September Journal

[DrTimPerkins]

A new month already! We need a tapping time count-down.

[Tweegs]

A countdown Dr. Tim?

Heavens no.

It’ll just remind me how much time I don’t have to get stuff done.

I prefer to wait until the last minute, then panic :lol:.

[maple flats]

I bought a Lapierre flue pan washer recently, and I just tried it today for the first time. I must say, it is simple but impressive. I think it will help make more light syrup because I'll be able to keep the flue pan cleaner.

[stoweski]

Finished the last of my firewood - all reserve in case I run out of stuff I split a few months ago.

Wiring up my auto drawoff. Have the panel done, just need to cut some wire. RO is built and ready to test once I feel brave - and it cools down.

Those are the two upgrades for me this season.

111 days until winter. 165 until I tap. :D

[Brad W Wi]

Cutting wood for 2016 and just added a small room for the RO I got. After wood I'll work on getting it set up.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

According to Stoweski I have 164 before I need to get ready :lol:

[Urban Sugarmaker]

I'm finishing up my firewood in the next week or so. Started ordering parts for my RO and designing controls for it. That will be the subject of another thread. Also going to be adding at least 20 taps for 2016. Good thing I picked up a 275 gal cage tank yesterday. Now I can have one tank instead of three.

[unc23win]

I told my wife the other day a few more weekends to ride the Harley and I will be ready for winter. I realize fall is in the middle, but after fighting with the rain to get the hay done most of the summer I am ready to start working more on sap lines and less on other stuff. I think I might tap a few days earlier than others 161 days to go.

[MapleMark753]

Well, its only 65 days until late fall tapping for us...time goes by fast! Finished up cutting a new trail addition in the woods to add 53 taps. Also had a bit of extra reserve firewood that may help me get another chainsaw and tank. I think we are over 500 taps total now for the first time. We will always be small, but it does feel nice to add some taps.
take care, Mark

[buckeye gold]

MapleMark, you'll be tapped in about 30-40 days before me for fall tapping. I,ve figured out I can get 75-100 taps on the north end of my property that is a late woods. Maybe they'll be good fall trees. Then I can move to my main woods for spring. I been cutting some reserve wood like everyone else and a few days in the woods has shown me i need to cut back some brush on my sap roads. Other than that sometime before fall I want to put a new stainless section on the top of my stack, why I never done all stainless to start I have no idea. I think it was because after I moved to the new shack I decided I needed more height and just added a section I had. Other than that I been watching for a good stainless table to add to the shack.

[Parker]

Walked and did some repairs at sanborns with my youngest daughter not much damadge there..lots of new chalanges this year,,,,still need to finish the last ten cords to fill the woodshed,,will be working in the woods,,s.h. on weekends till the season,,,

[maple2]

Still have my sugarwood and housewood to cut,yet. alot of tubing work to finish.Two trucks to get ready for plowing,and my wife wants to go on vacation.Somehow,work keeps getting in the way

[adk1]

I started my sapwood two weekends ago and just started splitting it and stacking in the saps he'd. Will get allot done this weekend and it should be full by the end of the week splitting nights after work

[Parker]

Walked hill and most of rte.11 last night, not much more damage to repair which is very nice.....there is a brook that runs down the middel of the hill sugarwoods,,,this year is the first time i have ever seen it dry......very dry conditions here.....all of the trees look healty.........i have to work on a sap truck i got this summer befor it gets chilly..would be nice to have trucks ready for the season for once!

[wnybassman]

I've got a pile of wood to split, but already having enough for the next two years makes that job a little less important right now. Looking to dig up my potatoes before it rains again, and picking/squeezing apples are in my immediate future.

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

Installed a new septic for a friend and the trees that had to come down he gave me. Norway maple is a bear to split but a cord of free wood boils sap great. New sap tank installed in the woods just needs a hole cut for the Releaser. Next week making the trek to leader to pick up new pans then it's time to build the arch.


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[maple flats]

Today is shooting house build day. In my blueberries I have a huge deer problem and at that field there are few directions that are safe to shoot. I've had a tree stand at one location which me and friends have taken over a dozen deer over the past 3 years, but last Jan., when the guy from the state DEC came to check for damage so he could issue nuisance permits, he suggested an elevated shooting house off a specific corner on the fields. This is actually something I had been wanting to do for years but never took the time to do it. This year it is happening. I made a platform on 9' legs that is 6' x 6'. It will be 8 sided, with 4 sides 4' wide and the corners are cut on a 45 to create 4 more sides , these are 18" wide. Each side, including the door will have a shooting window. The 4' sides get a horizontal 11 x 23" window, covered with a 12 x 24 sheet of 1/4" acrylic while the 18" sides get the the same size, but vertical, for bow shots. I have pre-made the 4' sides but will get exact sizes and make the approx. 18" sides after the other sides are up and braced. I then have made 5 trusses for the roof, and each side of the roof is getting a 8' x 42" sheet of 5/8 plywood. Then I will put steel roofing on it. The part I already assembled on the platform, built at the sugarhouse, I carried on the forks on my tractor a few weeks ago. The tractor would not lift it quite high enough, so I made up a beam and mounted it under the platform at just under midpoint and I attached a 2x6 to the legs on one side just under that height. Then I raised the pallet forks, placed them over the 2x6 and under the mid beam. With that, I raised the loader arms to full height and I had about a foot under the legs. As I drove that the .7 miles to the blueberries, I had my wife follow in her car, in case I had to stop in the road to address any problems. As it turned out I only had 1 problem, which was an easy fix, on the back of the tractor I also have a set of HD pallet forks that I carry a work box for when I'm pruning in the blueberries, that holds a gas powered compressor, and some tools etc, any way, the forks stick out about 3' behind that work box. On those extensions, I had hung a 6' step ladder and once I got on the road, I lowered those rear forks so traffic behind me could better see my flashing lights, but I lowered it too much and the ladder came off. I simply raised the forks a little higher, put the step ladder back on and proceeded to my blueberry fields.
At the fields, I placed a 4" solid concrete block under each leg and set the platform in place. Now, today I will mount the 4' sides, tie the top plates together to form a 6' x 6' square and with the sides braced to the platform I can then put up the trusses and the plywood on the roof. The steel roofing won't be ready until mid week, so that will wait a few days. In the meantime I will make the approx. 18" wide sides and attach them, then the braces can come off. All sides are framed in 2x4's and are 7' tall, each is covered with a single piece of OSB and the window framing is done, I will cut the holes after.
When this is all finished, it will even have a propane heater in it, and there will be a vent both high and low in 2 opposite walls to vent the fumes when in-use, then depending on the wind, the low vent will be opened on the windward side and the high vent on the leeward side.
I sure have lots of volunteers for using the shooting house, and I will let most if not all use it, but I will utilize a schedule so only one or 2 are there at any time, and a few of the times I will be there hopefully filling my tags too.
Last year, on the 1st of April, the day after nuisance permits were good (but all had been filled) I drove by and counted 9 deer out in the field next to the blueberries, and I have no idea how many might have been in the blueberries munching on the buds. We had lots more deer that needed to be removed.