A little late to the game

[jerzeemaple]

Was contemplating tapping this year but opened the front door this morning and Game on what a beautiful day! Swapped out a bunch of drops and spiles, tightened up my mainlines and put in all 180 I have on pipeline and my kids hung 10 buckets behind the house. Sap was running pretty good today in my sugar maples, wish I had more of them, the reds weren't running to good and that's most of what I have. All plumbing is set on the evaporator and should be ready to flood the pans and start tomorrow! Hoping that the sap sugar is decent this year.

[John-NJ]

Well weather is wacky - lets see how long things go.
The red maples are wierd. I find the only way to get reliable flow is vacuum. I have had trees that would do nothing on gravity and others that do great. Yesterday I was getting around 12 gallons an hour up till I turned off the vacuum. The releaser emptied once more and then not a drop more in the tank when I went out this morning.

Get that evaporator fired and make the best of whats left for the season. A few more days like yesterday and the buds will start popping...

Know what you mean about the hemlock.. these ****ed invasive pests suck - pun intended.

Have fun

[jerzeemaple]

What do you have for vac? I oversized my mains all 1" and 2-4 taps per lateral with anticipation to run a wet/dry single line. My reds never run well but it's what i have. Would love to put vac on it someday was thinking diaphragm would help as half my trees are red maple swamp not much elevation 1% slope. Other half of my trees are atop 100 ft slope 700 ft mainline with great gravity

[John-NJ]

Well weather is wacky - lets see how long things go.
The red maples are wierd. I find the only way to get reliable flow is vacuum. I have had trees that would do nothing on gravity and others that do great. Yesterday I was getting around 12 gallons an hour up till I turned off the vacuum. The releaser emptied once more and then not a drop more in the tank when I went out this morning.

Get that evaporator fired and make the best of whats left for the season. A few more days like yesterday and the buds will start popping...

Know what you mean about the hemlock.. these ****ed invasive pests suck - pun intended.

Have fun

And I turned on the vacuum this am at 7 and it was like picking up where I had left off.... getting about 10 gallons an hour from the get go.

In answer to your question, I have two mainlines, one 500 footer of 1 inch and one 100 footer of the leader blue 3/4 inch. Both go to a little hut I built with homebrew vacuum set up. It is a Gast vane pump, can't remember the model right now, but bought it on ebay. Built a trap out of DWV PVC fittings and a street hockey ball, and an electric releaser with a piece of 8 inch PVC pipe as the tank. This pumps out when it fills into a 275 gallon tote. This system could handle maybe double the number of taps that I am running (both vacuum and releaser).

If you like building things, it is pretty straightforward.

Regards

[jerzeemaple]

Ripped thru all 230 gallons today, flooded evaporator, pans are sweetened, no major leaks, bottled up 2 gallons and had birthday dinner for my wife in the saphouse with my kids today! Poor wife always has birthday in the saphouse.The kids are finally taking interest in running the evaporator!Ready for another slug of sap, hopefully with higher sugar content.

[jerzeemaple]

I managed to boil and bottle up 1.75gals last night after work. Not much sap today Not enough to pump and work with, due to heat wave coming I dumped my tank, about 25 gallons, no way to freeze or chill the sap and it'll spoil for sure these next days. I pulled my mainlines out of the tank before it gets nasty too, will reinstall next freeze.I hope it gets cold again before whats in the evap spoils before the next boil fingers crossed. Hope the buds don't pop.

[John-NJ]

Think Cold!

[5050racing]

Collected another 40 tonight and the 3/16 was still running can't believe it, but put the lines on the ground not collecting it with 70 degrees again and started to boil the 120gal total will finish Friday night I hope,packed snow all around the tote under the barn,the sap just started to get some color but clear,smells good BOILIN so hope it makes it till tomorrow night but this maybe it will see?

[sugarwoodacres]

Collected another 40 tonight and the 3/16 was still running can't believe it, but put the lines on the ground not collecting it with 70 degrees again and started to boil the 120gal total will finish Friday night I hope,packed snow all around the tote under the barn,the sap just started to get some color but clear,smells good BOILIN so hope it makes it till tomorrow night but this maybe it will see?
I boiled yesterday and made very dark syrup, still tastes fine. My lines also are on the ground now til Sunday. ILL wash out tanks and start over clean i hope on Monday.

[5050racing]

Same here or my just call it the end for me,making maybe a 1.5-2 gal tonight for about 15gal for the yr I'm fine with that!

[jerzeemaple]

It's no good when you see a painted turtle swimming in the Paulins Kill is February. Confused with the weather. My wife swears she heard peepers last night. The silver maples are all flowered out too not good, hope the reds hold out

[jerzeemaple]

Just dumped my flue pan, grrr getting nasty. Salvaged syrup in front pan gotta finish it and filter it yet. Pulled buckets left spiles in hopin the weather spins for the better and maybe another run? I did hear peepers today too, got pretty warm