January journal

[Maplewalnut]

Happy new years to all traders

[Russell Lampron]

Happy New Year!!!

[BAP]

Happy New Years to all and may your trees run long and sweet.

[Paddymountain]

it's 2 below this morning. I'd like to get out a little bit around noon and hang some tubing.
happy new year

[maple flats]

It's -9 here, going way up to +11 if the forecast is right. Now that I'm on a blood thinner, this is too cold for me, I'll wait for about +20 F.
Happy new year anyways to all. Keep warm.

[tbear]

-18 at 6:00 AM. Glad the wind isn't blowing, much. Happy New Year everyone! Ted

[Sugarmaker]

Happy New Year to all the maple folks!
Hoping to make syrup again this spring too! (guess this makes almost 60 years of sugaring for me, about 200 years documented for our family) Our small operation keeps me active in the spring and is the size that I can do the whole thing by myself if I have too. But usually there are friends and family that come along for the ride also. Hope your maple season is good in 2018! We are currently hunkered down with temps near zero and snowfall at about 1 inch per hour rate. Adding to the 2.5 feet we have on the ground in Albion area. With our sugarbush being all roadside trees a thaw is desired to get those big snow banks at the ditches down to a low level so we can think about hanging our 35 short run tubing systems. Lots to do in the sugarhouse to get things cleaned and ready too. But today we just enjoy the steady snow fall and dream of the hot fire in the old King evaporator!
Regards,
Chris

[Parker]

Happy new year ,,,just up from the r.o. room.....35 degres in there...glad i checked and got the other heater plugged in.....going to hit the woods tommrow...lots to do

[Wanabe1972]

I removed the bad fridge from the sugarhouse and put kero in the heater today. I double checked the heater in the RO closet and all is good. Tomorrow I will start cleaning the sugar House and doing some mods to the evaporator. I have a new to me 500 gallon poly tank that needs to be hooked up to the RO infeed if I can figure a way to temporarily set it without a pad. Don't normally tap till mid Feb but it seems to always creep up on me. Jeff

[Woodsrover]

Have everything cleaned organized and ready except my IBC totes. Will take those to work this week and get them scrubbed up. Will run my new pump line next week and probably start running sap lines the week after. I tapped 1/11 last year and was boiling 1/17. The weather doesn't look like that this year but you never know!

[Sugarmaker]

Snow:
https://i.imgur.com/JF7dajV.jpg
Regards,
Chris

[maple flats]

Will be out working today, but not exactly maple yet. I've got a plow frame and wiring harness to put on my 2011 F350 so I can mount the plow from my 2001 F250. It is for maple though, I plow my at sugarhouse (way faster than plowing with the tractor and FEL) and at my leased sugar bush I have to push back snow banks so I can park off the road enough to hopefully not get hit by traffic. When I finish that I'll be working maple, tubing repairs first then tapping.

[markcasper]

Will be out working today, but not exactly maple yet. I've got a plow frame and wiring harness to put on my 2011 F350 so I can mount the plow from my 2001 F250. It is for maple though, I plow my at sugarhouse (way faster than plowing with the tractor and FEL) and at my leased sugar bush I have to push back snow banks so I can park off the road enough to hopefully not get hit by traffic. When I finish that I'll be working maple, tubing repairs first then tapping.

I looked at your website....what size of propane tank outside? bulk truck fill?

[tcross]

Happy new year. been at it getting wood out of the bush for next year and the year after. -28 this morning. highs of -8 over the weekend. too **** cold to run/repair lines. it's supposed to be colder this coming weekend but warming up shortly after that. if it stays this cold, my trees might not thaw until July...

[Chris_In_Vermont]

We started drilling trees today in Eden VT. And no, we aren't the earliest tappers in the area either, I know a few operations that have been tapping since a week before Christmas. Wish it'd warm up some though, man was it bitter this morning. Tomorrow and Thursday look like prime days, we'll be hitting it hard.

[Maple Man 85]

We pushed hard this weekend putting in saddles and line supports where we didn't have the option to side tie. By Friday we'll have saddles done and on to the putting pumps in the pump houses. We had more trees than I figured and had to order another 500 fittings for drops.

[maple flats]

I looked at your website....what size of propane tank outside? bulk truck fill?
Mark, my bulk tank is a 50 gal, truck fill. They are set up to fill it only when I call, since my use is so varied (except for what little the small heater use). I only seem to need 2 fills a year and the avg. bill is $100-120. If I run low and need to, I can unhook that tank, then carry one the same size and already full I have hooked to a 5th wheel about 200' away. That's an option I never had to use.

Now the the Winter Maple Conference is over, and the weather has warmed up, I'll be working on the plow wiring on my truck. Then it's maple all the way. The forecast this week looks good here. We only have about 12-15" of snow on the ground at the sugarhouse, I'll work that first. When that's done, the snow at my lease up in the hills should be better, right now that's at 24-30", but this week should get it down to more manageable. Might be able by then to go without snowshoes, time will tell. After the hard cold snap we had, it will take a while for the trees to thaw out.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Wow was it tough going today in the bush........2.5' of snow with the top foot plus being powder. Slow going....one of those days where you say "I should get #11, #18 and #19 done" and all you get is #11. 1.5 rolls of tubing in a 200 tap area. Thats the way it goes, try again Sunday. Beautiful day to be out, nice to come out of the last 2 weeks' deep freeze.

[Paddymountain]

Took advantage of the warmer temps to sweep out the sugar shack with the shop vac. Also gave everything a preliminary wash with Clorox
water. Hopefully will finish up a little tubing work on Saturday, need to put on about 50 spiles and set a cage tank. At that point I believe I'll be ready
to set back and watch the weather.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Another month gone and closer to sugar season. Last 2 weekends have been really good going in the woods. About 75% done line work. We will finish that over the next couple weekends while tapping begins behind us. Nice day out there today, pretty sore because the snowshoeing was good so I worked 9 hours. Up next......February with sap right around the corner!