Getting ready for 2008 season

[Revi]

We strung about 100 feet of mainline and are getting ready for the 2008 season. I think it may be like a regular season. We've had cold weather since November, except for a brief January thaw. We'll see...

We still have a lot of little fix ups to do. The snowshoeing is great. There is a lot of snow on the ground, because lines we don't even have to duck under are now just a few feet off the snow.

Season 2008 is just around the corner now.

[Revi]

We are experiencing a rebirth of winter. We must have 3 feet of snow on the ground now. I guess my plan of tapping next week will have to wait until mother nature is ready. I wonder if she knows I have a vacation next week? Oh well, It will be a great time to get the tubing fixed up and get the whole thing up and running again.

Are you psyched to do some sugaring?

[TapME]

The season is right around the corner Revi. I am thinking of the second week in March to tap. For a down economy I'm sure busy.
Hope you have a good vacation.


Lou

[Revi]

I hope it gets going in the next few weeks, but it could be as late as mid-march. If it gets going that late it will be a short, but huge flow. I think more like the beginning of March. There's a lot of snow on the ground now, and that could slow things up a lot. We'll get out and fix up a lot of the little tubing things next week anyway. I am looking forward to just hacking around at mapling all next week.

Snow day today, but I spent the whole day shovelling. I haven't even gotten up to the sugarhouse yet. It may be a while. I did rake off the solar panels and the roofs here, got a bucket loader to deal with some of the snow and got the driveway all cleared out.

This has got to be the biggest snow year we've had in a while.

[gmcooper]

Yesterday we just took a big step backwards for tapping. 8-10" wet snow plus 2" rain with a little freezing rain mixed in for good measure. This morning we have about 1/2" crust on top then 12" lighter snow under it. Absolutely perfect walking conditions if your a squirrell! Plenty of limbs down on the pines and not sure on the hardwoods yet. Ran out of room to plow snow so now thinking of selling it on Ebay!

Mark

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

5 inches of snow wed. morning got it pushed back but running out of room for any more. next thing will be to haul it out with trucks.
got out in the woods yesterday high temp 20 snow just above the knees. 2 hours to put up 7 taps on vac

RICH

[TapME]

Lots of snow here. My woods look to have 4 feet on the ground in most places, It sure will make tapping more difficult this year. Trees have 1/2'' of ice and are stressed bad. I hope that I can reach my buckets when the snow melts lol.

[royalmaple]

Lets hope it packs down some pretty soon. I know I've got chest deep snow in the woods. THat's more than enough. Snow from the sugarhouse roof is almost up to the roofing. Sucks.

Might have to tunnel to the tubing and taps, then hook up some tin foil cone to direct sunlight to the tap hole.

[Revi]

We are going to have to tap as low as possible. I hate this ice, but maybe by next week it will have melted a bit so we can get around a bit better on snowshoes.

We're going to try to get our lines unburied this week. Some of the mainlines were buried last week, even before this last storm. It will take a while just to find them. If I can get them up off the snow I guess I'll call that good.

This stuff has to melt a little. Doesn't it?

[jemsklein]

well ware i am we are might have 1/2 inch of freezing rain comming monday so lets hope the trees are fine

[TapME]

If I knew how to post a pic I would take one of the roof where I was going to put my evap, snow is 5 feet deep.
Cleaned my new flue pan this week,(new to me) 31/2 x3 with 4'' drops and no holes yet. Need to do the same to the 3x3 syrup pan next. Were up to 130 taps so far. Then a block arch to fit them.

[gmcooper]

I got the new vacuum pump set in place this weekend and powered it up for a sec. it runs. not plumbed to the booster yet. Hoping the rain tonight and tomorrow will settle the snow enough to get around in the woods enough to finish last few repairs.

[Revi]

Well the rain must have melted a foot of the snow, but that still leaves 2 feet of snow on the ground. I like it like this, but the road to the sugarhouse is a sheet of ice. A town sand truck tipped into the ditch and dumped about 500 pounds of sand. I scooped up about 200 lbs and sanded down the sugarhouse driveway, and ours at home so that we don't slip and fall so much.

It doesn't look like we'll be tapping until next weekend at the earliest. This weekend looks frozen up, but with temps in the 30's next week it could start running. Who knows? It's looking like we'll have a very normal year this year. I'll bet the second week in March will be the beginning of the real season.

[TapME]

Revi, did you get most of the items o your list done? I know the snow and cold are getting old for me, It's time for a nice thaw don't you think.
Matt, I have 35 road side trees that will have taps this year. most are 2 or 3 tappers. This should bring the total count up.

[royalmaple]

Lou-

When you have too much sap bring it down.

[TapME]

royalmaple, looks like you may 4 days that sap could run if the trees aren't frozen in the next week.

[royalmaple]

Talk to me next week at this time, I'll tell you how it went. I've been watching it like a hawk. As we all have.

They'll be drilled. They got the night off, to rest then the game is on.

pretty much ready to go, not really but at least enough to say I can drill some holes and boil.

Ground in there is frost free and trees are ready, they'll go. 29" off the pump won't give them much choice. I haven't had time to take a picture of:

Ring-o, new addition to the operation. RamOna gave birth the other day.
Her and willy are proud parents. I'm sure even though hes brand new to the world he'll make them both very proud.

Big saps coming. Should get a few days of runs anyway. Long day getting woods ready today and even longer day tomorrow. Should start big kick off on Sunday. Then I got to run more tubing and get more taps in there.

[dano2840]

well i finally start february vacation. Im out of school for a week and a half.
Deffinetly not ready for the season. i had 13 taps last year and was a back yarder. I did it on a out door brick bbq with a 20x32 pan. made 8 gallons of syrup, of my 13 taps. But this year im going all out. Plan to do the 1/3 of the sugarbush my family owns. About 70 taps. They are in the middle of a pasture and are all spaced out with some pretty good sized tops. all the main line is rolled out, im waiting on my uncle to bring me some high tensle wire so i can hang them. I could find an evaporator bigger than a 2x6 for 1000$ then i bought a garden tractor then an old husky 61 saw. So my uncle is letting me borrow a 2x6 home made arch for the season. If any one has looked you cant find a set of pans for those, i had a good idea which im going to use. My idea was to take a 6x2 cross flow syrup pan (meant for 6ft arch) and flip it around. getting tanks from my father tomarrow, getting arch on sunday, plan to hang tubing all week and hope to tap on thurs/fri if weathers right

Wish me luck I will tell how it turns out
Good luck to every one else and have a good season
-Dan O.

[jemsklein]

dano2840@gmail.com are you in high school or college

[gmcooper]

Dano Good luck with your season!

Royal Maple did I read it correctly did "Romona" have a little blue baby ring pump? Did it come witha white tank and tag from IN. ?

That Saco river might go totally dry this spring. LOL
Your going to need more drums!

[royalmaple]

Yes and no, she is the proud mom, all smiles.

Pump is new atlantic fluids pump. I set up an account with them so I can buy pumps. You are going to see pumps with nice white tanks coming from Buxton, in the very near future.

[TapME]

There must be something in the water in Buxton, what a population explosion. It feels like sugaring weather, but going to hold off another week. Our total is going to be close to 200, that should keep us busy.

[Revi]

Here's a website that shows the sap flow from 4 different parts of the tree every day. Scroll down to see it:

http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/?Page=treemet1.html&SM=cammenu.html