Anything new

[Kh7722]

Hey all,

Hope everyone’s summer went well and was very productive. I believe we did this last year, and its time to bring it back. What expansion or upgrades is everyone doing this year? Big or small share your plans. We are not adding many taps, maybe 50-100, ordered an open top stainless tank which i think is about 2200 gallons super excited about that, no more cage totes. Still trying to get sugarhouse going, building materials are so high right now, plus with the addition of our daughter born 3 weeks ago we have been occupied. Other than that share your additions

[heus]

I am actually downsizing. Going from 1000 taps on vac with a 600 gph ro and oil fired arch back to about 250 taps on vac, no ro, and a wood arch. Same 2x8 Smoky Lake pans, though. And I am done with cv spouts. Way too many of mine the past few years have either plugged up with snot or clogged with sawdust. Changing all my droplines and using clear leader spouts for this year, then probably going to the zap-bac spouts the year after. Also going to concentrate on tapping only sugars. I have that luxury now doing 250 taps in a 1200 tap woods.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Adding 4-500 taps. On a steep incline, perfect 3/16 sections.

[Potters3]

Trying to stay on top of what we have, no new expansions. NO NEW BILLS. Maybe try to make more then I spent this year.

[billschi]

This week I am building a 8'x10' root cellar into a hill near to the house. On top of that I will build my sugar shack. We need a place to store our veggies for the year. Our ground temps are in the low 40's.
I plan to gravity drain the sap I collect into 55 gallon food grade drums located in the root cellar. I can then use a RV pump to transfer the filtered sap up to the sugar shack into my pans.

[unc23win]

About a month ago we took delivery of our Lapierre piggy back along with an auto defoamer and some tubing and supplies. This afternoon we are expecting delivery of our 1200 gph ro along with a 3800 gallon sap tank and a 100 gallon draw off tank. More to come between now and syrup season I’m sure.

Tap wise we have been working on fencing off a new section of woods and plan to start running tubing within a week when we get that section done we will start another one.

[raptorfan85]

I'm building a new arch, you can check it out in the homemade equipment section, to go with my new 2x4 Smoky lake hybrid pan. Other then that I'm going to do a 3/16 hybrid vacuum and tubing system this year with about 50+ taps.

[tcross]

i'm going to be making a bubbler for my arch this year in hopes it'll help produce some lighter syrup and knock down on my cleaning time! i've heard good things about them, and they're fairly inexpensive to make... so it seams.

[minehart gap]

Right before the end of the season this past spring we installed a new A&A Sheet metal arch with AOF and ALF, then built a 20 gallon draw off tank after seasons end. Cleared a trail for extending the main line. Ordered Run RO a couple weeks ago and plan to pick it up in mid-October. Working on installing a kitchen in the sugar shack now and installing the fan and blower with building a root cellar to store the RO in happening next. Expanding our tap count by 150 taps this winter.

Started to clear out an 1 1/2 acre area just uphill from the sugar shack that is polluted with spice bust, grape vine and Multi Flora Rose that we will plant in wild flowers next spring. Hoping to pretty up the place a little.

[maple flats]

I'm currently running a 100A feed from my sugarhouse (200A service from grid and 6230 watt solar) to my shop. Before I fill the trench in I will lay in an air line to run my diaphragm pump. I currently have a compressor in the sugarhouse but the quiet will be nice when I can run a compressor in the shop and use air in the sugarhouse. My other plans are to slightly expand the taps around my sugarhouse (maybe 50-70 more) and tap my lease with an expansion, while health issues kept me from tapping the lease in 2018. I think those changes should get me up between 950 and 1000 taps. That may well be my max from then on. I am also making a stand for a double vertical releaser that I used 4 seasons ago at another lease that I sold over a year ago. At my lease, it is on a vacuum tank so I need to keep vacuum down to 19". When I get that stand built, I will then not use the tank as a vacuum tank, and I can put an Alamo (75?) on line and get the vacuum up to 22-24". Then the next year I plan to get a better vacuum pump to hook in for 26-27"+ for more sap.
The new taps at my sugarhouse will almost all be in Reds, on vacuum and pulling from below the mainline or barely above for about half, all on 3/16. I did that as a test last year and pulled 2 lines totaling 49 taps from a low area, up over the driveway and then down to a mainline. I worked very well. I will use those lines 1 more year then change them all the year after to have everything in that part new every 2 years. Most new taps at the lease will be uphill from the mains on 3/16 but about 25 will be on 3/16 on vacuum pulling from below the mains. The only other change I have planned at this time is to cut an overloaded 3/16 lateral with great elevation drop from one with 42 taps into 2 with about half on each.

[billschi]

i'm going to be making a bubbler for my arch this year in hopes it'll help produce some lighter syrup and knock down on my cleaning time! i've heard good things about them, and they're fairly inexpensive to make... so it seams.

I too am building a bubbler. What are you planning to use for to push the air?

[tcross]

i think i'm going to use a small shop vac. i can't remember who, but someone used the smallest one they could find and it worked well for them. seems like an easy way to go about it?! my thinking is, if it works... awesome... and if it doesn't, I get a new vac for my workbench.

[billschi]

Root cellar/ sugar shack.

18885

[heus]

Root cellar/ sugar shack.

18885
That's pretty neat. Keep us updated on your progress.

[maple flats]

The electric lines are in and the air line beside it, from the sugarhouse to the shop. The trench is backfilled. I have the wires into the box at the shop but only into the sugarhouse, not yet tied to the panel. I've been working on sawing lumber and putting in a loft in the shop. All of the joists are in and most of the floorboards have been milled and are laying on the joists. Only about 40% are nailed down, hope to get the rest nailed today. Then I can calculate how many more boards I need to saw. It looks like it will be about 24-28" in width worth, the whole length of the loft (14'). Once the floor is finished I'll be loading a lot of the lighter, bulkier things in the loft. Then I'll be bringing a woodstove that has been stored for 3 years in my garage to heat the shop. When the weather is not good enough to enjoy working outdoors I'll finish the wiring. Right now I'm just using a single extension cord from the sugarhouse to run lights, a saw or a compressor. Soon it will all be far better, with no extensions cords needed.
Setting this all up will also give me more room in the sugarhouse, the compressor and lots of storage will no longer be there, they will be in the shop with the lighter stuff in the loft.

[SeanD]

New sap hauler, here. Got rid of the Ram 1500 and got a Ford F-350 Super Duty. Built a 16'x10' lean-to onto the side of the sugar house. No excuse not to add more vac and taps, now.

[SeanD]

Oh, yeah. I'm also paving an area for the new truck so it's not parked on dirt. Well, I'm not paving it, but I'm paying for someone else to do it. Asphalt is expensive!

[maple flats]

Today I attached the rest of the floor boards, I still need to mill 5 more to finish. I have the rest of a log on the mill that will only get me 3, thus I need to buck another 14'6" log just to mill 2 more boards. Maybe tomorrow. If the weather doesn't play right I may do either more wiring or finish the air line, I just need to convert to an insert X thread elbow and enter the building at each end. Then add the appropriate air fittings to attach an air line to them.

[Maple Man 85]

Just fixing wind damage...1888618887

[jetdoc]

We tore down part of an old barn and rebuilt it for our ro room, kitchen and boiler room. We took out all the old concrete and put in new. Shortly after the concrete was put in our brand new Smoky Lake fuel oil 2x8 evaporator showed up. Installed three bay sink in kitchen with a industrial mixer and alot of stainless. Then last week we picked up our 300 gallon and 800 gallon stainless round bottom tanks from H&M in Burton Ohio. We will be replacing all our drops and doing away with the CV and going with all new zap-bac taps. Roughly around 620 of them.

[gmack]

i'm going to be making a bubbler for my arch this year in hopes it'll help produce some lighter syrup and knock down on my cleaning time! i've heard good things about them, and they're fairly inexpensive to make... so it seams.



Did you get the bubbler made ? any pics I am interested .

Thank you

[tcross]

Did you get the bubbler made ? any pics I am interested .

Thank you

I have not. i plan on starting after the holidays are over with. i've been working on cleaning up all the storm damage from the summer/fall. i didn't realize just how much damage was done. I'd be more than happy to share my pic/info with you once i get going!

[TerraPerma]

I've only been running 9 taps out of my suburban backyard (2 silvers and a Norway) the previous four years; but this year I'm adding 30 more taps on silver maples care of my aunt's neighbor. I wish I knew someone close with a stand of sugar maples, but I gotta take what I can get! I bought a half-ton Chevy so I don't have to haul sap and wood in our grocery getter Subaru; a 7" Wes Fab filter press (I haaate messing with fabric filtering on gravity); ordered the parts for a DIY RO unit, following hodorskib's instructions (https://sites.google.com/site/mattatuckmadnessmaplesyrup/home/homemade-reverse-osmosis-system); and a chest freezer to hold concentrated sap. I'm a weekend boiler and my half pint only does 7gph at full tilt, so maximizing the economy of storing and processing sap is extremely attractive. I had to throw away about 30% of my sap haul last year due to spoilage, but should be ready this year!