2021 Season

[Brian]

Well I am going to start tapping monday the 18th. I am going to start with the cold bush first then move to the warmer woods. Every thing is ready this year unlike most years. I added on more taps, changed out tubing on 1000 taps and add about 4-500 new taps. changed out 1400 last year. The thinning takes a week or two.I hope to change out the old section over at the neighbors next year. Hard to believe I have been doing this for twenty years. I wish I had paid more attention in science class, but have learn alot of what not to do, and how to spend alot of money. The kids have all left and moved on and I don't see any of them taking over. They do stop by and help a little but they have their lives. Good Luck To All And Have A Great Season!!!

[Pdiamond]

I know how you feel my kids use to help all the time, now they are all over the place, they still help some, but not as much. I miss the fun we had.

[BAP]

Hold out hope on your kids Brian, as they get older and settle down, they might find their way back home to sugaring.

[maple flats]

Yes, I have similar issues. I however do have one son (and his girlfriend, and sometimes his adult son helps too) who started helping do tubing repairs and some in the sugarhouse help, until last year when I boiled solo by choice. I also have a 12 yr old grandson who likes to help.
From the time another grandson was about 8 until he graduated college, he worked with me 10-25 hrs a week. Now Uncle Same runs his hours. He has lots of leave time built up but they won't let him take much at any single time. He did come home for Christmas, he had 3 weeks off, but he had to quarantine 7 days to start, then had to use his 3rd week in quarantine back in California, quarantining on his time not theirs. As such I did get to see him, from 8-10' away as we talked out in the driveway 2x in that time span.
I don't really see any of my children nor grand children taking over, this will likely just be a single generation thing, the same with my blueberries, 4.5 acres that will likely just go wild unless some other family wants to buy it.

[Brian]

My son is interested but he has a heating and plumbing buss. and 4 kids, he said that is his busy time of the year. He lives hour away also. He said he would like to do it on a smaller scale. My oldest daughter lives in florida and is a nurse, She has 3 boys so i was hoping to have a crew of grand sons but she moved to warmer weather. I don't see her coming back any time soon to live. she comes and visits in the summer. My youngest daughter does stuff with electronic and would like to do it but she has hyper mobility thing with her joints and they can get dislocated easy. so the hiking is out for her.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

I'm a 3rd generation tree farmer taking over the farm for my grandfather and uncle. They always new I'd take over the farm. Especially after they kept finding my tractors and trucks on little roads all throughout my mother's big baking flower container. Lol

[Brian]

My family on both sides has been sugaring for generations but not in cabot, the all were from E.Randolph and Chelsea area. My father moved up to Cabot in the late 60 and bough a dairy farm. So he left the sugaring behind. He would tap a few around the farm to make afew gallons as we grew up. My father said I was related to Hale Mattoon that wrote the book on spouts.

[Brian]

Well the snow is getting deep now, it is over our knees.I have never seen the snow hang on the trees and tubing like it is this year. there is no base yet so we have been wading through it but has slowed down the speed alittle. Next week I will probley be on snow shoes. I had a couple of boys that had vacation this week from there real job help a couple of days. That was a big help, They use to help back when they were in high school.Well back to tapping tomorrow. I believe we have about 2300 holes drilled so far and about 2200 to go.

[m2salmon]

Looking to tap 50 trees for buckets this year. What month is this typically done in Northwest VT? Just wait for below freezing nights and warmer days, or tap a few weeks in advance of when that may come?

[VT_K9]

Welcome to world of tapping....Early to Mid-February for central eastern area.

I would wait as late as you can. Unless there are special circumstances or you don't live at the tapping property you should be able to tap all 50 in an afternoon or evening. I am in the central eastern area and we have never boiled beyond April 15. Most around are winding down at that time as well. A few colder bushes run later. A bucket tap has a recognized effective time in a tree and I believe that is about 6 weeks (maybe 8 with good cold nights). That would put you in early to mid-February.

When we had buckets we were at about 275 taps. There would be about 4 of us tapping and it would be done in a day easily. That also includes setting up some gathering stations and working in the sugarhouse to get ready. Many times when we are tapping the sap is running, it could be a sign we are late.

Mike

[Brian]

The way my family figured it with buckets was take the average end time and back up 6 weeks. Others start the week of town meeting getting their stuff together to start. Some wait until the snow melts back away from the tree.

[Brian]

Well things got in the way this week and was hoping to beat the snow and finish tapping. That didn't happen, but did get another 1500 holes drilled this week. I think there is about 6-8 hundred to go. I found a few squirrel chews but nothing to bad. I hope all the woods have atleast 20inch of vacuum on start up. Half of the vac sensors are installed still have a box full to put out. I pick them up in the spring and bring them home. A little cold to be out tapping this weekend, so back at it next week. Still have alot of time but its been nice not to be on snowshoes.

[Brian]

Things keep moving along. I finished tapping last thursday feb 4. now back to the garage to catch up on work, this is my slow time usually but the phone keeps ringing. I have a few things to fix in the woods but not much, A small tree is on a line, pull a couple drops from trees that have died ect. I have two woods that I have to get water running to when the season starts because they are water cooled. The ro needs to be put back together, but am waiting for the weather to get warmer. I think I might put in new membrains this year. I bought a CF 8000 truck and put a 3250 gallon tank on it. I hope this helps save some time.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Brian, how many taps are you running again? I just put a grand into the front end of my 1-ton. I figured it had earned some love and care. What did you use as a sap hauler before? What are you doing with it now?

[Brian]

I am up to about 4500 taps. We have been running 2 f250's with 500 gallon poly tanks. I would haul the sap and my wife would unload them so that way we could keep hauling. I also have a 1000 gallon poly tank that goes behind my jd 4020. I would have put 725 gallon tanks in the back of the 250's but in the spring, sometimes the mud is so deep the front ends and rear ends drag most of the way. Sometimes we haul the sap in in the night or early morning when the roads are still froze up. We average about a 1000 gallons an hour trucking in sap, so some days it takes 8 hours to truck in the sap. That don't include walking lines or boiling. Some nights are long and days are short. My dad got old on me and can't do it any more. He did alot of the trucking. He will by 80 this fall, so that leaves me and my wife.

[BAP]

Going from 2 trucks with 500 gallon tanks to one with a 3250 gallon tank should make a huge difference in your sap hauling time. Plus it will give you some extra sap storage if you need it.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

I couldn't imagine using 500s. I use a 1000 gallon tank but last there were days I made 6 trips and left a load on the back for morning.

[Brian]

I turned the heat on in the ro room yesterday. It will take a few days to get things warmed up. I hope to get the ro together this week and do some leak checking. I think I am going to put in new membrains this year. Last year I was down to about about 1000 gallons an hour with 3 towers, hoping to gain a little there. It looks like March this year before things start but hoping to get things buttoned up before the season starts.

[Brian]

I got the vacuum turned on at the home woods and tightened up that system, Hauled water to the other 2 sites and filled the tanks and primed the vacuum pumps got them running and turned the heat on. I found the seals on a releaser pump is leaking air into the releaser. I guess that will get a rebuild kit. I am planing to fill the permeate tanks with water tomarrow and getting the ro ready to go. I am hoping to get the rest of my lines walked this weekend. I hope this cold snap makes it easer to get around in the woods. I hope this crust will holds up snow shoes.

[Brian]

I had Chris Goodrich put in a seal kit in a releaser pump and picked up new membrains for the ro. I hope to get that ready to roll this weekend. I fixed every thing I knew of at my dads woods,now see what happens when the sap starts. The other woods is my cold woods, so that needs the sensors put back in and a walk through when the sap starts to run.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Chris is a legend. Much respect for him. Working on my sap ladder 🪜right now. Hoping to get more than 15 pounds beyond the ladder this year.

[Brian]

If it can be done, He will make it happen!

[Brian]

Two woods so far that are pretty tight , I got them up to 26.5 the last woods is up to 22 inches and ran out of time in the woods. I then had to haul in sap. I hauled in about 5500 gallons of .8 or so sap, That was dissapointing, but got some more bugs worked out. Ro'ed it to 8% tonight and will go to 20% in the morning and boil. Thank God my wife helps me. She does the filter presses and unloads the sap, and keep an eye on the ro and the tanks to make sure they don't run over or that I send it down the drain by accident.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Your a lucky guy Brian. My wife hasn't shown much interest the last few years. The other day she surprised the hell out of me when she texted me a video of the sap slamming the releaser and she was all excited. There might be hope for our relationship yet! 🤣
Brought down 4000 gallons so far and have a few more thousand in the tank but my dump truck broke down. So, now I'm scrambling to find an alternative...

[Brian]

That sucks that your dump truck broke, I got the pan sweetend yesterday and hauled in more sap. I ro'ed it once and thought I would get up this morning and ro again and also though it was going to be 28 not 18 deg, well that said I didn't drain the line from the ro to the tanks. This morning it is frozen so my wife and I removed it and have it in the garage thawing out. I hope the feedline from the tank is not froze solid. I bet with snow shoes you can move now, probly some can put them away for the season.

[Brian]

Well the taps are pulled and the lines are all washed, the tanks are all washed. The only thing left to do is pull down the Ro and wash the pans. We made 6.5 barrels of ropey surup so that went to Bascoms. they treated me good on the price. I think we did good this season over all we made 31 barrels this year. I hope to change out some more tubing this year and a bunch of drops. Our last boil was April 8.

[Littletreemaple]

This year was the first year I had plenty of sap to make not great tasting maple syrup. It didn't come out ropey but was pretty rough smelling cooking. Should I have continued? This is a no judgement really just looking for advice.

[Brian]

That is a hard one, there are alot of things to consider in that question. Can it be sold? What it cost to make, and so on. I don't like to make crappy syrup because of the risk of burning my pans, but as long it boils ok and filters ok I will boil it because it helps pay the oil bill or power bill.

[Brian]

The woods all got walked around the first of nov. Now it is time to walk them again.The lines are hard to get up out of the snow at tapping time so I walk them a few times in the fall to make it easier. I will start tapping around the middle of jan. I bought my neighbors sugar house, Kenny Bean's. He passed away. The sugar house sat Idle for the past 15-20 years. It was not looking so well so his son Eric still runs the farm and I asked about it and we made a deal.The roof is about 18ftx 18ft. I had a friend of mine look at it ,he moves houses for a living. He said leave the roof in one piece and take the walls apart. That is what we did,he brought in his crew and we set the roof on my trailer and headed for home!! I called my insurance agent and he said don't call unless you have a problem. We brought the walls home and poured more cement and hooked it to our sugar house. now we have more room.It still looks like Kenny's sugar house and I didn't want to take that away. Eric came over and saw it and was pleased with how it came out. It still needs the wiring done, but I ran out of time. I hope to get the time before the sap starts to flow. SO THERE WENT THIS YEARS PROFFIT AGAIN!!!! Yes I would do it all over again. It was a neat project. I now have a loading dock for loading drums in my truck with out using the tractor. That will save alot of time.

[NhShaun]

Sounds like quite the project, glad to see you keeping the same look. I'd be happy to see a few photos of the process.

[wiam]

Hey Brian. If there’s no pictures it didn’t happen….:lol:

[BAP]

Hey Brian. If there’s no pictures it didn’t happen….:lol:
Ditto here. Pictures are nice!!!

[Brian]

Well I guess you will all have to come over and I will show you the pic on my wifes phone because I am not smart enough to post them.

[wiam]

When I come check it out I won’t need to look at Tammy,s phone. lol

[Brian]

I plugged the wire from the phone to the computer and it makes the noise but nothing. I also tried to e mail then and it said sending but they never came through. I hope when my daughter comes over she can help me.

[Brian]

The start of tapping for me is about the 20th of jan. so not long now, I have most things ready, still need new drill bits and DE

[Swingpure]

The start of tapping for me is about the 20th of jan. so not long now, I have most things ready, still need new drill bits and DE

It amazes me that you are able to tap almost a month and half sooner than us. You are not that far from Montreal and they get similar weather to where I live now. It must be the moderating influence of the Ocean. I guess you are also about 130 miles south of Montreal and I that can make a huge difference right there.

[Brian]

We get our first run usually in march but it sometimes starts the last week in feb. The problem is getting everything ready for the sap to run. We is me and my wife, we run about 45-46 hundred taps and that is alot of holes to drill for me then get everything tight. We also run a garage fixing cars until sugaring is on us. Then we only do miner repairs until sugaring is over. I was looking at the date, I joined maple trader and have been on here for almost 20 years, where does the time go. The kids are all raised and doing there own things but none are interested in sugaring. I don't know what the future holds but for now we will keep going.

[Swingpure]

We get our first run usually in march but it sometimes starts the last week in feb. The problem is getting everything ready for the sap to run. We is me and my wife, we run about 45-46 hundred taps and that is alot of holes to drill for me then get everything tight. We also run a garage fixing cars until sugaring is on us. Then we only do miner repairs until sugaring is over. I was looking at the date, I joined maple trader and have been on here for almost 20 years, where does the time go. The kids are all raised and doing there own things but none are interested in sugaring. I don't know what the future holds but for now we will keep going.

Wow, that is dedication!

I wish I had started early so the kids could be part of this.

You are sort of proof that you can tap early and still get good yields.

Good luck this upcoming season.

[Brian]

A friend came and helped me walk lines yesterday. We walked about 4000 taps. I still have the section of woods at my house to walk. Two main lines got smashed and one hook pulled out on a conductor system, so that is on the list for today and one set of winter tires on a car.

[Brian]

All the things are fixed as far as I know, I will find the rest when I turn on the vacuum systems. I have the batterys changed in the vac sensors and installed in one woods. The other woods I hope to do before the snow gets to deep tomorrow. My home woods don't have sensors because there right here and the vac gauge tells me if it it need any thing.