November Journal

[DrTimPerkins]

The crew is finishing up some tubing projects in the woods, and starting to put out new spouts for the 2017 season.

Rebuilding the RO room and just put in a new pad outside the releaser room for tension posts for the mainline. Lots to do before the snow flies.

[jbuck]

Yes, the seasonal push before snow/deer season/holiday time. We're busy finishing up a pump station build (grid hook-up, tank, pump and releaser) and new equipment installation. Tubing install is in process as well. Wishing we has one more year of woods work to tidy up the sugarbush, but made the call to put the saws down and hang lines so we can make some syrup!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

The crew is finishing up some tubing projects in the woods, and starting to put out new spouts for the 2017 season.

Rebuilding the RO room and just put in a new pad outside the releaser room for tension posts for the mainline. Lots to do before the snow flies.

Dr Tim,

Does Proctor go ahead and put out new spouts now or when they tap??

[DrTimPerkins]

Does Proctor go ahead and put out new spouts now or when they tap??

We used to wait and put them out during tapping. Last year we tried putting them out earlier, in November, but after it had turned colder (freezing temperatures), and it didn't seem to hurt our production any. To clarify this....we mostly use new spouts (not stubby/adapters) and put them on the droplines early during late-fall and early-winter repairs, and then tap in January-February depending upon snow conditions and temperature. Keep in mind that we're pretty high up in the hills, so it is fairly cold up here through most of that time.

I hope to do some research sometime in the next couple of years on whether timing of putting spouts out has any impact on sanitation/yield in the following spring. I suspect it doesn't have much, as long as the spouts are put out late enough (when it is cold).

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Dr. Tim,

I think this would be a very valuable research subject and would be interesting to see the results.




We used to wait and put them out during tapping. Last year we tried putting them out earlier, in November, but after it had turned colder (freezing temperatures), and it didn't seem to hurt our production any. To clarify this....we mostly use new spouts (not stubby/adapters) and put them on the droplines early during late-fall and early-winter repairs, and then tap in January-February depending upon snow conditions and temperature. Keep in mind that we're pretty high up in the hills, so it is fairly cold up here through most of that time.

I hope to do some research sometime in the next couple of years on whether timing of putting spouts out has any impact on sanitation/yield in the following spring. I suspect it doesn't have much, as long as the spouts are put out late enough (when it is cold).

[wnybassman]

This past week we closed on a small 2.5 acre piece of land less than a 1/4 mile down the road. Good supply of maples and great slope. Biggest problem is it slopes away from the road, the same problem I have battled for years here at home. Oh well, it is close to home and how often does land come up for sale this close to home? For the first year or two we are going to tap the top most part of the land closest to the road, mainly to stay within the capability of my current pumping ability until I can upgrade pumps, tanks, etc.

Today I flagged trees that I hope to get to this initial tank location, and came up with 52-55. I feel as though this is about a 1/3rd of what this piece of land has to offer for total tap count.

[Wanabe1972]

Well most of the sheeting is up in the sugar house and should be able to paint on Thursday. Hopefully be able to start moving stuff back in by the weekend. Then i can final plumb the RO and Tanks. We ran 1600 feet of 3/16 tubing and cut in the drops. We are just waiting on another roll to complete the tails back to the tank. When the evaporator goes back in we are going to raise it 12 inchs for a little more comfort while loading wood into it. The cable company is coming next week to run a new line from the pole to my house to replace water damaged line and going to run one to the sugar house so i can watch my baseball while boiling this spring. The only project left would be installing the hot water tank in the heated RO closet. It sure will be nice having hot and cold running water and sink. Jeff

[ennismaple]

Yesterday I started thinking about what tubing had been put up in our woods and when. A good chunk of it is almost 10 years old! I still remember stretching it like it was yesterday.

Crap - we need a plan! How can I replace approximately 10% of our lateral tubing each year to cut down the cost and time involved and keep it on a 10-year logical cycle? An hour of figuring later and I came to the realization we need to replace 600 taps this year, 600 next year and then about 400 each of the following years until we get back to the tubing we just put up last season being 10 years old in 2027.

Time to go buy more tubing, tees and stubbies! I actually enjoy stretching replacement tubing because it allows me to fix the things I did 10 years ago that bug me every time I see them.

[maple2]

welcome to the club! Plus all the chainsaw work while the old tubing is down. We tend to get more tubing replaced on low snow years. should be working tubing,today, instead of making christmas wreaths!

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Well most of the sheeting is up in the sugar house and should be able to paint on Thursday. Hopefully be able to start moving stuff back in by the weekend. Then i can final plumb the RO and Tanks. We ran 1600 feet of 3/16 tubing and cut in the drops. We are just waiting on another roll to complete the tails back to the tank. When the evaporator goes back in we are going to raise it 12 inchs for a little more comfort while loading wood into it. The cable company is coming next week to run a new line from the pole to my house to replace water damaged line and going to run one to the sugar house so i can watch my baseball while boiling this spring. The only project left would be installing the hot water tank in the heated RO closet. It sure will be nice having hot and cold running water and sink. Jeff

We are in the exact same boat as you, 10 year old tubing as of this year on the large operation we help with. I think we will do 1/4 of the bush (+/-1350 taps) at a time starting next year. We already do that with drops and taps so those are on a cycle. Gonna be a lot of work.......what else is new!

[Wanabe1972]

I got the new doors built and installed on the sugarhouse yesturday with what felt like it was 70 degree weather. We also got half the floor painted . Got up this morning to snow and rain so I guess I'm not going to work outside. I have to work tonight so only a few hours to mess around. I think ill move everything to the painted side so we can paint the rest this week. I would love to get the RO plumbed in and the tanks set in side. I'm waiting for a new sink to arrive e so I can plumb everything at once.

[Tweegs]

Working on a wireless link between the shack and the house.
Thought it would be nice to see the tank levels, vac level and temperature without having to suit up and trek out there.
Added bonus is keeping an eye on the RO closet temperature, remotely.

Need to get up on the shack roof to mount and aim the antenna, but strong winds are gonna keep me on the ground today.
At this age, I fall with greater velocity and don’t bounce nearly as high.
No need to tempt fate.

Plenty of wood to split.
‘spect I’ll busy myself with that instead.

[wnybassman]

Spent an hour or so before lunch stringing an overhead cable from the propose tank location to the road area, about 125'. Got chilled to the bone and just now came out from the comfort of a blanket. Never got that cold that fast before, must be getting old. lol Will need to pick better days I guess.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Sent my pan back to Bill Mason for a float box. He will be making me one float box and cutting both sides of the pan so I can move it from one side to the other. I get a lot of niter so I need to reverse each boil. I am hoping a float box will increase my consistency and safety since I almost scorched the pan last season. Actually, there was one little area I had to scrape blackened syrup...maybe the size of a quarter. Am I a real sugarmaker now?

I figure if I can't expand/upgrade this year I will focus on better process and better product. Next, I have to build a stand for the head tank. I might put half the taps on tubing this year too. Also, I finally have a pickup truck to haul sap. The Jetta didn't seem to like towing 200 gallons of sap. Working up to the idea of a small filter press too.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

First day up in the big woods since May. Started cutting out downed trees and got soaked to the bone after a couple hours of working in the rain. Went back to the shack, got a change of clothes and made new drops for the rest of the day. Feels good to be back at it, albeit a couple weeks later than I wanted to get started.

[Sugarmaker]

With the exceptionally warm weather last Friday I decided to move all of the items out of the sugarhouse and power-wash the floors and mats. How come I have so many things that get in there during the off season? Guess I need some additional storage. Got soaked twice but the sugarhouse looks much better! Have some value added product to make for a event Dec 6th. Just ordered some plastic jars from Burch for putting maple granulated sugar into. Before we know it the 2017 season will be on us.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Regards,
Chris

[Wanabe1972]

Happy Thanksgiving. I felt I needed to work off some turkey and fixings so I framed up a new RO closet In the new space. I put in a raised and insulated floor this year as ive had a feed line to the pump freeze before while sitting on the concrete. I started to insulate the box but I'll finish in the morning. I'm making good progress but still have lots to do. My new wash sink arrived this week and I'm still waiting on the ss drop in sink for the ss workbench. Jeff

[K.I. Joe]

Still working on the tank room. It is mostly sided, tanks are in place. Gonna wire up lights and outlets for heat tape next