Wife doesn't like the "look" of tubing

[mspina14]

My sugar bush is on my 5 acre lot next to my house.

I live in a residential area along a main road.

My wife doesn't like the look of tubing running on our property from the road. She says the neighbors have questioned what it is we have running from tree to tree on our property and it makes her self-conscious.

So, before I put up the tubing this year for the first time, I agreed on the following:

1. Tubing is grey to blend in with the surroundings all year
2. I have to take down the tubing at the end of the sugaring season

I really don't want to take the tubing down and put it up every year. I don't have the time.

I was thinking of disconnecting the taps, cleaning the lines with hot water and/or hydrogen peroxide, placing the taps in the tap holder, and just dropping the tubing to rest on the ground until next year, rather than rolling it up and storing it in the basement.

The tubing won't be very visible resting on the ground and I won't have to haul it to the basement and haul it out again next year.

Has anyone done this before?

thanks

Mark

[ennismaple]

I wouldn't rest it on the ground. You'll be digging it out of the snow next spring and it'll be covered in leaf litter. Can you compromise at 24" above the ground?

Blue tubing shining in the sunlight looks pretty to me!

[Waynehere]

My neighbor, whom owns the majority of the trees I tap, also doesn't like the look. So I have to take down and put up about 200 taps every year. I just acquired a few wire spools from Home Depot and wound up the different runs to see if it helps any for this process this year. I feel for you....

Of course if your wife loves the syrup, you can always tell her, "then no syrup for you!!!!".... :) Sorry, couldn't resist...

[Urban Sugarmaker]

I'm taking my laterals down so the owner can get his tractor through the grove. No big deal. I am leaving the mainline up though, and it will barely be visible during the summer.

[cur dog]

I've got lots of shadow tubing in the woods. You've got to look hard to see it. I'll bet your wife won't even notice that you forgot to take it down next spring.

[Michael Greer]

Get some buckets.

[spud]

Offer to buy a couple pair of nice shoes for your wife after each season and she may agree to let the tubing stay. :)

Spud

[Russell Lampron]

A few years ago while wife was at work I ran a short mainline and set up a sap ladder to put 18 taps in my front yard on vacuum. When my wife saw it she said that she didn't like the look of it. I told her that I would take it down if she wanted to collect the buckets that I would hang there like I used to. The tubing is still there and nothing more has been said about it.

[blissville maples]

Lol, looks like your In the clear!

[mspina14]

A few years ago while wife was at work I ran a short mainline and set up a sap ladder to put 18 taps in my front yard on vacuum. When my wife saw it she said that she didn't like the look of it. I told her that I would take it down if she wanted to collect the buckets that I would hang there like I used to. The tubing is still there and nothing more has been said about it.

My red maples won't run at all on buckets. But I got 400 gallons of sap from them this year on tubing and light vacuum.

Russ - can you please come and talk some sense into my wife for me? :emb:

Thanks

Mark

[mspina14]

My neighbor, whom owns the majority of the trees I tap, also doesn't like the look. So I have to take down and put up about 200 taps every year. I just acquired a few wire spools from Home Depot and wound up the different runs to see if it helps any for this process this year. I feel for you....

Of course if your wife loves the syrup, you can always tell her, "then no syrup for you!!!!".... :) Sorry, couldn't resist...

Unfortunately, my wife is not a big syrup fan. Otherwise, I would have already used the syrup withholding threat.

What size wire spools did you use to roll up the tubing?

Mark

[Sunday Rock Maple]

Roll it up and put it in a barrel in the woods. Your tubing will still look like new in ten years -- and you'll be a man of your word.

[mspina14]

Roll it up and put it in a barrel in the woods. Your tubing will still look like new in ten years -- and you'll be a man of your word.

If I roll it up, what do I do with the spouts, drop lines, and "T"s? Just leave them on the tubing while it's rolled up?



Mark

[wiam]

If I roll it up, what do I do with the spouts, drop lines, and "T"s? Just leave them on the tubing while it's rolled up?



Mark

Correct,
William

[mspina14]

Correct,
William

OK. Thank you.

Mark

[GeneralStark]

Shadow grey tubing blends in very well. I have 100 taps on my neighbors property and they don't like the blue tubing. I used grey on their land and they never even noticed I put it up....

Perhaps you could use grey and then only take down a few portions close to where your wife might see.

This does remind me of a joke however...Amish man newly married is riding in his buggy with his new wife. Horse trips and man says...that's once. Horse trips again and man says...that's twice. Horse trips third time and man grabs shotgun and shoots horse dead...Wife says: "why did you shoot a perfectly good horse?" Man says: "that's once."

[hogisland42]

That's funny, Good one general!!!