Willow Creek Sugarhouse 2020

[red maples]

Hi Everyone, Getting close, this past warm up means its getting close. Still have much to do. Had a Great fall for sales best ever so I Ordered a brand new electric horizontal releaser from MES. should be ready in about a week or 2 looks like a pretty good freeze up coming soon according to the long term forecast anyway but who knows that could change tomorrow. This releaser will eliminate the open tank with the mechanical on it and I can use the mechanical releaser a different spot and get rid of the older hobby that has been a thorn in my side for the past few years it will be a constant vac pressure instead of dumping and back flow every few minutes. So building a little 6 x 8 shed that,s about 3/4 done, moving the vac pump in there with the releaser and need to run electric etc.

then out in the woods to finish replacing some 3/4" black water tubing with 1" 30p I had 100 foot of it lying around last year put it in and I love it. my property is very flat and very little pitch to the tubing I have to constantly work at keeping out sags for good vac transfer and this helps so much because I can see the sap flowing and can just walk and find sags and tighten etc.

Its been very windy this year in NH and not just from politics either. (although I can't wait for this election circus and all the side shows to be over!!! just sick of it) anyway lots of branches and blow downs to get at.

Have a good season everyone!!!

[Russell Lampron]

It's good to hear from you again Brad. Looks like you might want to update your signature. I replaced a 700' 3/4" black mainline with 30P last year and found that I really like it a lot. With all of the wind that we've had my woods were in pretty good shape. I had 2 trees come down across one of my mainlines that turned out to be an easier than expected fix. I didn't even need a chainsaw in the rest of the woods.

I hope that you like your new releaser. I have really happy with the membranes and pre filters that I've bought from MES. They are a good company to do business with.

Good luck with your season!

[red maples]

Hey Everybody, figured I would take a minute and do an update. Not much down time for me between work, kids basketball and running him everywhere. I am doing some consulting work for my aunt, she is buying a bed and Breakfast in boulder Canyon, Colorado and I am designing the kitchen and menu and stuff. It is beautiful place called the the ALPS INN check it out if you like https://www.alpsinn.com/ so there is that. Next week is school vacation thank goodness but I am doing 3 ice carvings for The Sea Dog in Exeter for their little winter carnival I did it last year too. Its fun and make some extra money. I will see if I can post the picks of the ice from last year.

anyway back to maple. Got my shed build electric run, vac pump is installed in there. still need to run the pipes though. My releaser from MES isn't done yet. have to call again tomorrow, so I will have to with the old set up until its ready. Hopefully it will be done and I can get it soon. I really don;t expect much sap saturday maybe some on sunday but cold temps will freeze everything up pretty good and take a day or 2 to get things going.

Only 200' of the 30P installed and saddles re done. had to get other stuff fixed. had 2 more trees come down that snapped mainline wires in 2 places . So that set me back so I am slightly behind on tapping. Didn;t get started until Sunday afternoon. but struggled my drill is aging and just doesn;t have power anymore struggles again on monday and decided I was wasting too much time so headed in town after dark and bought a brandy new dewalt. WOW the power what difference. anyway I have about 300 taps in and have about 285 more on the vac. hoping I can get those in Thursday and Friday after work. finish up saturday if needed and get buckets hung on Sunday morning just in time.

I did get my RO running and flushed the membranes so they thats all set too. So I have a little RO under the sink in my kitchen its a little 3 galloner. I have that serviced by the company that installed it. anyway when he was here he was checking the water with a TDS meter that measures in Parts per Million. TDS= total dissolved solids. So I got one on amazon its cheap money and easy to use to check on your membranes to see if they are passing sugar. Figured I would try it out. while I was flushing the membranes (well water) it was reading 0 PPM for the Permeat so nothing getting through. pretty neat.

So I do need to clean the sugarhouse and get evap prepped etc. but I think I got a little time.

busy but having fun.

[Russell Lampron]

I was wondering what you've been up to. Looks like you've got a little catching up to do. I hope your new releaser is ready soon. Good luck getting the rest of your taps in.

[red maples]

Yeah just been super busy. just came in to grb a quick lunch.

took my wife up to Wentworth Green house for an art and craft fair she does about 5 or 6 of them up there the coincide with the winter farmers market. got back to the house about 8:30 but my daughter was sick so sat with her for a bit she is 17 but it kinda was like meningitis but no fever so just wanted to make sure she was OK. then headed to the woods. put in about 125 taps.

I have less than 100 probably closer to about 85 taps to get in here on my property.

Picked up Releaser on thursday after work looks pretty Quite a bit simpler than the other options I looked at. less things to fail I will get a pick up as soon as I can just trying to get caught up before sap runs. Still have to run tubing and plumbing and hook up the VFD and float switch. Hoping to get to that later on this after noon after finish tapping my woods.

Have to fix a dry line connector but that will take a little rebuilding big crack on the pvc thing I build with valve and vacuum gauge. Have to replace a few more drop lines that are destroyed (ran out of what I had with me) and have to replace a saddle, man the thing is chewed right down to the nub.

but getting there. its 40 and sunny here but the trees need more time to thaw didn't have one drippy hole this morning.

[Russell Lampron]

You're not missing much yet. It's a beautiful day here, sunny and 42*, but the trees are still frozen and the sap is barely running.

[red maples]

Sap was running but still working on stuff worst case scenario I missed Sunday's app. But it was very pretty cold on sat night so guessing it was just the warm trees running. Got vac pump all plumbed into the releaser VFD wired and dry tested. They had the toggle switch wired backwards but that an easy fix. Releaser is all plumbed except for incoming sap lines bit have valves on them. Ran the vac brought it up to 29" turned of the vac and it held vac for about 20 minutes. No leaks. Beautiful.

The remaining work I needed to do outside so called it quits for the night and had some family stuff to do. Building a new connector for my dry line this morning should have that installed shortly. Replace a few drops and get those trapped and the woods are done except for leaks. And minor adjustments.

Get the main lines connected and we are business. Got down to 25 here. And with warm air coming through should be boiling tonight!!!.

[red maples]

ah... finally up and running as of 12:00 yeaterday!!! ffeeewww.... got my woods done. attached all the lines to the releaser. put in new oil in the pump and started her up. pulling 22" right off the bat!!! nice!!! grabbed a sandwich and sit down for a few minutes, then headed out to find leaks found a couple pretty good chews, and 3 hollow trees. got it up to 27" when I started on the farthest mainline and all the laterals were full of sap ooops... forgot to open the valve on that section. well opened it up and swoosh... only down to 26.25" I'll take it. came back to the SH to check on things there everything seems to running smoothly have a slight boil on the drain pipe in the releaser its not too bad so I will worry about that when things freeze up this weekend.

sap was super green stinky and nasty of course dumped a little and now its crystal clear in the releaser green hue in the tank. only got down to 34* here so got some sap on the over night as well. no freeze here until thursday night I think overcast this morning. butwe'll see what the next few days bring. low pressure system so sap will continue. guessing we are gonna start with dark or very dark syrup based on this run.

I love the fact that there is continuous vacuum!!!


gotta see the accountant and get tax stuff done this morning.

then have to get the taps in across the street. 75 over there. I am gonna use the mechanical releaser over there and offiacally decommission the hobby that has been a thorn in my side the past few years. expecting alot more sap out of those 75 this year.

then we will get all the buckets in this weekend hopefully saturday or sunday.

[red maples]

vac is now up to 27" didn't do anything. but I will take it. guessing the trees are warmer. had a couple of little fixes across the street and got in about 1/2 the taps about 35 to go ran out of light got a later start over there than I wanted to. I left my 150 gallon plastic tank over there over the summer covered but apparently not covered well enough because its solid ICE oops. but I slid it out of the way and I have another one I can put in there. have to make something to set the releaser down in the tank because it is alot bigger.

Finish everything tomorrow morning over there. and work on cleaning the sugarhouse should need much I had everything pretty clean in november. need to run up to sunnyside this weekend for a few things and stock up on containers, DE, filters etc. hope everyone is having fun!!!

[Russell Lampron]

Sounds like you're making progress. I've got the weekend off so maybe we can get together when you go to Sunnyside. I've got some greenish colored sap too. I'm planning to go through a couple of pre filters before I get it all through the RO.

[red maples]

Yeah russ that would be good hoping to come up saturday morning. Will be nice to see you, been a little while.

Nasty out this morning, jeez...

Had about 600+ gallons to process. (I need to get a bigger water meter mine is only a 3/4 inch and now have a 1-1/4 line coming in so don't want to restrict that flow from the releaser so it will be a guest for this year I like exact numbers though) thats since monday 12:00 noon.

definitely not the high sugar sap from last year I will tell you that. last year was average 2+ almost all season this sap started at 1.25 and went to 1%. so a little longer through the RO. went through 2 pre-filters I am using the MES prefilters I just bought a few to try I have to say I don't think I like them. they have that plastic mesh on the inside so the actual filtering is not as thick. I don't know. we'll see.

Vac is still running between 26.75" and actually 27.5" this morning. very low pressure and thawing trees. and with the new electric releaser its a constant vac pressure. steadier flow of sap coming in!! should have more sap this year. :)

First boil last night lots of defoamer!!! but that was expected on the first boil. everything went very smooth made about 3 gallons but but didn't filter it. looks about mid line dark but expected that too.

Was thinking back to the days of sweetening the pans before RO. just sitting there trying to stay awake and just load after load after load of wood going in to evap!!!

[BlueberryHill]

Sap is at 1.1% here in Raymond's coldest north facing sugar bush. So you are not alone. I'm hoping that the season just has not kicked in quite yet.

[Russell Lampron]

Low sugar content here in Loudon too. I did my first boil with 500 gallons of sap and didn't get a draw off. I didn't check the sugar content before I started so I don't know how bad it really was. Normally starting with that much sap I get the pans sweetened and have 3 or 4 gallons in the finisher.

Brad let me know what time you'll be here so that I'll be home. I'm only planning a dump run so any time is good.

[red maples]

yeah sure I will let you know I have to stop at sunnyside and windswept then I will be over. I will message you on FB when I get to Sunnyside. usually get talking a little with whom ever.

[red maples]

Did my Ice Carvings for the sea Dog on Thursday and Friday. they came out pretty good. they are gonna do it again next year. I want to do a full Ice Bar for next year!!!

went up to sunnyside Saturday morning then stopped off at windswept to say Hi, talked with larry a bit. they have been tapped in for a while but just paying utilities to run the vac pumps because they haven't got much sap yet. I was a little worried because there have been so many warmer days in the last few weeks but they always followed very cold temps.

Then went to have a morning boiling soda with Russ from Red roof Maples couldn't pass that up. Very nice visit. finally got to see the bubblemaster 2000.

Well Still playing catch up but getting there!!!

Finally go the 75 taps across the street online this afternoon. Sap is coming in just OK now. took all day but after that freeze up and cloudy today even though it was warm probably only getting sap out of the warm trees.

Put a small bathroom vent fan in the vac/releaser room. need more air flow.

had about 350 gallons, boiled that out on Sunday. but syrup went right to very dark... dam. low sugar short boils. awesome flavor though. nice buttery flavor haven't had that in a few years. got the filter press all hooked up not used to the new pump yet. man its strong I might need to put in an adjustable speed switch. I blew a little syrup right out of the plates!!!

tomorrow I will finally get the bucket/ bags tapped and hung although I am down to about 30 of those. 2 properties were sold over the years and lost a bunch of bucket road side taps. the new owners didn't want me to tap their trees. Oh well their loss. The sugar is good in those but I hate collecting buckets anyway!!!

[Russell Lampron]

I thought that my syrup might grade at amber but reheating it made it grade at dark. It does have a nice robust maple flavor to match the color.

What do you have for a filter press and pump?

The sap didn't run very good here today either but it's looking like it will.

It's good that you are getting caught up, it makes maple season a lot more fun when you're not constantly trying to get caught up. One of the things that helped me was getting rid of the buckets.

[red maples]

WOW... I think this is my single highest 24 hr run. over 700 gallons of sap since yesterday about 3:00. and missed out on a little more have to add a second tank across the street. stopped over to check it this morning and there are alot of sugars over there. was full dam. had to shut it down. thats a 150 gallon tank so tomorrow I will add another one over there. I never got good runs over there because my releaser would fail!!! the big oneis awesome.

go in 1/2 the buckets. still about 15 or so to go.

grabbing a bite and then heading out to start boiling!!! :) hope youall got on the swimmies because its a lot of sap!!! I hope it keeps up!!!

[red maples]

processed all the sap, was a bit under 700 probably more like 650. no meter this year so have to guess a little. I miss the meter. anyway got everything processed and started boiling when it was about 11% and finished about 16%. ended with about 9.5 gallons of just into dark #26 on the syrup grader thing. but excellent flavor. been slowing creeping back up. was as low as #11 last one was #18 so huge comeback so far. cleaned out front pan last night lost of build up already. and filtered that. gonna filter the back pan and rinse that before the next boil that should brings things way up into dark. and is usually much easier filtering as well.

vac is down a bit from last week to 25.5 to 26" hoping I an get a out a bit and see if I can bring it back up.

sap across the street was about 1.5% my woods still a weak 1%. got another 200 on the over night and that was about it. only got about 150 gallons of sap all day today. Guessing the wind was a big factor in that. Can't boil tonight. Have to go to a fund raiser... yay... no... but its for my daughter's project prom blah blah blah... She's graduating this year. so its all good. but can still get some stuff in for now.

[red maples]

pumping sap into the releaser on Wednesday afternoon before the fundraiser and the pump had been getting slower and slower. I wired everything the way the directions came from MES but it did say that if you have issues to switch the wires. sure enough they wired the pump backwards. (they also wired the toggle switch backwards too) so changed the wires and its like a new pump. it was spinning backwards!!! this releaser is rated for up to 3000 taps I thought from when I first hooked it up no way could this handle 3000 taps.

had about 700+ gallons to boil out yesterday. not bad since we hadn't had a good freeze in some time. it did get to 30* but it was only for a few hours.

filtered back pan and rinsed it out. and cleaned front pan with vinegar so nice and clean much easier boil but much different weather pressure system then the last few boils big adjustments on the draw off thermometer. filtering was better until the last batch I blew a paper. never had that happen before just a little hole but enough to reck 8 gallons of syrup so have to he-heat and refilter it all. my syrup pan is super sweet so I will get a big draw off on the start of the next boil.

looks like the syrup is back way up in dark closer to amber.( hard to tell since its full of niter) Cleaning the pans helped that I am sure.

ROing taking a bit longer than last year I can tell you that. with lack of freezing nights and obviously no ice in the ground the sap is coming with some of the best runs I ever had but low sugar lots of water. thank goodness for RO would rather pay alittle more in electricity then cutting and splitting wood and super long boiling times.

was hoping for a little more sap today good freeze last night got down to 24* but it became overcast pretty quickly this morning and only got about <.5 gpt. been pretty close to .75 to 1 gpt. another freeze tonight and tomorrow then looks like another long stretch with a freeze hope it changes. need a little more consistent colder nights.

[red maples]

sap slowing to a craw if that... hit 70* here yesterday!!! saw he early budder tree( the one that ALWAYS buds before anything) else swell yesterday. I pull taps on that one early because it buds so early don't know why. hope we get some cold soon. Getting a little concerned since I am barely at 1/2 crop. anymore days like yesterday and we are trouble. luckily its supposed to be pretty over cast and some rain this afternoon and evening or whatever.

My son had a Basketball game last night so I couldn't boil, so ROed 800 gallons 3/4 of the way last night and finished this morning.

the weld on my float rod connection broke at the end of the boil on Sunday(thankfully it was at the end!!! ) so had to break out the welder and fix that this morning. a little rusty, no pun intended, not the prettiest of welds but its a lot stronger than it was. I knew it was weak it was just a matter of time before it broke.

[Russell Lampron]

When I boiled yesterday afternoon it felt like an end of season boil, not an early March boil. It's warm again here today and I'm getting about 25 gallons per hour. It's supposed to freeze again here tomorrow night. The low for tonight is supposed to be 33 but it could get colder, I can only hope.

[Amber Gold]

Now that you have the pump wired correctly, how's the new releaser working out. I've wanted to put a meter on my pump line, but have been hesitant too

I've also wanted to put on my evap. feed line, so I can see how fast I'm actually evaporating. And firing with wood, what firing/operating techniques makes it run faster and which don't.

[red maples]

Jeff Moore put a flow gauge on their evap. a few years ago. works pretty good.

oh the releaser is awesome since I got the wiring right. I love it. (I know it was alot) but it was well worth the money. since my main tank is in an enclosed room I eliminated the outside small tank that the mechanical releaser was dumping into so I have no bugs or rain leaks or anything to get into the sap.

Boiled out everything yesterday and made only 10 gallons of syrup on 800 gallons of sap. Low sugar... not like last year's 2%. much longer RO times!!! great flavor and the lightest I have made this year. mid grade dark. wish I could get things going a little lighter. got the back pan nice and light and what's in the front pan is nice and light but with very little sap coming in worried I am only gonna have 1/2 + of crop before the trees bud if things don't cool down a bit and we get some cooler night temps. supposed to get to 31* here tonight I hope it gets colder to keep things going. but its over cast right now so holding the warmer air in place. next freeze isn't until saturday night. I hope they are wrong in our favor!!!

[Amber Gold]

Good to hear. Glad it's working well.

[red maples]

have about 250+ gallons of sap as of this morning heading to out to check things out Gonna RO it and do a little test boil to see if the flavor is still good. trees haven't budded yet so??? at least I will have some permeate if it is bad.

weird freeze here last night the colder air was up higher. the sugar house sits a little lower than my house so the remote thermo at the house was at 28.5*F but behind the sugarhouse it was 30*F and the mud wasn't frozen it was still soft. weird? so I went to bed at 10:30 and it was still 39* so don;t think it was long enough. some folks around here have already pulled buckets??? don't know why the trees are gonna get regenerated this weekend. especially since the trees are all sugars there is still time if you are tapping strictly sugars. whatever. Vac still going to keep the sap columns open!!! it will be on until the sap turns or it stops flowing or both!!!

[Russell Lampron]

I went out at midnight to turn off the vacuum pump. At that time my thermometer was showing 30*. It didn't cool down much from there. It was 28* at 6 AM. I collected 325 gallons this afternoon and left 50 gallons in the woods. The sap is coming in clearer today. I forgot to check the ssc to see if that had changed.

[red maples]

Well first of all we decided to not be open for maple weekend. It will be a big hit to us but we are figuring out ways to get product out. Crowd.control is the best way to deal with an outbreak and keeps the numbers low.

Anyway we have had some light freezes so things continue on slow and steady. I have about 350 gallons of sap to cook off today took a couple days to get it but it will add to the total. Just watching the buds daily with binoculars and plan to pull taps of those that pop. I even still have some sap coming into the buckets/bags as well.

Cleaned releaser out yesterday. Was pretty coated inside. That will hopefully help with bacteria. Low sap flow is building bacteria in the tubing need a good hard run to keep them cleared out.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap has still been coming in here too but it has slowed down a bit. I have 500 gallons plus what came in overnight to boil this afternoon. The sap has cleared up some with the help of a couple of marginal freezes. It should be crystal clear by mid week if not sooner.

I'm still planning to be open for Maple Weekend but have cut back on some of the value added products. I'm not sure what to expect for a turn out but I'm thinking that it will low.

[BlueberryHill]

I blew a pump on my RO last night so I had to spend today scrambling around and it was a good excuse for me to just put out the closed sign. Don't think I'm going to reopen again. Hopefully next year will be twice as sweet!! The risk/stress is not worth it to me and the day job demands are about to hit CAT5 levels with all of this hoopla, so it all makes it that much easier for me to just throw in the towel on syrup. Gonna still cook off the sap as long as it comes in. The evaporator never quite hums like it does when I am out there alone with her.

[red maples]

Well I posted on out town's facebook page,my website and my facebook page, the sugarhouse facebook page a picture of my price list and all the stuff I made for this year. and got about 20 orders. I Cleaned out my farm stand and just getting a ballpark time and putting orders out there so we can keep our "social distancing" so I hope I broke $1000 but haven't added it up yet. I have a few more orders for today. I figured I'd leave it up for a while see what I get.

after last weekend's freeze up SSC got back up to about 1% but was about .75% yesterday with a season low of about .6% Vacuum has been a steady 26.75 most of the season with weird spikes and here and there and its not even colder days either. Friday evening it was about 27.75 I am thinking when the trees get a good warm up they swell a little and if a tap is not seated quite 100% they are sealing? and if the atmospheric pressure changes does the vacuum pressure change? I don't know.

Like Josh said he thought sugar was bad a few years ago I have to look back but I remember it being somewhere around 72:1 for me(remember I am mostly reds and a lot of swamp reds at that) but this year is even worse. I think I have reached the average sap I ususally get but the syrup amount is way down. I would say this year is easily gonna be a 80:1 year. The amount of time it is taking to get to 15+ sugar is crazy. and then what your left with after 400, 500, 600 + gallons of sap after rinsing the sugar out of the membranes is not much have had boils <1 hr this year. I try not to boil any less than every other day because the sap is coming yeasty even try to wipe out my releasers every couple of days and wiping out tanks regularly its coming out of the tubing that way.

I have a lot of trees that are popping went around today and pulled about 25 taps of those that popped. We had wood frogs in the swamp Friday and yesterday, and I heard peepers Friday night. but none before or after that. Got down to 21* last night. I have to walk 1 more section I know there are at least 3-5 trees that popped as I saw with binoculars but need my mud boots to get to them. some trees very tight buds some trees with just swelling buds. sun is very warm guessing I am gettin really close to being done. and syrup from my boil was lightening up too finished at 38 trasmitence still tastes OK I am very finicky about flavor but my wife said it still tasted good.

[red maples]

went through and pulled about another 20 taps today. just trying to keep it going!!! sap backed up today heavy snow pulled down my brace that it holding up the tarp on my mechanical releaser across the street well the weight of the tarp then wouldn't let float rod do it job backed but still allowed some sap to into the vac. changed the oil got out the remaining sap out of the moisture trap and back in business. I don't think it was down very long. Still not much sap today still defrosting I think but we'll see its still coming though. guessing I don't have much time left we'll see if we can make it until the end of the week.

[Russell Lampron]

The clock is ticking. The forecasted temps look like this weekend might be the end. I didn't get much sap overnight so I don't think that you missed much.

[red maples]

Well I think its the end for my woods at least. lots of buds now and a very very slight off flavor to the syrup right at the end but it doesn't linger underlying flavor is very good. since the reds are petering out the good flavor must be from the sugar maple sap. My syrup always lightens up this time of year graded at a 48 transmittance yesterday. but lots of defoamer which means end of year sap with lots of brown nasty foam from bacteria and unwanted impurities.

So since the weather this coming week is still somewhat favorable for sugaring I turned off my woods from the vacuum since its mostly reds and only have about 35 or so sugar maples across the street so I am gonna pull the reds and keep the sugars on line and my 30+- buckets are on sugars are still flowing very good. I swear 2 trees have never stopped this year they are tapped on the cold facing north east and have full or overflowing bags every time I empty. if I make another 5 gallons or what ever its another 5 gallons for a bad season. with only those trees on the vac. I will be pulling 29" easy. those woods are very tight and no sap ladders. my trees came in a whopping .5 %ssc while buckets are still running 1.25 or better. collected 112 gallons from buckets and across the street on wednesday. I will empty them again today.

We didn't get a freeze last night but they are still dripping and should get a freeze tonight.

good luck to those still going.

[Russell Lampron]

Good luck Brad. I hope that the freeze gets you some good sap.

[red maples]

well lack of freezes forced me to shut down. even the sugarmaple buds are beginning to swell. no more sap coming in. one or 2 buckets barely have wet taps an nothing coming in on vac either. 100 gallons of sap to process today. which is fine it will top off my permeate tank. I ususaly do a double wash at the and full 300 gallon rinse and then then add the perservative. All taps are pulled except 20 across the street. started on the clean up a bit ROed that 100 gallons of sap(its not that good pretty yeasty) and get that done should be a quick one but lots of defoamer I am sure get the back pan as sweet as possible to make the final cleanout boil as fast as possible. maybe 15 gallons after processing and rinsing out the sugar evap won't even get up to full temp before its gone. but it will get whats in there sanitized let it settle filter the back pan and finish it off.

pretty good sales continuing so thats good at least.

This will be my final visit to the trader this year hope everyone did pretty good and the northern folks are still rolling along!!!

Everyone stay healthy, stay home, stay safe and have a good year. Hopefully next season we can get back to normal!!!
See ya everyone!!!