Red Roof Maples 2018

[Russell Lampron]

Well it's not 2018 yet but here's what I've been up to. Last Sunday I went to Porter ME to pick up my new arch which my friend Bill Mason custom built for me. Bill did a nice job on this and I can't wait to see it fully assembled and steam rolling off of it.

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[eustis22]

Congrats, Red. I picked up my Mason in September and can't wait to run it.

[BAP]

Congrats Russ, does it have AUF and AOF?

[whity]

Well it's not 2018 yet but here's what I've been up to. Last Sunday I went to Porter ME to pick up my new arch which my friend Bill Mason custom built for me. Bill did a nice job on this and I can't wait to see it fully assembled and steam rolling off of it.

169581695916960

Congratulations Russ. You will like Bill's work. What are you using for pans? Mason pans?

[Russell Lampron]

Congrats Russ, does it have AUF and AOF?

Yes, sort of. 25% of the air goes under the fire and the rest is blown back into and over the fire from the arch front.


Congratulations Russ. You will like Bill's work. What are you using for pans? Mason pans?

I'm using my Algier pans. I gave Bill the measurements and he built the arch to fit my pans.

[Russell Lampron]

Well this wasn't a good way to end the year. When I got home from work last night I went down to the sugar house to check the RO room and bring some syrup up to the house. I found that the door from the evaporator room had blown open and the batteries in the thermostat had died. With an overnight low of -12 and a daytime high of 2 you can guess what I found. The pre filter housing on the RO had frozen solid and cracked. I won't know what else is damaged until I replace the pre filter housing and try to run it. I have a new membrane if that passes sugar but I won't know about the pumps until I can pump some water through it. I replaced the batteries in the thermostat and got the heat working again last night. I went down today and checked it and cant see any unwanted bulges or cracks so I'm hoping that everything else is okay.

[maple flats]

Ouch, that sucks! You might want to change the t-stat batteries every fall just to be sure. I'll need to check my RO room today, but I have 2 forms of heat in there. 1st is a direct vented wall heater runs on propane, off a bulk tank, it has a standing pilot. If that fails I have an electric heater set to come on if the temp drops to 40 F. So far no issues. The propane heater I use is called a "Housewarmer" and it is only 8000 BTU, which does a fine job.

[ACfarmerNH]

Russell -

I picked up my 2x3 (our upgrade from a barrel stove) from Bill Mason in early December and saw your arch under construction - nice looking rig.

[Russell Lampron]

Russell -

I picked up my 2x3 (our upgrade from a barrel stove) from Bill Mason in early December and saw your arch under construction - nice looking rig.

Yes it is a nice looking rig and you're going to like your Mason evaporator. I got the firebox bricked yesterday. It was hard to get the temp up in the sugar house as cold and windy as it was.

[Jim Brown]

Sorry to hear about your luck Russ.I,m too old to find suprizes like that ! I,ll leave it you guys Hope the rest of your year goes much better


Jim

[Russell Lampron]

I sold my old arch today. There was a lot of interest in it and I wish that I had more of them to sell. It was still below zero here this morning when I tried to start my tractor. I had to put two battery chargers on it before it would turn over fast enough to start. While I was plowing with it it was losing power because the fuel was jelling. I managed to keep it running though and was able to do my plowing and load my old arch into the guys truck. The guy that bought my arch has one just like it but it has a broken draft door and holes in the tin. He's thinking of putting the front from his arch onto mine and then selling his.

[BAP]

That’s good news Russ. I don’t think we will be boiling sap for a while with this weather.

[Russell Lampron]

I finished bricking my new arch today and got the pans onto it. It looks real pretty but I've got to clean it up before I can get some pictures. I'll be wiring the blower next weekend and if I have enough time I'll do a test boil. I have to work next Saturday so I won't be able to work on it again until Sunday.

[red maples]

Hi russ, congrats again on the pretty new rig. Hurry up man, should be getting ready to tap soon!!! Hopefully you can get a little of that test boil on video ad post to Facebook so we can all be jelous.

[Russell Lampron]

Hi russ, congrats again on the pretty new rig. Hurry up man, should be getting ready to tap soon!!! Hopefully you can get a little of that test boil on video ad post to Facebook so we can all be jelous.

Between work and the cold and snow it's been hard to be able to work on it. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get the blower wired up so I can do a test boil. I still have to get into the woods and get things ready to tap too. On the plus side I was able to fill my woodshed this year so I won't be scrambling mid season to find wood like last year.

[NH Maplemaker]

Russ, you must of made a lot of money on that syrup! LOL Nice looking arch ! Hope it works well for you.

[Russell Lampron]

Hey Jim, it's good to hear from you. I didn't make a lot of money but I made enough. I didn't sell as much at the Deerfield Fair as I had hoped but other than that sales were good. I can't wait to see how that new arch makes the evaporator boil.

[red maples]

Between work and the cold and snow it's been hard to be able to work on it. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get the blower wired up so I can do a test boil. I still have to get into the woods and get things ready to tap too. On the plus side I was able to fill my woodshed this year so I won't be scrambling mid season to find wood like last year.

yeah thats some bad luck, but at least you got some wood. It wouldn't be maple season without last minute scrambling to get stuff done!!!

[Russell Lampron]

Got the conduit, switches and wiring all figured out and laid out for the blower on the new arch last Sunday. While I was at it I also wired in a switch for the Bubblemaster. I only have to connect the wires to the blower and breaker box and that project will be finished.

Instead of finishing the wiring I hit the woods today. I had a good day walking lines and making repairs. I had to cut some downed trees and limbs but managed to get 3 mainlines ready to tap. I only have 1 hard one to do which I will do tomorrow. If the long range forecast looks good I will tap next weekend. Screw the long range forecast! I'm going to tap next weekend anyways.

I ordered a new pre filter canister for my RO and it will be here next week. I hope that nothing else got damaged when it froze up.

[Russell Lampron]

My son in law was able to come over and help today. After steak and eggs for breakfast at Veanos II in Concord we hit the woods and had that ready to tap before lunch. That gave us enough time to finish wiring the evaporator and do a test boil. I can't wait to see what the evaporator will do with sap in it. The flue pan boils better than it ever has with this new arch. We've got the blower at about 1/2 speed and it seems to be boiling good there. When we ran it full speed the stack was turning blue up near the top so we knew that we had to back it down a bit. We also noticed that there was only heat striations coming out of the stack and no black smoke and sparks like we used to have. The extra air that is blowing in from the front is doing it's job and getting all of those un-burned gasses burnt.

We also tried plumbing up the blower from my old arch to see if it would create enough pressure to run the Bubblemaster. Unfortunately it didn't so it's back to using and listening to the shop vac as the air supply. The evaporator was really putting some steam in the air and it got even more intense when ran the Bubblemaster too.

I'm pretty much ready for the season now. The big question that still remains is the health of the RO. I have a new membrane if I need it but don't know where the money's going to come from if I need to replace some pumps too.

[Russell Lampron]

At -5* it was a little cold to hit the woods today so I am waiting to tap until next weekend. I got the pre filter canister for my RO last week so I worked on that instead. I put some water in my wash tank and ran the RO. To my delight all of the pumps work and there weren't any water leaks. The only thing that I don't know is if the membrane was damaged when it froze. Luckily I have a brand new one if I need it.

After I was done with that I got my sweet and permeate tanks into the woodshed and connected to the RO manifold. I got the raw sap tank connected too. After lunch I brought the releaser and pump down to the woods and got them hooked up. Now when I tap I can turn on the vacuum and let it suck. Tomorrow I'm going to redo the plumbing to the Bubblemaster and I'm also running new pipes to fill the permeate and sweet tanks.

[BAP]

Sounds like you lucked out on the RO. Certainly was a good day to be working where it was a little sheltered from the wind and cold.

[Russell Lampron]

Sounds like you lucked out on the RO. Certainly was a good day to be working where it was a little sheltered from the wind and cold.

Yes it was a good day to get some inside work done. I cranked up the heat in the RO room and could go in there to warm up when I did work outside. I was afraid that I was going to turn on the RO and have water spraying all over the place. The pumps started right up and built pressure like they are supposed to with no leaks. At this point I only have a couple of little things to finish and I'll be ready for sap.

[Russell Lampron]

I finished the little things that I had to get done today and am planning to tap next weekend.

[Russell Lampron]

I had to work yesterday morning but did manage to get over 300 taps in in the afternoon. It looked like I would get rained out today but the rain held off until almost noon and I was able to get about 200 more taps in this morning. With the soft wet snow on top and ice underneath getting around in the woods was a little slow. I slipped and fell 3 times and when I was tapping in the swamp I broke through snow and ice into the mud up to my knees. I should have gone out and tapped last weekend when everything was froze up.

[Russell Lampron]

As most of you don't know, last spring I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I had it surgically removed in July and thought all was well and that I could finish my recovery and be done with it. In September I was told that my PSA level was a little higher than it should be. PSA is an enzyme that is produced by the prostate cancer cells. My level should have been zero or just above and it was 0.19. The Dr told me that he missed something and that I would have to have radiation and hormone treatments to get rid of what he missed. We checked the PSA again in November and found that it was at 0.21, it had climbed a little bit but the remaining cancer wasn't aggressive. I got my first hormone shot on January 2nd and went to see the oncologist on January 12th. I had an appointment today to plan and schedule the radiation treatments. I start those on March 27th right after Maple Weekend. That will consist of going in every morning before I go to work to get zapped with radiation for 8 weeks. After that my PSA should be zero but time will tell. Cancer sucks!

[mountainvan]

Yep, cancer sucks but it can be overcome. Good luck and good health.

[Amber Gold]

Hey Russ, Sorry to hear the bad news. Good thing is it'll start after maple season. Stay positive.

[Maplewalnut]

Good Luck Russ, nothing but well wishes. You got a lot to keep battling for!

Mike

[BAP]

Will be thinking of you Russ and keep up the positive attitude.

[Russell Lampron]

Thank you for the well wishes guys. I know that there are others that are much worse off than I am.

Good luck with your season's guys. It looks like it should be a good one.

[red maples]

Oh man that sucks russ!!! yes cancer sucks. hang in there good luck bud!!!

[eustis22]

thoughts are with you., Russell. You can beat this.

[TRAILGUY]

had my removed 13 years ago all is good. wish you all the luck.

[Russell Lampron]

Thanks guys!

I've got a busy weekend planned. I'm going to finish tapping Saturday and change the oil in my trusty old SP 22. I also have to replace the starter in my tractor. I ordered it Monday and it was shipped Tuesday so hopefully it will be here tomorrow. I'm not sure where I will fit it into the schedule but I have to bring more wood up to the outdoor wood boiler before I run out. Maybe I'll do a load first thing Saturday Morning and another load Sunday morning before the sap starts running.

[Russell Lampron]

had my removed 13 years ago all is good. wish you all the luck.

Thirteen years ago and no problems, that's encouraging. My urologist and oncologist both said that I had a 67% chance of a recurrence in 10 years. I hope that they are wrong and that once I get through this rough patch I will be good for the rest of my life. I can tell you though that I don't like the odds.

[Russell Lampron]

We had another good day here at Red Roof Maples. We finished tapping this morning and even added a couple of new trees to the system. While we were tapping we found a lateral's worth of trees that we will be tubing up tomorrow morning and another tree near a lateral that we will plumbing in too. If the tap count in Leader's bags is correct I have 715 taps in now and will be adding 7 more tomorrow. I've got to find 3 more trees to make it an even 725.

The temp never got above 32* here but the sun warmed the trees and thawed the lines enough for me to turn on the vacuum pump and pull in about 40 gallons of gunk and old sap. After letting the vacuum pump run for a couple of hours I changed the oil in it and it is ready for the BIGSAP next week.

I was hoping to change the starter in my tractor today but it won't be here until Monday. Unless Richard can come up and change it during the day it looks like I'll be changing it in the dark after work. I've been able to get the tractor started by tapping on the starter and jumping it with a battery charger but can't be fooling around like that when there's sap to be collected.

With the snow that we are supposed to get tonight and the weather we are supposed to get tomorrow, a lot of sun, west wind about 5mph and 42* for a high the sap should be hammering. When we are done adding taps we will go on leak patrol and hopefully get the system tight for the upcoming week.

[Scm]

..........

[Russell Lampron]

Hi Russ.
Sorry to hear about your health issues. I lost my dad to cancer a number of years ago. Since then I’ve done a lot of reading. I wish I knew then, what I know now. I am now a firm believer in we are what we eat, and since then, have made numerous changes in my life to hopefully help prevent the same outcome. Here is an article that may help you. 3 simple foods that could really help.

https://news.utexas.edu/2017/06/06/starving-prostate-cancer-with-what-you-eat-for-dinner

Take care and I hope you have a great recovery/season.

I think we all wish that we knew then, what we know now. I would surely have done a lot of things differently. I just read the article in your link and it would have been nice to know something like that 15 years ago when my cancer was probably first starting. You can have prostate cancer for years or even decades and not even know it.

You take care too and I hope that you have a great season.

[Russell Lampron]

Last night's 2" to 4" of snow turned out to be more like 8" of snow. It didn't warm up as fast as it should have with a cold north wind. I went out this morning and added the 7 new taps that I had planned on and scouted out and added another 6 taps. That puts me at 728 taps as long as I don't find any hollow trees.

Finally around 1 pm it was running good enough to do some leak checking. When I started out I had 21" of vacuum and when I finished I had 25". Mostly squirrel chews and a handful of micro leaks at tee fittings. I still have some leaks to find and fix but ran out of daylight.

I checked the tank at 6:30 and there was nothing coming into the releaser so I turned off the vacuum. I have 100 gallons in the tank and hope to get enough tomorrow and Tuesday to sweeten the pans. It looks like it's not going to freeze again until possibly Wednesday night and if not then Thursday night.

[red maples]

yep long warm spell. man what I wouldn't do for some nice consistent sap weather. its a rare occurence for me. it only really happened once in 10 years which to date was still my best year for syrup per tap. and that was on 285 taps before RO. so I was getting almost a gallon per day for close to 2.5 weeks. I was boiling 6 to 10 hrs a day lost 12 lbs and was tired as hell. but it was worth it. and burned about 11 cords of wood. now if I burn 2 cords its alot.

[Russell Lampron]

I'd like to see some consistent sap weather too. It's starting to look like a couple of years ago when if the sun was out it didn't get above freezing and if it was warm out there wasn't any sun. There weren't many days that year where we had both sun and warm at the same time.

I came home tonight to find that my releaser had stuck today and filled one of my moisture traps. It looks like I got about 75 gallons before the malfunction occurred. I got the moisture trap drained and cycled the releaser a few times and it was working like it should but the sap wasn't coming in fast enough to see if it would dump on it's own. I'll find out when I go down in the morning. With yesterday and today's sap I was able to bring 175 gallons up to the house. Hopefully the releaser will work all night and I'll find a full tank in the morning.

It looks like I may be able to sweeten the pans tomorrow night. I can't wait to see what the evaporator will do with sap in it.

[Dill]

But on the bright side the moisture trap worked. I'm hoping for a good vac run tonight. Its 38 and raining. It was running good when I came out of the woods around 4 should go all night.

[Russell Lampron]

We did our first boil last night. We started out with 700 gallons of sap, got the pans sweetened and made 5 gallons of Amber syrup. I don't remember a first boil where we made that much syrup. We usually make 2 or 3 gallons. It's going to be a little bit of a learning curve but the new arch worked great. We turned the blower all of the way down and still get a better boil then we did out of the old set up.

Went down to check the woods tank at 10:30 and found that 200 gallons of sap had come in since 4:00. I'm going down shortly to pump out the tank.

I leveled the releaser and lubed the float rod and it has been working flawlessly.

[Amber Gold]

Glad to hear it. I had my first boil last night too. I didn't check grade, but guessing an amber. Things went off mostly without a hitch.

[Russell Lampron]

When I got down to the tank this morning I found 275 gallons in the tank and that I had gotten a light freeze. It was nice to see that the temps had dropped overnight instead of increase like the forecast said that they were going to. So far today the temp isn't rising very fast so hopefully it won't hit 68* like the forecast was still saying it was going to when I left for work this morning.

The good news is that my membrane didn't get damaged last winter when it froze up and isn't passing sugar. The bad news is that it isn't flowing quite as good as it should. If the sap flows are slow enough I'm going to do an acid wash and see if I can get it to come back. If not I have a new one that I can put in.

I'm boiling again tonight and after this I'm not sure when the sap is going to run and how much. It looks like I should get a little Thursday through Sunday. The temps that I get are usually colder than what is in the forecast so I'm not expecting much.

[Dill]

I had clouds until 130 or so, I think that really helped. Temp didn't spike as hard as I figured it would.

[Russell Lampron]

I don't know how hot it got here yesterday. It was 73* in Concord when I left work at 5:00 and it was 63* at my house when I got home 20 mins. later. For the 24 hour period from Tuesday evening until last evening I got a little over 1 gpt.

I made 11 1/2 gallons of Amber syrup last night. It was coming out of the draw off really light towards the end. If that continues into the next boil I'll probably be making Golden.

[Russell Lampron]

I went down to the woods this morning and found just under 200 gallons in the tank. The sap was still running but only trickling in. I'll find out when I get home if it continued to run and how hard it ran if it did.

[Russell Lampron]

I went down and collected 250 gallons of sap last night so it looks like i got about 60 gallons before it froze up. I went down when I got home from work and found that about 150 gallons came in today after it started running and it was still coming in. The woods are tight and I'm pulling 26.5" of vacuum. If it runs as good as it should tomorrow I'll have a good boil on Sunday.

I did 4 wash cycles on the RO and am doing a hot permeate rinse now. I'll find out after this if my flow rates are going to come back or if I will need to change my membrane. Even though I have a new one I'd like to keep using this one and save the other one for late in the season.

I'm going to do some much needed cleaning in the RO room tomorrow. There's still some tools and a lot of dust and dirt from cutting fire bricks in there that I need to take care of.

[Russell Lampron]

I wasn't able to boil last night due to a prior commitment. I had 900 gallons at the sugar house after the last gathering at 4:00. At that time I had to leave 100 gallons in the woods and the sap was still running good. I started my RO at 9:00 last night to do a first pass and will be going down shortly to start the 2nd pass and empty my gathering tank.

After that I'll be heading to the woods to bring up whats down there. The ice is breaking up on the haul road making it hard to get down there with the tractor. Some of the spots where I'm breaking through are deep enough so that the front tires on the tractor want to go under, not over the edge of the ice to come up out of the hole. I hope that I've broken through enough so that I can get down and back without a problem this morning.

[Greyfox]

Hi Russ,

Glad to hear the new arch is working well for you. I've updated a few things on my set-up as well. I took the trees at the top of the bush and switched them out to 3/16" gravity. I ran the line down to a new collection point at the edge of the pond, so by my guess i have an average of about 25' of vertical drop. I just tapped these in yesterday, with the help of my daughter who came up to visit for the weekend. There was just enough of the run left to fill the lines. It ran for an hour or so, and i managed to get up to 7" of Hg before the freeze-up. I'll be interested to see what vacuum I can draw when the run takes off. If this goes well, I'll switch the other side of the high bush to 3/16" as well.
I'll try to stop-by when I get a chance to, maybe next weekend. Good luck with your season; it seems like you're off to a good start.

Doc

[Dill]

We have serious mud here. And this snow isn't going to help it much.

[Russell Lampron]

It's good to hear from you Doc. From what I've seen and read about it you should like it.

Alden my father always says that you've got to have mud for the sap to run.

[red maples]

I love the Glenlivet fired operator!!! thats pretty funny doc.

I keep hearing about the 3/16" line need to see if can fins a side by side comparison on the amount of sap. I am sure they have it by now.

[Russell Lampron]

Wow! I'm really liking this new arch. I sweetened 1075 gallons of sap down to 155 gallons of concentrate and commenced to boil. I lit the evaporator at 5:15 and turned off the blower at 7:37 when I ran out of sap. I made 16 gallons of amber syrup, ran it through the filter press and called it a night at 8:30. That figures out to be somewhere in the vicinity of 65 gph on a 2x6! With my old arch it would have taken me close to 4 hours to do that and I thought that was pretty good.

[Greyfox]

Russ, glad to hear the new arch rocks. It's always gratifying when we spend a bunch of money and it pays off.

Brad, you probably know of this website, but just in case you might not here's a link to the UVM Proctor Maple Research Center. I find it a great resource for technical information of the science of maple production. There's an article specifically about the theory and practical side of 3/16" vacuum systems, which is what prompted me to take the plunge. It looks like this week should tell the tale of it's benefits. I now have about half my bush on 3/16", and I'm going to use my existing 5/16" setup for the other half, so I hope to have some hard data of how they perform side by side. I'll share the results as the season plays out.

http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/?Page=publications.html

Doc

[Russell Lampron]

It looks like it is going to be a banner sap day here today. I already have the RO doing it's thing to the 525 gallons that I collected yesterday. I'm anxious to see how many gallons of syrup I can draw off in an hour tonight. Sunday's almost 8 was a record that I want to beat.

[Dill]

It got pretty cold here last night. Low 20s have to say the forecast looks perfect, got to love this time of year.

[Russell Lampron]

Richard came up yesterday and found the vacuum at 21". He spent the afternoon fixing vacuum leaks and got us back up to 24.5". Most of the leaks were squirrel chews but he did find two hollow trees that he removed from the system.

Yesterday's run was a little disappointing at 475 gallons but we did have 1000 gallons to boil with the sap that we got Monday. It's really fun boiling with an evaporator that will make some syrup in a hurry. We made 15 gallons in an hour and 45 minutes which would have taken at least 3 hours with the old arch. We're averaging 8 gallons of syrup an hour now when we used to get 5. I'm not boiling tonight so I finished February with 47.5 gallons of syrup made which is 1.5 gallons less than last year.

It wasn't supposed to freeze last night but it did. The vacuum was pulling in slush at 6:30 last evening and it was 30* at 10:00 last night. I'm looking at 27* on the house thermometer right now. It should run good today but I said that yesterday. I'm prepared for whatever we get.
'

[red maples]

[QUOTE=Greyfox;346237] It looks like this week should tell the tale of it's benefits. I now have about half my bush on 3/16", and I'm going to use my existing 5/16" setup for the other half, so I hope to have some hard data of how they perform side by side. I'll share the results as the season plays out.


thats awesome yes I am familiar with that site. but keep us posted about how it does. Thanks

[red maples]

thats awesome russ. That new arch sounds awesome!!! that is alot on a 2x6. have you tested raw sugar yet? just curious as to what you are getting. we just missed a freeze here last night the lines were frozen but it only hit 32 and was 35* when I woke up and it was cloudy. sap ran the hardest I have seen it run all season so far yesterday but also seemed to peter out earlier too. wasn't impressed with my total total either. but like you had hold over sap.

[Dill]

So you are still concentrating to the same %? And the only difference is the arch? That's impressive.

[Russell Lampron]

The new arch is awesome! I was hoping to gain something when I upgraded but wasn't expecting much because I thought I was doing pretty good with my old one. To gain 3 gallons of syrup per hour and to be able to boil the concentrate from 1,000 gallons of sap in 2 hours is really making me happy.

I still concentrate to 14% like I have for the last 3 or 4 years. I lose track of time and sometimes get up to 18% and like last night 14% was the target but had to send the last batch up at 12% because I was running out of sap. That was only about 30 gallons plus the sugar flush so we only fired the evaporator 2 more times to finish up.

All of my syrup has been Amber so far and if it keeps going the way that it is I may actually make some dark this year.

[red maples]

that sounds awesome... thats not only time but wood saving too. thats gonna cut the wood consumption in 1/2. yeah 1000 gallons for me is 4 hrs. I bring mine up to 14 to 15% as well.

[Russell Lampron]

I didn't have a chance to check it first but there wasn't very much sugar in tonight's sap. We did 750 gallons in an hour and a half and only made 10 gallons of syrup. My syrup has all been Amber so far which is nice. I can't sell the golden even though it is great tasting syrup.

The first tier of the wood pile went down pretty fast but now that we have the new arch figured out the second tier is lasting a lot longer. I had 5 tiers to start with and at this rate I think I'll still have plenty left when the season is over.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap is only trickling in here now, I only got 125 gallons in the last 24 hours. It's looking like I may not boil again until Sunday.

It's only supposed to get down to 32 here tonight but if the clouds blow away it may get colder. The overnight low doesn't look good until Sunday when it's supposed to get down to 27. The daytime highs look good if the forecast is correct.

With no sap to boil I'm taking the night off for some much needed sleep. I have to work tomorrow so I won't be able to do any maple stuff until tomorrow afternoon. I've started on it but still have a lot to do to finish cleaning the firebrick dust off of everything in the RO room. If the sap's not running maybe I'll tackle that tomorrow afternoon.

[Russell Lampron]

I got the RO room cleaned up and jugged up some syrup Saturday. When I went to the house for lunch I noticed that I only had 21" of vacuum at the pump. I ate my lunch real quick and hit the woods. The big leak was a broken Y fitting on one of my end trees. I got that fixed and went through the rest of the woods. I replaced a couple of fittings and repaired a couple of squirrel chews and now everything is pretty tight again.

I boiled again tonight. I was able to gather up 575 gallons that has been coming in very slowly since Thursday evening. I made 8 more gallons to get me to 65.5 gallons for the year and it's all Amber. The new arch continues to impress.

The membrane in the RO started to pass sugar so I changed it this afternoon. The recirculation pump on the RO is getting loud. I hope that it will last for the rest of the season.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap ran pretty good yesterday once it got started. I had 325 that I had been collecting since Sunday and added another 375 to that with yesterday's run. I made 10 more gallons of Amber last night to put me at 75.5 gallons so far.

The high temp for today is supposed to get to 33* but so far it's only hit 31* and it's now snowing. I didn't turn on the vacuum pump this morning and I'm sure that I'm not missing anything. The snow and cold will definitely help get this season jump started. It looks like I won't be boiling again until sometime on the weekend.

[Amber Gold]

I got a bit yesterday too, but not as much as I was hoping. Ended up bringing home another 400 gal with the truckload from the previous day.

Agreed, might be lucky to boil Friday night, but likely Saturday night.

[Russell Lampron]

I didn't get much of a run today so it looks like I won't be boiling again until Sunday.

Because of my day job I haven't had a chance to get into the woods but with the vacuum level that I've got it doesn't look like I lost anything in the last storm.

I've still got some plowing and shoveling to do tomorrow. I got my driveway done but didn't do anything around the sugar house.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap started running earlier than I thought that it would today considering the lack of sun. I turned on the pump at 10:00 and the ice was already starting to clear. By 1:30 about 150 gallons had come in and by 6:00 there was 450 gallons to add to the 200 that came in on Friday and Saturday.

Hopefully I won't have to fight with ice in the bulk tank valve in the morning. I took the pipe that runs into the RO room apart tonight and emptied it out so that it won't be full of ice in the morning. The weather channel says 17* for a low, the NWS says 22* and google says 20*. Which one will I actually get? I'll probably get 13* and they'll all be wrong.

[Russell Lampron]

Getting the bulk tank valve to flow this morning went pretty smooth. I was able to break through the ice in the valve and then get the RO started. I lit the evaporator at 7:10 and flooded the pans at 9:04. I had 1075 gallons of sap for tonight's boil and made 16.5 gallons of Amber. I've been pretty consistent here this year. I'm making 8 gallons of syrup in an hour or a little less and all of the syrup has been Amber.

The sweet sat in the evaporator for a week since the last boil and the first draws looked like I might be making Dark but Hanna says 58%. It's a darker shade of Amber but it's still Amber!

The sap ran pretty good the last 2 days and the freezes have brought the sugar up a little. It looks like we are back into a holding pattern as we get hit with another nor-easter.

[Russell Lampron]

Boiled again tonight and made 12 gallons of .....you guessed it ....Amber. I'm now at 104 gallons which is only 80 less than I made last year. The sap is getting sweeter after this cold and snow. It only took 54 gallons of sap per gallon of syrup when it has taken as much as 75 earlier in the season.

[Russell Lampron]

There's not much going on here because of the cold and wind. I did run the vacuum pump for most of the afternoon and got about 50 gallons of sap. The weather looks better for next week, Nor'easter number 3 is no longer in the forecast. It looks like the sap should start running again on Tuesday and continue through Maple Weekend.

I got a surprise phone call from my son this evening. He and his wife are flying up from North Carolina Friday for Maple Weekend. I'll be picking them up at the airport Friday Morning.

[Russell Lampron]

Short but sweet! I didn't have much sap to boil tonight, only 315 gallons that has been tricking in since last Thursday. Lit the evaporator at 6:46 and was done at 7:29. Made 6 1/2 gallons of Amber syrup. An easy night for a change.

[Amber Gold]

I had about 300 gal in my tank last night when I got there. Not enough to deal with, so boiling it tonight. Tons of vac. leaks again...drops falling off of spouts...again.

All ready for maple weekend?

[Russell Lampron]

I had about 300 gal in my tank last night when I got there. Not enough to deal with, so boiling it tonight. Tons of vac. leaks again...drops falling off of spouts...again.

All ready for maple weekend?

I'm just about ready for maple weekend. I'm making a batch of maple cream now and am going to clean the sugar house tomorrow.

The sap ran all night and is still running now. My 600 gallon bulk tank is nutted! I'll start running that through the RO tomorrow night so it will be sweetened up for boiling Saturday. What I collect tomorrow and Saturday will be for Sunday.

[Russell Lampron]

Finally a day off from work. It's time for the final push to get the sugar house cleaned up and ready for the weekend. I've got to give the outside of the evaporator a good cleaning too the ash, dust and dried on sugar splatter need to be washed off. I can't be trying to show off my new arch when it looks like it's 5 years old already.

I'm going to the airport to pick up my son and daughter in law today too. Their plane lands in Manchester at 11:35 this morning. My wife has to work until 1:30 and she's jealous because I get to see them first.

[Russell Lampron]

Collected 600 gallons of sap yesterday and another 600 gallons of sap today. The first 600 is sitting in the head tank at 11% ready for tomorrows boil. The other 600 is sitting in the bulk tank waiting until tomorrow night to be squeezed for Sunday's boil.

I'm as ready for Maple Weekend as I'm going to be. Good luck to everyone doing an open house this weekend.

[Russell Lampron]

I had a great turn out for day one of Maple Weekend. Fellow maple trader Wally stopped by today and we had a chance to talk for a while. It was nice to meet you Wally.

My new arch is incredible. I used up all of the sap that I had for today and half of what I had for tomorrow too. I ended the day with 21 gallons of Amber syrup in the finisher which is a record for a Maple Weekend boil. I still have 600 gallons for tomorrow and will collect again in the morning to add to it. Even taking it easy the sap is disappearing fast.

[wally]

good to meet you too, russ. i like your new arch, really nice. syrup was very tasty, too. nice location.

i spotted a few of your sugar maples, at the end of the driveway.

21 gallons, wow. good day. i eventually got to my sugar house late afternoon, and boiled until 8:30. ended up making about 2 gallons, and i have about 120 gallons of sap for tomorrow.

[Russell Lampron]

I had a better than expected turn out yesterday for day two of maple weekend. I decided to open at 10:00 yesterday instead of 11:00 like I had done in the past and had a steady stream of people coming through all day. I got to meet Backyard sugarer and some guest from Maple Trader yesterday too.

I managed to make 700 gallons of sap last until 3:00 and then set up the filter press so that the visitors in the last hour could see how we do that. It was a fun and busy weekend but I'm glad it's over and I can concentrate on making syrup now.

[Dill]

Same here, people were out and about early yesterday. First customer showed up at 9. Usually we don't bother until 11 on sunday. Weather sure helped

[GeneralStark]

It was a fun and busy weekend but I'm glad it's over and I can concentrate on making syrup now.

I agree. I always enjoy open house weekend but am glad when it is done. Are you guys in NH doing more than one weekend this year?

[Russell Lampron]

I agree. I always enjoy open house weekend but am glad when it is done. Are you guys in NH doing more than one weekend this year?

We have Maple Month now which is 4 weekends with the 3rd weekend in March being the big one. Some producers are open for all 4 but most are only open for the big one which is still marketed as Maple Weekend. I only do Maple Weekend myself because I don't have the time and help to do all 4. They tried doing a Maple Weekend in the fall but it didn't work out.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap runs have slowed way down here lately but I'm still making good Amber syrup. I'm at 161 gallons for the season and hoping to pass last year's 184 gallons. I'd like to make some dark too but it's looking like it isn't going to happen. At 113.5 gallons for the month it's the best March I've had in a few years. I got a memory reminder on Facebook the other day that showed that I had only made 31 gallons going into Maple Weekend three years ago.

It's been another strange season. So far other than Maple Weekend I have only boiled 2 days in a row once. Usually we get a 2 week period where we boil just about every night and that hasn't happened yet. The Forecast looks pretty good for next week but that's only speculation and may or may not happen.

I was playing around with my Hanna syrup grader the other day and found a sample that tested at 75% which is Golden. I thought to myself, should I change the sticker on the drum or leave it at Amber. I then thought what would Bascom's call it if I brought it to them and left it at Amber. It more than likely will darken in storage anyway and will be Amber when I jug it up to put on the shelves. What would you do?

[Dill]

Same here. I"m only getting half of a normal run, but hey that's better then zero % of a normal run. And I'm not getting any late season taste in it yet either.

[Amber Gold]

Poor sap flow here too.

Leave it at amber. It'll darken when you heat it up to can it.

[Russell Lampron]

Poor sap flow here too.

Leave it at amber. It'll darken when you heat it up to can it.

My thought was that Bascom's would grade it at Amber even if they thought it was golden. I've had them grade syrup that was definitely Amber as dark before. When I saw it on the slip I questioned it and got "if you don't like it you can bring your syrup somewhere else to sell it". If I had thought it was anywhere near dark enough to call it dark I would have kept it to sell to my customers.

[Cyndiann]

Hi - Are you in NH?
Trying to figure out if it's time to pull my taps or not. Sap flow is very slow, but next week does look good. I'm on the fence.
No funny taste that I can detect yet.

Thanks

[Russell Lampron]

Hi - Are you in NH?
Trying to figure out if it's time to pull my taps or not. Sap flow is very slow, but next week does look good. I'm on the fence.
No funny taste that I can detect yet.

Thanks

I am in NH. I won't pull my taps until I know the season is done or when the buds pop. Next week does look good and I expect that the sap flow will pick up when the good weather returns.

[Russell Lampron]

I made another 4.5 gallons of Amber this afternoon to bring my total for the month of March to 118 gallons. I'm at 165.5 gallons now and need 18.5 more to match last years 184 gallons. The weather doesn't look to bad for next week and the buds are still tight here. If the trees decide to run after tomorrow night's freeze I should be able to meet and pass that number.

Happy Easter and good luck to everyone that hasn't called it a season.

[whity]

We just finished yesterday. Trees are slowing way down. But had the best year to date. Made 137 gallons with no RO. Boiled a total of 27 times. Sounds like everyone is having a good year.

[Russell Lampron]

I went down to check my tank this morning 20 hours after I pumped it out. It only had 150 gallons in it which is less than 10 gph from 725 taps on high vacuum. Yesterdays boil produced 4.5 gallons of syrup from 450 gallons of sap. I'm not surprised at the 100 to 1 ratio because we haven't had a freeze since Monday. Hopefully tonight's freeze will get the sap flowing again because the forecast looks pretty good after that.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap has been running real slow here but at least I'm getting something. From Saturday until now I managed to get 480 gallons for tonight's boil. The sugar is up a bit too. I made 8.5 gallons of darker than before but still Amber syrup tonight. That put me at 174 gallons which is only 10 gallons less than last season. At this point it looks like I may boil again Friday night. After that it will depend on the weather.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap ran better than it has been yesterday but still not good. I got a little more today and have 350 gallons in the bulk tank to boil tomorrow night. It looks like we are going to get the temperatures but a mixed bag of crap for the next few days. I hope that the sap will run a little better because I want to pass last year's total. I'm just 10 gallons shy and only need to make about 5 more besides finishing whats in the evaporator to get there.

[red maples]

its funny it was looking like a bumper crop early on but with slow sap flows and lack of freezing nights ( at least down here) it turned into just an average year. and made almost exactly what I made last year with more than 1000 gallons less sap. pretty crazy what low sugar can do. Boiled down a 1/2 gallon of sap I collected today from the vac. system and it tasted pretty bad so I am heading out to dump that now. hope tomorrow it gets better.

[Russell Lampron]

The quick boil that I did tonight produced 4 more gallons to put me at 178 for the season so far. That's 6 gallons less than what I made last year so I'm still on track to beat that number. It looks like I'll be boiling again Monday night. The buds are still tight and the syrup is still tasting great. It's getting a little darker but I don't think it will test as dark yet.

I hope that the trees decide to give up some sap. These piddly runs are making for some fast and fun boils but I'm hoping for some big runs because it's fun to make a lot of syrup in a short amount of time too.

[red maples]

Good luck Russ. glad your sap is still good.

[Russell Lampron]

Thank you Brad. I had 225 gallons in the tank tonight when I went down to check it. It's a better run than some of them lately but still not great. I should get more tomorrow and am planning to boil Monday evening. After that I'll just keep an eye on the weather and the trees and hope for the best.

[Russell Lampron]

I decided that the boil last night was the last of the season. I passed last years total by 1 gallon and haven't corrected the density from the last 2 boils yet. That should add another gallon or 2 to the total and I still have the contents of the evaporator to finish. When all is said and done the total for the season should be somewhere between 190 and 195 gallons.

All of the syrup has been Amber so far. The syrup from the last 2 boils is the darkest of the season but I won't grade it until I filter it. I'm hoping that I can call it dark but it looks like it could be Amber.

The circulation pump on the RO is making a lot of noise so I'm going to have to pull that apart in the off season and either fix it or replace it. It started making noise at about mid season and it's gotten progressively louder since. I hope it will run long enough to get the membrane washes done.

I would been nice to get some bigger sap runs these last 2 weeks but I can't complain about the season total. I collected 12660 gallons from 725 taps and that's 17.46 gallons of sap per tap. Not bad for a bunch of swamp maples and culls! I'll figure out the gallons of sap to gallons of syrup and average sugar content when I have a final total.

It was a long but good season with it's own strangeness. I only boiled 2 nights/days in a row the first 2 boils of the season, on maple weekend and last night and tonight. We never got that stretch of about 2 weeks where we would boil just about every night.

[Amber Gold]

I called it on last Friday. Boiling pans off tonight. I got tired of making funky syrup and the sap flow was almost non-existent. Glad you had a good season. I'll put my numbers in when I get a chance to update my spreadsheet.

[Russell Lampron]

I called it on last Friday. Boiling pans off tonight. I got tired of making funky syrup and the sap flow was almost non-existent. Glad you had a good season. I'll put my numbers in when I get a chance to update my spreadsheet.

I've been making great tasting syrup but like for you the sap runs have been trickles. I decided to let the trees have what ever I might take out in the next couple of days.

[Russell Lampron]

I finished the sweet in the evaporator last night and ended the season with a total of 191.5 gallons of syrup made. I beat last years total by 7.5 gallons. It took 66.12 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup for an average ssc of 1.3%. Most of the latest sap was the weakest taking almost 100 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. My ratio would have been higher if I had called it a season 2 weeks ago but I would have missed out on 17.5 gallons of Dark syrup which I desperately need to stock my shelves.

Once again I had a season where I didn't make any commercial syrup! I didn't make any major mistakes either like pumping a bulk tank full of sap down the drain so that's another victory.

All in all it was another good season.

[Lensman]

Thanks for putting this out there, this is my first year making syrup and it's been interesting to follow your progress!

[Russell Lampron]

Thanks for putting this out there, this is my first year making syrup and it's been interesting to follow your progress!

You're welcome! I do a blog like this every year.

Good luck if you are still going.

[Russell Lampron]

A correction on an earlier post. That 17.5 gallons of what I thought was Dark by using my temporary kit turned out to be Amber. When I tested it with my Hanna tester it was at 58%. I put the temporary kit on the window today and took another look and sure enough it was Amber.

I haven't had very good luck making maple candy. Today it was too nasty to go pull taps so I gave it another try. So far it's looking like it came out right. It came out of the molds without breaking and is soft but not mushy. I'll check it again in the morning but I think that I will be selling maple candy next season on Maple Weekend.

[Amber Gold]

If it's coming out too soft, take it up another degree or two. It's surprising how much temperature makes a difference on the finished product.

[Russell Lampron]

If it's coming out too soft, take it up another degree or two. It's surprising how much temperature makes a difference on the finished product.

Actually it came out perfect. It was still soft enough this morning. The grains of sugar are small, almost like cream and the candy is the right firmness. The problem I always had in the past was that the candy would come out hard as a rock. It tasted good but couldn't be sold because you'd break your teeth trying to bite into it.

[Amber Gold]

Broken teeth is bad for business...

[Russell Lampron]

I had a busy and productive day today. I got the taps pulled and got the woods tank and releaser up to the house. The sugar house fridge is now back in the basement and restocked. The final wash is done on the RO and I'm going to put vinegar and permeate in the evaporator pans tomorrow and then dig out the pressure washer and start washing tanks. The worst part of sugaring season has begun!

[wnybassman]

The worst part of sugaring season has begun!

Ain't that the truth! I'm down to pressure washing two plastic tanks and the evaporator pans after they soak for a while more. The rest is already cleaned and put away.