maple flats
03-15-2015, 04:32 PM
At my smaller bush, the landowner took down my snow fence so he could cut some trees behind it. I saw him around Christmas and said I was going to put the fence back up, but he told me he had a few more trees to pull out and assured me he would put the fence back up. Well guess what, .... the fence never got back up and as a result, my tank and pump, which are set in an old cellar hole, 5' below grade were buried in snow, being located about 30' leeward from the location where I had originally set up the snow fence. When we got to the tank yesterday the tank (1000 gal round vacuum tank) which sets with the top at about 6' off the cellar floor, it was completely buried, as was the vacuum pump and engine which were under at collapsed tent (a 5 x 7' vender's type tent) about 6' leeward of the tank. Yesterday, 3 of us shoveled about 2 hrs. to open the area up enough to clean the tank, and work on the pump. Today 2 of us shoveled another 1.5 hrs and we finally got the area opened up enough to run the pump and work on the tank, but the tent is still collapsed on top of the vacuum. Tomorrow I need to rebuild the tent using poles I salvaged from another tent using the same poles. The I need to fuel the pump and make sure it will still run, if not, I have a spare replacement all serviced and ready to go.
We almost finished tapping that bush except for the areas that have sap ladders, for now it is gravity, when the vac. is running the 2 sap ladder areas will be tapped.
The deep snow has really caught me with my taps down. I still have about 200 more taps to go, about 100 in the sap ladder areas at that bush and about 100-125 new taps at my bigger bush. Those will all be done by mid week, and both pumps will again be running.
My snowmobile still gets stuck, so it's all snowshoes a little longer. Not an issue at the smaller bush, but the bigger bush is a long climb uphill about 1/4 mile in then all downhill to the tank which is over 1/2 mile off the road. That is much faster and easier on the snowmobile or ATV, but neither can get thru yet. I hope to have tracks on the ATV before next season.
We almost finished tapping that bush except for the areas that have sap ladders, for now it is gravity, when the vac. is running the 2 sap ladder areas will be tapped.
The deep snow has really caught me with my taps down. I still have about 200 more taps to go, about 100 in the sap ladder areas at that bush and about 100-125 new taps at my bigger bush. Those will all be done by mid week, and both pumps will again be running.
My snowmobile still gets stuck, so it's all snowshoes a little longer. Not an issue at the smaller bush, but the bigger bush is a long climb uphill about 1/4 mile in then all downhill to the tank which is over 1/2 mile off the road. That is much faster and easier on the snowmobile or ATV, but neither can get thru yet. I hope to have tracks on the ATV before next season.