October Journal

[jimsudz]

Welcome to October. By now all wood sheds are full for the 2017 sugaring season. Well I'm still filling mine. Been busy at work trying to get lumber and stakes stocked up before I start my new job. I took a job with NY Dot and will be running the mill part time. Ive never worked for anybody during my working carrier so it will be a big change. Hopefully I will still be able to sugar and grow my operation. L

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

'Tis this month when it all begins. As soon as the leaves fall we will be hitting the woods. That means a lot of stuff to get done around the house so I can focus on sugar. Loving fall!

[Maple Man 85]

Scheduled to pour cement on the new sugar house 10/14. Running around the house like crazy getting projects done cleaning gutters/hauling wood prior to that. Once the building shows up end of October I saved a couple weeks of vacation so the exterior gets done before the snow flies.

[n8hutch]

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We'll it's been a long time getting going but I Finally got started on my New Sugar house, it is 20x36. I have been working at it all summer, had the land cleared and the Hemlock sawn out, then spent 3 weekends stumping and clearing the site. Hauled out 13 loads of stumps and brush and hauled in 11 loads of fill and 1 load of 3/4 gravel. Also Ran water and electricity.

Took a couple of weekends to Fine grade the slab form it up and dig the haunches. Put in wire and Rebar. I used 3000 psi Crete with no additives. 16 yds of concrete later and I finally have something to build on. Got my Sils down this weekend, I went with 6x6 pressure treated. I didn't want to fuss with blocks or spend the money on a short wall. Now I have some work to do.

All of this would not be possible w/o the assistance of my Employer who let's me Borrow A Dump Truck and 40,000 lb excavator when ever I ask. I must say they are great people to work for.

[Bucket Head]

Hey Nate. It looks good so far! And I like the boulders out front like that.
Keep the progress pics coming.
Steve

[WVKeith]

Nate:

I am curious as to why the pit in the floor? How is that pit to be used?

I am trying to understand for my future sugar house.

Keith

[ennismaple]

We got the last 8 pallets filled with evaporator wood on the weekend - always a relief to have that finished plus we have another 4 chord or so still sitting in the pile that we can dip into should next season be a doozy. The Beast got one last bath before the water gets turned off for the winter and we did some misc tidying around the camp. We spent a bunch of time re-packing 3+ drums of syrup for orders - great to have lots of family around to help bottle and label!

[n8hutch]

Nate:

I am curious as to why the pit in the floor? How is that pit to be used?

I am trying to understand for my future sugar house.

Keith
The Pit is 3 feet square and 16" Deep. It will be Directly in front of the Evaporator.
I Feel this will make wood loading easier because you will have a more direct view of the inside of the fire box, also your firewood will be at an arms reach rather than having to bend over to reach it.
There's alot of opinions on weather I will like this approach or not, some folks are skeptical about stepping up and down into the pit. ( I do intend to pour a step in one corner when I figure out the best place for it.

I also think another bonus will be that it will keep visitors and my wife from standing directly in front of the Arch.
There will be some safety issues with this arrangement but I'll figure something out.

[WVKeith]

Nate:

Thanks for the answer. I am not a big fan of bending to load firewood either.
I hope the pit works well for you.

Keith

[Wanabe1972]

I always wanted a pit. A producer up the road from me has a pit in front of his 6X16 and it is pretty awesome for loading the arch. I have got my evaporator tuned to the point of only loading about 4 times an hour and it is raised up 12 inches so i can live without it. Your setup looks awesome and am sure you will love it. Worst case you fill it in. Jeff

[n8hutch]

Put the wall post up this weekend, the post are 6x6 and the top rails are 4x8. All rough sawn Hemlock. The front 3 posts are Pressure treated 6x6 because they go all the way to the slab. I am using 6"&4" timberlok fasteners and some Simpson strong ties here and there when necessary. It took about 15 hrs to cut all the pieces and 8 hrs Sunday to put them up. 2 men and a Tractor. I set up a old radial arm saw with a 10" Dado blade to cut/fit my joints.worked pretty good.

[tuckermtn]

Nate - holy sh$t- is that a ramp up in to your sugarhouse? nicely done...I am all for more accessible sugarhouses

stout frame indeed, and love the rough hemlock. Local wood = local good!

[Brian Ryther]

Busy summer. Second 3500 gallon tank in the basement. New evaporator. Test fired it yesterday. I can confirm that it does boil water. Lots of summer storm damage in the woods. Not too many lost taps, tons of trees across lines. Too early to tell if there will be an annual expansion. Worried about the bulk market.
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[n8hutch]

Nate - holy sh$t- is that a ramp up in to your sugarhouse? nicely done...I am all for more accessible sugarhouses

stout frame indeed, and love the rough hemlock. Local wood = local good!

Yes our sugar house will be wheelchair accessible, that is just a crude plywood Ramp but we will have something better when finished, most likely poured concrete.

[lakeview maple]

Out of my 700+ taps ,I'm going to have a busy fall. At least 2/3rds are on the ground do to storm damage. I could be really frustrated but I'm looking at it as possible good thing. Might be an opportunity to start changing more over to 3/16th. Now the 500 ft of mainline isn't going to help that but the repairs on the laterals might not be so bad.. Just trying to keep a positive attitude . Good luck all ,Al

[Maple Man 85]

Busy summer. Second 3500 gallon tank in the basement. New evaporator. Test fired it yesterday. I can confirm that it does boil water. Lots of summer storm damage in the woods. Not too many lost taps, tons of trees across lines. Too early to tell if there will be an annual expansion. Worried about the bulk market.
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Brian if you don't mind me asking what is going rate for a 3500 gal tank?

Maple Man 85

[Brian Ryther]

Brian if you don't mind me asking what is going rate for a 3500 gal tank?

Maple Man 85
$4188 from Lapierre.

[ennismaple]

This bad boy followed me home on Saturday. Can't wait to get it hooked up and watch the sap tsunami roll in!

[Parker]

Still working on getting my wood in,,,takes a while,,,going to the fairs slowed down the progress but was definatly worth it,,,,,keep after it!

[Parker]

While i should be filling the shed with more wood i have been having a blast making granulated sugar...i have to get a scale to see how much i have made,,a couple gallons of syrup worth,,,,,tried to make cream with the mixer,,,i cooked a gallon and a half of syrup to 234 last night the immeditatly dumped it into my mixer bowl (at around midnight) that still had a thin layer granulated sugar on the sides of it from the sugar i had just made then went to bed thinking in the morning i woul mix it into cream......live and learn,,, the syrup had turned into something like half frozen water,,,very crystalized (my guess after reading how to make cream this morning is the dumping it into the mixer bowl started the crystalization and the sugar acted like seed),,,,well i got it mixing and beat it for an hour,,,,would not set up.......whats a sugarmaker to do? I added another half gallon of syrup to the mix and reheated it....its now in the sink with cold water cooling.......i was very gentel placing it in the sink in the stock pot i cooked it in,,,we will see........fun stuff!

[maple flats]

I need to pack more syrup, but today I switched my filter press pump over to my new air powered diaphragm pump. The longest time was spent disassembling the old gear pump set up. I had fitting going all over the place, one in from my FA mixing tank, one from my transfer line to move syrup from a barrel to my finisher, one out to the filter and one out for a bypass. It all made sense when I did it, but today it was a plumbing nightmare.
Anyway, I dis assembled it all and I mounted the new pump on a piece of 2x10 for a base. I now have 1 input that can be changed from my FA tank (and my draw off tank T's into it) or I can just loosen the tri clamp, remove that line and replace it with the suction line for emptying barrels.
On the pressure side I still have a bypass line so I can move product I'm not ready to filter, and I have the line going to the filter.
I ran out of a few parts that I need to wait til Monday morning to get, then about an hour and I'll be moving product from a SS barrel to the finisher. From there I heat it, verify density, then fill the FA mix tank and pump it thru the filter and into the canner.
I'm almost out of packed syrup so this new pump will be a big improvement, my old one took about 5 minutes to move a gallon when the syrup was at about 40 degrees, while it moved warm syrup at about 1 GPM. I'm hoping this new pump will move cold syrup a lot faster, if not, my next move is to get a barrel heater.
I just don't like the idea of pumping air into a barrel using the compressor to get syrup out, it just seems like too much chance for contamination.

On a second note, I had a friend come to pick up 14 pints of syrup today and he asked If I wanted another sap tank. I asked what it was, then I went to look at it. It looks to be in good shape, about 300 +/- gal, with the lids. The compressor comes with it, but they are not connected. I'll try getting it going to keep concentrate cold to hold it for a few days when needed. I'm just going to give him some syrup for it. Looks like a great find and it's just 5 minutes away. The tank has been moved to a pole barn and the compressor is still in the milkhouse. This will cost me 3 gal of syrup.
I'll go get it in a few days.

[Parker]

well i was able to make something like cream,would not quite set up,,so i added some of the sugar i had made previously and it set up,,,not the awsome stuff tuckermountian makes,,,mine was kind of gritty...i will try agine and see if i can get it right...if it was easy everyone would do it.....
i was surprised how long it took to cool the cooked syrup to 70 deg.,,,,i will make something to speed up this part of the process....the vt. sugarmakers at the big e had a clever set up that looked like it would work well for cooling the hot surup to the proper temp...

[Bucket Head]

Hi Dave,
Happy to hear about your "new" tank and the potential for cold concentrate. Having the ability to keep the stuff cold for a while will take a lot of the pressure off, which makes life during sap season a little nicer. Behind the R.O., it might end up being the second most liked piece of sugaring equipment you own.
I had Fisher Farms out of Cazenovia hook up mine and get it going.
Steve