December Journal

[Maple Man 85]

We finished up our 40th bag of wood today which should be more than enough to get us through the 2018 season. On to installing drops!16882

[maple flats]

Good job, my logs have been piled for 2-3 years but I only have about 1/3 of what I like to start the season with split and stacked. I'll do more Monday and some Tuesday, on Tuesday I'll also be packing more Dark in retail containers. I'm also putting another 2 bourbon barrel syrup in the bourbon barrels. They will be 10 gal each, should be ready in 6-7 months. The bourbon barrel aged syrup has been a winner since I put my first batch up in bottles last August.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

75% done clearing trees and limbs from the big wind storm in October. More damage from one storm then from all summer and early fall. Hope we don't see 70 MPH winds again anytime soon. Went from a good early start to being behind because life gets in the way again. Line work starts today. Hopefully the 3 of us can get it done before the snow gets too deep.
Also hope to run some more mainline and change around some lines that are too flat and were never quite right. Looked over the new toy, CDL spinseal tool to install the fused saddles. Definitely think its the way to go, just need to play with it and figure it out.

[VT_K9]

We picked up the CDL monitoring system, spin seal, and SS tank on Friday. We still have a little work clearing the way for the new mainline to the new sap shack, but it should not be too hard beyond simple clearing. We need to set about 7 telephone poles to run the vacuum line and pump line high in a couple spots. Then it is the running of wire and lines. In the sugar house we need to build a cabinet to house the monitoring hardware there. The cabinet will be screened to keep critters out and then have panels to put in place during the summer to keep dust out. Oh and we need to install the tubing for the about 400 new taps. Plenty of time.....I sure wish it was August and I am where I am on the projects.

Mike

[mspina14]

We finished up our 40th bag of wood today which should be more than enough to get us through the 2018 season. On to installing drops!16882

Anthony:

Why do you put your wood in bags?

Mark

[maple flats]

How do you keep the rain and snow out of them?

[Maple Man 85]

Anthony:

Why do you put your wood in bags?

Mark
I have a 3 point carry all on my tractor I can pick up a face cord at a time and set it right next the evaporator. It comes down to less work :cool:

[Maple Man 85]

How do you keep the rain and snow out of them?

We have extra sheet tin I place on top the bags to keep the rain and snow out.

[unc23win]

A good couple of days in the woods here in PA nice to be back at installing lines. My helper and I pulled out about 1200' of 1" and got a bunch wire tied. One section we are upgrading and picking up some new taps and another section will be all new taps. We are just going to keep going at it every minute we can.

I realized to that I am going to have to install another booster/manifold as we are out of inlets on the releaser. A little extra work but it will probably be worth it in the long run.

[Maplewalnut]

Finished our 3/16ths bush over the weekend. Have about 300 taps but only 3/4 of them have good slope, the bottom 1/4 of taps have only a couple feet drop til mainline so I am going to augment the system with a 12V Shurflow pump. It will certainly be pushing the upper limits but I figure even if I only get pump vacuum half way up the hill I will be winning, the top of the laterals have plenty of steep drop and hence natural vacuum. We will probably have some challenges logistically this year as we will for the first time we have more taps that will need sap trucked in than we have at the sugar house. For once it may be good to have teenage drivers.

[Maple Man 85]

Installed 1,200 drops over the last couple days. Shooting to get another 1200ish drops in the 1st 40 by the end of the week! Then setting pumps and off to the next 40!

[jmayerl]

Holiday sales looked to finish strong, about 40 cases sold in December with a big push the last 3 days. Now looking to to find another 800-1000 taps and hopefully find some sap sellers. Anyone near Green Bay we will buy any amount of sap.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

This is the text message I got from my partner today after a day in the bush. We do 400 taps ourselves and all the woods work for 5400 taps in another bush. We work 40+ hour/week jobs and do our best. I haven’t laughed this hard in a while, true story :

“Just thought I’d give you an update on the maple. I fell on my head into the ice twice!! Rolled the snowmobile over .. yup two times and into a tree. I fell while walking up the mountain while carrying the mainline tool and smacked myself in the face.. bad headache could be black eye in the morning!! Pretty good day!! Ohh I fixed a couple of main lines.”

[Russell Lampron]

Merry Christmas everyone! I picked my new custom built by Bill Mason arch last Sunday. Because of the latest snow storm and other holiday season commitments I haven't had much time to get it bricked yet. I did center it in the sugar house, leveled it and installed the blower. My son in law and I had a couple of boiling sodas and stood around and looked at it too.

[Bucket Head]

That's a great story! We've all had days similar to that. As a joke (or maybe not as a joke?) you should give your partner a full-face helmet and tell him to wear it next time he's in the woods!

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

That's a great story! We've all had days similar to that. As a joke (or maybe not as a joke?) you should give your partner a full-face helmet and tell him to wear it next time he's in the woods!

I called today to verify he was still alive and suggested he look at upping his life insurance. :lol:
All kidding aside, glad he's OK. Be careful out there. We always try to work in pairs but couldn't get our schedules to line up with the holidays. I'm sure it was hell using snowshoes with a half inch of ice crust on top of 1 foot of snow. Got another 8-10" today so we'll see how it is tomorrow in the woods.

[deckers007]

Had to kick out an squatter from the shack today, he put up a little fight but managed to evict him.....or her, not really sure.

I would like to start videoing some of my map,e syrup and farm adventure, if you interest subscribe to my channel, I am new to it, but really enjoying doing it.

Here is my latest video....

Thanks for watching.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnRzsoUwgJk


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[GeneralStark]

After a great production season and an excellent year of sales, I decided to add on this year and double the size of the sugarhouse. The new addition is 16x22 and it will primarily be for sap storage but will also have an area for storing syrup barrels. I may even add a small coolbot walk-in at some point for storing open barrels.

I scored a used 1500 gal. round bottom ss tank for sap and purchased a 700 gallon tank for concentrate. The 1500 gal. tank will overflow into the 700 gal. so I should not have to worry about overflowing tanks ever again. I'll be using my old 400 gal. ss tanks for permeate now. This year they will be in this new addition, but next year I will be moving them under a small shed roof off the east side of the addition.

I poured the slab back in November before it got cold but completed the framing and roof (just in time for the last storm) over the last few weeks. I'll be moving the tanks in this next week and then plumbing them up to be ready for sap by the end of January.

1696716968

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Left the shack this morning and it was 10 below. No wind makes it bearable but the high was only 2 above. Nice to a have heated kitchen for lunch. 3 more short mainlines done. Big push is on for January to begin tapping Feb.1st.