Tapped in Greene County

[ponderingjunkman]

We got about 250 buckets hung today! Lots of them were dripping, we are looking to sweeten the pans tomorrow. It has been a beautiful day, got some wind burn, and the Sun was glaring off the snow . Had good and willing help from friends and family, which was much appreciated! We cleared some trails with the tractor, and there seemed to be no frost in the ground under the snow. It is nice to be out sugaring again after a year off! Woohoo!!!

Funny how tired we all are, my brother in law says we walked 3.75 miles, trudging thru the melting snow. Most snow was about a foot deep, tho we found some deep drifts. Every day it will be less!

[ponderingjunkman]

Gathered about 80 gallons this afternoon. Had a short boil, as it takes about 40 gallons to fill the pans.

[ponderingjunkman]

Another 120 gallons today from what seemed like the continuation of yesterday's run- didn't freeze last night. Fixed a leaky gasket between pans, which resulted in much less choking smoke in the sap house. Had a flame coming out from that joint, licking the wall- glad we built it out of brick!! Another small leak somewhere today, otherwise things are working well. Got two gallons of syrup. Not great, but glad to have it. Darker than two years ago. Gonna set about 30 more buckets tomorrow. Nice sunny, breezy day, lost lots of ice and snow! Almost too nice, like end of the season nice...

[ponderingjunkman]

Our last 30 buckets hung today. Burned out the old riobi cordless drill in the process. Went and got a new Milwaukee to replace it. Cold and windy, not much flow. Waiting....

[John c]

Our last 30 buckets hung today. Burned out the old riobi cordless drill in the process. Went and got a new Milwaukee to replace it. Cold and windy, not much flow. Waiting....
I think you will love your new Milwaukee!

[ponderingjunkman]

Yes, we do! Lithium battery is much lighter! Gathered another 130 gallons, but all the trees were running strong, so I suspect the run had just started. Seems like it will run into the night. Tomorrow will be interesting, I think. We had a couple dry holes, so they got moved to (hopefully) better trees. Our total tap count is 288- for now!! Just filled the firebox, and a good boil is on!

Just finished with 4 gallons for this boil, 6 for the season. Two years ago, on this date, we had 55 gallons!

[ponderingjunkman]

Another 160 gallons today yielded 5 gallons. It is getting a bit lighter, seems sugar content is rising a bit. Hope to see that trend continue! Had help from some good friends today!

[ponderingjunkman]

We didn't gather on sunday, didn't seem like it got warm enough for a run , but there was enough in the buckets Monday morning to warrant collecting. Got the fire going after lunch, and more gathering was done late afternoon. Good thing, buckets were near full again! Quit boiling at 9pm, and got the fire going again today, as well as one more gathering mid-afternoon. Ended up with 405 gallons of sap, which yielded 12 gallons of syrup. We are at 23 gallons now for the year. 33.75 gallons sap per gallon of syrup, average for this run. Getting a bit lighter in color too.

[ponderingjunkman]

Well yesterday seemed like it should have been decent, but not much flowed. Got only 80 gallons today, and lots of ice. Decent sugar content tho, got 3 1/4 gallons of lighter syrup. 26.25 gallons for the year now.

[ponderingjunkman]

Strange few days! What seemed like lousy weather the last three days has yielded 560 gallons of sap, and given us 20 more gallons of syrup. We are at 46 gallons for the year. Oddest was today, we gathered yesterday afternoon, and it didn't freeze overnight, yet 200 gallons was gathered, despite dumping the off color sap-the stuff that looked like it ran down the trunk of the tree into the bucket. Makin syrup keeps you guessing-I guess!

We have been burning a bunch of hemlock, until today-went back to pine. The hemlock was slow to light, delaying the boil after firing, even being 2 years old and stored under cover. Also, it made clunkers that fused to the grate, and slowed draft considerably. The red and white pine lights instantly in comparison, and burns to almost no ash- most blows out the stack. Hope we have enough pine!

We have gone thru 1540 gallons of sap so far- so that = 33.48 gallons sap to a gallon of syrup-- reasonable!

[ponderingjunkman]

Interesting few days again! Lots of sap, over 900 gallons the last few days. The pine helped, but still couldn't get the evaporation rate of previous years. Also the fire door on my home made arch was seriously deteriorating- with forced draft it needs to be air tight, but seemed to be melting from the heat. I had doubts that it would last the rest of the season. So after much pondering, I decided to pursue "induced" draft- hoping it would relieve some of the internal pressure in the firebox, and preserve the door longer.

The scheme was to inject a strong stream of air into the smoke stack to cause suction. So a pipe was made up with adaptor for arch and motor, and a hole was cut in the arch under the stack. That's when I found---- the mouse nest!!!!!

We got the pans ready for last year, setting them in place, then we didn't make anything due to various things. We cleaned the pans in place this year, they just needed little more than a dusting- so the pans were sitting on the arch a whole year. When I got the hole for the induced draft pipe cut, I could see there was a blockage at the back of the rear pan. Lifted the back pan, after moving the hood and preheater- and gladly finding I didn't need to also move the center and front pans!!- and found a huge mouse nest! Those delightful little creatures had made a mouse city out of the ceramic insulation that blocked half the area under the back pan- choking off air flow and insulating a quarter of the pan surface!! I HATE mice!

Took two 5 gallon buckets of mouse house out of there, cleaned up, and put things back together. Completed the induced draft setup. Started the fire and WOW what a difference! At full tilt we are boiling 60 gallons per hour! The induced draft has worked amazingly well, the fire door can be opened with forced draft running, which was impossible before. Smoke has decreased markedly. The boil barely drops off when firing. Great improvement! Of course, the increased airflow helps too!

So, all told, we are at 80 1/2 gallons for the year. Hope the warmup doesn't kill the season

[ponderingjunkman]

Great runs the last couple days, but the warmth has killed the season for us! A few bucks keys went cloudy yesterday, and peepers were heard last night- our traditional signal of the end.

For a season that seems late and lousy, it sure turned out nice! We have a new peak of 98 gallons! Maybe next year we will join the 100 gal club!

Thanks for watching!