Spring Harvest 2020

[Amber Gold]

Christmas break, got the woods ready. Did some long needed maintenance work, but it was a breeze getting the woods prepped with minimal snow. Tap count should still be 900+/- taps. RS is reporting 750 taps to start the season and expanding, and GZ 300+ taps. It’s going to be a busy season…

Since then, evap/tanks are all cleaned. New membrane installed and rinsed. Glad I did this early because I found the RO feed piping had a nice, long crack in it. Took some PVC glue and sealed it up, so I could actually do the membrane flush. Again, used my old membrane to concentrate well water, to use the concentrate to flush the new membrane. Not sure if this extra step is needed, but it makes me feel better. This weekend, I need to fix the piping.

Only upgrade this year is a new permeate tank. This weekend, I'm picking up a 1550 gal poly tank...should give me all the permeate water I'll need. The new tanks stand is mostly complete. I think it came out nice…cost a few bucks on PT lumber though.

In some ways, this is the most prepared I've been at the start of sugaring season. At the sugarhouse, just got to take care of a few things (final cleaning being one of them), and I'm ready to go.

Over the weekend, I tapped trees over and got the four big mainlines done. Only about 80 taps left. Got about 285 taps in Saturday afternoon, about 385 Sunday, and another 150 yesterday morning. After lunch, I got the vac turned on and spent the afternoon checking vac leaks until things froze up. Got the woods to about 20”. Tapping went well. Saturday was cold, but Sunday and Monday were quite nice.

Now, we sit and wait a week for things to warm up…

Good luck to everyone this season. May it be a good one!

[Russell Lampron]

Hey Josh I've been wondering what you've been up to. It's nice to start the season when you're prepared for it. It doesn't feel like you're always trying to get caught up.

What did you get for a membrane? I bought MES membranes for mine last year and am really happy with them.

You're going to like that big permeate tank. I'm using 2 cage tanks and wish that I had a 1000 gallons of storage. On a big run I'm pumping the permeate that won't fit in the tanks down the drain.

Good luck this season!

[Amber Gold]

I got a CDL membrane. I couldn't beat the price and convenience of picking it up at Webb.

I am looking forward to the big tank. I also have the 670 gal bulk tank set up behind it if I want to use that too. I'll just need to pump it into the new poly tank.

I'm wondering if the reason why the membrane basically failed in one season is because of not enough permeate water to do a proper rinse wash. Last season was the first time that I consistently went to 18% every time, and did it in a 2 step process instead of recirc'ing to get it to the mid-teens like previous years (I think the 2 step should've been easier overall).

[Russell Lampron]

I got a CDL membrane. I couldn't beat the price and convenience of picking it up at Webb.

I am looking forward to the big tank. I also have the 670 gal bulk tank set up behind it if I want to use that too. I'll just need to pump it into the new poly tank.

I'm wondering if the reason why the membrane basically failed in one season is because of not enough permeate water to do a proper rinse wash. Last season was the first time that I consistently went to 18% every time, and did it in a 2 step process instead of recirc'ing to get it to the mid-teens like previous years (I think the 2 step should've been easier overall).

I do it in two steps now too, 12% on the first pass and 20% on the second pass. Last season was the first one where I didn't do a soap wash after every use. I did a permeate wash on the ones that I didn't do a soap wash on. The MES membranes didn't slow down all season.

[Amber Gold]

Saturday morning, got the last mainline tapped. Wanted to work on the releaser (install the new pump control switch), so I shut the vac. pump off. Complete my work, turn it back on, and fault code on the VFD. What??? Spent the afternoon trying to figure out what was going on, making phone calls, and etc. Turns out, it’s some kind of internal error, and I new VFD is needed. Emergency trip to MES Sunday morning to get a new VFD. I’m calling Lenze today, so see if the issue can be resolved, and best case, I have a backup VFD.

Sunday late morning, after my trip to MES, got the new VFD wired and vac going, so back in business! Downside, I lost a day’s worth of time resolving the issue, so this weekend wasn’t as productive as I would’ve liked. Spent the rest of the day fixing some other electrical issues, testing the new pump switch, and checking for vac leaks. Most of the woods is still froze up, so not running well, but ended the day at 24.5” of vac. I have two mainlines with leaks, but can’t find them until things start running better. Ended the day Sunday getting the evaporator plumbed up, the RO plumbing fixed (split pipe), and truck tank in the back of my truck.

Ended Sunday with about 500 gal in the woods tank. Looks like I’ll need to boil tonight.

Dry testing the new pump switch, and it seems to work fine, but I want to be able to babysit it for a bit before I move the pump wiring over to the relay to have it power the pump.

[red maples]

I couldn't find mes the other day. Had to call. Was close but GPS couldn't find it.

I hope lenze doesn't have issues with their VFD. I assume I have the same one for my releaser.

What pump did you have the 16 or the 25. I assume I only need the 16 but mandy at mes was trying to sell me the 25. If I could get permission I probably could expand so might go with the 25. Nice small compact unit. What do you think now that you have used it for a bit. I am surprised at the size of the ports they seem small to move that much ar.

[Amber Gold]

Red, I'll send you an email with the det's.

Yesterday, hauled 714 gal of sap back to the sugarhouse and got the RO going. Gained 1” of vac (up to 25.5” now), and didn’t do anything! Guessing the trees are warming up and sealing better against the spiles.

Got the RO going, and took it to 11%. Had enough concentrate to fill the pans and run the evap for about an hour. Normal scrambling of things I forgot to do or needed to get set up to make syrup. Didn’t filter the syrup (not enough to bother with), so tonight will be the test of the new 10” press.

I forgot the drain on my sap float box is leaking…broken weld around the ¾” coupling drain. Forgot to get it fixed. Hoping it sugars up and reseals itself.

[Amber Gold]

Yesterday, I collected a 715 gal load from my woods and ~660 from GZ’s. I left about 300 gal in my tank. Boiled for about 3 hrs and made about 20 gal of syrup. Things went smooth.

Yesterday morning, I found the float string and top float were a ball of ice. Quick dismantle and ice removal and all set. Vac. leak causing ice ball fixed. Also worked out well because the pump screen was clogged with slime, so it would’ve been useless later in the day. When I picked up sap, I found the pump was short cycling. The adjustment screw on the Lapierre float switches are pretty sensitive. Slight tweak and it was cycling fine. Woods still at 25.5”.

A friend picked up my new permeate tank, and with the help of GZ, we got it onto the new platform. This tank is pretty tall, so when I go inside to clean it, it’s a challenge getting out of it. Got it plumbed up and put about 200 gal of permeate in it as a light test. Tonight, I’ll put like 800 gal, next 1000 gal, 1200, and then let it fill up. The last thing I need is things heading down…

When I was on the ladder plumbing the new tank, my dog started barking pretty aggressively…not good I thought. I just about fall off the ladder, come around the sugarhouse, and about step on a racoon! Zuri was right behind it barking at it, it’s right in front of my feet, and it could care less. It moseyed on by, walked under my tank, over to the tree line, and disappeared.

This morning, the woods tank had about 800 gal in it, so I must’ve picked up about 500 gal in the overnight.

[red maples]

everything still running pretty good even though this is I think 3rd day with no freeze. Low pressure days have a lot to do with it.

[Russell Lampron]

I got my best run of the season so far yesterday which was the crappiest of the last 4.

[Amber Gold]

My runs last week were all about the same...about 3/4 gpt.

[Amber Gold]

Not much has happened since last week because everything’s froze up.

Boiled Thursday night. Sap from GZ and I. SSC is testing low…about 1.5%...uggh. Made about 19 gal of syrup and filled my first keg of the season. Fortunately, vac is holding steady this week because I haven’t had time to deal with issues. I found out that you’re never as ready for the season as you think you are….

Friday, I got my new toy of the season…security camera. I mounted it inside the pump shed and now I can check on vac. level and sap flow at any time, from anywhere…this is soooo cool. Works like a charm too. Saturday morning, I saw the vac levels were good with sap trickling into the releaser. 1.5 hrs later vac is 0”. I needed to wait until the customers I had coming left, but then I shot over to the woods, and found the moisture trap was full of sap. Drain and back in business. This new toy is going to save me many unneeded trips to the woods, and it’ll get me there when I need to!!

Sunday afternoon, I upgraded my permeate tank stand. I was able to put 975 gal in it last week, and it looked OK, but was hesitant to put more…there may have been some bowing of the joists… I replaced the joists with deeper ones and added a center beam to shorten the span. I should be able to freight it up this week.

For the first week of March, I’m not really a fan of the forecast. 40’s the next couple nights and then some normal swing days.

[red maples]

I want to do a camera or 2 as well. they seem pretty cheap for the time and sap they can save.

[Amber Gold]

I hauled a load of sap out last night...about 500 gallons. SSC barely got a bump with the cold snap though. Only tested at 1.6%...

The camera saved me again. The woods was all set last night. Sap running in (barely), releaser working, vac. on...check. Get up this morning and the camera shows vac at 0". I make a trip to the woods on my way to work and find the moisture trap full and vac. off, and the releaser pumped down. The best I can figure is a slug of sap came in when the releaser was about full and the pump couldn't keep up. I pumped it down again to make sure there was plenty of room for when things break loose today.

I got the camera on Amazon. EZVIZ and I think it was $80. I already had the hotspot to get the signal out.

[Russell Lampron]

It froze here last night so it took awhile for it to start running but when it did everything broke loose, even the cold sections.

[Amber Gold]

Yesterday, I was still finding some trees that weren't running well, but the ones that were running, were more than making up for it!

Moisture trap filled up Monday night. Reset Tuesday morning on my way to work. Slight freeze overnight, so no flow. Test pump and all works. Check on releaser (via camera) around 9:30 and find vac is 0”. Get there early afternoon and for some reason the moisture trap is full, so the vac was shut off again.

Even without vac, the sap was still coming into the releaser, and I had say 200 gal in the tank. Got vac going, and the sap was hammering into the releaser. Pump was cycling every 4.5 min for the afternoon…rough figure is 120 gph. At 5pm, it’d settled down to a bit over 100 gph. I brought a truckload home and with GZ’s sap, processed about 1160 gal of sap. Sap is testing at 1.5% most of the season…uggh. Made about 20 gal of syrup last night.

This morning, I stopped at the woods to check on the tank, and it was 1” from the top…so close. Pumped a load out and left it on the truck. Sap flow slowed down, but still a good flow.

Security camera is offline…not sure what happened. Maybe something to do with the hotspot.

[red maples]

hope your still alive over there and haven't drowned yet... :lol:

[eustis22]

Red, I'm in Haverhill and I'm concerned about sap flow this week with the warm up. Your thoughts?

[CaptT820]

I think we are all a bit concerned about this warm up. Especially due to the predicted above freezing temperatures at night for nearly the next week. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this.

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Red for checking in. Still alive, just no time to post! I'll get to it later this evening I guess.

[red maples]

yep... warm temps also concerned. too amny more days like yesterday and the season is over for sure. I am hoping things change but we can't control the weather even with vacuum holding steady @ 26.75" I didn't pick up much on the over night. bucket taps are dry. once things warm up a bit today should get sap moving on vacuum. I am just about 1/2 crop right now. even with the low sugar in the raw sap. Ha just pulled off my first deer tick also a sign of the warm up. went from no moths on sunday collection to a bunch yesterday and this morning. I hope the cold comes back trying to stay possitive... good luck every one!!!

glad to hear your doing good Amber!!! lots of sap from what I saw on Facebook!!!

[Amber Gold]

SSC sucks. Down to 1.3% yesterday. I liked last season when it averaged 2%...

Sap flow is good. Typical night has been 2000+ gal, but it’s only meaning like 30 gal of syrup. Sugarhouse could be cleaner

Over the weekend, I mod’d my releaser discharge piping. Eliminated the brass check, added an external spring check, eliminated the air vent, and pump is working fine. This eliminated a large air leak right into the releaser. I wanted to switch out the float type pump switch with the continuity switch, but for some reason, the changes I made to the piping, seemed to have affected the ground for the switch. I was dry running it without it being connected to the pump, and relay was tripping when it was supposed to, but now it’s not. All I did was take out a brass check valve that had PVC piping on both ends…not sure how that affected the ground.

RO running…meh. Still getting about 2C/6-7P depending on sap temp. Membrane seems to be fouling up quicker than it should be.

Since Saturday, vac has been holding steady at 27”. I found a couple hollow trees, so I removed those, plus some squirrel chews. I think this is the best vac levels I’ve had before. I think the pump deadheads at 27.5”, so it’s about all she’s going to give.

This week, I have to take Friday night off because I have meetings in the North Country and won’t get back till late. I think that’ll be a good time to do an acid wash. It’ll give me the 24hrs I need.

Not many cold nights in the forecast…

[red maples]

Now getting crappy sap here. very cloudy. no freeze since the weekend. not good!!! maybe a freeze tonight but might not be enough. SSC really tanked here. but hard to tell with warm sap even with a bigger sap hydrometer.

[Russell Lampron]

My ssc was at 1.5% yesterday and went up to 1.7% today. I was surprised and had to check it twice to make sure I was getting a good reading on my refractometer.

[Amber Gold]

Kind of failing on my thread this year.

Last week went well overall. Boiling every other night with around 2000 gallons. With SSC as low it is, and my desire to boil concentrate in the upper teens, I like a lot of sap before I fire it up, so I can boil for 2-3 hours. With last week’s warm weather, getting yeasty sap upped the defoamer use. Syrup is still grading out at a DA with %T in the mid to upper 30’s. Everything in the sugarhouse is working out well. After Thursday’s boil, I did an acid wash. After using 1 lb of citric acid, I got the pH to 2.5 and let it sit until Saturday morning. I gained 0.5-1gpm on the permeate side…typically running 2C/7-7.5P at 400 psi with sap in the 40-45F range.

Friday, I had to go to the North Country for a couple of meetings, so I didn’t get back till late. Got to the woods late morning because my handy, dandy camera never showed much sap flow. Turns out, my tank was overflowing…burns me to lose sap. Frost came out of the ground, so the back corner was a couple inches lower…wonder how much sap I lost??

The low SSC is requiring me to recirc in the concentrate tank for a bit before I can send it to the head tank. Further delaying my lighting the match.

Sunday, I finally got the releaser switched over to the continuity sensor float switch, and I like it. The float system has been working fine all season, but once I plugged the float string hole, I gained 1-1.5” of vac. out of the vac pump…getting 28”+ at the releaser now. So for the past X years, that little hole has been costing me vac…

Good freeze last night, so hopefully that gets the trees running good again. Sunday’s sap run was pretty sad…~0.5gpt in 24 hrs. Taking tonight off to relax. Now that Maple Weekend is cancelled, just need to make syrup.

[Amber Gold]

Still boiling every other night. Sap flow is decent, but not great. With the cold snap last weekend, the sap did clear up nice.

SSC got as low as 1.0%, but then hit 1.1% with the first run back from the freeze, but now back to 1.0%. I'm hoping I can stay above 1% for the rest of the season. It's taking forever to get it up to 16%+ concentrate.

Last night, I made about 30 gal of syrup with a TC of 33% with a strong flavor. Even though the sap cleared up, it still takes a bit to get the new sap completely through the evap.

Processed over 25,000 gallons of sap so far this season. If we can keep going through next weekend, we should be about 35,000 gal which will get us to our record from 2018 of 35,208 gal, and that's with losing a sap seller this season. Syrup production this year is north of 300 gal, but south of 400...pretty sure. Actually, looking at my 2018 records, I thought the 2018 season's sugar was bad, but this season is far worse.

As Dill said yesterday, it was a magic vac day. I didn't think it was possible, but the vac gauge was stuck at 28.75-29" all day. I didn't think it was possible. Since covering the float string hole, the vac has been 28"+...loving it!

Sugarhouse is rolling smoothly. H2O sent me a new recirc pump, so putting that in this weekend, and see if it helps with flow rates. Membrane's not flowing as fast as I'd like, but it is what it is at this point I guess. I think I'm going to spend tomorrow doing soap washes before I start concentrating. Benchmark tests are now around 11.7gpm on the permeate side when I started the season at about 13gpm +. I haven't been able to get it back since, even after the acid wash.

[Russell Lampron]

My vacuum had been sitting at 26.5 for most of the season. It's been a needle width above 27 for the last 3 days.

Hopefully the new recirc pump fixes your problem. I was hoping that the acid wash would help.

[red maples]

Hope you are still going a bit. Sap is turn here due to reds. probably is over there too. you could pull reds and keep going with sugars thats probably where the majority of your ap is coming from anyway. good luck!!!

[Amber Gold]

Hey Guys,
I meant to keep my thread updated last week, but then never got to it, and then all of a sudden, the season ended on Saturday. We still had decent sugaring weather, but the trees never really ran well, and then the flavor headed south. Hauled the last of the sap to the sugarhouse last Friday, boiled it Saturday morning, and finished the pans Saturday afternoon. Season summary email in the works.

Russ, sap flows were OK, but never got back to where they were during at the start of the season. I'm going to use all the wash soap I have left and just keep running wash cycles and see what I get them up to. From there, I'll decide if I send them out for a professional wash.

Hope everyone's doing well.

[Russell Lampron]

I ran 3 soap wash cycles on mine and did the final rinse for the season. For the second year in a row my flows never dropped off so I didn't do an acid wash. I'm not sorry that I called it a season when I did even though it looks like there were 2 more runs after I called it quits. The sap was still coming in clear and it was still running good but NC was calling. I finally got to meet my new granddaughter and am happy to be with family in this time of need.