Red Roof Maples 2017

[Russell Lampron]

It was hard but I resisted the urge to tap in January. I have been working in the woods and in the sugar house getting things ready to go. The plan is to start tapping tomorrow and finish next weekend.

I had some trees get blown down in July and one of them went down across 4 mainlines. It took a little work to get that mess straightened out but it's all fixed and ready for sap now. Last summer I had some problems with my back that had me wondering if I was even going to be able to tap this year. I wasn't able to get my wood cut this summer like I usually do but did manage to get enough into the woodshed to hopefully last the whole season.

This year I had to shingle the roof on my house and buy a new truck. I did the roof the last week of October. The first day started out with drizzle which turned to rain just as I was putting the last row of felt over the ridge and then it was 3 days of temps in the 30's with wind gusts up to 30 mph. It was even spitting snow a couple of times. It made a sucky job to start with suck even more. The lease was up on my truck this year and I had to replace that too. I am now the proud owner of a 2017 Chevy Silverado 1500 crew cab 4x4. I bought this one as part of my retirement plan. I retire in 6 1/2 years and the truck will be paid for just before I do.

Now it's time to make some syrup and save up for a bigger RO.

[Russell Lampron]

I have officially started tapping. I got 200 in this morning before I had to go to my grandson's birthday party. If all goes well I should get the 500 remaining taps in next weekend. I only have a couple of minor things to finish up and will be ready to make syrup when the sap is ready to run.

[Amber Gold]

Hey Russ, Glad you're feeling better and getting tapped in. My plan is to start, and hopefully finish, this weekend. Use the following weekend to get the vac. turned on and bugs worked out. Good luck this season!

[Djdj]

Things are still pretty tight over here on Bumfagon Road. We put one bucket up to monitor.

[Russell Lampron]

Hey Russ, Glad you're feeling better and getting tapped in. My plan is to start, and hopefully finish, this weekend. Use the following weekend to get the vac. turned on and bugs worked out. Good luck this season!

Hey Josh, Unfortunately the weather doesn't look good for the weekend. I hope it is wrong because I want to finish tapping and then get my vacuum fine tuned the following weekend. No need to panic yet though, it's still early.


Things are still pretty tight over here on Bumfagon Road. We put one bucket up to monitor.

Things are still tight here on Pleasant St Ext too. I'm just trying to get the vacuum taps in before I have to do it on snow shoes. The buckets won't go out until the 1st of March or so.

[red maples]

Hey Russ glad to hear your back is doing better. Goodluck with the season.

[Russell Lampron]

I didn't get much done last weekend because of the weather. I have to work Saturday morning but plan to hit the woods in the afternoon and then again all day Sunday. It looks like I will be tapping on snow shoes which isn't much fun. Hopefully all will go well and I get the rest of the taps in this weekend. I'm glad that I got the ones that are the hardest to get to done before it snowed. Everything is pretty much ready to go in the sugar house.

[Russell Lampron]

We hit the woods hard yesterday afternoon and got about 250 more done before we ran out of daylight. If I hadn't had to work until 1:00 at my regular job I could have gotten them all done. We're heading out this morning with plans to get the rest of taps in this morning and go on leak patrol this afternoon.

My wife was here when someone showed up looking for a gallon of last seasons Golden syrup. I happened to have one on the shelf and was able to make the sale.

It looks like the sap weather is here and I should be boiling by mid week.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Good luck and have a good week. I'm heading out shortly to collect and I'll be boiling this afternoon


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[Russell Lampron]

Got the rest of the taps in today. Turned the vacuum on and only had 12". Only had about 1 1/2 hours to check for leaks but found and fixed enough of them to get the vacuum to 22". The sap is coming in pretty good and the pump is on. Looks like maybe I'll be doing the first boil Tuesday night.

[Russell Lampron]

I got the afternoon off from work. After pumping my woods tank I set out chasing leaks. I'm sure there's still some small leaks to find but I'm at 26" now which is what I have my regulator set at. I finished flushing the lines and started saving sap at 3:30 yesterday afternoon. I now have 460 gallons for tomorrow's first boil of the season.

15552

[Dill]

Good news Russ!

[Russell Lampron]

I just knocked on some wood here, literally. I stepped on a piece of wood on the floor of the sugar house while trying to open the cupola doors and landed flat on my back. If that's the only thing that goes bad this year that will be great. I'm okay this morning other than a scar on my knee from hitting the evaporator, the back is doing fine.

Everything is going smooth here. The best surprise is that the membrane in my RO is flowing good. It was practically clogged solid at the end of last season. I washed and rinsed it 5 times before the final rinse for storage last spring. It sat in the RO soaking in permeate for the rest of the off season and I think that probably made the biggest improvement. I bought a new membrane and was hoping to make enough permeate to flush it if the old membrane wouldn't flow.

My first boil went well last night. I got the pans sweetened and made 3 gallons of great tasting golden syrup. It's looking like it will be a good sap day here today.

[red maples]

awe-some sounds pretty good except for the fall. but sometimes when that happens... no one saw! didn;t happen!!!

[Russell Lampron]

Came home from work today expecting to find the tank full or close to it. Instead what I found was no vacuum in the releaser and the first moisture trap was full of sap. I checked the float rod and vacuum lines on the releaser and all looked good. The only thing that I can think of was that the releaser wasn't sitting quite level. I leveled it up and watched it fill and dump and it worked like it was supposed to. I hope that was the problem. I'll know when I go down to pump the tank in the morning. It wasn't a total loss for the day because I did get 325 gallons before the malfunction. The sap was running pretty good when I came back up to the house at 6:00.

[BAP]

That's frustrating Russ. At least it sounds like you didn't loose the whole days run.

[Russell Lampron]

I went down this morning to pump the tank if it needed it and there was only 50 gallons in it and the releaser was 3/4 full and froze up. It looks like it got cold sooner than it was supposed to and the releaser didn't malfunction again before the sap stopped running. That all adds up to a better sap day today than it originally would have been if we didn't get the freeze.

[red maples]

well it wasn;t supposed to freeze here but we got it fairly early last night everything was frozen at about 10:00.

[Amber Gold]

Glad to hear you made it through the digger with nothing more than hurt pride!

I always struggled with those mechanical releasers. I found they took a lot of work to make them work well consistently. Aside from my float issue, I've been extremely happy with the electric releaser...downside is you need electricity.

[Russell Lampron]

well it wasn;t supposed to freeze here but we got it fairly early last night everything was frozen at about 10:00.

It only froze down in the woods here. It never got below 35* up at the house.


Glad to hear you made it through the digger with nothing more than hurt pride!

I always struggled with those mechanical releasers. I found they took a lot of work to make them work well consistently. Aside from my float issue, I've been extremely happy with the electric releaser...downside is you need electricity.

I was glad that I didn't hurt my back when I went down. I hurt it last summer and was pretty much out of commission until October.

I leveled the releaser front to back and side to side and it is working good now.

I made 12 gallons of golden last night to put me at 15 gallons of golden for the season so far. I will be boiling again tomorrow night or Sunday. I've got about 450 gallons of sap and more coming in. The weather looks good for next week.

[Russell Lampron]

Had another good night in the sugar house tonight. Started with 780 gallons of sap, concentrated to about 13%, made 14.5 gallons of syrup in 2.5 hrs. That's almost 6 gallons of syrup per hour including warm up time. The sap ran pretty good since Thursday considering that it has been hot with no freezes at night. I'm at 29.5 gallons of syrup so far, all golden. The best is yet to come.

I went out and added tubing and taps to some trees that are now big enough to tap. I thought I had maybe a dozen but ended up with 25 new taps. There's still more out there that I will need to add in tomorrow. I'm going to tap my buckets tomorrow too.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap didn't run very good yesterday because it was too cold and windy. It was running good tonight when I checked it at 6:00 though. At that time it was coming in at more than 50 gallons an hour. My son in law came over while I was at work to pump out the woods tank and found the vacuum at 18". At that time we only had about 175 gallons of sap. He found and fixed the leaks, a lateral that had pulled apart and a squirrel chew that was all of the way through the tubing. With the vacuum back up to 26" the sap came pouring in and he brought up 225 gallons. I wish that I didn't have to work my day job. I'm sure that I would have seen that there was a problem and gotten it fixed a lot sooner.

[Amber Gold]

Them day jobs...they just get in the way.

Sap ran good for us yesterday. About 0.75gpt by 6pm.

Wish I could get to 26". Haven't had the time to get it higher than like 23" now. Will spend some time in the woods this weekend getting things tightened up.

[Dill]

I was at 26 when I checked this morning. Surprised the hell outta me. Pumped down and back to 21. Sap must have been sealing a leak in the flapper.
I'm telling you ditch the day job and just farm I'm rolling in it over.

[Russell Lampron]

I finished the month of February with the biggest boil of the season last night. I had almost 1000 gallons of sap and made 20 gallons of syrup for a total of 49.5 gallons for February and the season. The color is right on the golden sample but the flavor is definitely amber. I'm grading it as amber because it will probably darken some when I reheat it to jug it up.

Richard went through the woods yesterday and tightened up the vacuum even more. I'm getting a needle width under 27" of vacuum now. That old SP 22 is earning her keep. The snow levels are low enough now so that we can get through the woods with the 4 wheelers. That makes the leak checking go a lot faster. He walked all of the mainlines but one and we were working in that area Saturday and it was tight then.

I decided not to hang buckets anymore. They are a pain in the *** and we put more taps on the vacuum to make up for the lost sap.

[red maples]

I haven't put the buckets up yet but I will. I have the one gravity line which really hasn;t produced because of the weather pattern we have been. but Vacuum is doing GREAT!!! got it up to 25.5" and still working on micro leaks man they add up.

[Russell Lampron]

I was surprised to get almost a gallon per tap yesterday. The sugar was way down which doesn't surprise me. I had 625 gallons of sap that only made 9 gallons of syrup. That color went back to golden and the flavor was slightly more delicate too.

Yeah Brad those micro leaks add up quick and disrupt the sap flow in the lateral big time. I'm getting a lot of sap at a needles width under 27" compared to seasons past when I struggled to maintain 24". Switching to the cv2's and getting rid of the Lapierre fittings has made the biggest difference.

[Russell Lampron]

I collected 325 gallons of sap tonight and left 25 gallons in the woods. That's a 1/2 gallon per tap 4 days since the last freeze. Not bad for red maples. I'm at 58.5 gallons of syrup so far and it looks like the flood gates are going to open Monday.

I'm going to be making maple cream and stuff this weekend to get ready for Maple Weekend. I may try to boil the sap I collected tonight Sunday if I can get it out of the bulk tank.

[Russell Lampron]

I took advantage of this cold snap to jug up some syrup and make maple cream and maple butter for Maple Weekend.

I now have to go out into the cold and wind to move some wood up to my OWB. I'm not looking forward to it but it has to be done. The thermometer is showing 28 degrees which is better than the 12 degrees that it got up to yesterday but I can feel my fingers getting cold now.

[Russell Lampron]

The temp got up to 40* or so here today but I didn't get much sap. I wasn't expecting to get much anyway because of how cold it was over the weekend. It looks like it could run until Thursday if it doesn't freeze Wednesday night. The forecast is for a low of 32* Wednesday night which will probably turn out to be 28* here. I turned the vacuum on at 12:30 and everything was froze up again by 6:00. I got about 60 gallons today.

It looks like another cold weekend coming up. I wish it was the other way around. It would be nice to do all of the boiling and stuff on the weekends and have the freeze up during the week.

[Dill]

I agree, going to be tough on retail if we freeze up every weekend. The pumpkin guys got screwed this fall by the same thing. Every weekend was wet and cold. Not the weather people go out and spend money.
How big is your ro room? Trying to decide what to build.

[red maples]

Dill give yourself some room to move. that is most important. but also something that you can easily keep warm as well. well insulated will save you money heating it. my is 10x 10 only because I have a 575 gallons bulk tank in there as well. but lots of room to move and good insulation cheap and easy to heat.

I hope we get some sap soon!!!

[BAP]

Using a material easy to clean on the walls helps to. We found that our RO room when I had a big operation would get damp when the 2 ROs were running from the lines sweating. This led constant cleaning to keep black mold from developing. Being able to get around your machine to work on it if something happens is nice too.

[Russell Lampron]

My RO room is 10x12. It's well insulated and I have white plastic paneling on the walls and ceiling. Everything is washable and there is a drain in the floor. I heat it with a Modine heater hooked up to my OWB. I used LED lights that look like florescent lights but a lot brighter for lighting. I also use the RO room for canning and filtering and it's also my showroom/store. I use the loft above it for storage.

The sap didn't run as good today as it did yesterday and it didn't run good yesterday. I've gotten a little over 100 gallons since Thursday. Enough of the deep freeze already!

[Russell Lampron]

The third time is a charm! After driving my tractor down to the woods tank twice and coming back empty I was able to drive down and pump 175 gallons out of the tank this morning. The sap is still coming in slow but as the clouds clear and the sun comes out the trees should wake up and the sap should start pouring in.

[maplestudent]

...The sap is still coming in slow but as the clouds clear and the sun comes out the trees should wake up and the sap should start pouring in.

Man I hope you're right

[Russell Lampron]

The sap ran pretty good yesterday and I had 475 gallons to add to the 325 that I had from last Thursday in my bulk tank. That gave me a total of 800 gallons or last night's boil. There wasn't much sugar in it though. I only made 9 gallons of golden syrup. That puts me at 67.5 gallons or the season. The sap was last collected at 3 pm yesterday and I'm heading down shortly to see what has come in since then.

It was below freezing when I came in last night at 9:30 so I turned the vacuum pump off. I woke up to 38* this morning so I ran down to the sugar house in my rode and slippers to turn it back on. Ooooops, I wonder how much sap I missed because of that?

[Russell Lampron]

The sugar has come up a little bit. I collected 550 gallons of sap Thursday and another 75 gallons yesterday for a total of 625 which I boiled last night. The result was that I made a half gallon more than I did the boil before when I had 800 gallons. It looks like the sap isn't going to run for a week now because of the deep freeze. I'm at 77 gallons now and need to make about 100 more to reach my goal.

I'll be splitting wood Sunday because it's looking like I don't have enough to last the season. I feel that the best is yet to come weather-wise. If the forecast holds we should be swimming in sap for Maple Weekend and I'll need a lot of wood for that.

[BAP]

Hey Russ, glad to hear I'm not the only one who is going to be splitting wood during this break to insure there is enough to get threw the season. I cleaned up my sap yesterday and made 4 gallons of AR which is up from the DR I had made earlier in the week.

[red maples]

I Was able to get wood split before the season. since I didn't tap in January. I have some bass wood mixed in with mine and I have another road side bass they cut down burns longer but not as much heat as the pine. was tough going with cold winds the other day even with the blower it really took a long time for the evap to get warmed up.

[Dill]

I heard there is a mill in Chester who has a ton of bundled slabs both hard and soft. I just traded some hay for processed firewood. I'm in an odd wood spot this year, I have 10 cords of pine in teh shed that is way too wet to burn well. Should idle well for maple weekend. I'm mostly burning next year's house wood mostly ash.

[Russell Lampron]

After I was able to get my tractors and splitter to start this morning I was able to split wood for most of the day. I have some big chunks of red oak that have been sitting on the edge of my back field for a few years so it's nice and dry. That stuff was still pretty solid and I was able to split enough to replace 1 tier of wood in the woodshed. That's enough for 50 gallons of syrup so I should have enough to last the rest of the season now. I have more wood out there but it will be a pain to get it in if we get the 8" to 16" of snow that's in the forecast for Tuesday.

[Russell Lampron]

This storm certainly lived up to the hype. I don't know how much snow we actually got because the wind blew it around so much but I do know that my snowbanks are as tall from this one storm as they were from all of the others this winter combined. It looks like the temps may top out above freezing this weekend for a change but it don't look like a heat wave. In fact there's a 50% chance of more snow on Saturday. I did as much as I could with my tractor but I still have to plow out around my sugar house with my 4 wheeler to finish cleaning up this storm.

[red maples]

same here... I haven't even had a chance to get in the woods to see if there was any wind damage. man it was windy.

by the way the forecast looks (on the colder side) at this point I am even worried about having sap for maple weekend!!! Just have to wait and see I guess!!!

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Thinking the exact same thing Brad!!

What a crazy winter, and we all know that its going to go from 30-70 in a week lol and it will all be over.

[handtapper]

With all the warm weekday weather we had in late February my biggest concern is the size of the buds on the sugars, mine are fairly swollen. Looking at the longterm forceast we might get some sap on the 20th and 21st but its pretty cold until atleast the 25th and with the size of the buds I think once we get some warm weather again even with the new snowpack the season might wrap up quickly

[backyard sugaring]

Seems like we only get sap during the week and none on the weekends. We are working hard this year. Hope you guys are doing well. Lee

[red maples]

I have been watching the sugars and I am in a cooler area and they still look pretty tight around my house but I have mostly red on vacuum and they are looking pretty swollen and if we get a few warm days we are done. we had too many really warm days in February compounded by an extended January thaw. just too many warm days.

and even if we get good weather on the 20/21 we have been so cold combined with snow pack I am not expecting much.

[Russell Lampron]

It looks like it's going to be too cold at night and not warm enough during the day to get the sap flowing in the foreseeable future. I'm hoping that the forecast is wrong because maple weekend looks bad too.

[Wingo87]

Well thermometer here is reading 38* and with the mid March strong sun the sap is starting to trickle in here. Nothing earth shattering but it's still good to see after nothing for a week!

[BAP]

35 here and drizzling a little in the sun.

[Dill]

Yup, somehow we got up to 40 around 3. Didn't last long. But I fired up the vac pump. Took a long time for the first dump almost 30 minutes but there was sap moving for the first time this week.

[Russell Lampron]

I thought it was only supposed to get to 34* today so I didn't come home at lunch time to turn on my vacuum pump. I don't think I missed much.

[red maples]

it took a while for it to get warm but we hit 41* here and sun was really warm. you didn;t miss much. I think I got 50 gallons or so.

[Russell Lampron]

The vacuum pump is on now and the sap is starting to trickle in. The fact that there isn't a cloud in the sky is helping out immensly. I really don't expect to get much of a run until Monday though. The trees need to thaw out before they give much sap.

[red maples]

yep. we got up to 38 here today but it was 15 when I woke up soooo just too cold to get anything moving. I think I might boil tomorrow just to get rid of any old sap that was in the lines and frozen etc etc etc. and get the evap all freshened up for monday and tuesday. before we freeze up again.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap is trying to run here, I got 350 gallons yesterday and today. It looks like it should run good tomorrow and Tuesday. It looks like I'm going to boil tomorrow night and save Tuesday's sap for maple weekend.

I blended some very dark syrup that I made last year with some of the golden that I made this year to make some amber and dark for maple weekend. I've only got to make one more batch of maple cream and I will be ready for maple weekend.

[Russell Lampron]

I made 12 gallons of syrup last night with the 550 gallons of sap that I had collected from Saturday through yesterday. It's a good thing that the sugar has come up a bit. I surely thought that I would make some darker syrup since the evaporator had sat for more than a week. But nope, more golden!

I was hoping that the sap would run better today but I only got 250 gallons as of 7:00. The pump is still on and pulling almost 27" of vacuum. Tomorrow it's back into the deep freeze for a couple of days.

[red maples]

yeah sap running weird here too.

[Russell Lampron]

The sun was warm but the air was cold. It was 26* when I turned on the vacuum pump and went down to check the releaser. To my surprise there was sap coming in. I won't know how much I got until tomorrow. I turned the pump off at 7:00 when the sun went down and the temp was down to 28*.

I saved sap from earlier in the week and have 375 gallons in my bulk tank for maple weekend. I have decided to boil it raw Saturday with no blower or bubblemaster. I'll see what comes in tomorrow and Saturday and then decide how I'm going to boil Sunday. I'd like to go balls to the wall and make some quality product.

I cleaned the sugar house today. The only things left in the sugar house are the things that I need for the weekend. Everything else is put away. Just got to sweep the floors and set up the display table.

So far, knock on maple wood, the wind has caused very little damage here. One tree broke in half but didn't fall on any lines and there's some branches here and there. The taps have all stayed in the trees too.

[Russell Lampron]

The result from running the vacuum is almost 100 gallons of sap that I wouldn't have gotten if I hadn't turned the vacuum pump on yesterday. It is barely 33* here and the pump is on now. You gotta want it!!!

Bruce Treat from the NHMPA came up today to get some of my golden syrup for a taste test that he is doing this weekend. We had a nice visit and I was able to show him the improvements that I have made since he was here last. He wants me to build him a bubblemaster.

I'm just about ready for maple weekend. Just got to set up the sample and display table and thaw out the pipe from the bulk tank to the RO.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Have a good day Russell


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[red maples]

you got sap I turned on vac and it was running for 4 hrs and the releaser didn;t even dump once!!! I shut it down.

[Russell Lampron]

you got sap I turned on vac and it was running for 4 hrs and the releaser didn;t even dump once!!! I shut it down.

The only reason that I got sap was because of the sun heating up the trees. The air temp only went above freezing for a short time and the wind was strong and cold. It looks like my releaser dumped 3 times and was 3/4's full when it froze up. My releaser dumps 25 gallons at a time and I could see the ice line on the side cover from when it froze.

[Russell Lampron]

I had a great first day of maple weekend. The turn out was better than expected and the sales were too. I had twice as much cream made than I sold last year and almost sold out. My wife made another batch while I jugged up the syrup I made today to fill in the empty spaces on the shelves. I hope everyone else had a good day too and hoping for a better day tomorrow.

[red maples]

The only reason that I got sap was because of the sun heating up the trees. The air temp only went above freezing for a short time and the wind was strong and cold. It looks like my releaser dumped 3 times and was 3/4's full when it froze up. My releaser dumps 25 gallons at a time and I could see the ice line on the side cover from when it froze.

ah... we had a little sun but it wasn't enough before it clouded up.


It was better than I expected. sales were pretty good. hardy new englanders!!!

[Russell Lampron]

Another maple weekend is in the books. It wasn't a record turn out but close. I think it would have helped if everybody had sap to boil. I made more maple cream last night and sold out today. I ended up selling 3 times as much this year than I did last year. I also saw a huge increase in maple butter sales and sold all but 2 bags of maple coated nuts. I usually have enough nuts left to have break time snacks for more than a week. I heard a lot of good comments about the taste of my syrup as usual and one guest saying that it was the best he had tasted in a few years.

[Russell Lampron]

I went to Sunnyside Maples today to replenish my supply of association jugs. While I was there I also bought a Hanna maple syrup grading meter. That is a nice tool. It will make those borderline colors easier to grade. The price? $65 which is less than a replacement vile for a Lovibond. It will pay for itself in 3 temporary kits time.

[Homestead Maple]

I bought one last year Russ and I agree that they are very easy to use and inexpensive to buy. They give you very quick readings on the color grade compared to some other meters.

[Russell Lampron]

I bought one last year Russ and I agree that they are very easy to use and inexpensive to buy. They give you very quick readings on the color grade compared to some other meters.

It's good to hear from you again Bill. I will be keeping a temporary test kit around for the easy ones. I won't be replacing it when it expires though. The digital one will be used mainly when I have a batch of borderline syrup. I was playing around with it yesterday and found that a sample that looked very close to the dark sample was actually much closer to the amber sample than it first appeared.

[wnybassman]

You inspired me to order one last night. I had a lot of close ones this year.

[red maples]

I got one from the annual meeting last year they are pretty cool. just takes out the guess work. especially when the syrup is particularly red. all the colors are brown so its dificult to tell.

[BAP]

You can buy them direct from Hanna for $59 shipped free right now.

[Russell Lampron]

After running all of the sweet out of my evaporator boiling raw sap over the weekend it took a while to get syrup flowing out of the draw off again. I only made 7 gallons from 800 gallons of sap last night. I made 15 gallons from 475 gallons over the weekend though. That comes out to 22 gallons from 1275 gallons so it's not as bad as it looks. The evaporator is sweet again so I should be back into making something when I boil tonight.

Ordered a new keyboard for my laptop and it's supposed to be here today. It's been a pain to post stuff here tne past 2 weeks using my tablet and phone.

The wood pile took a hit over maple weekend but it looks like I'll have enough to finish the season.

There's snow in the forecast for Friday and Saturday. I hope we don't get much because with all of the mud I don't want to plow again.

[BAP]

The snow maybe a pain to plow if we get it Russ, but it will be good for extending the season.

[Dill]

I was hoping to open up this whole weekend. It was 8inches just friday, now its 13 into saturday. Not cool mother nature. The big issue here is the giant pile of cow manure that I can't move with everything this soft.

[Russell Lampron]

I'm hoping that I only have to plow the end of my driveway. The ground is so soft here that I will be plowing the turf on my lawn up with the snow. Not a good April Fools joke!

The good things are that it will extend the season and it melts fast this time of year.

[Russell Lampron]

In the last 2 days I have collected 600 gallons of sap and still had 150 in the woods tank at 6:00. The RO is ROing as we speak and we are planning to boil tomorrow afternoon. The thermometer is right on 32*, it's snowing and the sap is slowly coming into the releaser.

I'll bring up the 150 plus in the morning when the bulk tank is empty.

I'm at 117 gallons now just 58 shy of my goal. Except for 12 gallons of amber all of my syrup has been golden.

[Sugarmaker]

Russ,
Good report! keep going!
regards,
Chris

[Dill]

Anything running today Russ? Figured I'd save the hike thru the snow and just ask you.

[Russell Lampron]

The temperature is hovering right around freezing but I am getting a little sap. Just brought up 250 gallons that's come in since 11:30 yesterday morning. That sap and 600 gallons that was collected in the past 2 days makes 850 gallons for tonight's boil.

[Russell Lampron]

I ended up with 1000 gallons of sap for last nights boil and made16 1/2 gallons of syrup. That makes a total of 133 1/2 gallons so far.

I woke up this morning thinking that today was going to be a sap day. There was 400 gallons in the tank at 1:00 this afternoon and good flows coming into the releaser. I brought 325 of that up to get the RO going and am going down at 4:00 to bring up what I can to start the 2nd batch through the RO. I'm hoping there's another 325 or more down there.

[Russell Lampron]

My woods tank had 125 gallons in it this morning and I tried to pump it out but the low temp of around 20* had everything frozen solid. I had to work all day and Richard couldn't come over either. I came home to a tank that had been overflowing for quite awhile. I don't know how much sap I lost and I'm pissed because I couldn't get home to keep it from happening.

On a lighter note I'm now at 141 gallons of syrup made which is 34 gallons shy of my goal. My bulk tank is nutted and the sap was still coming in good at 7:00 tonight. If it keeps coming in all night which it should, I'll have another long boil tomorrow night.

[wally]

My woods tank had 125 gallons in it this morning and I tried to pump it out but the low temp of around 20* had everything frozen solid. I had to work all day and Richard couldn't come over either. I came home to a tank that had been overflowing for quite awhile. I don't know how much sap I lost and I'm pissed because I couldn't get home to keep it from happening.

On a lighter note I'm now at 141 gallons of syrup made which is 34 gallons shy of my goal. My bulk tank is nutted and the sap was still coming in good at 7:00 tonight. If it keeps coming in all night which it should, I'll have another long boil tomorrow night.

i can relate. the maplegods smiled and the last two days were my best sap runs this year. then the maplegods frowned, and i lost 150 of the 200 gallons i collected. the driveway up to the sugar house was still packed with dense compacted snow, even though i plowed it. could not get the truck up. so, put on tire chains. tire chains were on the headboard, and needed to remove the ratchet strap to get them. ratchet strap is there to hold the barrels in place... put the chains on, and forgot to replace the ratchet strap. on the eighth attempt to get up the drive, all four barrels went off the side. two broke in half, one had a cover come off, and the last remained intact, but leaking. salvaged 50 gallons between the two intact barrels.

tough for me, as that was 4 or 5 gallons of syrup. i average 17 gallons a rear. not this year. that was not a highlight of my day. the day ended better, as my youngest came down to help boil in the evening, and my wife brought us a pizza.

wally

[Ridgeland Farm]

Sounds like your doing well this year Russ! Not the case up here! We are still quite a ways behind last year which was not a good year either. All of us up here have not had nearly the big runs that we usually get the second half of the season. I have a very cold orchard so I make a good chunk of my syrup at the end of the season. I usually have 6 or 7 days over 4000 gal and we havnt had anything over 3000 this year. Will be interesting to see what the rest of the season brings. Buds have been the same size since January so who knows! I think when it goes it will happen over night. I don't think it will be a gradual flavor change. Im guessing one night will be great syrup and the next night will be no good. Good luck! hope you pass your goal!

[Russell Lampron]

I feel your pain Wally. One time my son in made a mistake and pumped the contents of my 600 gallon bulk tank down the drain. It was full! A couple of years later I did the same thing. Ouch!!!

Ridgeland I'm not sure if I'll make my goal or not. We could use a freeze to keep things going but there's none in the forecast.

Good luck with the rest of your season guys.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap just keeps flowing on this never ending season. I collected 425 gallons yesterday and another 425 today. The sap is continuing it's slow but steady march to the releaser.

I'm at 155 1/2 gallons now just 19 1/2 gallons shy of my goal. I've never had a season like this before. All but 12 gallons of my syrup is golden. The rest is amber.

If any of you have the time to visit Bruce Treat at Hop Kiln Road stop by and do a taste test. It's a real eye opener as far as color and flavor goes.

[Dill]

Same here Russ. I haven't been to the woods in 2 days between calving and a nasty cold. But my neighbor went down to pump up and there was 700 gals of good sap. Guess I go pump northwood today. A few more days of sap don't see it going past Saturday.

[red maples]

vacuum pump is still going. sap is very slow to come in but had a total of about 550 gallons for last night. and have about another 100 gallons since then. no peepers no popped buds. vac has been running at 25.5 to 26.5 and the other day it settled at 27" but its still coming in stronger flavor now and the niter is very dark too. but still going.

Pulling buckets today!!! no freeze in site but want them down!!!

[Russell Lampron]

The sap is still flowing about the same here. Got 475 more today and combined with the sap from yesterday I'm boiling 900 gallons tonight. I need 19 1/2 more gallons of syrup to meet my goal.

The forecast is calling for a low of 31 Saturday night. That could ​mean 26 or so here.

The sap has been clear like early season sap all season. The syrup has been light and easy to filter too.

[Russell Lampron]

The total for tonight was 10 1/2 gallons. Nine more to go! With the sweet in the evaporator that number is reduced to 4 more that I need to make to reach my goal. I have enough wood left for one more boil. It looks like Saturday will be the day to call it a season although it looks like it might run Sunday.

[Greyfox]

Hi Russ,
I'm limping-in with the end of the season as well, but looking like I'll end up with an average season. I boiled off what I had today in case I'm done, but I THINK I might get another bit if a run up here on Saturday if Accuweather is right, but no guarantees there. Another year in the woods, and that's what it's all about.

Doc.

[Russell Lampron]

Hey Doc, I wondering if I was going to hear from you this season. I was thinking that you guys without vacuum probably had a bad season. I'm glad that you had an average one.

I'm almost out of wood and the sap is cloudy today. I may be doing my last boil tomorrow night.

[Russell Lampron]

I turned off the vacuum pump and ended my season last night. It was a productive season in which I exceeded my goal of 175 gallons by 2 1/2 gallons. My woodpile which I replenished mid season is all but gone. I have just enough to finish the evaporator today.

We got a frost last night and I could have kept going for 1 more day but decided that It would be easier to finish the evaporator today rather than trying to get it done at night after work.

I've now got a vacuum leak somewhere on my biggest mainline that showed up Friday. I didn't even try to find it because the sap wasn't running good enough and the wind made it too hard to try to hear it. I've also got a seam on my releaser that is leaking. I'll fix that in the off season.

All but 12 gallons of the syrup that I made this season was golden. The 12 gallons was amber and measured at 57% on my new Hanna grader. It wasn't even close to dark. If any of you local guys are interested I'm open to trades for some good tasting dark, very dark and amber syrup.

Once again vacuum saved or actually made the season. I got the leaks in my system fixed early and was able to maintain 27" just about all season.

[SmellsLikeSyrupNH]

Congratulations on a good season Russell!!!


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[Russell Lampron]

Congratulations on a good season Russell!!!


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Thank you.

[red maples]

Awesome good for you!!! Dude I gotta get up there some time. Hopefully soon!!! I am still going :)

[Russell Lampron]

I finished the contents of the evaporator this morning and ended the season with 184 gallons made which was just over 1qt per tap. I collected 11500 gallons of sap which was 16 gallons per tap from 720 taps. It took a little over 62 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. The sap wasn't very sweet this year but a lot better than the year that it took 74 gallons to make a gallon of syrup.

I had some borderline samples on my window and decided to check them with my Hanna grader. Two samples checked in at 74% one sample checked in at 73% and another at 75%. Figuring that the 75% syrup may darken when reheated and canned I graded it as amber. That means that I actually made 60 gallons of amber and 124 golden.

I hope that you can come up sometime Brad. If you want to trade some dark for golden bring it with you. That makes it a business trip!

[Russell Lampron]

My syrup colors for 2017. The darker ones in the middle are from Maple Weekend when I was boiling raw sap. The darkest one measured 57%.

16373

[red maples]

nice looking samples

Hopefully I can get up there. I will try this summer!!!

[NH Maplemaker]

Russ, We have made a lot of very nice dark robust syrup this year and would consider trading for some light for making candies, if your offer still stands!
Every time I read one of your post I think of that long deep ravine you have built down in your back woods! Jim Lukash

[Russell Lampron]

Russ, We have made a lot of very nice dark robust syrup this year and would consider trading for some light for making candies, if your offer still stands!
Every time I read one of your post I think of that long deep ravine you have built down in your back woods! Jim Lukash

Hey Jim it's good to hear from you. I could use some very nice dark robust. When can we get together? I have a plan to get that sky line down to a safe level but haven't had the time to change it around yet.

[NH Maplemaker]

Russ, I sent you a PM.

[NH Maplemaker]

Well I thought I did! What were you thinking for an amount? I have 5gal , 15gal, or Association containers in all sizes !

[Russell Lampron]

I was looking for the pm and didn't get one. I was thinking 5 gallons even swap. I have the blue jugs that the maple suppliers sell.

[NH Maplemaker]

Russ, I also have some of the blue 5 gallon jugs ! I would luv to have you see our operation. If that isn't something that would work for you Dave Jones works at the Fire Academy in Concord. He said he would be gladly meet you and make the swap ! Either way works for me.

[Russell Lampron]

I would like to go out and see your operation Jim. I won't be able to come out this weekend but maybe the weekend after that.

[NH Maplemaker]

Russ, that works for me! Are you looking for the lighter end of dark robust or the darker end?

[Russell Lampron]

I sent you a pm.

[Russell Lampron]

It was a beautiful day to be in woods. The taps are all pulled and the tank and releaser are back up to the sugar house. I also did the final wash and rinse of the RO machine. Now I've got to pressure wash everything and put it away. I've got a good start on my least favorite part of sugaring. Maybe I can get it all done before Labor Day this year.

[Dill]

You are way ahead of me. My evap is cleaned but not a tap has been pulled. Summerizing the RO is on tap for the rainy days this week.

[Russell Lampron]

You are way ahead of me. My evap is cleaned but not a tap has been pulled. Summerizing the RO is on tap for the rainy days this week.

I'm way ahead of where I usually am. Ending my season last Saturday the 9th instead of trying for one more day made all the difference. I was able to finish my evaporator off Sunday morning where it usually takes me a week before I get that done. Another thing that helped was that I bought some new tap pullers and they worked great. My old ones would bend and didn't have the leverage that the new ones do. I could have gotten some tanks washed yesterday afternoon but after I had my Easter dinner I couldn't get up the ambition and didn't want to leave my family.

[red maples]

wow thats pretty good. I have maybe 75 taps pulled. but its going. gotta get the swampy part done before we get too much rain. RO is all cleaned just just need to get membranes into the preservative. so bacteria doesn;t grow in them. I'll get it!!! have school break next week should be all done by the end of the week. good weather or bad doesn;t matter. get splashed with rotten sap anyway!!! honestly too hot this weekend!!! 90 here on sunday. best to just sit and watch the sox!!! :)

[Russell Lampron]

I went out to see Jim Lukash, aka NH Maplemaker today. We traded sugaring stories and we even traded some syrup. He gave me the grand tour of his sugar house and woods. He has a very nice and clean set up out there. It was a nice day for a road trip. Thank you for showing me around Jim.

[NH Maplemaker]

Your welcome Russ, It was my pleaser ! Really enjoyed our visit as well!