Tapped In Gill

[hard maple]

I tapped one tree on tuesday, tested the sap today and it was 3.5% sugar content!
With a 24.6:1 ratio, I hope to make some real nice light syrup.

[hard maple]

Finished tapping all my trees yeserday. 200 total. probably half of them were running even with the cold and wind.

[hard maple]

Gathered up around 20 gal today, mixed it with 20 more of water to do a test boil , check for leaks and sweeten the pans a little bit.
The new rig runs like a charm.
One of my stands tested 3.7% sugar content for the average.

[hard maple]

Gathered up 150 gal of sap today, made 3 quarts of some light amber.

[hard maple]

Gathered up 90 gal today made 3 gal of light syrup
Tomorrow they should really come uncorked!!!!

[hard maple]

Picked up another 60 gal today
2 more gal of light

[TapME]

sounds great, send some of that weather up here in central me. Keep making the Golden Nectar.

[hard maple]

TAP ME
After the big freeze this week you might see it?!

I've got almost 20 feet of stack on my rig now, I'm running the draft door about 2 inches open and still getting flames out the stack!!
So I completely close the draft for a bit and then try again.
I'm burning slabs
I've never had this much of a problem with the flame issue?
can anyone relate to this???

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

post edited

[hard maple]

Kevin
I'll give that a try.
I'm just concerned about a meltdown or worse.....

[markcasper]

Slabs will do that if thats all your burning. I had that happen on my 4x12 with a 28 ft. stack once. Best if you can mix in some bigger stuff with the slabs, that seems to work the best. Its easier to do that on a larger evaporator though.

[ebourassa]

i burn slabs too and some times i can get a 4-6 ft flame out the stack, i keep an eye on it, but boy does she boil, i might be burning more wood but i can get 40 gal an hour out of my 2x6, (i have a water meter to tell me how much i boil every day). i wouldnt worry to much about it, it might have something to do with the slab wood, im not quite sure.
good luck and keep on boiling

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

Maple Hill is right. when the fire is choked of oxygen, the gasses won't ignite until they finally reach more oxygen at the end of the stack. people think "look at those flames, it's boiling real good." but what is really happening is a lot of heat loss and inefficiency.

BUT if your wood is free, and you have all kinds of free time to get it cut/split, more power to you. But if you want to get the most out of your wood/time/money, then I would try to find a way to get more air/less wood into the firebox, so you can get the same/better boiling rate in a more efficient method.

[hard maple]

Picked up 150 gal today made about another 5 gal light. Made 1/2 gal last nite. so I'm a little over 10 so far,all much lighter than the fancy sample in the grade kit.

[hard maple]

Gathered about 170 today, so I'm around 17 gal fancy so far. tomorrow looks really good for sap flow too. That will make the 4th day of consecutive boiling. I hope to hit 25 this week and if it's all fancy that's a nice start.
good luck everyone!

[mapleman3]

your having better luck in the sap dept. I'm not getting even half of what I normally do, got maybe 100 gals off the buckets and 30gal from the woods.... boiling yesterdays and tonights now till midnight or so... should put me over 25 +

[hard maple]

Jim
Boiled the last of my sap today. A little under 20 gal syrup, the grade dropped down to medium. I got all my tanks cleaned and now it looks like a few days before the sap starts flowing again. Next week ???
Good Luck

[hard maple]

Made another 7 gal tonite. So I'm right around 30 gal ,all light and medium amber. I've got another 100 gal in storage right now, so it looks like I might hit my 50 gal target after all??!!!
This cross flow pan is working like a charm. It is by far the easiest rig I've ever used. No more fiddling around with syrup in the wrong compartments. Highly recommend to anyone considering a new rig.
Good luck everyone

[hard maple]

cleaned the pans, they are now soaking in vinegar. season total is 54 1/4 gallons from 200 buckets. unless I get another 100 gallons of sap minimum I won't boil again. That being said, it was a great year, making over 100% crop. good luck everyone!!!

[saphead]

Hard Maple, Up here in Colrain tapped late this year so taps have only been in 4 wks. We still have snow on the ground and the frost is still deep.Hope we get some runs this week, haven't had a real run yet,only about 1/3 of a crop.The farm I work at(sugaring only) depends on maple for part of thier income so we really need to make more,a lot more! Looking back to 2003, most of the crop came in April, so maybe this week?? Glad you had a good year down in the valley.

[hard maple]

my taps are still in, and I still got a few more cords of wood, so we'll see ....
same here a bunch of SMALL runs. I've got about 100 taps out the woods near a brook and they are crystal clear still. I know a couple of producers in leydon and colrain and they are having the same season as you are.
hopefully you guys can pull through and get some good runs.
good luck!

[hard maple]

Pulled my taps last wednesday the 11th

Here are my totals for the season:
16 gallons fancy
18 gallons medium amber
10 gallons dark amber
6 gallons grade B
4 gallons grade C

54 gallons represents a little over 100% crop all in all a very good year.
good luck