at 55-65 gal to one gal syrup!,filter I use many pre-filters then at the same time thru the synthetic felt cone filter,alot info here what temp do you filter and jar at over 185-190 and niter will form in what already pass's thru the filter again just ask people will help!

[Cape tapper]

I just did a quick check of my buckets. Most had from a pint to a quart of sap so evidently there was a little flow. None of them are flowing now even though it is about 42 here. This being my first year, is it normal for there to be a stop and start like this?

[5050racing]

Yes it can drive ya crazy some do better on some day than others see what happens when we get a good sunny 45 day next week,the low pressure can really make them run also wind moving the limbs ack like a pumping action, see next week

[John-NJ]

Thanks for the welcome. It is nice to be able to compare notes with folks who have done this a bit longer than I.

I am not sure what you mean with regard to filtering and bottling. What I have always done is to filter the junk out of the sap with Tyvek filters, then in the finishing, filter it through the thick felt filter directly off the burner, so it is probably going thru close to 200 deg. If it is not hot enough, I just reheat before bottling. I have not seen much niter develop at that point, but if you have a better method let me know. I just really hate the incredibly slow filtering through the felt. I usually get impatient and squeeze it like a pastry bag, which is a fairly messy process, especially with the hot syrup.

Yes like you I am in that range of 55-60:1

In order to keep a semblance of being on topic here, last night's check showed almost no sap production for me. Just a few lumps of ice in the buckets/jars/bags. A change this year is that I have most of my taps on sap bags, and I think that I am going to like them, as they are way easier to store than the random collection of buckets and containers I am using for collection. We'll see how they hold up.

Regards
John

[5050racing]

You need to get the pre filters for when syrup is done put inside the felt this will filter bigger stuff out so as not to clog the felt i u use a couple pre filters pour into them leave it in the felt then pour into another pre I use like 5 pre for about a gal batch, the temp when filtering is to high 190 or so I filter into a pre warmed coffee urn not plugged in it will cook syrup on bottom n form niter