What's everyone have planned for this year?

[TylerMcT]

What's everyone have planned for new equipment or ways to improve their season? Just ordered two new Lappier sap lifters and 3 new horizontal boosters from Grimm. No huge changes put hopefully they will improve efficiency! Post what your plans are!

[johnpma]

Purchased a used Mason 2 X 3 moved into a small shack adding 40 taps.....going to be interesting to see how all this plays out........hey! There are worse addictions :)

[Woodsrover]

Sold my used Mason 2x3 to some rube up in Chesterfield MA and bought myself a new 2x4 Mason. :lol:
Good luck this year, John!!

Went from 50 or so taps to 170 on 3/16" and 30 buckets. Bought a Nextgen RO and a few more storage tanks. Boiling tomorrow for the first time this year.

[johnpma]

Sold my used Mason 2x3 to some rube up in Chesterfield MA and bought myself a new 2x4 Mason. :lol:
Good luck this year, John!!

Went from 50 or so taps to 170 on 3/16" and 30 buckets. Bought a Nextgen RO and a few more storage tanks. Boiling tomorrow for the first time this year.Thanks Jeff good luck to you as well! Can't wait to try out your new to me evaporator!!:)

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Bought a new (to us) finisher. Pretty excited for that, should be better easier to work with than the kettles.

[Djdj]

I was fortunate to be able to retire in 2016 so,,,,,,,our hobby operation has never looked better. New 2 x 4 WSE, plenty of wood dry and ready to go, new mainline with 50 taps, spent many days out there fixing up existing lines. Trimming away unwanted trees, tightening lines, etc. We have about 240 taps, love it, lots of fun, good exercise, friends and family all around, sapping is one of the best things we ever became involved with.
Dennis

[Clinkis]

Some major up grades in the woods. Going from about 130 taps on shurflo's and 75 buckets to around 250 taps on full vacuum system (no more buckets!) Built a new sap shack for vacuum pump, Lapierre hobby releaser and bulk tank. Ran another 1700' of mainline, built a couple sap ladders, rebuilt and modified a surge Alamo dairy pump, bought a couple SS bulk tanks. Still need to run a few more laterals, install some drops, and plumb in vacuum pump. I just hope I don't get overwhelmed with sap. I was hussling to keep up last year with 200 taps and not all on vacuum. No time or budget left for any upgrades in the sugar shack. That will be next years project. Hopefully addition to sugar shack, new evaporator and some upgrades to the RO.

[bstewar]

Built a 12x16 sugar house & set up my new 2x6 drop flue PJ evaporator. Also put up (and still working on) tubing in a new woods. Shooting for 150-170 taps. Lots to do when you move and don't want to give up sugaring.

[billyinvt]

Had to put all available funds into tractor repair this year. It'll give me another year to plan upgrades for 2018!

[USMCLtcol]

Major upgrade for us this second year. Going to have 45 taps and built an oil tank evaporator with 2x4 pans. Going to test sap sacks to see how they work. Last year was 15 taps and a turkey fryer:D
15107
15108

This was our test boil last weekend. Sap should start flowing around Jan 26 with a cycle of 40-20 degree days in Lynchburg VA

[WVKeith]

Nice looking evaporator. Stack looks like Frankenstein, but evaporator is nice. :)

[Tweegs]

Added a bunch of electronics in the shack to help keep an eye on things.
Blasting all that info to a data logger up at the house.
Hope is that we can do a post season analysis and find more ways to improve.

Putting 500’ of Rapi-tube up on the neighbor’s property. We’ll call that a ground-rule double.
75 more taps up on vacuum means 75 less buckets to deal with. Win-win.
Has to be a takedown system, though, thus the rapi-tube.

Got a transit for Christmas. Real eye opener there.
Couple of stretches of mainline originally set up with a hand held site level for 2% actually measured only 1.3%.
Explains why I was having so much trouble with what looked like sags. In reality, I just didn’t have much slope there to work with.
1.3% isn’t very forgiving.
All better now.

[bob's sugar house]

Set up new 2x6 raised flue, and ventured in to the 3/16 tubing world!!!
Now have 150 new taps.
Spent a lot of money this year, for a (HOBBY):confused:

[USMCLtcol]

Nice looking evaporator. Stack looks like Frankenstein, but evaporator is nice. :)
Had to get the stack away from the from the side of my shop which is directly above. Too much wood working equipment up there!

[bstewar]

[QUOTE=bob's sugar house;316998]
Spent a lot of money this year, for a (HOBBY):confused:[/QUOT
I second that statement...

[sugarman3]

Make syrup,hopefully700-750 gals,added another 700 taps to the 2000 we have

[5 Oaks]

New Leader Supreme 2x4 and arch, new storage tanks, new ventilation. Now engineering and making auto floats for it.

Hope for a good year or my wife may sell it all for my funeral.

[marlmucker]

Expensive year so far.......

- Built a new sap house 16' x 20', including a 7' lean-to for sap and wood storage.

- Purchased a steam hood and pre-heater for my 2x4 PJ evaporator.