View Full Version : Dill 2017 Something's happening here
But what is ain"t exactly clear. There's a man with a screwgun over there telling me I've got to make holes.
Anyway.
Been a busy year around here. Got a woodshed built onto the back of the sugarhouse, got 12 cords under cover and a couple more in a pile.
Ran a few more 3/4 lines in early jan here at home. Hired Jeff from Windswept to run laterals. Probably got 350 drops cut in now. Trying new end rings and dead end tees. Figure I have to run about 200 more lateral lines. Still need to run saddles on what I have out there and tie some mainline back into the wet/dry system.
Moved a new woods tank out. And built a roof for it last wensday in 50deg sun and lack of snow. Now we got 2 storms in 5 days each dropping about 16inches.
Got a sogevac SV65 for the home woods this year. Way too big a pump for the current setup but I got a wicked deal on it.
Right now the plan is to have at least part of my woods tapped by this weekend and just adding more trees. I haven't even looked at the Northwood sugarbush yet this year.
Russell Lampron
02-14-2017, 08:02 PM
Hey Alden it's good to see that you are making progress. Hopefully you will be able to get tapped before the big runs come. Good luck with the new season.
Sugarmaker
02-15-2017, 07:34 AM
Have fun! Good report! Keep tapping till it hurts! If you want the best end rings try CDL. they hold real well on 5/16. That's about the only ones I use. I like the blind tees too. Keeps that sap out of the end of the line where it may get yucky. I also designed a sliding loop on the lines at the end trees to allow me to tighten or loose the lines. Tight and down hill in Dill thats the ticket!
Regards,
Chris
Made a supply run to bascoms yesterday. Man those get expensive fast. I asked them if they would drop a releaser off at Lappierre back in Dec. Have to say I'm impressed they hauled it up and back no problem. And lap was able to reseal the bottom. Turned into a blizzard up on top of the hill and it took a while to leave cause there was a stuck tractor trailer trying to come up.
Today I focused on plowing and the cows. But I found a gem for the sugarhouse. I checked find an avocado recliner off the preseason punch list. Now I just to find a harvest gold loveseat to match.
Tomorrow is going to be a full day on snowshoes. Lots of saddles to install. And I'm meeting with a well guy about setting a pump down at the woods tank.
red maples
02-17-2017, 05:11 PM
sounds like things are coming alone!!! the releaser bottoms are a pain in the butt!!! had one go last year try to fix it and broke it so lappierre wouldn't fix it or replace it had to buy another one but they just charged me for the bottom. canister.
Spent a great day in the woods on snowshoes. Turns out I got a sunburn even. Got the pumpline to the sugarhouse built. Just need to run it to the bulk tank. Installed a crap ton (that's an official number), of saddles. Tomorrow, I"m actually going to take a drill to the woods, should have 300 on gravity by noon.The electrician is coming monday to wire in outlets. But I won't have the fancy oil for the sogevac pumps til friday so I think I"m going to run the old Sp11 for a few days til we can switch to highvac. Have 3 more mainlines of laterals to work up. So I need to get off the comp and whip up some more drops.
Oh and I got a cool little well pump that I can run off 110. So I only need to bring a small genset down to the woods. That's monday's project.
Russell Lampron
02-19-2017, 05:26 AM
Sweet, it's good to see that you are making progress. You should be able to make some syrup this year even with the SP 11 doing the sucking.
It sounds like your sap pump line should work good for you. With the bigger tractor I have found that it is easier and faster to pump the sap from the woods tank directly into the 325 gallon tank on the sap trailer. Two trips to the tank and back is faster than pumping up the hill and draining the pipe back. The drain back was the slowest part.
Wingo87
02-19-2017, 05:48 AM
That's funny I got a sunburn too! I thought a was crazy but I guess not. I hit it hard yesterday got the rest of my taps in. After finding a few squirrel chews, and a few loose taps I had my 3/16's line up to 20in of vac. Not sure if I can make it better or not, it's new to me. I'm going to collect now and hoping to boil.
Got 200 taps in this afternoon. Felt really good to some of my trees with holes in them. Got some wet/dry connections cut in this morning. Have to run out and get some more hose clamps and hog rings in the morning. Forgot how fast these burn them up. Have another 100 taps ready to drill too, then some more drops to cut in and saddles. Current plan is work here all week and then it looks like all the snow will be gone by next weekend so I figure then I'm going to hit the Northwood bush hard.
15516
BTW my dog was standing on my snowshoes so he didn't sink. Which doesn't make working on mainline any easier.
Just spent 3 hours on snowshoes over lines and weaving through the woods. Get home for lunch, park the car and wham! down on the ice. Man that hurt.
Forgot that I only finger tightened the tank plug when I set it in the woods. So I haven't collected much sap yet. This weather is getting nuts supposed to be 60 tomorrow? Thank goodness we have serious snowpack.
Added another 100 taps this morning.
Still in the PIA portion of sugaring. Spent all morning driving around picking up pieces to get the vac up and running. Hauled the releaser and the hanger out to the woods and proceeded to kink the vac line. That took a while to fix. At least I'm collecting some on gravity right now.
Tomorrow is get a plug in the bulk tank or a fancy milk tank valve, then get the well pump down to the woods.
It has been a rough couple days. So I bought what was a 110v well pump from a buddy who is a well guy. Never heard of one but whatever that means I don't need to bring a big generator down. So I hike it down to the tank. Wire it all up and no pumping. Well some flow but not enough to get up to the sugarhouse, then my generator craps out. Hike back out, swing over to a buddy's place in town, borrow his which is 110 only. Snowshoe that down. Still no pumping.
Finally look at the pump specs. Its a 220.
So this morning I bought another generator, cause my portable is a 9500watt giant thing on a trailer. Hike the new to me one down and there and finally pumping! Got 350 gallons back to the SH. Get home and find my vac oil that I've been waiting for. Just got the Sogevac up and running. I know I missed 3 taps, buts pulling 13 at the releaser and dumping. So tomorrow is vac patrol. And I think replace a water filter moisture trap cause I bought some new ones and they sound like they are leaking, its the filter/bypass off head. And hopefully boil.
Russell Lampron
02-24-2017, 07:52 PM
Glad you got your well pump working. Now you just need to get the vacuum leaks fixed to get the sap.
Fixed the big leaks I could find first thing and got it up to 22. The sogevac is quiet. Its just purring away in the corner of the sugarhouse. Yes its eating power and is way over spec'ed for my current tap count. But its sucking.
Hooked the arch blower up, cleaned the pans, fixed the floats and fired up for 3 hours this afternoon. I was short a fitting on the steamaway blower so I wasn't running that but everything else worked well. I got a good run last night on the vac so I should have most of day of boiling tomorrow. Have a cow to attend to in the morning then should just be boiling hard.
Russell Lampron
02-25-2017, 09:46 PM
Good luck with your boil tomorrow. I know your syrup was dark last year and am curious as to what you will make now.
Do you have your Sogevac wired up to a variable speed drive? If so, then your pump most likely isn't using a lot more power than a smaller pump.
red maples
02-27-2017, 09:50 AM
my syrup is dark this year... which from what I am hearing is what other folks are making. except that guy with bubble master!!! :)
handtapper
02-27-2017, 10:14 AM
I might be one of the exceptions but the few gallons I have made so far this year has been very light. Sugar content has been on the higher side too
Russell Lampron
02-27-2017, 06:22 PM
my syrup is dark this year... which from what I am hearing is what other folks are making. except that guy with bubble master!!! :)
I might be one of the exceptions but the few gallons I have made so far this year has been very light. Sugar content has been on the higher side too
All of mine has been golden so far, 29.5 gallons of it. My sugar has been about average but hear others talking about only getting .5% sugar. Even with an RO that's a lot of water to remove.
I haven't tested my sugar, figure its one more thing to go wrong. Pulled 5 gallons off tonight. Im blowing through wood and time it seems. Its time for an RO. Anyone have recommendations for a 250?
Russell Lampron
02-28-2017, 04:58 AM
I haven't tested my sugar, figure its one more thing to go wrong. Pulled 5 gallons off tonight. Im blowing through wood and time it seems. Its time for an RO. Anyone have recommendations for a 250?
For an operation the size that yours is going to be you need a 600. I recommend the Lapierre.
SmellsLikeSyrupNH
02-28-2017, 05:29 AM
This a a bottle from last season and one from this past weekend. I guess I never really have had such golden syrup before. I knew I had medium to dark but NEVER realized it was that dark LOL The RO and the better evaporator certainly have changed up my process and results.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170228/5c70d1b872ec8f9b3563eafce597fbc4.jpg
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
maplestudent
02-28-2017, 11:09 AM
I read a lot of threads on which I don't comment, and I've been reading yours since last year.
I just want to say I wish you well this year because if anyone deserves a break, it's you.
Good luck!
Thanks we've had a great run of bad farming luck this last year.
I made a big change and switched from sappy pine to balsa weight pine that josh I cut 4 years ago and forgot about in the cow pasture mixed with ash I stole from next winters house stash. Holy crap now this rig singing. Probably doubled gph I was down around 60 yesterday.
Sap dog isn't so sure it's raining in here tonight.
Russell Lampron
03-01-2017, 05:39 AM
Good wood makes a huge difference. I'm probably going to have to raid my furnace wood stash myself. I've used almost a third of the wood that I put in for sugaring and haven't made a third of a seasons syrup yet. My guesstimation is that I'm going to run out of wood with season enough left to make 25 gallons more.
Well my sugar content is 1.4% which explains why I'm boiling forever and not making much syrup. The main bush we've tapped at home so far is wet red maple. This is a good reason to get the higher living sugars for next year. We have another 500 or so to add.
Starting to get a better feel for this rig. Almost had a big issue today, the flu pan float hung up and suddenly it was dropping level fast, but all is well now.
Drained the preheater and the feed line from the headtank, turned off the vac pump, looks like we are froze up til monday. Maybe it will send the sugar content back up.
Holy hell is it cold for march. Tractor barely wanted to start this morning after being plugged in all night. Evap is froze solid. Plan for the day was too add more taps. But I haven't got to the woods yet. 15 degs but the wind is whipping. Went up to the ridge yesterday and got a 1500 gal poly tank from Pearls for a permate tank. If all goes right we are picking up a 600 CDL from Bascoms tuesday morning and trying to slam it in to place. Looks like great sap flow for the whole 15 day. Accu is much colder than weather.com for a change. One of them is right.
red maples
03-05-2017, 11:06 AM
man I hope they right!!! they honestly haven't been that accurate the past few weeks. So aint sayin nothin'
you hear from Josh at all? I was over by his woods today picking up wood pellets and his truck was there but he must have been in the woods.
Russell Lampron
03-05-2017, 11:17 AM
A CDL 600 is a nice machine. How much syrup have you made so far and how is the color? I may need to trade some lighter stuff or some dark stuff again.
I've been making borderline dark/very dark. Low sugar content i'm guessing is why. I'm currently at 350 taps and I've only made 15 gals. Right now I decided it was better to work on my taxes than the woods today.
4 degs when I got up this morning. Supposed to hit 40 but I'm wondering if the trees will thaw. Crazy thing is looks like another 4-5 day freeze coming next weekend. Well I take that back its 11 and we are up to 33 and its an awesome day to work in the woods.
red maples
03-09-2017, 06:17 AM
Mine is dark too. went over to very dark on sunday but went back to dark yesterday. so thats nice to see. With these hard freezes I am hoping we can get a little closer to some amber. my pans have really lightened up. sugar is up a bit for me as well. I am gonna filter my back pan tonight before I boil its pretty loaded then then I think I will vinegarize it over the freeze up so I can get rid of the niter build up back there too.
I think Im going to do something I've never done during sugaring season before. I'm going to have to close the copula doors. Holy cow was it cold out there tonight. Ended up with a good run last night. We built the RO room yesterday, and it was wired today, but it was boiling the old fashioned way because it hasn't been plumbed yet. And if I did get it going today I was just going to heat it for the next week.
red maples
03-12-2017, 09:57 AM
did you pick up your RO yet? my first couple times I used it I brought it up to 8% then to 12% then 15%. I can;t even imaging boiling raw sap. Didn't have a filter press for the first years of the RO so it was a bit tough going drawing of that much syrup and getting through the flat filters.
If you don;t have one yet I highly recommend a filter press. I got a really good deal on a full bank 7" wes fab with 1/2 the plates. So its a short bank press on a full bank machine. took a little get the hang of it... mostly amount of DE to use so you can get the most of it before you need to break it down. and making sure the syrup stays hot. but I have it down now. I was blowing papers the first few times until I learned. and at the end of every boil I run my entire front pan through the press to get it nice and clean so I can filter longer on the next boil.
but man wait until you can just crack the valve and leave it open and make so much syrup per hour compared to raw sap. especially with that steamaway too. I Don't have one of those.
Yes I picked it up wensday, wired and built the room. Haven't plumbed it yet. I was thinking about doing that today, but its way too cold up at the sugarhouse. I had to light a campfire in the arch. It froze so fast the sap pan float got frozen open and spilled a bunch onto the the floor.
Made a bunch of granulated sugar yesterday. Turned out better than I expected. I picked up a kitchen aid pro mixer a couple years ago on a big sale for this purpose and I have to say it worked well as long as the batch isn't too big about a qt and a pt is about right.
Filter press is going to have to wait til next year.
Looks like we should be able to fire up again sunday. Got the other bush tapped on monday. Haven't turned the pump on there so I haven't been able to chase leaks. Today we are plumbing the RO just been way too cold.
Finally got the Northwood bush online today. The new SP11 setup on the air compressor that I've been calling sucker 2.0 lasted 4 hours before castrophic gasket failure and eruption of vac oil. Good thing I was still there. So I'm back to running the old old RV2. I had it up to 19 with the 2.0. Plug in the RV and I'm at 8. Turns out it developed pin hole leaks in the ballast tank over the winter. Finally found them and patched them with good old black elec tape. When I left that holey old system that I think is a 50/50 mix of tape and tubing at this point was holding 24. Which aint too shabby.
I found some odd saddles in the my backpack. Trying to figure out where I got them. Its a hose clamp with a hole and a 90 fitting and a white gasket. They actually seem to hold strain better than most. And seal well.
Holy cow. I've been around ROs I know how they work. It it's really different when it's your tank of sap that would take 8 hours of boiling that is disappearing before your eyes. Did the first squeeze last night. Took 1.3% to 6. Only boiled hard for 2 hours. Took a long time to come up to temp since the flu pan was a block of ice. Had to put 2 torches and a heat gun on the syurp float box but the time savings was amazing. Hopefully we got a good overnight run.
Russell Lampron
03-21-2017, 07:08 PM
My flue pan was frozen solid last night and within minutes of turning on the bubble master it was all liquid. I turned on the bubble master right after I lit the evaporator.
I bet you won't be boiling raw sap anymore.
red maples
03-22-2017, 05:03 AM
wait until you bring it up to 15% you boil for an hour. or less (depending on how much sap you start with) The time savings, wood savings, off season time saving cutting wood, stacking wood, saving on gas for splitter , chainsaw etc. awesome isn't it!
I don't even like to turn on my machine until I have at least 350 gallons. and if you are short on sap storage you can always just squeeze a little just to get you through. I am still amazed with it every time I use it.
heat tape man. you can get pretty short wires from home depot or lowes and I just wrap my float box with it when it gets too cold.
Turned into a really snowy day here. But we had steady turnout most of the day. It was coming down hard a couple times. We didn't get any sap overnight so I decided to fill the head tank with water. Glad I did. Lots of people said we were the only one they had stopped at up and running. Right now I'm doing my 4th batch of candy and waiting for cream to chill before o start stirring. Tomorrow should be busy.
Russell Lampron
03-26-2017, 05:49 AM
We had reports of being one of the few that were boiling yesterday. One person asked if we were boiling water. I showed him the 6 gallons that I had in the draw off tank. We had a good turn out with good sales too. There were times when the sugar house was full of people practically shoulder to shoulder.
wally
03-26-2017, 05:56 AM
i visited two in warner that were both running, one with sap, the other pushing water.
i stopped at proctor academy, but nobody was at the sap house.
wally
Maple weekend went well. I"m in the completely beat but not yet alseep mode. Tomorrow is back to production mode. It was slow this morning but a couple highlights. I was just puttering around getting fired up around 830 this guy whips in wearing PJs and waving money, "Hey I just ran out really glad you were in!" I just sold him a half gallon 2 weeks ago. I felt like a crack dealer. See ya next week dude.
Then around 1 a convoy of minivans and trucks pull in with 3 JR high basketball teams. It was like being overrun by locusts. Pancakes and donuts just disappear. However the parents probably bought half of what we had left for sale.
Next year I'm putting up more signs. But all in all, we sold 90% of what we had on hand. My fooling around making candy and cream paid off in spades. Sold all the cream, and most of the sugar and candy. And I'd say almost everyone who stopped spent money and went home happy.
So boiling question. The last couple draws I've had scary temp spikes mid draw. Like shooting up to 18 over and barely coming out, had to grab the oh crap water last night.
The question is, am I running it too low, too high?
Russell Lampron
03-28-2017, 07:44 AM
So boiling question. The last couple draws I've had scary temp spikes mid draw. Like shooting up to 18 over and barely coming out, had to grab the oh crap water last night.
The question is, am I running it too low, too high?
What depth are you running your pan at? I run mine at 1 1/2" and other than the first draw off I don't have that problem.
Sugarmaker
03-28-2017, 07:46 AM
Dill,
My guess is too low! Sounds like your maple weekend was great! Get some rest!
Regards,
Chris
Sugarmaker
03-28-2017, 08:03 AM
Dill,
Just realized you have evaporator built by local guy about 10 miles from me. I am running the custom drop flue pans he built for me a couple years ago and really like the performance!
If your RO works good you should now have enough wood for the next 6 years!
Regards,
Chris
Is he still up and running the business? There are things that I really like about the rig and things that aren't. I don't think the AOF works as well as it should but wow he did build a really efficient setup. You can touch the door when its burning blue and white flame. I'm going to have to put a woodstove in the shack next year. Yes I'm not going to have to restack the woodshed at this point. His valve setup is great too. I reverse the flow every other night and it takes all of 10 seconds.
red maples
03-28-2017, 05:27 PM
get a pellet stove... you pay for pellets but easier than a woodstove.
Sugarmaker
03-28-2017, 05:44 PM
Dill,
The local evaporator mfg that built your rig is still making evaporators. I also like the float system he built me. I did have to have him build a thicker float and that worked much better too. He built the float while I waited which was very good service.
I wait till the rig is cool to switch sides since I have two valves in the flue pan to change. But it doesn't take long for sure.
I have designed and built my own AOF and have done some things to improve that system. If I can help let me know.
Regards,
Chris
I might send my floats back in the offseason for touch up. I think 2 of them are leaking a bit. Good fabricator, awful business man.
I dropped the syrup pan float 2 ticks deeper, back to drama free syrup pulling, much better. I got a good run in Northwood today. And a decent one here at home.
Sugarmaker
03-29-2017, 07:41 AM
:)
Regards,
Chris
Busy day around here. We did an open house yesterday so I just idled the rig, and the wife made me go to bed. Only slept 16 hours straight. I think that helped. So today was a double big sap day. I need to clear whats in the canner but I think I passed a 20 gal day. Its still running well here. Both bushs are north facing. Figure if the buds hold off today I'll run til friday on good sap. Northwood had a good day but something wiped the vac. I'm down from 24 to 18. Poked around a bit while I was pumping but didn't find it.
red maples
04-03-2017, 05:08 PM
keep pushing...
Russell Lampron
04-03-2017, 07:13 PM
You gotta get out there and fix those vacuum leaks. How much syrup have you made so far and after the season will you be looking for some golden? I need some dark if you're up for a trade.
Honestly I haven't kept track the way I should. But I'm around 125 gals. Goal was 200 but I'm closer than I thought I would be with the start of the season. I've made one grade all season, Dark robust. Its well on the light side of the grade but still there. My syrup is very reddish which is why I can't get up to Amber. But yes I'll do a swap with you.
So far all morning today was saving a calf with hypothermia, so not sure what we got for overnight sap run, but its nasty 34 and rain.
Russell Lampron
04-04-2017, 08:08 PM
I don't think you got very much overnight. We didn't here. From last evening until this evening I only got 425 gallons.
Just keep swimming is my motto this year. Didn't make it to Northwood yesterday found a very full tank at noon. Shut off the 30 taps or so that was cause the vac drop so the rest of the system is back up to 24. Made another 6 gals tonight. Figure I'll do the same tomorrow. Can't explain how much I love that RO, I was under 1 this afternoon. Just split off 600 gals of water first. Man that is awesome.
Russell Lampron
04-06-2017, 06:55 PM
You'll never boil raw sap again.
Well I pulled the plug before noon this morning. Sap seems to have really changed fast overnight. Right from feb sap to what I would expect for April sap, cloudy, smell, and full of bubbles. The releaser messed up here at home and seems to have sucked sap all the way up the vac line. If this was mid season I would have freaked out, but a good sign to stop. Pulled the line off the pump and she is still making vac so no harm no foul. I've got 10 gals in the canner now that I can't tell if its buddy or not. Figured I would let it sit and then retaste. Still have to desugar the rig.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.1.7 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.