March Journal

[themapleking]

I guess I'll take a break from boiling 5 days now and start march maddness journal.
Been getting 500 gals sap a day with the vacuum system out of 720 taps. Weathers been warm last couple of nights not freezing. But still snow on the ground. Will fill up my storage tanks and give hell friday night and this weekend.
Been getting allot of calls and e-mail on maple weekend. Looks like I'm going to be swamped with visitors.

[mapleman3]

Way to go Joe, you have a Class A operation there, it will be a great place for the maple weekend visitors!

[syrupmaker]

Joe requesting permission to stop over if we are not boiling Friday or Saturday. I'll bring the barley with me :!:

Rick

[themapleking]

Rick I'll call you friday if i start boiling

[mapleman3]

Got the electric set to the vac unit behind the barn, did a test run without plumbing with the vacuum pump, she purred and lots of vac, also tested the float mechenism to see if it will turn on the sap pump.. worked perfect, tomorrow will get it all hooked up and suck my lines out. it's louder than I expected, hopefully with it plumbed up and vacuum in the lines it quiets down or I will have some unhappy neighbors....

bottling up 6.5 gals tonight, chilly in the sugarhouse without the evap running.... but LET IT GET COLD>>> BRING ON THE SAP TOMORROW!!!!!

[themapleking]

Boiled friday night till 1am. Finished saturday at 35 gals syrup. Checked all my lines today, resteated all the leaking taps. The vacuume pump was only raning at 13 psi. Than I had the BIG ONE. I seen that there was a oil line that came off. OH F**K Reconnected it and pressure was back at 18 psi. Just hope there wasn't any damage done. synthetic oil prob. saved it. $1200.00 is too much to replace.
Take a break tomorrow and make some cream and candy.

[mapleman3]

it's always something huh Joe... just to keep us on our toes!!! I just went out and shut mine off for the night.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

The good thing for me is that I have plenty of more trees to tap if I wanted, so I may stay away from the vaccuum for good because I live almost 30 minutes away from my syrup setup and I don't have time to check it only when I am there.

I run the majority of my sap in galvanized stock tanks and pump it into the tank on the tractor with a gas Tanaka pump. Sometimes I don't go to the sugarhouse for 3 or 4 days at a time if it is running slow and too risky with vaccum and besides I work a lot of hours.

I am hoping one of these days to find some property of my own that would have enough taps on it and I could build a house on it also! :idea:

[michaelh05478]

We are getting ready to bust loose here soon!! Sap ran good yesterday but it should be pouring out of the trees soon... 375 taps on lines with 75 more to go and 100 taps on buckets....Hope to add 300 more on lines next year behind the sugar house to the sugar house...Looks like we should be boilng this wed or thurs!!!! Boil em up boys!!!!!!!!!

[mapleman3]

Mike
Glad to here yer almost there, funny how much diff in weather just 4 hrs away from me... you were just starting this time last year too right .. or are you a week early this year?

[michaelh05478]

Jim, We are about even with last year! Im just glad for the break in the weather, gives me time to finish up tapping and the other odd jobs that need to be done......hope to make 20 gals or so on the first boil... hope to have this season stretch into the middle of april this year.....ill keep you posted.....looks like your off to a good start....Glad to hear the ole girls boiling nice for you!!!!!!!!!!

[mapleman3]

Yep she's purring like a kitten, I think I could take a little more fill out of the back before my next boil.. I have little more than half the back pan dancing now!! love to get a little more draft and get it really humping!! still learning, but I thought I would have to be right on top of the boiling the whole time.. as long as I keep an eye on it I can still shoot the S*&t with folks when they come in.... and boy does she send out some steam!!!! the blower I got may be a hair small, I don't have to turn it down when I fire, so that could be an improvement for next year... I got a little brave and dropped the syrup level a bit, maybe around 3/4" and it boils beautiful!!!!.

[mapleman3]

Joe, thanks for sending me the skunk story, thats a hoot!! and your one lucky sugarer too!!! I posted it in the stories section of my web... sometimes if it doesn't show up as a new item just hit your refresh button and things I've added magicaly appear ;)

[themapleking]

Got the filter press going and bottled 40 gals. today. Than started boiling again finish off the 800 + gal from sunday. Got another 5 + gals tonight. Made some cream yesterday.
I notice that the rafters were getting burn from the chimmey. They're 6" away. Will have to make a alum. sheld around the chimmey tomorrow. Leave 2" space inside for heat. Aways never enough to do.
Make some candy tomorrow if time allows. I'm now at the same amount of syrup this year, As my total for last year. All the improvements over the year are paying off.

[michaelh05478]

HEY SYRUPMAKER!!!! I NEED YOUR HELP HERE.....WHERE CAN I GET A COMPASATOR FOR MY GENERATOR!!!!!!!! ANY HELP APPRECIATED!!!!!

[mapleman3]

Mike
Graingers should have capacitors, or a hvac supply house. do you know what you need? what volts and uf does it say on it?

[syrupmaker]

MIKE....SEND ME MAKE ,MODLE AND YOUR ADDRESS AND I'LL UPS ONE UP TO YA. SEND INFO TO SYRUPMAKR@AOL.COM OR GIVE ME A CALL ON THE CELL 716-867-2866.

RICK

[michaelh05478]

Rick, ill give you a call within the next few days.....ill be boiling tomorrow., a friend lent me his 2000 watt yamaha.....Thanks Rick and Jim......MIKE

[syrupmaker]

For those of you that were watching or thinking of getting a barometer,START WATCHING. The temps over on this side of the state are climbing and so is the barometer. This usually ends up with a nice flow and some awsome boiling. 8)


Rick

[mapleman3]

Will watch for sure, curious how your flow goes, your at 30.09 and 25 deg we are at 30.08 and 33 degs. going by weather.com desktop weather

[themapleking]

Boiled off 1400+ gals today, only took 12 hrs. Grade A dark, filled 30 gal drum. Sundays project will be moveing stone around shack and drive way. Get ride of the mud.
Still have 300 gals sap in the woods from thrusday but the value is frozen. Worry about that sunday after some more sap run. Ended up with 1200 gals on thrusdays run 1.67 gals per tap.

[syrupmaker]

Well it's snowin a good bit here,grounds covered in less than a 2 hour period and cold.Installed our new hood over the pans and finished boiling in what we had. Washed up for the next big run.Cold spell will give me a chance to finish building the bubbler tubes for the air injection and get that installed for Maple Mania this Sunday. (Show and tell for family and freinds) Hopefully Thursday if i read all the forcasts right,we can collect some so we wont have to make steam with just water for show. (getting better than the darn weather men are now) Hung a barometer rope on the outside of the shack and am supprised at how accurate is is.This thing will read up to 3 different readings.

Temperature
Humidity
And wind speed all in one unit.

HOW IT WORKS:
If the rope is frozen its cold
If its wet it's rainy,dry it's sunny
If its whipping side to side it's windy

pretty neat weather tool :P :P :P :P :wink:

Rick

[mapleman3]

33 deg now and barometer is at 30.44 so it says water boils at 212.9 as the barometer drops so does the boiling point... cool thing to have!!!

like the string idea though :lol: :lol: :lol:

[syrupmaker]

Lobstafari... i'll send one up with the timmer for ya. :wink: Well the snow is slowing down.Up to 15" so far and 1-3 more for today.That will help with the mud we had for a little while.Now the kids will be able to collect with the sled again. Be nice for the next run too.mapleking how'd you fair with the snow fall?


Rick

[mapleman3]

WOW, I can't believe the weathermen got this one wrong, we ended up with only about 4 inches... thats fine with me.. not as much to cleanup for this weekend, although they are saying something more maybe Thurs-Fri

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Where did you guys get your barometer at?? How much are they?? I would like to have one that tells all the info including boiling point.

[themapleking]

18" of snow Rick I win by 3. Belive it or not we got a little run today only lasted for 2 hrs. Next 3 days look out 8O

[Parker]

3 inches of snow and a light weight cold snap means the kid is back logging. The farm where I am working wants another 100 cords but I doubt Ill be able to get that, all we can do is try...I know I will be bringing all the standing dead wood over to bobs...and I found 6-8 cords of dry salbs....now I just need to finish the 250 tap instal (cut in drops, set up enterances)) and well have a little extra sap for all those dry slabs...Going for 125 gallons Parker

[mapleman3]

Brandon, I bought mine thru Chris..the Mapleguys.com... nice doing business with them!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Thanks Jim, I may talk my wife into getting me one for Christmas! :D

[mapleman3]

mmmmmmm yummy(candy's done!!!) your welcome Brandon... thats what mine was.. my gift from her!!! Love it too, used it tonight to check my thermometer, right on the money!!

[Al]

What site do you guys use online for your weather?
My local site is pretty sorry.
Thanks

[mapleman3]

I use accuweather.com and weather.com although thebarometer seems to be broken for my area on accuweather.com and I informed them they are checking it out

[mapleman3]

I grew up right near the base... only 15 miles from me, their reading should be about the same as my area... also noticed it's within .02 of weather.con... so we are good now ... Thanks Jeremy :D

[mapleman9000]

MapleKing,

I'm sorry, but I've seemed to beet you with the snow, 20 1/2" on my deck, maybe more on the ground. We live near the top of the highest hill in Livingston county.

Gerry

[Al]

O.K. here's the lights on but nobody home story for this season. I have a 275 gallon tank in my wagon. With just 60 taps I wasn't getting enough sap to boil for a few days so it would freeze and be frozen when I wanted it. This week in Vermont it's been cold but I've been getting 20-25 gallons a night off my 76 taps. Of course it would freeze too. I was thinking away as I was driving back to the sugar house it would be nice not to have my sap freezing at night. Right past my sugar house is my heated 24x28 tractor/workshop space. Light bulb come on!!! :D
Back the wagon in unhook it and then put in the tractor. No more frozen sap. :D I keep the garage at 40 degrees in the winter.
Now don't that beat all. :D :lol:
I should get some kind of award for that!!! I have an excuse but we won't go there. :lol: