2017 Here I come.

[Dale Sparrow]

1484214843Last year I boiled In a couple of 2x4 flat pans in the driveway on a cinder block arch with 123 gravity taps with buckets. It's been a busy summer and fall as I now have a new 16x20 Sugar Shack With a 3x10 Oil fired evaporator, 450 taps on tubing with vacuum. I'm just a little excited for the coming season. My savings account has taken quite a hit but I think it is going to be well worth it. Hope folks are enjoying my posts as much as I am enjoying posting them.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

Isn't amazing what maple does to your brain?

[Dale Sparrow]

Yes, yes it is. Like a little kid with a new toy. :)

[bairdswift]

What are your plans for the pumps in the picture?

[whity]

Nice sap house! It gets in your blood and turns it to syrup. Worse then heroin... lol. We also have made some big changes this summer.

[Dale Sparrow]

What are your plans for the pumps in the picture? Pumps are for pulling a vacuum. With the lay out of my property it would be impossible to get all or even most of my trees on a single main-line, so I have five separate runs hence five pumps. I have one run that is 140 taps, one run with 90 taps, two runs with 80 taps and one run with 60 taps. All runs are 200-300 feet long and all have around a 25 ft drop, except for one of the 80 tap runs which is relatively flat.

[mellondome]

Coupula or hoods and steam stacks? I noticed there was no holes in the roof yet.

[Dale Sparrow]

Picture from mid summer, had just finished putting roof on.

[rhwells2003]

Keep us updated on your season. I'm curious how you do. I have a very similar size bush around my house but I sell my sap to my neighbor. I've always been curious how much syrup I could make vs the amount of money it would take to get a set-up up and running. Basically would it be profitable? Have you run those shurflows before on your woods? My first year I had 325 taps on about 600' of mainline. The shurflows couldn't handle it, produced very little (if any vac) Think I ended up with 1500gal of sap that year. the next year I added 75 taps, now up to 400, but also added a releaser and a small 1550 gast pump. Pulled 25-27" all season and ended up with close to 7000gal of sap.

I look forward to following your season!! Great looking sugar house!

[Dale Sparrow]

From what I have read the shurflo pumps are only good for about 100 taps. According to studies on maple vacuum you are right on target if your getting 1/2 gallon of syrup or 20 gallons of sap per tap for the season. I tested pumps with a role of 5/16 and a bucket of water. Dry I got 12-15 inches of vac, wet (ran a line into bucket of water with a valve to control flow) I got 26-28 inches of vac.