Getting ready

[5050racing]

Walked some of my lines of 3/16 natural gravity,dam squirrels,bears did some damage and a couple trees down,got a few fixed,some to go?Weather not looking good for a while,give us time to get set up.Last year pulled all my 5/16 down and replaced all with 3/16 and WOW does that set up work!! 29" of natural vacuum and does it run!! When is the snow coming to pack the sap in?

[John-NJ]

Yeah this weather sucks - at least it is giving us the opportunity to do outdoor work.

Got a second short mainline in for additional 20 taps. Finishing up the little shed for the vacuum system - Should keep the weather out of the pumps, plus it is insulated to keep things from freezing up.

Gotta do some mods to the RO system yet and get the evaporator set up.

If anyone out there wants sap bags and hangers, I have a bunch which I am willing to give away (the hangers are home-made but work just fine). You just need to come pick them up in the Flemington area.

[5050racing]

Nice of u to offer them free! This weather is nice for getting things fixed up,thae bears,dear hit me hard about 8 or so chew downs or holes in tubing and now thinking it may take it all down at the end just mark what run is what have 5 runs of 3/16 natural gravity,3 runs are 600-700' long. Will keep in touch when you tap.

[John-NJ]

Well I was caught by surprise last winter, I am a little more ready this year. I think I am going to tap either this weekend, or sometime next week. Looks like we may have some good weather for sap by the end of next week. I need to check for squirrel chews on the lines. Taking everything down at the end of the season will make for lots of work, You're a lineman arent you? Can't you rig up something to electrify your lines? :lol:

-John

[dcast99]

Squirrel other animal chews are a yearly problem. Going to pressurized my one run with clean water this weekend to flush the lines. It also shows any leaking nics in the line you might not catch. The other run has already been done. Maybe next week I will get the evap all cleaned up and ready to go.

[John-NJ]

Dcast, how do you do that? Do you use check valve spouts, or do you do something else to plug the laterals?

Thanks
John

[sugarwoodacres]

I didn't even tap last year. Lines are starting to go up this weekend, we need a cold snap NOW.

[dcast99]

I'm using a mix of CV1 andCV2s. The end rings and t's both have a post on them for the spout or tubing to plug into. You can also get little red plugs that will cap them off.

[5050racing]

Yes on the lineman but you have me thinking I have a solar very HOT fence charger would have to run wire but I have five runs and the 3/16 is so easy to handle just need to remember how it ran. Some guys have to take it down because land owner doesn't want it there so it doable. Fixing all the breaks and may miss some small chew from squirrels,can make a long day Guys that take it down paint a small dot or put something on the side of the tree it goes on.

[sugarwoodacres]

Forecast looks promising , cold coming on Saturday . Need sap !

[dcast99]

Was thinking of cleaning up the sugar shack and evap today or tomorrow in the warmer weather but my buddy , who brought his daugther back to college this weekend decided to continue heading south to Key West for the week. Oh well. This weekend I have line repairs to do. Flushed the lines last Sunday and found about a dozen spots the animals got to the lines.

[John-NJ]

To try out the rebuilt vacuum system. Couple of small leaks discovered. Trees were giving up some sap this afternoon, but nothing major. Let's see what happens as we get into the weekend. Need to repair leaks and tap another 20 tomorrow, plus hook the new mini mainline to the system.

Could be cooking this weekend. Let the season commence!!!

John

[sugarwoodacres]

To try out the rebuilt vacuum system. Couple of small leaks discovered. Trees were giving up some sap this afternoon, but nothing major. Let's see what happens as we get into the weekend. Need to repair leaks and tap another 20 tomorrow, plus hook the new mini mainline to the system.

Could be cooking this weekend. Let the season commence!!!

John
What's your vacuum system?

[John-NJ]

I built my own vacuum system using a Gast vacuum pump and a water pump. Homebrew electric releaser, trap, etc. Works well, last year measured 26 inches of vacuum at the far end of the mainline, and really boosted the yield per tap. This year I took it all apart to make it a bit more compact, and built a small structure around it to keep everything dry. I can heat the hut to keep temp above freezing, so that various valves do not freeze up on cold nights.

This year I have added another 20 taps on a short mainline, that I am going to connect up today.

If you are interested, I can send pictures.

Regards
John

[sugarwoodacres]

I built my own vacuum system using a Gast vacuum pump and a water pump. Homebrew electric releaser, trap, etc. Works well, last year measured 26 inches of vacuum at the far end of the mainline, and really boosted the yield per tap. This year I took it all apart to make it a bit more compact, and built a small structure around it to keep everything dry. I can heat the hut to keep temp above freezing, so that various valves do not freeze up on cold nights.

This year I have added another 20 taps on a short mainline, that I am going to connect up today.

If you are interested, I can send pictures.

Regards
John
Yes , some pics would be great. I tap about 175 trees but have a large flat area that sap collection takes too long so a vac line would give me another 25-40 trees. I see a lot of low budget $100 shurflo pumps . Your homemade RO would be my next thing . Thanks for info

[John-NJ]

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Here are some pictures of the vacuum system/sap hut.

If you want to discuss, we can do that off list or in another thread, since this thread is about tapping

Cheers

[John-NJ]

Finished tapping today, things were running under vacuum, but not strongly. I used the 8-10 gallons collected this afternoon to do a final washout of everything. Gonna collect for processing starting tomorrow.

Regards

[sugarwoodacres]

Good luck and thanks for info. I'm looking at tapping maybe next weekend. Mini cold snap hopefully will help us.

[5050racing]

Think I will wait till we have this week of cold also busy this weekend has something to do with not tapping yet. Keep us posted how things are running or not.

[John-NJ]

Think I will wait till we have this week of cold also busy this weekend has something to do with not tapping yet. Keep us posted how things are running or not.

Collected about 50 gallons of sap between noon and 7pm (on vacuum). This was on the original 72 taps, the new ones not hooked to vacuum till tomorrow or so. The new ones on tubing didn't seem to do anything, but I didn't put a bucket under the output of that line, so I don't know for certain (I wasn't home). Don't think without the coaxing the trees would have given up anything.

Lets see what happens tomorrow, but looks like I will be cooking.

Get ready, get set.........

Regards