What's are you up to?

[Ultimatetreehugger]

What is everyone up to? Anyone expanding? Upgrading? Down sizing? Moving? Getting out? Going all in?

I for one plan to install 300-400 more this year and then take a year from installing to pay off some bills. After that hoping to take on 5-6000 tap woods near me.

[seclark]

This past season was more than likely my last one. I was just a hobby guy anyway but I sure did have a blast doing it. I will be 80 come January and as a one man show it is not fun any more, just work. But in the past years it was fun to either collect on my snowmobile or quad, depending on the weather and just get out an and do something in the fresh air. I will miss it but as they say, time and tide wait for no one. I will always be grateful for all the help and ideas I have gotten from this site. I will continue to look at what others are doing on this site and remember the good time I had. Good luck to all in the future.

[maple flats]

I fully understand, I'll be 73 the fall and I'm getting rid of my lease in the hills, far too much climbing steep hills. I will be expanding around the sugarhouse, but there are no hills there. I think I'll then be about 400, maybe 450 taps, with all sap going right to the sugarhouse.
You can still be part of the fun on here, and help the new producers find some of the fun like you enjoyed.

[minehart gap]

I plan to double my taps again and add a membrane to the RO. Already built and filled a woodshed. I cleared and am cleaning up a 1 acre area and will be planting wildflowers in it in the next couple weeks. Also going to do some thinning this summer/fall.

[n8hutch]

Ordered a New Sap Tank its 5' by 12' by 50", I went with a LaPierre its somewhere in the 1680 gallon range, also ordered a releaser support to go with it. I have had pretty good luck with the CDL tanks I have but they make me nervous as hell when they pop and ping so I spent the long dollar which I hate to do on the better tank.

Also going to try and get my vacuum setup on a wet dry type system and try to Add 400 taps so that my pump and releaser will be maxed out at 1000 taps. While I'm at it I'm going to try and shorten up some of my laterals and get my taps per down under 10 if I can, I know alot of guys are in the 3-5 range but i just don't think that I have the woods for that.

I also need to get a new/used vac pump and releaser for at the sugarhouse, I have 125 or so taps there that I would really like to get hooked up for next season. Need to find a budget friendly pump and releaser for that.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Gained 180 new taps that we will run tubing for later this year after the bugs subside. Planning to try setting it up with Shurflo vacuum. Also going to order and set up a 4x8x4 tank.

[western mainer]

Will be adding at lease 8000 feet of tubing to start a new area on our land, with hopes of adding 400 this year and up to 1500 more the next 3-4 years. We will also be a tour stop this June for the Maine maple Mania.

[Delta Glen]

We hope to finish a section of woods, 600 to 800 taps additional. Add another vessel to 600 RO. Working on upgrading evaporator from 3x10 to 3x12 tsunami. Biggest pain will be positioning 6k gal enclosed horizontal tank with a skidder and tractor.

[Kh7722]

We are building a new timber frame sugarhouse this year, and ordered a new 3x10 evaporator, filter press, canner, and looking for a r.o. Plus hopefully adding about 600-800 taps down the road. And in my spare time got a few tubing jobs to install. Gonna be a busy “off” season.

[Maple Man 85]

Planning to expand by 2,000 taps (hopefully 3k if time supports it) finding new markets and expanding the footprint. Got to keep growing to keep up with demand! :cool:

[Russell Lampron]

I'm selling my hand pump filter press and have ordered a Wes Fab 7" full stack press with an air pump. This will be the third year in a row that I have spent $2,000 or more on improvements and upgrades.

[tcross]

i'm adding a concrete floor to the sugar house as well as buying a new 2 1/2' x 8 evaporator to put on it. this will be a huge change for me. it was a PITA always keeping everything clean, but was fairly easy because i was out there for soooo long boiling! not anymore! after 4 consecutive 12-15 hours days this year, my wife agreed it was time!

[tbear]

We're adding sight glasses to our feeder tank (that feeds sap to the evaporator) and to our pan. We have purchased a150 gallon tank for sap storage that will feed our feeder tank and wil build/repurpose a stand for and will plumb it into the shack. Just looking at these improvements it doesn't sound like much but they are BIG improvements for us. We wil also continue working/thinking about a way to open and close cupola doors from the inside of shack. Ted

[Russell Lampron]

We wil also continue working/thinking about a way to open and close cupola doors from the inside of shack. Ted

I made a rope and pulley system to open and close my cupola doors. One end of the rope is attached to the door and runs through a pulley and the other end is attached to the sugar house wall. The doors drop down when the ropes are unhooked from the sugar house wall and are easily closed by pulling on the rope.

[tbear]

We're having a problem with getting the doors initial outward movement started, after that its just gravity. Thanks, ted

[maple flats]

I made a "kicker" to open the doors. I pull a rope and a wooden arm kicks the doors, to push them out. Sometimes I need to pull that kicker a second time. I then pull a second rope to close the doors. Each door has a rope attached to it, and both are tied to one rope the comes down one wall. When I pull that single rope both close and I tie them shut by attaching them to a "boat cleat" type tie off. Open and close are both achieved by pulling one rope for each action. The open rope is light weight (3/16"), the close rope is woven 7/16" rope.

[unc23win]

School is out for summer! Planning getting out in the woods tomorrow to continue our expansion we started in the fall. Not sure how many more taps but we've got 10,000 + feet of mainline and 50 + rolls of 5/16" on hand (took advantage of Lapierre's cash and carry sale) and we plan on using every inch then we'll probably get more. Planning on working in the woods the next few weeks before doing hay. Ordered a new 10" Lapierre filter press. Going to add onto the sugarhouse, which will get all of our tanks inside. The addition will also include a room for our releaser, vacuum pump, and collection tank it will be nice to not have to go outside. Our current vacuum shed then will be moved to our expansion woods. Plus a little driveway work and parking area expansions.

[minehart gap]

We're having a problem with getting the doors initial outward movement started, after that its just gravity. Thanks, ted

I put spring loaded Cam's on mine to get them started. It basically looks like a longer wooden version of the rocker arm in an engine with the spring fastened to the rocker instead of on the cam shaft. They work about 90% of the time and the rest of the time I just need to pull on the cable a few times to initiate the Cam's.

[claystroup]

Our huge change/update this year is the building of a new 12 x 18 sugar shack that I have documented on another thread on this site. This will be a huge upgrade for us after boiling outside for the past 4 years. Also going to increase from 110 taps to around 150 for next year. Have purchased 4 vintage Delaval stainless 5 gallon milk pails to store finished syrup in prior to bottling. Had used 5 gallon plastic pails previously but found 2 of ours that the bottoms split wide open for no apparent reason last season. Not a big deal to loose 5 gallons of sap but 5 gallons of syrup lost would be a bad. Thats about it for us.

[billschi]

I have completed my 12'x20' sugar shack. The door underneath is the root cellar to keep the sap cool. I gravity feed the sap to fresh water tanks and I use a RV pump to pump the sap to the pans.
20218

[Galena]

moved my tiny lil sugar shack with the help of my friends, some planks and rails and a little tractor. And used refractory cement to patch up as many holes in my shack's woodstove so it isn't leaking like a sieve. Just need to get some gasket rope to help seal the areas that still need to be openable. And was glad to see my smokepipe was barely even sooty so I clearly did things right in terms of what got burned in there this spring.

[VT_K9]

We plan to finish the sugarhouse to get a little more weather tight. Then finish a 1200 mainline run which should add 600+ taps plus the ability to add more as time allows or as taps are needed.

[Galena]

Entering fairs and just picked up my 2nd place finishers (class of 6)...happy to win back my entry fee and a shiny piece of blue satin :-)

[littleTapper]

Just got my RB20 kit from the RO Bucket folks and need to get assembling some rainy day. Looking forward to saving some time and a whole lot of firewood. 99 taps last year on a divided 2x4 was a lot of time and wood. I might add a few more trees next season :)

[calvertbrothers]

Just fixing sugar house foundation and building a tank room of the side of the sugar house. The father-in-law is thinning out another section of sugar bush for me to run lines this winter.

[TimS]

Good day. Syrup rookie here.. one season removed. Tapped 18 trees this spring, boiled it down in a lobster pot using a propane burner on my back deck and finished the syrup in the kitchen. My buddy on the mountain had a similar rookie season. We both enjoyed it so we decided to pool our resources and expand into my back 40. We've been working on a little 16' x 8' shelter and bought an old wood stove with a flat top that should serve the purpose. We even have a gent building us a nice continuous flow evaporator so we can lose the lobster pot. Lately we've been putting the finishing touches on the shack, "grooming" the trail so we know where we're going in the spring and cutting firewood. Great therapy... makes me wonder why I waited til 57 to get started. Looking forward to our 2nd season. #sweeteningthepan