January Journal

[Russell Lampron]

Happy New Year everybody! May 2020 be our best year yet.

I've made many repairs and improvements over the last 3 years including a new arch, a second tower on my RO machine and for this season a new 7" full stack filter press with an air operated diaphragm pump.

2017, 2018 and 2019 weren't the best years for me as far as prostate cancer is concerned but for 2020 there shouldn't be any surprises. If the treatment works the Dr said that I should be able to go 5 to 10 years without a recurrence.

[BAP]

Happy New Year’s Russ. Wishing you good luck on your cancer battle and hoping for a great sugar year.

[Super Sapper]

Happy New Year to everyone also and best wishes Russ with the cancer.

[maple flats]

Happy New Year Russ and to all maple producers, from a 2 year cancer survivor. I get a recheck PT scan in November, the last two showed no cancer.

[maple flats]

My sales were strong all year. I need to go get a few more cases of 1/2 gal jugs, I have syrup to pack and no 1/2 gal jugs, my biggest selling size for my regular maple syrup.

[Chickenman]

Built a 2 handed tubing tool, a 12 volt RV water pump vacuum system in a cooler and have 1 tubing run set up. Still have a few that will be on gravity to install but were getting their. Looking forward to see if I get any improvement with gravity tubing verses sap sacks. Kind of over spent my budget this year getting ready.

[Maplewalnut]

Full on maple now. Will be in Syracuse this weekend for the maple conference. One out of three bushes are all tightened up and ready for tapping. Tanks are cleaned and releasers cleaned and greased. Won’t be long now. Have a questionable SP-22 going into the season which is a concern. Was shutting off periodically for no rhyme or reason end of last season. Pulled it over the summer and went over it but found nothing wrong. Will need to identify a back up if it craps out again

Happy New Year

Mike

[Chickenman]

Posted on Chautauqua County, NY thread. Started a small vacuum line today. Will get the lines installed for a gravity line in the next few days I hope. Tubing tools that I built are working great. Wish I started using tubing sooner.

[highlandcattle]

Great news Dave!

[sugaringman85]

New sugar house is coming along. Hoping to finish it here before the season but am getting worried. Will be a lot of fun being in a new building and having a new RO. We are jumping from a 300gph to a 1200gph in anticipation of our expansion of 2500 taps for 2021. Should make boiling this year pretty darn short!

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Signed an agreement yesterday giving me access to ~5000 new taps. The woods is right below my current woods. Hoping to get 1000 more online for spring. My current woods is ready to tap.

[Paddymountain]

Happy New Year! I went through the prostate cancer process last year too. Bled out internally with my prostrate biopsy;
ended up in the Hospital for 4 days and received 3 units of blood. Took the rest of the summer to recover from that; then did
my 28 days of radiation late October to early December. I held up good, didn't miss any work or hunting. Starting to get back on my feet a little. Swept out the sugar shack last week and have started putting on new drop lines! Yesterday bought more
tubing and fittings, should be ready by Feb1!!!!

[Paddymountain]

I have almost all my drops replaced, about 75 to go. I need to set a cage tank yet, and repair a mainline that got
cut on the bottom from a limb falling on it, and a sharp stone under it. I found it when I was flushing lines , wonder how much sap I lost. Not interested in tapping too soon, as I think February is going to be really cold. It will be nice to be ready to pull
the trigger when the time comes!

[Chickenman]

Just finished boiling off the sap that I had collected from my Reds on vacuum. Have 1 1/2 gallons of syrup. Not much compared to most of you guys but I have only been able to make 6 gallons the last 3 years due to our funky Lake Erie weather.

[BAP]

Finally closing in on having enough wood split for this year. I am further behind than I would like to be at this point, but with helping elderly parents and other family issues, I have not had as much time available as past years. Hoping for another 4 weeks of winter so I can get everything in order.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

I'm in the same boat Bap, I have had labor issues throughout this years expansion and even when I have help I feel like I do most of the work.