Spring Harvest 2021

[Amber Gold]

Started tapping trees on February 20th and got about 370 done on Saturday and another 320 on Sunday. Monday, we left work early and were able to finish the 3rd big mainline and get a 4th mainline tapped. Only one, smaller mainline left, and it’s in a cold spot anyways, so it got tapped Saturday morning (February 27th)

Tuesday and Wednesday 23/24 , spent time in the woods while working around work. Got the vac. pump and releaser going and the lines were thawed out enough to check for major leaks. Also, cleaned the clutter out of the sugarhouse (never ending battle) and flushed the RO out.

Thursday, sap ran pretty well. Brought home 1138 gal of sap…tested the sugar at 1.4%...uggh. Sap was pretty cloudy too. Boiled it Saturday night and couldn’t even get a draw out of it. Got it to 215F before I ran out of concentrate. First boil is always an adventure. Forgot to put a clamp on the float box fitting, so leaked concentrate out for a while. Forgot out how much defoamer you need on the first boil and had a geyser of foam come out of the hood when I opened it…never seen it erupt this bad…and I was just looking in the hood 30 sec before and all was calm and serene.

Boiled again Sunday night and made syrup. SSC is up to 1.6%. Brought home 607 gal and brought over 673 gal from GZ…also at 1.6%. Everything went pretty well. A lot of niter in the syrup this year. Plugged the press up pretty early and had to break it down to reset it.

Trying out a MES membrane this season. It processes sap…not sure if it’s any better/worse than the other companies. We’ll see how it does this year. This season, I am using Memprotech’s biomebrane liquid RO soap.

I’ve been able to spend an hour or two here and there in the woods to walk the lines, and as of last night, it’s 27.5” at the releaser and 26.5” at the end of the lines. I have one line that’s leak(s) on it I can’t find. Most vacuum leaks are from many squirrel chews and micro leaks on drop line tees. Usually I’ll find a couple here and there, but this year, I’ve 20-30 tees I’ve needed to fix.. Not sure if it’s because the laterals are 10 seasons old, or if it’s because after 5 years, the lateral tubing loosens up on the tees. If I maintain my 5-year drop line rotation, next season, I’ll need to swap out all the drop lines. Maybe I replace all the laterals too?? We'll see.

Sap ran well overnight and brought a load home this morning. Sap cleared up.

[red maples]

Sounds like the usual start to the boiling... I had the same thing lots of foam on the First boil didnt have a foam explosions but same here Low sugar, no draw off and clutter in the sugarhouse!!!

Glad to hear you off to a pretty good start though!

[Amber Gold]

Good night Monday night. About 1350 gal from us, 550 from GZ, and 45 from JP. Why is it seems to run well when we get these cold, windy fronts blowing through?? It made for a chilly night, and long night, with the amount of sap to process. Didn’t start the evap until 9, but was done at 11:30 and made about 35 gal of syrup. Not sure what I brought the concentrate to, but it must’ve been pretty high.

The woods is hovering around 27”. I walked two mainlines and fixed nuisance leaks. The field mainline has something going on, but I can’t find it.

Out collecting sap, and I saw a skunk crossing the street in the next town over…I thought it was too early/cold for that. Well, mid-boil my dog was sprayed by a skunk…awesome. Skunks get around faster than I think they do, or he called his buddy up. It added some excitement to the night, along with the wind.

Thanks Red. Things are going pretty well so far.

[Russell Lampron]

I'm glad to see that you're getting some sap and that you're off to a good start. It's either been sunny and too cold to run or cloudy and warm enough to run but not warm enough for the trees to thaw here. I boiled for the first time last night and it looks like it will be another week, maybe more before I boil again.

Good luck with 2021!

[Amber Gold]

Vac. pump's been on through this freeze up and gained a bit of sap some days. Got about 400 gal in the tank, so it paid the electric bill and then some.

Saturday, doing some maintenance work on the vac. system, so shut the pump off for maybe 15 min. Go to turn it back on a VFD has an internal fault code on it. Mess with it a bunch and nothing. Call Clayton and get a new one lined up for pickup, give the VFD one last shot, and it works. No idea, no explanation. Same exact thing happened last year...pump shot off for a short duration, go to turn it back on and internal fault, so I got a new VFD. Since this year's VFD started working again, I'm wondering if last year's VFD is still good...worth reconnecting it and see if it does. It'd give me a backup VFD.

Today, trees started running again. Vac was down to 20", walked the woods and found a drop line off the spout. Fixed and walked the sugar mainline looking for leaks. Got it up to 26.5" at the end of mainline and almost 28" at the releaser.

[Russell Lampron]

Do you really want to turn the vacuum off again and take the chance that it may not restart just to test the old VFD? I'd wait for a long enough break between runs to get another VFD if both turn out to be faulty.

Have you heard from Alden this year?

[Amber Gold]

No I really don't. That's the plan after the season ends. I'm not touching it for nothin'. Shame too because the drain cap on my releaser is letting in a bubble of air, so I can't take it off to re-tape it.

Alden's doing pretty good. Dealing with typical early season issues. He's boiled once I think.

[Amber Gold]

Brought in 1430 gal of sap Wednesday. First load was from the little that trickled in during the freeze-up in which mostly the sugars run…SSC 2.2%. Second load was from Wednesday's actual run when the reds were in the bunch…SSC 1.7%. Also got some sap from JD and JP, and their trees run ~2.5%. Boiled and made about 35 gal of syrup. Grade came up during the boil and ended around 47% LT. Since I hadn’t boiled in 10 days, the sap was pretty cloudy.

Yesterday's temps were in the 60's...great day for a run, not so much for sap flow. Only hauled out 700 gal of sap (0.75gpt) of 1.7%...thinking SSC isn't going to get any better than that. That load is sitting at the sugarhouse for boiling tonight. Sap ran all night and have about 700 gal in the tank.

I think I tracked down the big vac leak on the field line. The ball valve at the booster is leaking, so will swap that out tomorrow and hopefully it fixes the problem. If this isn't the source of the leak, I don't know what is...I've walked the lines a few times, and all the laterals are tight. I can't get the vac. above 26.5" when the trees are running.

[red maples]

I assume you have the same VFD as my releaser(from MES) ? that goes on and off all day all night... knock on wood 2nd season no issues. thats Strange that you are having issues with a second one. I have a ball valve between my releaser and the vac pump so if there are issues with the releaser I can just close it off with out shutting off the vac pump.

I wanted that same pump you have but no money this year. besides the VFD issues, sounds like its running good if you are getting 28" at the releaser.

As far as your fluctuation in the vacuum maybe a leak thats causing ice to form in the line at colder temps? I don;t know just a thought. Also when its as warm as it has been the past couple of days I noticed that I have lost about an inch of vacuum. it was at 27" but has been down to 26" the last 2 days. wondering if the trees are just giving extra air? Just guessing. I'll see once we are closer to 40*F again.

[Amber Gold]

Hey Brad, been lax updating my thread...and it's my thread...

Yes, it's the Lenze VFD. Frustrating because has never seen it before, and I've gotten it twice. Shut the switch off, do some stuff, turn it back on 5 min later and I get the fault. I forget the code, but it means an internal fault. Last summer, I called Lenze and they said it could be a number of things and the only way to figure it out is to send it in. Having now had this issue 2 seasons in a row, I like your idea of adding an inline valve, so I can leave the pump running and maintain the releaser.

I found the other leak on that line. I had a saddle that was leaking. vac, is now up to 28" with the woods running...27" at the end of mainlines...woohoo!

I do like the pump. It'll deadhead at 29"+ and when things are froze up, it'll report 28.5"+ at the releaser...I think I have some microscopic leaks in the releaser. For next season, I need to rebuild my pump shed, so I'll take the releaser out and see if I can track down any leaks.

[Amber Gold]

Not much to report. It’s either been too cold or too warm…generally too cold, so it takes a few days for the trees to start running well again. Only been boiling 2-3 times a week, which makes it hard to get into a rhythm. Also, by having sap sit around so much, even with as cold as it is, it gets cloudy, so making dark syrup all the time.

Brought in about 1350 gal yesterday and made about 25 gal of syrup. SSC is 1.7%. JP brought in a load that’s 2.9%...I’m jealous. About 10,400 gal of sap through the sugarhouse, of which about 9000 gal is SHMF…that figures to 10gpt of sap, so a half crop.

It ran well overnight. About 0.75gpt. Will hold today’s sap over and have a big boil tomorrow night.

Still finding leaks where the lateral lines connect to drop line tees. Looks like next year I’ll need to swap out drops. It’s been 5 years, so that’s on schedule.

Tap count is varying. I think we ended up with 897 taps at tap-in, but have lost a few due to pulling a few taps that were sucking air (i.e. hollow tree) or the heads breaking off the CV2’s (frustrating), which got us down to 893 taps. Over the weekend, we did some maintenance work to clean up some laterals and added in a new lateral. Added another 6 taps (I think), so we’re up to 899. I have a couple trees flagged I can add in, but at this point, I think I’ll hold off until next season.

[DrTimPerkins]

... the heads breaking off the CV2’s...

What do you use for a hammer? We found that those using a tapping hammer (lightweight, flat face) usually had no breakage, but those using a framing hammer (heavier, often with a slightly rounded face) tended to break spouts. That person also tended to seat the spouts deeper than is required.

[Amber Gold]

Hi Dr. Tim. I forgot to check my post in a while. I use a small deadblow I got from Harbor freight...it's either the 1 or 2 lbs version. I find you get a solid hit with it, but not harsh like with a framing hammer. I hit the spouts until I get a solid "thunk" sound. It's random on those that break off. I usually get a few every year that do.

https://www.harborfreight.com/1-lb-neon-orange-dead-blow-hammer-41796.html

[Amber Gold]

Boiled about 1500 gallons of 1.6% Sunday night. Sap was about 50F, so gained about 1.5 gph out of the RO machine with the warmer sap. Things went well, although it turned into a late night because I bottled syrup afterwards. Having boiled 2 nights in a row, the grade came back up…graded at 40% LT.

I checked the concentrate for the first time this season and found I’ve been getting it to 20%+ on a 2 pass system. It wasn’t intentional, but it is nice having removed that much water.

Hauled in a load of 1.5% yesterday afternoon and left 300 in the tank. Found the water meter at the sugarhouse was stuck, so now the readings don’t match the log spreadsheet. I had a meeting last night for work, so I couldn’t boil. I’ll need to haul a load out at lunch to make room in the woods tank. Tonight will be a busy night between my 2 days of sap, plus JD says he’s bringing a load or two over and JP’s buckets.

[Russell Lampron]

Sounds like you've been busy Josh which is a good thing this time of year. How is the MES membrane working for you? Do you see any difference with it compared to the others you've used? This is the 3rd season on mine and they still meet the benchmark. I've never done an acid wash to them either.

[Amber Gold]

Honestly, they're performing about the same as the CDL membrane. I'd have to read through last year's posts to see what my flow rates were. With sap temp's in the upper 30's, I run it at 2C/6P @ 350 psi. With sap at low 50's, it's running 2C/7.5P @ 350psi, but then after a few hours it's down to 6.5P because of the high quality sap I ran through it yesterday.

One difference this year is using the Memprotech liquid wash soap. I wash after every concentrate cycle and benchmark it every time. Permeate flow maxed at 12.8gpm, but has settled in around 12.2-12.4gpm. Problem I'm having with the warm sap is the pressure valve is closed all the way, so I can't quite get to my benchmark pressure. I extrapolated a bit with my figures to close the gap.

I've had the RO now for I think 6 years. During the off-season, I may send it to H2O Innovation to have them go over it and do any maintenance work that's needed. They may see something I'm not.

[Amber Gold]

Brought in another truck load afternoon of 3/23. JD dropped off ~250 and JP 80. Almost an 1800 gal night. Got out of work late, plus had some things to take care of, so didn’t fired the evap up until about 9pm and shut down at midnight. Made 30+ gallons. Grade held at 40% LT which was shocking considering how warm it was.

Boiled again night of 3/24. Two truckloads for me and ~170 from JD. My SSC dropped to 1.5%, but maintaining grade. I don’t get how it turns to summer and I’m still holding grade. Syrup tested at 42% LT.

Bottling syrup Sunday before (3/21), and on the canner, one of the soldered fittings fell off before the ball valve…oops. Fortunately, I was holding onto it when it did fall off, or syrup would’ve gone everywhere. I took some electrical tape and held it on their for the rest of the bottling session. Soldering isn’t a strong point, but I think I did a better job when I fixed it.

Hauled in a load Thursday/Friday (3/24-3/25) each with no freeze, that’s 0.75gpt. SSC is 1.3%, so continuing to drop…expected.

Sunday had 1000 gal in the tank since Friday. Took a load out and will boil tonight. Didn’t test SSC. Sap is down to ~0.5gpt.

To date, we’ve processed ~18,300 gal of sap, of which almost 15,200 gallons is ours (16.8 gpt of sap), and have produced ~300 gal of syrup. We need to make another 100 gal to have an average year…assuming 0.4gpt of syrup…maybe we can get there??

[Amber Gold]

I'd post more often, but having problems actually submitting a post from my phone. I can write it, but when I hit submit, I get an error message. Rewrite, hit submit, and same thing. I did this a few times and gave up.

[Russell Lampron]

I'd post more often, but having problems actually submitting a post from my phone. I can write it, but when I hit submit, I get an error message. Rewrite, hit submit, and same thing. I did this a few times and gave up.

I had that problem a couple of times and just continued to exit out of the thread. When I went back in and checked the message was there. I'm using a Samsung tablet.

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Russ. I was able to post from my phone the other day on another thread. Not sure why it was working before.

Monday was a day of all days. Huge windstorm knocks out power to the woods around noon. Late afternoon appointment to get new summer tires. Find out rear spring is broken and making a day trip to the Cape on Tuesday for work. Track down a set of springs and need to get them installed that night. Stop at the sugarhouse, start RO, and leave to get a load of sap. Breaker pops while I’m gone and only processed 200 gal of sap. Restart RO and fine the rest of the night…bad breaker?? Dump sap, shoot home, eat dinner, and go to my friend’s garage to install rear springs. Spend an hour trying to use the spring compressor, had an epiphany, undid the lower shock bolt which dropped mounting plate, install spring, jack mounting plate up, rebolt shock and done. Got both sides done in 10 min. Go to the sugarhouse and find I left both the perm and sap tank valves open, so the RO wasn’t doing a whole lot. At that point, it was 9:30, and sap was questionable anyways, so I dumped 1400 gal of 1.2% sap. :( At the woods, power came back on middle of the night.

Before leaving for Cape, stop at the woods. Vac pump running and releaser pump can cycle on. Cross my fingers and leave for Cape. Check camera around 10 and no vac…assumed releaser pump didn’t cycle and moisture trap filled up. Get back around 9pm and that’s what happened. Dump moisture trap and turn things back on. Sap’s running and lines are clearing out. Releaser cycles fine, so not sure what happened this morning. Good thing, is it gave me a chance to clean the releaser…because of the VFD issue, I didn’t want to shut the pump down for maintenance. It was pretty slimey in there, but all good now. The cold and releaser cleaning cleared the sap up. Hopefully, we can make good syrup for another week or so. Weather seems generally favorable with some good freezes.

This morning, sap flow into the releaser looks to be in the 0.5gpt range. Maybe it'll get better, maybe it won't.

[red maples]

how are you still going??? haven't your reds budded yet??? I have reds budding since last friday or saturday and sap was nasty at best and evaporator spoiled and went ropey.

[Russell Lampron]

Sounds like you had quite the day on Monday. That wind was brutal here. I was canning syrup and stepped out back to take a wizz and was thinking about how amazing it was that the pine trees could bend as far as they did without breaking. All of a sudden a big gust came through and snapped both tops out of a big pine that was about 30 feet away. It's not something you see every day and the wind blew it away from the sugar house.

[Russell Lampron]

how are you still going??? haven't your reds budded yet??? I have reds budding since last friday or saturday and sap was nasty at best and evaporator spoiled and went ropey.

If bulk prices were better I'd still be going too but I haven't got the time to make a bunch of off flavor syrup to bring to Bascom's for peanuts.

[Amber Gold]

I don't think so. Sap actually tasted good after Monday's freeze and SSC was 1.2% or better. We have freezes the next few nights, so we'll see what happens.

Yesterday, I hauled in 450 gal and should get the same, or a bit more, this afternoon. I'll boil it tonight and see how the syrup is. I'm not interested in making off flavor syrup, so once that happens, I'm done. The only off flavor I make is what's in the pans when I boil them off.

Monday night, the syrup in the evap. was still good, but I haven't been in there since. Not really a fan of having left it almost a week without boiling, but haven't gotten sap enough since with having tossed Monday's 1400 gal. If I had gotten sap Tuesday, I could've boiled Wednesday.

[red maples]

my front pan was OK too there is enough sugar in it to preserve it, and the back pan seemed fine too but once the heat hit it when I fired it turned to snot. it was the flu pan because its so much thinner. I never had ropey syrup until I got a bad batch of end of season
sap from a friend a few years ago. ever since I have had issues at the end of the season with a ropey flu pan. I am planning on a complete plumbing overhaul this year and extra sanitizing to see if I can get rid of that bacteria that causes it. I have read a little that once you get it it can stay in your lines forever. It has become an issue in many sugarhouses. Enough that there are studies begining on how to combat the problem and canada has come up with a test to check for ropey syrup and will no accept it past a certain point. It was one of the things they talked about at the international meeting in Concord a couple of years ago. was very interesting.

[Hop Kiln Road]

I agree. Bacteria can quickly become rampant, especially at the end of the season. A number of years ago I couldn't believe what was inside the piping. So now the systems have drains and get flushed regularly with permeate and then sanitizer loaded at the end of the season. Have a couple of quick release points so I can actually inspect the interior of the pipes. Also hooked a pressure washer (best tool in the sugarhouse) up to the permeate tanks.

[red maples]

yes bruce thats the plan for the new plumbing is more cleanouts and access points so I actually get things taken apart and be able to run a brush through the system and an additional permeate tank with a charcoal filter specifically to remove the bacteria for cleaning and sanitizing. and an additional pump so I can run it through the plumbing. once the RO is disconected.