October Journal

[DrTimPerkins]

Getting ready for the upcoming fall meetings....Franklin County (VT) this weekend, and LEME in early November. Analyzing data from 2015 and designing experiments for spring 2016.

[jrgagne99]

Building a 16' counter in sugarhouse. Plenty of horizontal storage space!

[steam maker]

Bowhunting in oxford ny at a friends dairy farm. Should be running mainline but its good to visit good friends once and a while

[Sugarmaker]

Canning syrup and making maple products for local homecoming event. Restoring a antique dresser for great grandson Rhett. Helping split 4 cord of wood at daughters place. Took off the honey from the one hive that is doing good. Trying to get all the tractors and equipment under cover for winter. Also working to get the sugarhouse in order for the LEME boiling seminar.
Regards,
Chris

[optionguru]

Trying to finish up the new sugarhouse and finding new spots to store everything in the shack.

1198011981

the rounds dots of light you see were a slightly stolen idea from the cordwood sugarhouse that our fellow member TedA is building. I cut and mounted mason jars in the sides kind of like portholes to let in more light and add a little funkiness to the shack.

[Tweegs]

Finishing up new flooring in the shack then on to the R.O.

Took a month off from sugar work to build a trebuchet for a local punkin’ chunkin’ event.
Lots of fun and a much needed respite.

Having built/tweaked/tested/fired the darn thing, I’m of the opinion that every sugar maker deserves one. :lol:

[maple flats]

I've been busy making a shooting house to help reduce the deer pressure in my blueberry fields. I designed a 6x6 elevated platform and last Thurs. I put plywood on the roof. The walls are 7' tall and it is 8 sided. I have 4 walls 4' wide and the corners of the platform are cut off forming 4 corners on a 45 degree angle that are 18" wide. One 4' side has a 30" wide door in it. All 8 sides get a 1' x 2' plexiglas window, the 4' sides have horizontal ones and the 18" sides get vertical windows, for better bow shots. During this next week the tin will be put up.
I drive school bus, and one of the other drivers has a son who does printing. I offered him a deal. He recently had several samples of camo in the drivers room with an adhesive backing. Since my shooting house sits just 200' off a busy elevated highway I told him he could put the camo on my shooting house with his name embedded in the design. Yesterday he asked for the dimensions, my guess he is thinking about the offer. I had planned to do a very basic paint job using flat black and a green creating "limbs" all over the structure. Time will tell.
Soon I will move on to maple, getting my 3rd bush set up with vacuum. That will start at just about 160 taps on sugars, but in time can grow to add another 150-200 on reds and a few silvers. I bought an old BB4 and got a Sobles Releaser to run the vacuum set up.

[buckeye gold]

I spent the morning walking my fall/early winter woods. Done some thinking and laying out on maybe tubing one very steep slope to see how it goes. Perhaps I'll try some 3/16th on gravity. There's about 30-40 feet of fall in roughly 350 feet, so you tubing peeps tell me can I get some good natural vacuum if I tube this slope? I think I can get 30+ taps on it. I have never done tubing so tell me if I'm dreaming an unrealistic dream. I been in the shack a couple time and will start some organizing and cleaning before long. I'll also need to move some wood to the shack....it's coming sooner than we think!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

That should work good. Might be best to split them into 2 lines as you will be getting a lot of sap out of it.

[buckeye gold]

I was wondering if I needed two lines W.Va. Mapler.....good suggestion

[optionguru]

Yes, split it up. I ran about 10 on a line. I think I read in the research any more than that reduces productivity.

[Revi]

I think you can run more than 10 taps on a line with 3/16ths tubing. I think all those taps will produce a bit of vacuum. Anyone else hear that?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have close to 1,000 on 3/16. UP to 25 taps is good, I try not to go over that. Proctor ran a line with 37 taps on it but Tim Wilmot is in agreement with 25 being a good max.

[optionguru]

Thanks for the info on max taps. I was afraid of going higher. I'll try more next year.

[PACMAN]

Im getting ready to put up another 1000 ft. of inch main line and hooking 3/16s on to that. Going to try and keep 25 to 30 taps per lateral. Then from the tanks to the sugar house another 1200 ft. of inch mainline to transfer sap to the sugar house. I am looking forward in seeing how 500 taps on 1000 ft. of inch mainline with 5/16 and a guzzler compares to 1000 ft of inch with 500 taps and 3/16. Time will tell.

[lakeview maple]

Im going to start running mainline this week , close to 600 ft of 3/4 inch and all 3/16th tubing . I picked up 250 taps and 10 rolls of tubing going to follow the brook off the mtn down to a collection tank. I would really like to be able to have it go to the sugarhouse but the slope is wrong. Im really curious to find out how it produces , the grade from the top to the mainline will be about a 50 ft drop so I should get good vacuum. I ran new line on the front slope of this bush last season with 3/4 mainline and 5/16th and it was an awesome bush so Im really hopeful on the results on the upper piece. Hope you all had a great summer , Al

[adk1]

AL I will be very interested to hear how u make out with it

[220 maple]

Heading to the International Maple Meeting tomorrow hosted by the Somerset County, Pa. Maple Producers, West Virginia Maple Syrup Producers will have a table at the trader show, announcing a big event for next summer!
Mark 220 Maple

[220 maple]

Never been to a International Maple Meeting before so have nothing to compare this one to, but I was impressed with the event, and the many new maple friends I have now, will not list them here for fear I would over look one name, the list is big because maple producers are friendly people, the bottom line!

Mark 220 Maple

[PATheron]

Working on lines down here at Pierce and sons. Looks like going to be done on them this weekend hopefully. Kind of getting tired of it actually which is hard to believe with me. Got my maintenance done and finishing up a few new taps. Next month going to work on pumps, releasers and tanks. Kind of looking foreward to that because its just working in one place and can do that after dark if want to. Wanted to get the line work done before hunting season so I don't mess up anybodys hunting. Then December going to put all my taps on and some drop extensions. Then January one tapping in. Strategy this year I think is that Im going to take the first week of January off and tap in as much as possible. With the taps on I think I can tap a 1000 taps a day. With a week off that would give me 9000 taps tapped with the workweek and two weekends. In the past I always get a January run but usually I only have a few taps in so it doesn't amount to a lot of syrup. Im hoping this year if I get that run itll be on enough taps to amount to some good money. With the commercial syrup not being valuable anymore Im focusing in more on any early syrup I can get. If I get everything done and its froze up Im going to go back to hooking some more trees up if I have the free time. Hope this is a good year. Last couple years its been pretty cold here hoping for more up and down with the temperatures this year. Hope everyone has a good season. Theron

[spud]

I too have been in the woods the last week. My original 5000 taps has the Brannon style saddles and the wire ties are starting to rust off. I have about 1200 of them and already have about 800 of them done. I should be done that job tomorrow. I drained the oil from both vacuum pumps and put in new oil. I ran both pumps for about 15 minutes. I replaced a vacuum line from the moisture trap to one of the releasers. I started cleaning my sugarhouse also. I will be tapping early January in hopes for that 3-5 day warm up we get most years. I would like to be all tapped before the deep snow gets here. I plan to tap 500 per day. I do plan to tap a few trees on November 15 for my Fall Tapping experiments. I have a new heated hunting shack that I built for me and my son. I look forward to hunting more this year now that I am not adding anymore taps. This is my first Fall in four years that I am not adding more taps.

Spud

[lakeview maple]

Awesome day at the sugarhouse, I finished off my second load of hard wood slabs all cut and stacked, and continued splitting on the never ending pile of soft woods. Its almost a curse when your friends and relatives find out they can get rid of all unwanted soft woods by dumping truck loads at your shack. Lol we don't take the brush tho, just the chunk wood or sometimes log length. Its all good and the free supply of firewood is never looked down upon. Im hoping next week to start running the new mainline , Ill be crossing my fingers that nothing comes up. I find it a constant struggle to juggle maple work and deer season, if you wait until after deer season you'll be up to your neck in the white stuff, and if you spend to much time in the sugarbush you will have no back straps to cook while boiling. Take care all ,Allen

[maple flats]

My wood has been cut, split and stacked for over a year, but we had our house re-sided this year. The old clapboards were removed and I cut them all up into evaporator fuel length, bundled them and took most to the sugarhouse. I kept a few at the house for kindling and gave a few away to a good friend who has helped me at the sugarhouse a few times.
This week I ordered a case of pre-filters (25) for the RO and a NEW high pressure pump too. The old pump needed a new set of seals, and that will be rebuilt for a spare. I also have on order some 3/16 that I'm going to try on one bush where I have a side hill, nice flat on top, then 20-30' drop to the mainline. It will be about 150-200 taps on the 3/16. I'm thinking I'll try to go 15-25 taps/lateral with most being about 20-25. This will be my first 3/16, but once this is done, I have no other areas with the steep hill to help. The rest are either flat or gentle slope, where the vacuum pumps will pull better than the natural vacuum. That woods is heavily hunted and we don't go in there til after hunting season is over.
Aside from maple, I've been finishing up an elevated shooting house at my blueberries to help reduce the deer population in there. Last year we took 6 out of there, 3 in season and 3 on nuisance permits. Then on 4/1/15, when I was going home from the sugarhouse, I saw 9 deer in an openfield at the blueberries. The deer love the buds in mid/late winter and they cost a lot in the harvest we get. Besides myself, I have 7-8 others who will hunt there, either from the shooting house or a ladder stand I have set up nearby. Together we have about 10 doe tags and I'll be getting nuisance permits good from Jan.-Mar. It is estimated that each deer eats up to $1000 worth of crop in a winter but the way my fields are spread out it would be very expensive to put up that much deer fence.