Tapping 2008

[Jim Brown]

There we go now we are up to date, and just for the record we have 350 drilled!
Jim

[tapper]

Jim,

Did you tap some today? were they dripping a bit? I have a couple I tapped during the warm spell a few weeks ago and they are just beginning to drip which is unusual for on top of this mountain and how cold it has been.

[Jim Brown]

Jon; It ran yesterday for about three hours and today for about two hours before the wind hit the tops of the trees and shut things down. we had the pumps on and flushed the lines out. We will dump from now on in the stock tanks. I supposed if we had of kept the sap yesterday and today we may have had 75-100 gallon.That was based on how often the releaser tripped and figuring the releaser will hold about 3 gallons

Jim

[Gary R]

Checked my buckets today after work. Had about 1/4 to 1/2 gal. in each. It all came today. Also checked sugar content (first time ever). I first checked refrigerated water with my long sap. It measured -.2 brix. Checked about 6 buckets, both reds and sugars. They read from 1.3 to 1.7. Wasn't excited. Can I assume my hydrometer is off .2 and can at least add that to my readings from the bucket? Looks like who's weather forecast we can believe will help us or stop us. Accuweather forecast is about 5 degrees higher than weather channel forecast for our area for the next week or so. Hoping for enough for a boil this weekend.

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
Sure the sap hydrometer could be off that much. I have heard of some folks buying sap that had two sap hydrometers one for buying sap at "lower sugar" content and one for really checking the sugar content after the seller had left! Now that wouldn't be fair would it:) Just another old sugar myth!

Well you and Jim are in the race may the best man win. (Gary Jim might be able to out produce you, by a little:) Hope you guys can get together, nice to have folks close buy to share the maple secrets.

Chris

[emericksmaple]

Well I see that the bug has began to strike! GO Jim!! At the moment we are still froze down here but next week does look good. If I can get in gear we may try to start toward the end of next week. I just had my tonsils out last thrus and the doctor gave me 3 weeks off work. Yippee!!! But I am not allowed to lift anything heavy for another week. And my wife is keeping a close eye on me!!! But I am feeling good and may start working at things Mon. This is going to be a hard year on us though, at the moment my mom is battleing cancer, going thru chemo about every 3 weeks. It really knocks her platelets down and with the first 2 treatments she has ended up in the hospital about 10 days after the treatment. But the doctor did say that it is shrinking !!!! Good news!! Hope everyone has a great year and we will keep you all posted on southern Pa.

[Brent]

tap water will seldom come out to zero

try distilled water to calibrate

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Matt,

Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Most people on here have been affected by this disease in one way or another and we can understand what your family is going thru.

[Dennis H.]

I hope Both you and your mother recover quickly.

emericksmaple, I noticed that you are from south central PA, where abouts?
I am located 20 miles north of Carlisle, in Perry County. It would be great to find other maple produces in the area.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Good to hear from you, Matt.

You all are ahead of me. I'm behind as usual. Just trying to do get the lines up and ready to tap the 330 taps in the old part (have to take them down every year).

Today was nasty to work with the wind chill. I'm fighting the old Lamb T's that are about 8 years old now. They are like glass. Ended up doing more repairs than I expected.

I have 150 new taps scoped out and the main lines up. Might run out of time, or have a delayed tap for those. Not a bad thing to hedge your be sometimes and tap some later.

As others have said, the only way to get finished is to start tapping.

And so it goes....

[mountainvan]

Matt, Hope your mother beats the cancer. Listen to your doctor and wife, don't start working hard too soon. It just draws out the pain.

[emericksmaple]

Dennis we are located in southern Somerset County. Near the Bedford county line and the Maryland State line. Thanks to everyone for the prayers and concerns.

[Gary R]

sweetwoodmaple, where are you located in Mercer? I drive through all the time for work. As a beginner, I would like to meet a few of the locals and learn if your willing to give up a few tips. I'm about 3-4 miles southwest of Polk. Thanks.
Our thoughts are with those battling illness.

[Sugarmaker]

Matt,
Hope you recover soon. Our thoughts are with you and your family.
Hope your sugaring season is successful.
Chris

[Gary R]

I visited Jim Brown today. Spent about 1 1/2 hours looking and learning. So many gadgets I can't remember them all. The tour of my place will take about a minute. Thanks Jim for the barrel. I have doubled my storage capacity to 110 gal.!! Look out big guys!

[Jim Brown]

Gary; your more than welcome I'm sure! Nice to see you again,Looking forward to seeing your operation.
Ran into my daughter at the mall this evening and she wants to turn the pumps on tomorrow so we will be ready for Mondays run(it's snowing sideways out side this evening) she is really ready to start!. I'll have to check the lines tomorrow to see how much damage the ice storm and wind has done. I hope not much.

Good Luck All

Jim

[Sugarmaker]

Jim B.,
I think you will get a run coming up. Not sure I will catch that one? Still puttering around with stuff. Hanging tubing tomorrow.

Gary, We are watching as you grow. Now you need more taps to fill that barrel. and thats how it starts:)

Chris

[Gary R]

Jim stopped today. Tour did take more than a minute. Chris- Don't I have to start first before I can grow? Besides, after seeing Jim equipment I got scared. I have a catalog and have an idea how much that stuff costs. I'd like to hang out in the woods and learn a bit.

The next 4-5 days look real good for us.

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
40 taps will keep you boiling for a while. That's 80+ gallons of sap. Is the BAT ready?
Chris

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yes, looks like the first run of the season on Monday/Tuesday.

I probably won't be ready either. Was hoping to have all my tubing back up today, but at 1:30 pm the neighbor (whose land I tap for free) hunted me down and she didn't have any water.

I got in at 8 pm after pulling her well, replacing the foot valve, venturi and pump!

Hope I get more done tomrorrow.

[Jim Brown]

For a guy who never seen a syrup rig before building one Gary R. Has a REALLY NICE LITTLE RIG. He posted some pics a while back and they do not do it justice.!
Nice Job Gary! and Chris if you tap tomorrow you may just 'catch it'

Will have the pumps running the next three days.
Will need about 2-300 gallon to get things rolling

Jim

[Dennis H.]

Well I pulled the trigger today and put in a few taps to see how it will go. We had clear skies with lots of sun and the temps were in the high 40's. The forecast is looking good, nice warms temps, alittle rain for a day or two, we'll see.

I already have some sap flowing into the few buckets so I am hoping Monday and Tuesday it will flow even more. Depending on how much I see in the buckets Monday is weather I put the rest of the taps in.

[Sugarmaker]

Jim,
Not yet the weather is good for about 2 days this week then back to cold, I will wait again:( Hope you get a good run and can fire up the new R.O.! How many gallons of syrup do you expect to make per hour?

Tubing is all up. Mike and I finished in the dark last night. Have many things to still do to get ready:) Hooking up the Marcland is one.
Jim Bortles and I had a good visit with Dave Y at his place today. About a 2 hour drive from Jim's. We talked maple most of the way when I wasn't stopping for fresh air, (darn motion sickness)!
We checked out all Dave's goodies and I was ready to bring those nice vertical tanks home! Dave keep a eye on them:)

Dennis you should have a good run with the weather probably being warmer south of us.

Chris

[peacemaker]

jim i am looking to someday put in a steam away where u using your ro before your steam away .. if not how many taps where u doing with just the 2x6 and the steam away

[Dave Y]

Chris,
If you walk off with those tanks you are a better man than I am.
It was nice visiting with you and Jim today. You should have stuck around though there was lots of maple work we could have done. I went to the woods with Jack after you left and pulled some tubing and installed manifolds in his bush. I may tap next sunday!

[Jim Brown]

Peacemaker; This will be the first year for us with an RO. We were running 350 on vac and 400 on natural flow with the 2x6 and the steamaway. Our rate as right at 50 gallons per hour give or take a gallon or two.This year we increased to 1000 all on vac.

Jim

[Sugarmaker]

Dave Y,
If the weather is right the time is right to tap like you said about Sunday the 10th or shortly there after. I think I have enough stuff ready that in a couple days I could tap also. Looking forward to drilling some holes!
Jim Brown, I bet you are boiling about now?

Chris

[peacemaker]

cool thanks jim thats what i was figuring ... i dont ever want to go with a ro but was think steam away first before i jumped up to a bigger rig ... u get your steam away used or new ?

[PATheron]

DaveY- You tapping next sunday? Matts going to be here on thursday night and hes bound and determined to violate my trees friday morning. Im afraid he might tap them during the night if I dont pay attention. Should I make him wait or start drilling friday morning? Lay it on me. Weve got two milwaulkees and brand new bits and I think Matt wont be able to wait. Hes gone crazy thinking about the bigsap. What should I do Dave Im so confused? The peer presure is getting to me. Theeeron

[Dave Y]

Theron,
Chill, when Matt comes down hook up with the captain and enjoy your self. The best advice I can give you is when Sugarmaster taps then you are off to the races. He's making a living off of maple you are not. Listen to Richard!

[royalmaple]

Theron-

We are going to get you 100% ready for the BIG SAP. And might be a few sessions of the captain mixed in there.

You just get me up in the morning and I'll work all night.

[PA mapler]

I'm still holding off til after the middle of the month. The 15-day forecast is still not favorable here, and is actually calling for highs of 15F for this coming Sunday and Monday. So with my luck it'll probably be sunny and 50. :rolleyes:

At least I got all my lines ready yesterday. I got my new Canada bit in the mail, and am anxious to try it! I also might give in the peer pressure and see if I can find some of those tap-extensions to try this year.

[Jim Brown]

Hey Guys :GAME ON!! Sap is running in Nw PA. Pumps are on and the releaser is cycling every three(3) minutes this morning.Wish I had the rest tapped only have 350 today will tap the other 500 on Saturday.

Peacemaker.we bought it new from Brian Ianson in Coudersport. It was one that Leader had made for someone else and that person didn't take it. It was made for a King 2x6. They changed the bottom so it would fit our W/S and the thing works great!

Send me a Pm and we will talk
Jim

[Gary R]

I'm taking tomorrow off to boil. I collected this morning and have about 50 gal. of sap. Most of the trees are running slow except one. My largest tree, 24" , has 2 taps and I've gotten 9 gal. on that tree alone. 4 gal. just today, just under 2%. Plan on canning my first ever maple syrup tomorrow night! Hope I can sleep tonight.

[Jim Brown]

Trees are were running strong yesterday . we pulled 700gallons from350 taps in 24 hours.Still have the vac on this morning but things are slowing down. Resleaser was tripping every 2 1/2 minutes yesterday this morning at 5:00am( when we gassed the gen) only about every 6 minutes We boiled just enought to sweeten the pans last night will go after that rest this afternoon.

Jim

[Dave Y]

Ok so the trees are running, what I want to know is how is that new set up of yours working for you. How is the syrup? how much sap can you process in one day. the important stuff.

[Jim Brown]

Dave Y ; we are just getting thing rolling. We can handle the sap from thoses taps(350) it is when we tap our main sugar bush(500 this saturday) is when we will start the RO and really see what happens. If all goes as planned and I stress AS PLANNED. We should be able to run 150 gallons per hour at 5-6% may be better(depending one how hard we squeeze it) . If that it the case we should be able to pull 2-4 gallons per hour. I don't have any thing to base it on except Russ Lampron.He has been a big help in getting me ready to run. He has the exact RO as mine and those are the numbers he is getting from his-give-or take.
I'll let you know when every thing falls into place( I hope).
Thanks
JIM

[Sugarmaker]

Jim Brown,
Tried to call you several times but the number I have must be old. I was going to bother you while you were boiling.
I may go to Jan Woods tonight she has made about 13 gallon and will be boiling several more hours tonight.

Gary And Shirley Bilek have started also. I am not going there cause last time they made me clean the burnt pan:)

Chris

[Gary R]

Well, popped my cherry today. Made my first syrup. 5 pints and the pan has about an 1" of sweet in it. Was boiling over 9 gal. an hour. Things went ok. I couldn't get the front section above 210. I blocked off the front section and shut the fire down when I was out of sap. I drew off the front section and finished on a turkey fryer. I'm not sure what to do. I would like to get within a couple of degrees before I draw off. My pan is 1/4" higher in the back.
Jim- I did add bricks to my flue area and the preheater work's pretty good. Sap would go to 150. Good luck all!

[tapper]

I put 200 taps in this week. Gathered 200 gallons today and had it boiled off in 2 1/2 hours this evening. Sugar content wasnt very good and wasnt able to do much more than sweeten the pan.

[Jim Brown]

Chris; My Phone has been out of order the last two days(and Verizon wonders why I don't want their DSL service) In the evenings call me on my cell.i'll pm you the number . It still works(cell one) We made about 6-7 gallons yesterday and still have 150 gallons in the woods to get out this evening. Will finish that this evening and clean up and wait! Looks like 1 3/4 percent sugar and the sugar sand is normal.

Gary I'll Pm you

Thanks
Jim

[emericksmaple]

Little Update from the southern end of the state. 2 producers are tapped down here. 1 has about 800 tapped and he made 6 gal last night. The other has about 3000 and made a barrel yesterday. It looks like a good week for us late next week, that is when ae are planning to start.

[pennslytucky]

we put 126 in today. all buckets. looks like monday afternoon or tuesday will run if we get a little sun.

im mostly excited to have a jug of cold sap in the fridge.

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

All I didnt tap yet, gonna soon...Only 100+ trees,

but i only want to make about 3-4 gallons this year, so im holding off as long as i can..

was planning on or around the 20th...

that WILL work cause i just got my rig all leveled all up today. Barrel evap started sinking in the ground on the one side with all this rain..But she is all shored up now..

Just gotta rinse my pans and holding tanks and we should be set to tap....

dreid Woods been waiting for two years as i missed last season...

Charlie

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Charlie,

Good luck and glad to see ya back at it!

Take care and maybe you will get 500 gallon the first run and then you will have to make 10 or 12 gallon!!

[peacemaker]

what a deal today .. last week i stopped into one of my two pallet suppliers to ask if anything has changed and can i just grab pallets . to which he replies there aint many out there but come by next week i have some inside i will pull out for you ... so in a ride today and there's stacks of 15 banded together all oak and maple all indentical ... 7 piles of 15 lol 105 and he says i have some inside ...and to top it of he says i can put them in for u with the lift ... get to the sugar shack pushed them off still banded tip the over cut them still banded what would have take a hour or so took a half hour ...oh i forgot he also has 30 more inside ... these have never been used all 135 where order and shipped the wrong size ... lucky day for me

[Sugarmaker]

Currently I have been riding the trader and watching others boil. I did get to Woods Sugarhouse in Edinboro and visited with Jake (tappin&sappin) and Laura Dengler. We watched Jan make about 8 gallons of great tasting syrup as she was finishing up. That 4 x 16 really boils. It was taking in raw sap in two stream as big as my index finger. Must be 200 gph? on wood. If you want a step back in time visit Jan's sugarhouse. Lanterns and flashlights are standard equipment. Any way she boiled in 1700 + gallons of sap from 800 taps, on buckets, in about 10 hours. nice! Good syrup too!

I did get to the sugarhouse and plumb in the SST fittings for the Auto draw off. It looks a little clunky but should be functional. I just have to think about it for a day or so then tighten everything (fittings) down. I did put in a union to allow switching sides.

I found another project to work on. Since I still filter using felts I saw a three cone filter can at Jan's and I think I may build on so that I can draw into a bucket rather than direct into the filter. Just what I need another project!

Fixed the broken water pipe to the storage area last night. And moved some old fuel oil burners and my sap lids out of the loft. I can walk up there now!

Gary R. you are well on your way now! Keep us posted!

Chris

[sapman]

Chris,

I don't know if your planning on it or not, but we put a brace under the drawofff fittings to take the strain off the pan. My dad actually just took a length of sch. 40 PVC, notched one end, and ran it to the floor at an angle. Cheap and easy way to get the distance right, til we come up with something more professional.

Tim

[Jim Brown]

Gary R. stopped over last night while we we boiling had a great talk. He brought over some of this FIRST SYRUP HE EVER MADE.Looks GREAT !! way to go Gary; You will have 500 taps in no Time! Now you have the 'bug'.
Gary even took a turn at firing our Rig while I answered the phone. real nice to have him over. We are shut down will drain the rig tonight Don't want it to freeze and break some thing!. High on Sunday here is supposed to be 14 degrees. We are going to tap our main bush on saturday (500).
Good Luck all.

Jim

[rish]

We Tapped Here In Ne Pa January 26. Decided To Pull The Trigger Early Based Upon The Weather Report. Glad We Did. We Boiled The Last Three Days.......feb 5,6,7. Sugar Has Varried Between 2.2 And 2.5. Tomorrow (saturday) Could Be Another Good Day.

[sweetwoodmaple]

I was planning to tap tomorrow as well, but all of our family was hit by the stomach flu bug. Not good.

At least it isn't 45 degrees and sunny, then I'd really feel bad.

Like Chris, always too many projects going. I'm still trying to finish remodeling the basement to get ready for the inspection.

[andyp]

We boiled on wed. got about 31/2 gallon of syrup. Don't have it finished yet. Ran some more tubing yesterday till we ran out. We are a little over half tapped. Have to order more tubing and rings. We gathered another 80 gallon today will have to boil tomorrow. It will probably run some more tomorrow.Then it looks like we are in for some cold weather.

Hey Chris you can't make syrup riding the trader. You need to start drilling holes. LOL

Andyp

[Gary R]

Well it looks like cold for at least 10 days. drained the pan and cleaned it. Finished another 4 1/2 pints out of the pan. Having French toast this morning with our first syrup.

Sugarmaker, I'm thinking of coming up by your place tomorrow. Going to visit some family. Give me a phone call and let me know if you'll be around. I'd like to see your setup.

Hoping for warmer weather in February?!

[emericksmaple]

A little update from the southern end. Tapped about 800 yesterday and then had to gather and boil in 1000 gal afterwards. They ran like crazy when we were tapping. So we have a start, made 8 gal of Fancy. Right now the wind is a howling and the temp is about 16. Looks like we may get some this week just depends on the weather.

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
Nice visiting with you today! Hope you didnt freeze in the sugarhouse tour.
We flipped on the Marcland and it was 17.2 deg in the sugarhouse. I knew that thing was going to be good for something!:)

AndyP,
OOOhhhhhhh you are supposed to drill holes to get the sap. I have just been waiting near the sugarhouse for it to show up:) Glad you had a good run.

I did get the gathering tubs all set yesterday while the weather wasn't mild. I have 24 of them set out. Should tap this coming week end.

Had a good talk with Jim Brown He loves the auto draw and waiting for the BIG (Thhhhheeeeerrrrrrooooonnnn) SAP run to fire the R.O.

Get ready its coming!!

In the mean time building a dumping station for the auto draw off ( it was lonely) and also a double filter station. Love to whittle on stainless:)

Regards,
Chris

[mapleack]

We tapped about 500 on saturday, they were running like crazy, too bad I didn't have tanks ready too! I'm sure we missed quite a run. Still have 200 + to go, hopefully next weekend.

[Dave Y]

Aren't You supposed to have your tanks ready be fore you Tap??

[mapleack]

Dave, having tanks clean would make sense! You expect things here to make sense? LOL. Maybe we'll get to boil by next week?
~ Andy

[Gary R]

Yes, nice visit to Sugarmakers! It was a tad cool Sunday. Chris' place is great. an entire building built for sugaring. Lots of room to move around. Hope I can get up there when he's running to ask more questions. Later that day I visited Scott Durfee's place. He's only been at it for a few years and just got his new 2 X 4 1/2 drop tube rig. They too have a purpose built sugar house. They'll keep busy running 125 taps.

Jim, did you get all your taps in? and did you catch Saturdays mini run? I got about 30 gal.

[Jim Brown]

GaryR. Yes we got all them in on saturday and we have the vac ready. we didn't turn the pumps on and pull knowing full well it was going to get cold and we already had the rig drained and rinsed.A few were trying to run but we were just enough north of here they were not going at it very strong
we will be ready when it warms up. don't look like that will be for a week or so but thats OK!
Sugarmaker; was nice to talk to you again I posted some pic on the'bucket' (finally figured out how to do it) I see you turned your draw off tee long ways and I turned mine cross ways both ended up with the same results-manual and auto draw offs!
Were just sitting tight(and warm) and waiting on the weather now


Jim

[PATheron]

21st through the 29th go time for the big sap. Big run every day. Theeeron

[Sugarmaker]

Good now that's settled. :)

[Sugarmaker]

Jim Brown,
Nice pictures! You did a good job getting them loaded! I like the one where you son is firing the rig.
I can see how your draw off is set up, looks slick.
I thought about mine for a while and one of the things I wanted to do was to have both the manual and the auto draw exiting near each other. That way I could use either in a pinch and minimize set ups. You have a nice view of you temp indicator display while firing.

Just finished my two felt holder for my straining tank. Like shearing a pig "lots of squealing for the small amount of hair you get!"
Tomorrow night I am going to try to start on the stand for my dump station at the auto draw off. Goal is to have a light stand ( 3 steel legs and two rings) that I can move easily from side to side, and support the stainless tank to draw off into. Not sure how this will work as the syrup may cool some and not strain as well? If it doesn't work I will drop back to the old plan "B" and do it like I did last season.
Which is filter directly under the draw off. This is sometimes a busy area and I was trying to allow the draw off to do its job and stay out of the way. With the bigger tub area I can draw off a hydrometer cup on the manual side much easier lots more room:)

Question does anyone calibrate for water boiling on the sap side of the evaporator?

Chris

[Russell Lampron]

Nice pictures Jim but no picture of the new RO machine?

Russ

[sweetwoodmaple]

Chris - Since my thermometer fitting is above the sap level, I remove the thermometer every time I start up and calibrate (with thick gloves and lots of squealing in pain).

Been doing it since I got my first evaporator and it works well.

I don't finish on the evaporator or even in the sugar house, though. I bring it in to the basement in Smurfits and filter press and bottle.

[PATheron]

Jim- I havent been able to follow the trader lately too much but what kind of boil rate do you get with that rig? Things really look nice. Youve got a bunch of taps on vac. Are you able to stay home days or do you have to work during the week too? Real nice looking setup. Theeeron

[Jim Brown]

PATheron: Thanks for the compliments! We purchased the rig 3 years ago and have since added the steamaway,forced draft, and this year a Marcland auto draw off and an RO.We have around 1000 taps on vac this year. Last year we had only 350 on vac and 350 on natural flow and did a couple of marathon boils(60 hrs straight on one go around)Our son ,who you see in the pic is stationed at Wright Pat air base in Dayton Ohio and has 18 1/2 years in the air force and can be home in4 1/2 hours to help and does so when we need him to. Our daughter also knows how to fire the rig and did so last year during the marathon. She lives 10 minutes from the house and 350 of the taps are on her property. She also starts vac pumps and generators as needed. The sap flow has not been great enought to start the RO yet but it will soon enought. I work a full time job but since I'm the boss my hours are very fexible and I have tons of time in the vacation bank!

Thanks
Jim

[Jim Brown]

PATheron; Forgot one small thing If every thing is right we can get 51 gallons per hour . But you must fire on a 7 minute schedule and have dry wood. 48-49 is more like it on a regular steady rate.

Jim

[PATheron]

Jim- Thats nice you have a flexable schedule. Im kind of like that too. Ill be cuious to see how much syrup you make. Were about the same size setup. I cant imagine running that evap 60 hours. Thats awesome. You must take turns and just keep cranking it. Keep us posted. Ive only had enough sap to sweeten the pans and give me a taste of running it. Ive had some setbacks with things and thats to be expected but ive basically just got my system intact. Should be good now for the main run I think. I too havent used the ro yet. Ill have some time just learning and so I probly wont be doing things to the max for a while. Cant learn this stuff overnight. Theeeron

[jmbinventions]

I am new to tapping and I started test tapping on the 8th of febuary sap ran very well.

[Jim Brown]

Threon; we ran the 60 hour marathron in 4 hour shifts. only problem was on my shift I had to sleep short and go gather sap. At one point the rig was running at 50 gallons per hour and the trees were running at 90. We were losing ground for a while. Now you know why the RO!
Jim

[Sugarmaker]

JMBinventions,
Welcome. How many taps do you have set. If you havent yet you could go to the introductions thread also and put on some facts about you and your set up.

Chris

[jmbinventions]

Sugarmaker,
I have 12 taps but they were not very successfull, so thank you for the advice.
JMBinventions

[New Hope Mapleman]

Jim,
What RO did you get? We got a second membrane set up on ours now and am interested to see how it does this year.

Started tapping on the first jsut so we could get it done on time and wound up making a drum last week after sweetening the pans. Always love finding the tanks full!

Hope your having fun making syrup with the family!

Best wishes!
Dan

[royalmaple]

Jim-

But.... You jumped right out into a 4 lane highway. That was on 350 on vacuum last year right, now you have 1000 on vacuum. Your gonna see a very very slight difference this year. Maybe not so slight. Good choice on the RO.

[royalmaple]

Dan-

Wasn't that handsome guy on the front page of maple news someone very close to you?

[Jim Brown]

Dan; we bought a lapierre 150, new in the shrink wrap one year old.we called the factory and they told us we can have it retro fitted with another membrane($3000) and it will do 250-300 per hour.( that vac pump you sold us it working great! will pull 18" all day long Really helps the flow!

royalmaple; we had 350 on vac(pump we bought from Dan) and 350 on natural flow plus 40 on buckets last year. we increased tap count and put all on vac this year. Had a rather hard time keeping up during heavy runs. Looking forward to seeing how the RO takes up the slack.

Jim

[New Hope Mapleman]

Jim,
From experience, you'll love the RO. Makes you think you never even worked at making syrup! When you go in for the night (before midnight now) you think oh man that wasn't to bad! Takes all that HURRY HURRY HURRY-gotta go boil out of the blood.

Royal-
Don't know about the handsome, but yeah we got some pub. Was an interesting experience teaching.

Looks like you guys are both set for some real fun this year!

Best Wishes to all!
Dan

[Russell Lampron]

Jim,

Like Dan and Matt said you are going to like the RO. Already thinking of adding another membrane? With the gph you get out of your evaporator you will need it.

Russ

[PATheron]

Jim- Thats cool that your whole family helps you. I think its good you got the ro too. Youve got a lot of taps with that vac. Keep me posted on how good your runs are. Im hoping it will run monday and maybe real good next weekend. Keep us posted. In the off season im going to have to come visit you guys out your way and see your setups. Theeeeron

[Jim Brown]

Russ Lampron; finally was able to get pic of RO and tanks on the 'bucket'

[royalmaple]

Jim-

Looks good. Do you have your wash tank hooked up to the same inlet of your sap tanks? Or are these all permeate tanks? IF so, I was going to mention you might want to have a dedicated line from the wash tank to the inlet on the low pressure pump so you don't risk having any wash solution still in the line when you go back to processing sap in the same line.

Do you have to pump into each of these tanks to feed the RO?

I guess if you had your permeate tank after the wash tank you would run that afterwards when you rinse anyway and flush the line out. Maybe that is what you got going on?

[Jim Brown]

Royalmaple; The two tanks at the left of the pics are the stock tanks(sap-total cap.700 gallons)
black tank(55 gallon drum-should only need about 25 gallons) in the center is wash tank.and the two open top tanks at the right are filtrate tanks (rinse-total cap 550 gallons). All hooked to the same pump at the bottom of the RO. We can disconnect the line at the pump and run sap through the line to flush just prior to concentrating again.Hence the one feed line.
Thanks


Jim

[Jim Brown]

royalmaple; filtrate tank( evaporator feed tank-150 gallon stainless setting outside of the garage feeding evap(not in pic's)
Jim

[Jim Brown]

I still haven't got the 'lingo' down yet, filtrate-concentrate- premeate- etc; but I know what each is. fresh sap(to RO)-concentrate(to evaporator)rinse water(to Ro) wash water(to RO and Back to wash tank) with valve set up any one of the above can be sent to the drain.
Thanks for the heads up!

Jim

[royalmaple]

Might consider moving the wash tank ahead of the permeate(winse water) so it would be say closest to the RO in the series, then your tanks the way they are. Also could put a valve between sap tanks and permeate tanks. So then when you wash, you'd have the sap and rinse water isolated with the inline valve. shut off the permeate tank valves. when your done washing, shut the wash tank off, open permeate tanks and keep sap tanks isolated with valve.

Then you know you got the whole line rinsed well. shut off the permeate tanks and open the sap tanks and inline valve ahead of sap tanks so you don't have to flush with sap. I don't want you to lose 1 gallon of sap per run flushing lines. Production!!

Confusing or make anymore sense?

[Jim Brown]

Makes sense. I have a couple of extra valves won't be problem installing one anywere in the feed line.

Thanks
Jim

[Jim Brown]

All tanks have shut off valves on the bottom

[Russell Lampron]

Nice pictures Jim. That looks just like my RO except yours is a little shinier. What Matt was saying about the placement of the wash tank is a good idea. That way any wash solution in the feed line will be flushed out when you do the rinse cycle. Be sure to change your pre filter after doing a wash too.

Russ

[PATheron]

Jim- Im still busting hump trying to get all my stuff ready. Im thinking we might get our first good run tomarrow into monday. What do you guys think? If it runs hard monday im declaring that date BIGSAP monday from that day on. Itll be our own national holiday. Every feb 18th will be BIGSAP monday. Theeeron

[Dave Y]

Theron,
If the forecast holds, with vacuum will could have a god run. Only time will tell!
I am tapping to day. Gotta go get the buckets on the truck before my help gets here. Tapper is coming to help, it should be a good day!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

If it's been very cold for a while, it will take some time to get the trees thawed out. I have had some very good sap weather and the trees haven't run that good because a couple of days before each good sap weather, it gets cold and freezes up the trees. It is still early, my experience is that most of the good runs come in March and the farther north you go, the later in March that gets.

I don't expect a lot of sap this time of the year and season. Just enjoy what I get and it is a lot more laid back now and a good time to work out any bugs every year.

[Jim Brown]

Gentlemen; the temp is going to have to work at it so the sap will run here for a few days.Temp this morning at6:00am was 5 above. Yesterday morning was 11 above.Hi today of 20, supposed to get to 38-40 tomorrow. But that won't be enought to thaw the trees. We don't expect sap until next week end when it supposed to get above 35 for three day Fri-Sat-Sun next week end.Still waiting

Jim

[Sugarmaker]

Our neighbor Keith stopped and wants me to pick up his sap also. He tapped 40 taps (mix of read and hard) and will gather it for me I just have to stop and pump it into the tank. He boiled on gas but his well is not providing enough right now. He wants to build a wood fired arch for next year.
I also hung one bucket in the front yard just to say I tapped something. I used the prototype sst spile from Scott Durfee. It worked nice and the bucket hung fine. It was not running, and Like Jim Brown I will be surprised if we get anything today. Sap may run tomorrow and I may tap just because of my work schedule. Temps are supposed to be in the 40's tomorrow. Temp in the sun hit 45 today and is dropping already. I played around in the sugarhouse and made another sst bracket for the draw off thermocouple for the other side of the evaporator.
Talked to Scott Durfee, he is going to tap and try to catch a run tomorrow and boil on Monday if it happens. He wants to try out that new evaporator and I cant blame him!

Chris

[Sugarmaster]

For all of those waiting to hear from us. We started tapping Friday the 15th. My secretary went out and tapped her display tree today. (the one she shows the kids) She also tested sugar content...4% But we do alot of wondering what she feeds or waters that tree with. The rest of our trees dont get that good. The guys tapping reported that as soon as they tapped it did start to run. Still alot of pumps to hook up yet. About 2 weeks of tapping will get all of the bushes. Good luck to all of you this season from Pattersons.

[Dave Y]

we hung buckets today, 575 to be exact. By mid morning the trees were leaking when I pulled the bit out. Tapper came down from Scandia and helped out. I think we had a very productive day. Tapper set the taps and I drilled the holes, and We had two other fellas coming along putting out the buckets and lids. This bush Is a camp development that I had 300 on last year. I got more serious about it and almost double my tap count. Of course Tapper was very encouraging, If I asked if a tree could use another tap, he always said add two.I will put out the rest of the buckets tomorrow. And maybe tap the tubing bush on Monday. And the race is on!

[tapper]

I think we coulda put another 100 taps in that bush easy. This was a good day. Good company,warm sunshine, dripping maples, and goooood chili. Thanks Dave!!!

[Sugarmaker]

Dave we are not to far behind. After talking to Scott Durfee this morning he got the juices flowing and I started out about 4:00 to set a few taps. When I finished it was about 6:30 and I had about 200 plus taps in. I was pulling Threoon and tapping in the dark near the end with a head lamp. (Boy the sunset was really orange and red and yellow! Beautiful! It went along well very well and the tubing seems nice and tight, so this is a big improvement from last year! I am using Isopropyl alcohol in the tap holes and on the spile this year so that was a few more moves. I used one of the Dewalt batteries and part of another. So I will do the rest in the morning and see if we catch this run on Sunday and maybe part of Monday?
Just got in from rinsing the evaporator and cleaning some equipment.
Just need a couple good loads of sap.

Regards,
Chris

[PATheron]

I like to see you guys kicking butt. I put 60 more taps in on small cull trees today and Going to get some more tomarrow. Im thinking its too cold to run here tomarrow but it should be thawing by noon and maybe with it warm all through the night itll run hard monday. Thats my hope. Hope you guys have good luck and get some sap monday. Chris, thats pretty funny you using the headlamp. I thought I was the only one nuts enough to do stuff like that. Theeeron

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yes, it was a great day in PA today. Very blue sky.

Dad came up and helped from 10 am to 4 pm. We hooked up the new sap ladders. Dummy first move...had the star fitting upside down on the top of the first ladder. Easily fixed, oh well.

Leveled lines, and other misc stuff (along with running to the house for tools).

Also got up about 50 taps with branch lines. Burned through about 700 ft of 5/16 30P.

Another good whole day to get the other 100 taps and I'll be almost ready. Should put me just under 500 on vacuum.

Looking to tap next weekend. Looks like I'm last again!!! (I was hoping to at least tie with Chris!!!) :-))))

[Dave Y]

Tapper,
You are welcome any time. Thank you for your help it was much appreciated.
Chris, Why did you wait till 4pm to start? you would get much more done if you started earlier. Before noon? :) I got the batteries charged and will head out soon and try to get some thing done ahead of the rain. Everyone that is tapping have fun, those of you who aren't well, try to make it through the day

[PA mapler]

Sweetwood, don't worry, I'm sure to be the last tapping! As nice as it was yesterday, my hillside was still froze up tight. The 15-day forecast still isn't encouraging, at best just a few days in the mid thirties.

I was going to tap this week, but the weather looks foul. I like to tap when the trees are running, just to get my jollies.

I went to Sprauge's and bought up the last of his sanitizer spouts, so between them and my new Canadian bit I'm pretty excited! I might be boiling in April again, but I think it'll be a good year.

[Jim Brown]

I doubt if it will run much if at all here today.(sunday) Temp at 9:00am is 28 degrees and freezing rain! supposed to get to 45 but that may be pushing it a bit.I don't think I will waste the gas on the generators today. Beside the lines will still be frozen from yesterday and the trees still have 1/4inch of ice and 1 inch of snow in the branches from last week. Need a WARM rain to thaw things out. Tomorrow is only up to the mid 30's
WE WAIT!!

Jim

[tappin&sappin]

In an attempt to be optimistic and actually believe the weather forecast, I put all my taps in yesterday (saturday). Have 50 on buckets and 70 on tubing.

Was hoping for the temp to come up faster than it has so far today. Temp outside right now is 38 degrees. Went down to check a couple buckets and they are wet, but not running. Hopefully the temp gets up into the mid-40s and stays there through the night. If that is the case, there may be enough sap to gather and sweeten the pans. That is the plan at least.

Good luck to all.

- Jake

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Chris just wants to be like Theron! Can't you hear what so many others are saying:

I wanna be, I wanna be like Theron!

[PATheron]

Brandon- You guys dont want to model yourselves after me. I run on pure instinct. Im good intertainment but thats about it. You guys know 100 times more than I do, im just trying to learn. My temps today havent been warm really. 34 so far. The weather says its supposed to warm up throughout the night. Mys stuff is thawing just real slow. Pump is purring along at 26" and I think the system is basically tight. I got a lot more done today at the sugarhouse. Im basically ready to store and process sap I think. Just waiting on weather now. How the rest of you Pa guys doing on temps and do you think itll start running tomarrow? Theron

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

As cold as it has been for so long, it is going to take a while to get things thawed out, especially without any sun.

[royalmaple]

Theeeeeron-

You'll be up every hour checking the releaser. And the first time you hear it dump in the night, forget going back to bed your up for good. You know it.

We all want to be like theron, just have a hard time admitting it.

[Jim Brown]

Well Guys the temp never got above 39 today and now it is windy. we are not there yet!(at least here)

We WAIT!!

[PATheron]

Guys- Been cleaning up in the shed. Warmed up a lot in the last two hours. The lines are thawing out now. Its dumping slush in the releaser from all the lines. I just watched one of the dries run sap for a little while a stream about the size of your thumb. The two wet lines are thawing too. The one 1.25" is spraying sap across to the other side of the releaser. It does it for a little while than all the slush cloggs up again but I think its thawing pretty fast now. Im thinking maybe another couple hours maybe the lines will be clear. Im not sure the sap will run but I think im going to empty my lines at least. It seems like its definitely warm enough for the sap to run but maybe the trees are froze up. Thats what I thought last week and they were running good. Ill keep watch. Could be BIGSAP monday. You guys got to love my enthusiasm if nothing else. Theeeron

[tappin&sappin]

Well optimism got slapped in the face by reality today. Checked late afternoon and wasn't much happening at all in terms of sap flow. Some taps were wet, but nothing was running hard enough to talk about.

The temp right now is a "balmy" 46.5 degrees, which I think is the high for the day. I think if the temp would hold and the wind would calm down, the sap would have a fighting chance.

Pretty much all I have to report.

As far as wanting to be like Theron. Hard to say... Never met the guy, but I like him already due to his sap predictions. :)

-Jake

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Theron would make a good weather forecaster!

[Sugarmaker]

Dave,
I waited as long as I could, But was only going to tap a few Sat afternoon.:)
Yes the weather was great for tapping Saturday.

This morning I woke to freezing rain but went and tapped the rest. It was kind of like tapping in a cold shower! So all 400 + are in place. The weather was very windy and the temp did not climb very fast. I checked at 5:30 and the trees were running. Several containers had 5 to 8 gallons in them. (that's from 16-20 taps) I will gather what there is tomorrow afternoon if its not frozen and go from there. If I would get 200 +gallons I will probably boil Monday evening just to get the bugs out.
Good news is I am tapped and now looking for a warm spell, Like most of us. I dont think we are far off since 6 weeks will be April 1 and that's long enough. But I will go till the wood, or I run out.
I still spent most of the afternoon in the sugarhouse cleaning up things that have accumulated since last year. Washed and loaded the sap gathering tank on the truck and washed out the dumping station/ remote pump station too.

Jake, with the taps in place we catch that next run while we are at work:)

Jim Brown, sounds like the temps were the same. Seems that the vacuum would be helping tonight?

But like Beth said I have tapped most of the time when the trees were running. Yesterday and today most of the holes were dry:( Always nice to see that fresh sap gush out. You know you hit paydirt!

Regards,
Chris

[PATheron]

Chris- You headed out late in the day to put a few taps in and you didnt want to stop. Its always fun tapping. Kind of addictive. Sounds like your trees were more ready to run today than mine. My lines are thawing out but im not sure the trees will run or not. Maybe tomarrow. My weather predictions are always good but Im a very posative thinker. Usually things work out good just takes a little time. No fun being gloom and doom. Theeron

[tappin&sappin]

Well, I had Missy check some buckets/drums on her way to work this morning and she said that everything she looked at was about 1/4 full. If a bucket is 1/4 full, that means it has about a gallon in it. So if on average all my taps leaked a gallons worth, I've got enough to gather and boil.

Looks like I'll be leaving work early today... :)

Hopefully things aren't froze up by the time I get there.

[Dennis H.]

I think this is the start of it down here in southern PA.
Got home from work this morning and the trees were running, I may have enough to fire up the evap Tuesday.
The bummer is they are calling for some more cold weather later in the week, we'll see.
I am already driving the wife nuts about what I will do differently next year and which evap I will be buying!:razz: Just think what it will be like 6 weeks from now.

[tapper]

I just checked buckets. They all average 1/4 full at least including the taps that never ran on the last run 2 weeks ago. It was a mild suprise considering the deep freeze last week,the wind last night and if I take last year into account these trees would not have ran at all. One never knows what to expect when playing with ma nature.

[PATheron]

BIGSAP MONDAY UPDATE- Started ro about an hour ago. At that time all 4 tanks were within about 8" of full. I figure the tanks together hold about 2400 gals. Id say by now theyd be full without thr ro. So im guessing im at pretty close to 2 gals per tap right now. Its dumping once a minute. One inch line is running half full continuous and 1.25" line is splurging with nothing for a bit them full pipe for a bit. Its warm and sunny off and on. Pump is humming away at 25". Makin 9% sap. Not sure how much sap going to get today but Id say its a lot as far as Ive ever seen. Id say the 2400 gals is a minimum. Gonna boil till its done. Ill let you know how much syrup. Today is officially big sap monday annually from this day forth. Theeeron

[Jim Brown]

Hang on Threron the weather is about to change; we have 27 degrees and snow as I speak and it is 1:15pm on Monday. Low tomorrow is to be 10 high of 17
Run while you can!!

Jim

[royalmaple]

Theron is still going. Sap has slowed down but still running in pretty good.

He wanted me to post an update. They started the RO to take care of what has come in since. They've got just about 500 gallons of 9% concentrate. Getting the hang of drawing off. I think its working out very well on that new evaporator. It boils like a dream.

He's filling the canner, and pails and getting ready to set up the filter press and give that a whirl. He running on pure adrenalin now. Planning on being up for a while still.

Looks like big sap monday has turned out pretty well. Not bad for an early run and averaging over 2 gallons per tap.

His buddy was going to come back over and give him a hand this evening. Another producer locally that runs gravity tubing. Theron said the look on his face was priceless. You could tell he had never seen anything like it. He just stared in amazement at the releaser and the sap coming in. He's buying a pump, lets put it that way.

[emericksmaple]

Another update from southern Pa. Finally got time to get to the computer!! We have boiled the last 3 days in a row. (Sat, Sun, Mon) Vaccum, Vaccum, Vaccum!!!! I love it. Sat night all our neighbors that make came to our place cause we were that only ones that had enough to boil. Made 135 gal in the last 3 days off of 2700 taps. We have 400 taps to go but we did not have enough time to get them in this weekend. But just about everyone in the southern end (south of Meyersdale) down here has made syrup yesterday and today. Looks like we will get to rest now till sun -mon next week!! I'm kinda glad i'm dragging at the moment!!

[Parker]

Hard to beat a liquid ring pump,,,,,oh, did I mention,,,I have a SIHI 3408,,,,,24" at 66CFM for $1800,,(3 phase),,,$2000 with inverter for 220......603-934-7251,,,,,,,{{{{{{NICE WORK TTTTHHHEEE(HUGEFREAKIN"SAPANDITSONLYTHEBEGENNINGOFTHE SEASON)RRROOOONNNNNNNNNNNNN}}}}}} You put a lot of work into it and now it is paying off.....

[Yorkholomaple]

Just got home from Theron's. When i got there him and some local sugarmakers were working with the filter press he has one drum about full. They were having some problems so he isnt gonna filter anymore tonight but i believe he will have plenty to top off that drum and some. The sap has stopped running so he will be shutting off the vaccum soon so maybe he will get caught up lol. When i left he was still boiling and has a couple more hours depending on how hot he can get that fire.

Matt, by the time i got there this evening the sap was not running but the next time it runs im gonna go check out the releaser. Also i think i might have found myself an old dairy pump:)

[royalmaple]

Now your talkin.

You'll be happy.

[tappin&sappin]

Gathered 160 gallons from 130 taps Monday afternoon. Lit the fire at 4:30 and ran until 10:30. Probably 5-10 gals left in the tank and 15 gals left in the pan.

Never made syrup, but got within .5 degrees of it. Dang! Oh well, next time we should make some syrup right off the bat.

- Jake

[PATheron]

Tom- I got to thinking today you can use the two handed set untill sat then I need them. Also I have a one handed tubing tool that you can use for a while becouse I can use just the two handed. Keep us posted on the vac pump. Theeron

[Sugarmaker]

Matt E.
Glad to here that Somerset area is running hard. Wow you guys with all those taps amaze me! The 400 you dont have tapped is where I finish.

Jake,
How did your tubing and pumping system work?

Theron,
We are still boiling 2 to 2.5% sap!

OK Enough fooling around lets get to it.:)

Checked taps Sunday at 5:30 p.m. and they were just starting to dribble. Checked the closest container on my way to work at 7:00 Monday morning and it was 3/4 full ( about 30 gal on 16 taps). (These are about my best trees.) I left work early and Cheryl and I started gathering around 12:00 (noon) Monday. Most of the 40 gal containers were from 1/2 to 3/4's full. At 3:00 I lit the fire and we had brought in 620 gals of sap from 440 taps. Remember this is all "short run" gravity tubing!

Boiled hard till 10:00 P.M. Consumed mass quantities of pallets. we made medium grade syrup from the start and finished with 11 gallons. So not a bad run for a over night warm spell.

It was not without problems. New auto draw is going to take some getting used to! First draw it took about 1.5 gallon and drained my pan to the point there was no way the incoming sap could keep up. I had to add some sap and it took a long time to get back to syrup again. Then also the first batch had an off flavor. It was either something in the pans or the Isopropyl Alcohol? I was not a happy sugarmaker:(
I took the syrup to my filter container I just put in service, and in about 20 minutes I noticed the syrup was running out the bottom of the filter tank on to the floor. (Good news was it was the off flavored syrup).
About that time Jim and Chase walk in and with a little encoragement from them and Cheryl I continued to boil the rest of the sap. I think Jim has the magic touch cause the next batch the flavor was good the draw off worked better and the old filter tank was in place and not leaking.

Cheryl summed it up well "Dont invite others over on the first boil when you dont have all the bugs worked out." We had delicious sloppy Joe's in the sugarhouse while boiling :)

Anyway I posted some exterior picture of the sugarhouse on the photobucket under first boil of 2008.

I did solder the crack shut in the filter tank tonight. Nice to have some old solder irons around. Man they work nice!

Drained the evaporator into buckets.

We are ready NOW!

Chris

[PATheron]

Chris- Great run! Ive never got 2 gals a tap on gravity tubing myself. Best Ive ever done was a gallon no matter what I did. Your stuff is working nice. I was afraid you wouldnt get quite as much sap as the buckets but its woring good for you. Way easier to pick up too? Theeron

[Sugarmaker]

Theron,
I loved reading your other posts about boiling on your own for the first time. Yep not for the weak of heart. Wonder if it is close to the feeling of running a steam engine on the railroad in the days when they shoveled coal?
My dad was a great one to encourage me to do things I thought I couldn't do. I was very comfortable boiling on our old 3 x 10 when I was about 15. He showed me what to watch, and what to do if I had a problem and he was just a few steps away in the barn milking cows. Man I would just love to have him see the sugarhouse I built, he would love it.

My back feels much better than handling the 400 buckets. And even better Cheryl was happy with the gathering system for year #2. She got to drive the truck and put the lids back on while I got the hose reeled up. Much easier and probably cut a hour off our gathering time having only 24 stops.

Chris

[PA mapler]

You guys are making me SO jealous! I have everything pretty much ready to go, but the extended forecast is so lousy that I doubt I'll be boiling until the beginning of March. Unless a nice warm spell materializes, I probably won't even tap until next week sometime.

The snow pack his year is much less than it's been in previous years, so I'm planning on putting alot of buckets up around the sugar shack. I got ten nice 4-gallon buckets from Tops, and have prospects for alot more elsewhere.

Happy boiling!

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yeah, Beth I hear you.

Unfortunately, the more time I wait to tap, the more tubing and taps I put up! Ordered more supplies from Leader on Monday!

I get a little afraid when I tap so late in February. Nothing I can do about it besides have the vacuum ready to run 24/7.

[Yorkholomaple]

Tom- I got to thinking today you can use the two handed set untill sat then I need them. Also I have a one handed tubing tool that you can use for a while becouse I can use just the two handed. Keep us posted on the vac pump. Theeron

Theron, i will prob come over and get that tubing tool in the morning if everything works out and have it back tom night. i dont have to many more to run plus tom is the only day i have off until sunday and i would like to be tapping if its not to cold:) Tom

[PATheron]

Tom- Take whatever you need today. I wont be using any of that stuff. Ill go out in the shed and make sure all the tools are in the kitchen where you can find them. Yesterday I just happened to come across two new rolls of 5/16 and fittings enough for another 100 taps. Strangest thing. Ill try to get rid of that stuff in the woods saturday. Beth- I hope you get the weather soon. Sounds like your in a cool spot and have a late sugarbush from your previous posts ive read. Keep us posted. Theeeron

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I am several hundred miles south of any of you in PA and the forecast doesn't look like I will get hardly any more sap until March. This would only put me with just over 1,000 gallon of sap for Feb which is kinda scary. 4 years ago we had 60+ with all sun for 8 straight days from March 1 to 8 which pretty much killed the season. Season is usually over her by March 20th, so we'll see what happens. Cold and several inches of snowtoday and down close to zero tonight.

[Dave Y]

It doesn't look like I will make any Feb syrup. I blew my chance of doing that by not collecting Monday. I did not realize I had enough sap to collect untill it was to late to collect it. Now I have 575 blocks of ice and about 100 gal. of liquid and no sap weather in the forecast untill the 2nd of march.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Wow, Brandon. Forgot about that season (2004), thanks for reminding me!

The only thing that saved me that year was that I undertapped my trees, so I put in 30 or 40 fresh tap holes after it cooled down again in mid-March.

I also remember flushing my lines with tap water to get out the buddy sap before collecting again.

Now I'm really scared!

[tappin&sappin]

sugarmaker... the tubing system worked nice. Took me about 40 minutes to empty all 6 tubs. Much easier in the gathering dept.

Sorry to hear you had some problems w/ boiling/filtering the first night. At least the bugs are worked out!

I found out some things that dissappointed me as well. The hood I put up over the evaporator worked a little bit, but a lot of steam still went around the hood and it still rained golden drops in the shack. Oh well, it was a good idea. Other than that and not getting to draw off any syrup, everything went well.

- Jake

[Yorkholomaple]

Put 63 more taps out today on tubing. First time i have ever used a tubing tool and i will never put taps out again without one. I never knew they made it that much eiser.Now i know why Theron just cant stop putting taps out. I might have to tell his wife to hide it on him for awhile.

Theron thanks for letting me borrow it but i dont think i can give it back:) just kidding i will prob drop it off in the morning on my way to work.
Thanks Tom

[Jim Brown]

Well Guys looks like the weather is not going to cooperate again this week.low tomorrow morning is supposed to be 4 above and the high all week is like 35.
We need some heat here in Nw Pa!
PATheron; Sound like you got baptised real good! Nice Job. I may need to buy some of that syrup you are making if it don't warm up here soon! i have 160 gallons of 2 3/4 % stuff setting in my garage tanks( a little slushy right now) Will have to boil off this week end. Have to put a dry line in one of our bushes this Friday. when the line runs full of sap there is no room for the vac air and the inches fall from 19 to 9 until the line clears and then is starts again. dry line will fix that. going to run 250 feet of line to a vac booster(homemade I might add) and tie it in.

Jim

[danno]

Jim, interested in your loss of vacuum transfer when sap is running. Do you have all 1000 taps on the same mainline? How big is your mainline?

[Sugarmaker]

Ok Lets see if I can touch all bases?
Beth,
I predict you will have more sap than usual and make more syrup than last year. :)
Jake, Would a power exhaust fan in the stack help suck in some more steam? I had more steam than usual in the sugarhouse the other night also. Just that type of evening.
Glad the tubing worked well. When it gets crunch time with a huge sap run you will like finding those barrels full of nice clean sap! You will make syrup in short order when the next run comes.
Brandon,
Maybe your season will be extended since this cold spell should be just like starting up again.
DaveY,
That's to bad you missed that sap. I had several buckets break a few years ago because I did not think it had run and didnt gather. I try to watch each day that it has potential to run. The blocks of ice in the tanks may or may not be a problem. If they block the flow from the tank tats a concern. But if they are there to cool some good sap then it could be a plus. Are you going to dump the buckets at first thaw?
Brian,
Keep on tappin. You will be bring in a lot of sap with the vacuum system. Plenty of sap days available in March.

Theron,
Get some rest 50 gallons in your first day is a major accomplishment. My dad told the story that his brother Jack bought a evaporator I thing a 4 x 12? and they hung buckets and the first day they made 25 gallons of sap and they did not relight the fire for several days, the sap just kept running.

Glad I drained the evaporator! The sweet sap in the buckets setting around the sugarhouse is starting to freeze tonight.

I had to install a new cordless phone in the sugarhouse tonight the old one bit the dust. I think due to the heat form the stack. It does get toasty back there. Right Jim Bortles?

Ok! Off to look at some other posts. Will try to cause trouble else where.

Chris

[Father & Son]

I'm surprised that phone lasted as long as it did that close to the stack! That thing is like a blast furnace!

Jim

[Dave Y]

Chris,
I will be dumping buckets when it thaws I have no way of collecting or storing Ice. But thats ok. I have my tubing almost tapped.I should finish it tomorrow evening after work. Then I will be all set. Well almost I still have about 100 Buckets to put out. I have a feeling this will be my last year with buckets. I have way too may trees in my tubing bush to be busting my *** with buckets any longer.

[PATheron]

DaveY- Sorry to hear the sap didnt run there very good. Seems like to me that sometimes it just depends exactly where you are. Ive seen that here where it runs for one guy good and not far away it doesnt. Season just started for us so to be honest I think that me getting that run was kind of a lucky fluke. I think everyone is going to have a better than average year. The weather this winter seems more normal and up north those guys have tons of snow. Seems like they would have a real good year. Jim, seems like you cant really fine tune that line till the sap is running huh? Seemed that way for me. I bet youll get a lot of sap. If thats filling that pipe and you do that dry that should really extend a good run. Just being able to get a full pipe is pretty awesome. Tom- How many taps you got now? You can keep those tools till saturday and that will be fine. Ill need them saturday but if you want to keep that one hand tool for that day that would be ok. I will probly just use the two hand for everything. I love that thing. You can use that for drops whenever as long as I dont need it that day. Thing is unreal isnt it. You guys better hang on. Weekend after this one next big run. I believe in posative thinking and im saying everyone is going to have a real good year. If you say it it will happen. Theeron

[Dave Y]

Theron,
The problem wasn't ,that the sap didn't run. The problem is that it did and I wasn't paying attention . I was too busy trying to get out the rest of my taps and didn't realize I had sap until it was to late to collect it. I probably have a 1000 gal of Ice

[Parker]

The(bigsap)rroonnn-I think 24" of mercury had something to do with how much sap you got...............

[PATheron]

Dave- Can you go collect the ice when it warms again and salvage your sap that way? Be a pain but get it and let it melt in a bulktank so you can keep it? Theeron

[Dave Y]

Theron,
I don't have anything to haul that much ice in. Besides it would be almost impossible to collect. I will have to let it melt before it comes in. I just checked the 15 day forecast. It doesn't look promising. Sure hope things get on track.

[Jim Brown]

danno; We have 500 on a 3/4 line to the releaser. The slope is REAL good around 8% and we had that bush on natural flow last year. was fine for natural but not so good for vac. The dry line will fix that.

Jim

[sweetwoodmaple]

Jim - I'll have to do the same thing if I ever tap more of the woods behind my place. I have 1" going to 300 taps, with about 600 ft of line. The next section of woods with maples (maybe 200 taps) is another 600 ft away.

I am wondering if I put in a dry line @1200 ft long, do I still need a vacuum booster?

The other 200 taps is on 3/4 line (new section this year), but It splits at the releaser.

I think total, if I ever decided to do it, I have about 1000-1200 taps available. I swore I would never do more than 500, but you all know how that goes!

[Jim Brown]

Brian; I talked to Bryan Ianson about the problem and a vac booster is the solution.
He told me how to built one myself:
1 pieces of 4"pvc 18-20 inches long
adapters down to your main line size-mine is 3/4
attach this to a 2x4(large hose type clamps work good)
go up your main line approx. half or 3/4 of the way(approx250ft in my case)
fine a tree where the main line touches and attach it to that tree.

cut main line and install a tee and tubing up into the bottom of the booster
at your releaser install another line just like it was for sap but it will be attached up your main line to the booster.I went with 3/4 black as there will not be any sap in it number one and number two it is cheaper!

The separation of 20-26inches of the two lines at the booster is more than enough to keep the sap from flowing into the dry line

Hope this helps
Jim

[sweetwoodmaple]

Jim - Thanks, that makes sense.

I know all about using 4" PVC for vacuum as that is what I used for my homemade releaser.

I was going to use 6", but $ per volume is it less expensive to go with 4".

Right now, with the 500 I have, I don't intrude too much into hunting on the 40 acres. If I go up to the 1200, it would be a major pain to hunt the woods, and I think I would "wear out my welcome" doing that.

I really do wish we would get some sap weather. I want to tap on Saturday, but am afraid the trees will still be frozen.

[tappin&sappin]

Chris - I do have a fan "near" the end of the stack. It isn't actually in it though. I could see steam getting sucked out of the end of the stack, just wasn't grabbing all of it. Probably only 25%?

I left all the sweet in my pans and have two heat lamps in the arch. Works well, the sap/almost syrup is cool, but not frozen...

Come on weather!

[Jim Brown]

Brian; If you are tapping for free or a very small fee don't what to screw up a good thing! I may want to look at your releaser at some point I will be needing another one next year home made is always better than $850!

Thanks
Jim

[jemsklein]

i know Bryan Ianson doas he have a maple trader account

[Jim Brown]

Bryan does not have trader account
May not be the same Bryan Ianson

Jim

[jemsklein]

did he make a movie called the sweetest drip

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yup. That's the same Bryan Ianson.

Bryon would never have time to post on the Trader. He has many an Iron in the fire these days.

[Sugarmaker]

Yes I talked to Brian last night on options for the draw off probe position. I had only met him once to buy the unit and he acts like he has known me for years! Nice guy and wealth of information in maple!

Chris

[PATheron]

Tom, If you get a chance to bring my tools over tonight that will be good becouse I want to make some drops up for tomarrow. Thanks Theron

[PATheron]

Guys- Someone was asking me about tapping the cull trees the other day but Ive lost track who and where it was. The cull trees I am tapping are in a young stand that by rights should be thinned. Im tapping the ones that are close to trees I know will be crop trees. The size varys but Id say they are averaging like 4-6". Therell be a real nice tree Ill leave alone say and then 2or 3 small ones right next to it and Ill hit them. Going to be firewood anyway if I cut them and I didnt want to open those crop trees up instantly so Ill get the sap from them and eventually cut them out. Going to be selective and take my time with that. Theeeron

[gmcooper]

Theron,
By trial and error I have found that thinning around future crop trees as early as possible has the greatest benefit..I'm sure there are many research projects to prove this. Have to be careful about opening up too much too quickly but those young trees can really take off given the chance. The earlier the tree is given room to grow the larger the mature crown will be.

[markcasper]

In doing some thinning a few weeks ago, i cut a few sugar maples down that were 5'' dbh. This group was thinned extensively in 1998 and they were only 1 1/2-2 inches at that time. Since 1998, I have came back and cut a few here and there-basically anything that was coming close to a crop tree. The one I cut was not a bad tree by any means, but there was a better looking one right next door. I cut a cross section and the growth rings were impressive!

You could count back the rings all the way to 1998. I measured it and it figures out that tree was growing .33 inch per year or 1 inch of growth in 3 years.

[Jim Brown]

Well we boiled off the sap we had collected on Monday(after we broke the ice off the top of the tank) made 3 gallons of dark. Tanks are empty but the rig still is full. Going tomorrow and start the vac pumps before noon and then see what we get.Started them today but the sun was just not warm enought to make things happen. Looking for better days!


Jim

[Dave Y]

Today was a nice day to be outside . I finished tapping today the sap was running on the south side of the trees. I think when we do get real sap weather it will really run. We can only hope. Tap count is 1765. 1089 on tubing and 676 buckets. looks like we are going to have fun.

[VtSugarhouse]

I tapped a few today myself, but the high for the day was 24 and no trees were running even in the sun. Usually though we can do about 400-500 a day per team. With 4 feet of snow under us we managed about 300 in 5 hours per team. Very hard to get through the woods.
This is the latest we have tapped in 3-4 years and with the weather forcast I dont think we will be having any runs for a week or so.
It doesnt hurt to tap them now anyhow and when the weather does turn I shall be ready.

Good Luck to all

[Sugarmaker]

DaveY and Jim B,
I had the same feeling today, it looked like it could run but just did not get that warm. Sunday or Monday may be the sap days this week.
Dave, Chuck stopped and I got him set up with some buckets, Nice young man. I think he has the syrup bug from when he was a kid and hanging around you too. He is going to be able to boil 10 + GPH on his evaporator and should put in some quality boiling time. Hopefully we hear from him on the trader too!

Jim Brown, Get that Vacuum fired up! And the hand on the R.O. switch.

Went to NWPA Beekeeper meeting today. We are growing with 90 member to date. Good meeting about natural ways to treat for mites and getting bees that are "designed" to clean mites from themselves. All in all the talk was that the bees and technology are out there just need to make it happen. Some of the same thoughts as in Maple.

Regards,
Chris

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yes, a beautiful day. Sap was running a little.

Got the rest of my woods tubed today. Looks like 475 to 500 taps. I'll know more when I start drilling holes. I had to do so many repairs to the old lines that I lost count of how many new drop lines I made up.

Also got my releaser hooked up. Two more repairs on the vacuum dry line to the sugarhouse, and I'm ready!

I'll tap tomorrow afternoon after church, and Monday evening. Hope to have them all in early this week. Probably won't salvage the run, but will be ready for the next one.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

nice sunny day 28 degrees. got all my tubing finished today ,got the homemade releaser hooked up. maybe tap tomorrow or monday then work on saggs in the mainline. 150 on vac. 50 on roadside buckets

[Dave Y]

Chis,
I am glad you were able to help Chuck with the buckets. I think he has more to tap than he is plans to tap. So i think he will be growing in the future. Could you PM me the info about the NWPA bee association. I have a friend that is going in to his 3rd season with bees and could use an association for info and support.

[Dennis H.]

With the little warm up today and all the sun shine I had a little sap flowing, Monday should be better. The temps for Monday are to be in the 40's and sunny again.
I put in the rest of the taps for my small op here, it makes it 30, I think?:rolleyes:
I do have to say that this year it sure seems like it is staying colder alot longer than the last several years.

[tapper]

I put up another 90 buckets today. SW wind and 30 degrees in the sun when I started and the trees were dripping. If it gets warm enough tomorrow I may have enough to boil again.

[PA mapler]

I put up ten buckets around the sugar shack yesterday, but only one was dripping at all. That was the one sugar maple, all the rest were reds, and no moisture at all from them.

Even though the 15-day forecast looks dismal, I'll tap on the hill as many as I can get off 4 batteries. My new Canadian bit drills like a dream, so I might be pleasantly surprised how many I get done today. I was hoping it would warm up more today, and maybe run while I was tapping, but it's 11:00 am, cloudy, and 28 out right now.

[Sugarmaker]

Weather does not look good for sap this week. I may make a loop and empty all the ice. If you can believe any portion of the long range 2 week forcast the weather is showing cold:(

Canned 8.5 gallons of nice medium syrup yesterday. Thawing the pipes in the sugarhouse now since I thought it was going to be warmer today!

Chris

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yes, I think someone decided to turn off the maple weather for today.

I'm still going out to tap today. Can't wait any longer or it will be April!!!

[pennslytucky]

was supposed to thaw out today and i expected a decent overnight run with sap running most of the day tomorrow... guess not. if we even thaw out tomorrow before freezing solid again ill be surprised.

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

it is running good here today.....yehaw......

[PA mapler]

I got 210 tapped today, and was TOTALLY impressed with that new drill bit. I only used 1 full battery, and part of a second. I gave the other two batteries with me a free ride all over the hillside.

The sun came out this afternoon, and a few trees on the hill in sunny spots showed a little seepage as I tapped. The buckets around the sugar shack had nothing, since it doesn't get much sun.

Looks like I'll be boiling into April again. . . .

[pennslytucky]

weather man changed his mind again. down to 25 tonight and only up to 34 tomorrow... then teens and single digits for a week http://emoticons4u.com/cartoon/1221.gif

[Sugarmaster]

Update on tapping in Northcentral Pa Tioga county.
Got all but 16000 taps done. We should finish up by next weekend. Things going alittle slow this year not much help and the help I do have is new. But they are learning and getting faster as they learn. This morning things started to run. 5 out of the 7 new pumps up and running once I got the ice chunks out. Probably be boiling tomorrow.

[Dave Y]

If everything I had in my buckets was liquid I would be boiling also. However thing don't look good for a week or two. So we wait!

[Sugarmaker]

Sugarmaster,
WOW just cant get over that quantity of taps. All in what you get used to I guess! Yea only 16,000 left. Right! All down hill from here. WHEW I get tired thinking about it! That might take some of the fun out of it, at least for me.

Good luck with your season:)

I just ran around and dumped the ice from the containers tonight.

Chris

[Dennis H.]

Well I did get a small run yesterday and this morning, I now have around 11 gals of sap in my tank. I think I will fire up the evap to semi-concentrate it.

Down here they are now saying by the weekend the temps will be back up in the 40's and most of next week looks good. It just sucks when we get a good freeze here. Since I am on the north side of a ridge it takes a day or two to get things flowing again.

[Maplewalnut]

Trees are running inconsistently based on a warm day here and there but the extended outlook looks terrible. To make matters worse I estimated I have about 300 gallons of frozen bucket blocks. If we get a quick thaw in this part of the state where the taps run like gangbusters before the blocks are processed , I'm in big trouble!

Collected frozen buckets with snowmobile and a rigged up cart with two (new) garbage cans tied on. You should have seen that action coming through the woods!

Darn, I have to get tubing!

[Sugarmaker]

Tubing, yes, then you would have bigger frozen blocks!:)
Chris

[Jim Brown]

Guys; I posted this on the vacuum section but I'm still looking for some help. I have a DeLaval 73 with a 3/4 hp motor that just does not seem to pull as much vac as I think it should even with a dry line 300 feet into the bush.(when lines are frozen18-20inches-when not frozen10 inches) we have walked the line and checked for leaks and found none) We are going to try more rpm's at the pump but I was wondering if a surge sp-11 or a surge BB model would be better?
I have a lead on a couple of thoses.just looking for some direction
Thanks
Jim

[dhbiker1]

Are those vacuum numbers what you are reading at the pump? What kind of vacuum regulator are you using. Also what are you running for rpms? Releaser leaking?
I have a DeLaval 74 that is probably similar. 650 rpms is 9cfm. Maybe you need new vanes, which I don't think they make for these anymore. I did talk to a dairy equipment place that said if you have the ceramic vanes then it is possible to take vanes from a bigger model and cut them to fit your application. Good luck!

[gmcooper]

Jim,

my thought on your 73 is that the vanes are probably worn thus it will not pull anymore. Not sure they make parts but I think some modify the vanes from a 74 or 76 to fit. An SP-11 will get you more inches as several on here run them at 20" ok. Problem with them is they are low cfm maybe 8? Any type of leak will kill you with them especially with 1000 taps..Check out www.harrissugarbush.com Art sells the liquid ring pumps I bought, Theron and Sugarmaster I think. Royalmaple is now making some as well i think. They will get you way up on vacuum. Those old dairy pumps were only made to run 14-15" and from 18" and over they are usually smoking as many here have posted.

Just a thought try running a cup or 2 of diesel fuel thru that model 73. Turn it over by hand and let it slosh around before turning pump on. We had an old pump here that had some crud build up in the vane slots and kept one from making good contact.

Sorry I'm not more help.
Mark

[Dennis H.]

Got out and collected sap this evening I will boil it down tomorrow. I now have enough for about 3 hrs of boiling.

What I am finding though is that my drop lines into buckets are just not running that greator not at all. Now the ones that are taps into milk jugs, boy they are running, just under a gal/day.

I don't know what is causing the difference between the two. So I am saving more milk jugs and may replace some of the drop lines to milk jugs. I also found that I can collect quicker and end up with cleaner sap using the milk jugs.

Just took notice this was my 100th post.:cool:

[gmcooper]

JIm,
Just noticed that you only have 400 on vac not 1000. SP-11 might very well work for you.
Mark

[andyp]

Well I think we are finally done tapping. Switched everything to tubing except for a few individual trees. Don't know how many taps we have,I lost track about a week ago. I'll just have to walk through one day and count them. It sure will make it a lot nicer gathering, won't have to walk to each individual tree especially on the steep hillside. Built a new sap hauler to tow behind the 250 polaris. Getting ready for the big run.LOL We made about 6 gallon of fancy so far.

Andyp

[Sugarmaker]

AndyP,
Like most of us you are ready and waiting. Great that you made some fancy right away. Now that you have all the taps on tubing you will be looking for that bigger rig next year to boil faster??

I hope we can make some light syrup on the next run. Not sure why but the sap looked a little green rather than clear when boiling on our first run.

No Steel head fishing right now, too cold up here. Do you ever stay at the Green Roof Inn in Platea? They are the Steel head nuts in the area. Nice place to stay for a day or two and only 5 minutes from me.

Chris

[andyp]

Chris
Are you sure you only tapped maple trees? They all look pretty much alike when they don't have leaves.LOL

[Jim Brown]

Hey Guys thanks for all the input on the '73' I will give her a shot of kero this weekend. I ran kero through the thing whenI first got it (was really dirty) and then completely cleaned out the oil res. I put new oil in and I can make it pull 20+ inches by closing the valve we have between the pump and the releaser. We can get 20 inches on the guage at the releaser. when things are not running sap. When running sap only maybe 10-11 inches at the releaser.Longest run of 3/4 is maybe 550-600 feet with three side mains of 3/4 running off of that each maybe 200 feet.We installed a dry line 300 feet up the main thinking the line was full of sap and no room for vac.Still the same
I will try cleaning pump again and will increase the RPM of the pump with a bigger pulley on the motor.
Thanks to all who took the time to reply!!
Jim

[andyp]

Chris
Are you sure you only tapped maple trees? They all look pretty much alike when they don't have leaves.LOL

No I never stayed at Green Roof Inn, but that sounds like a good idea.I will have to try that sometime. Its always been up and back the same day.

Andyp

[Sugarmaker]

AndyP,
Well there might be a hickory in the mix somewhere? You think I might not be able to tell the difference? Right?:) Well I am getting better. I stopped tapping electric poles years ago.

Funny you should mention that. I tapped one night when it was almost dark. OK it was dark. I had a headlamp on. There I said it! Anyway I was dumping ice the other day and I pulled up by a end tree and looked up and there was a 4 foot gaping hole in the tree about 10 inches above the tap. I felt kind off foolish but its going to stay there for the season.:)


Chris

[sweetwoodmaple]

Jim - I have a 75 that was just rebuilt, but not put back together yet.

It needs a 1.5 or 2 hp motor and two new belts. It should pull 15 cfm, which should overcome issues with small leaks.

The 73 only pulls 6 cfm's.

Send me a PM if you are in a pinch and need it.

Also, I have a working lab pump (oil flood metal vanes) that pulls 6 cfm with a 3/4 hp motor if you want to take it and put in parallel. I used this pump last year.

[markcasper]

Chris, don't feel bad. The other day I was fixing tubing and came across a big down tree top that took out 3 laterals next to an end of mainline. It was by the line fence, next to a neighbors that had their woods overcut by logging 2 years ago. I seen a large tree on their side about 50 ft. from where the top was and noticed its top was missing. I wondered how that top landed in my area considering it was leaning to the south and I was to the north.

After cutting the top and repairing the 3 lines, I proceeded up the hill further and only then noticed that the top came from my tree right above the end of main tree. And that was a one tap tree that I just fixed and even put in a new drop-line for. Boy how stupid am I????

[Sugarmaker]

Mark,
No, we call that "FOCUSED" in the business:)

Regards,
Chris

[emericksmaple]

Another update. Things are semi slow down here at the moment. Boiled Sun and Mon and that brings our total up to 220 gal made. As far as we know we have the most syrup made in the county. Some guys up around meyersdale have boiled once or twice but that is it. Looks like thing will start up again sat or sun for us and go 3-4 days next week till next cold snap.

[Sugarmaker]

Matt,
Sounds like you may have made the most in the state so far?
Nice job!

My nephew Aaron is building / repairing track in Alabama I think? Loves that railroad work!

Chris

[emericksmaple]

Good to hear that he likes it. Looks like maybe tom but defentity Sun, Mon and Tues will will be busy. Happy sugarin to all!!!

[PATheron]

Emericksmaple- Nice job on the syrup so far. Im hoping to pick up the pace on the releaser dumps monday. Dont think I can match your once every 25 sec but ill do my best. Do you guys have pretty nice trees down there? Are the bulk of your taps large mature trees or is there a mix of smaller trees too? Anyway darn good job on the syrup so far. Ive got two barrels almost full and im hoping I might make quite a lot this week Ill have to see what happens but the temps look real good. Im pretty excited to see how it runs monday. The other day when it ran so good I was dealing with all kinds of different issues but now I think I have everything very operational and should be much less stressfull so hopefully ill just be able to enjoy watching it run for a while and then get to boiling. I love watching that sap coming into that releaser. Thats just amazing. Good luck to everyone, looks like real nice weather everywhere from here to Maine. Theeron

[Jim Brown]

Nice weather is NOT what we are having here. Temp this morning was 25 but during the course of the last 24 hours we have got 8-10 inches of snow and it's still snowing. Paid a guy last week$100 to plow out our northern bush looks like I'm going to have to pay him again! or we can't get to the vac pump and tanks! Waiting and spending!

Jim

[pennslytucky]

jim, where are you located? ive got a plow if ur not far...

according to the bikini-weather site, its gonna run tomorrow thru tuesday... ill believe it when i see it

[VtSugarhouse]

I just spent 10 hours with a Cat Dozer to reopen my road to the sugar house.
Four of us could only get 487 trees tapped last weekend with 4 feet of snow in the woods. It snowed 8 inches as few days ago and is snowing now with another foot predicted. To say nothing about the -23 degrees on Friday morning. Guess sugaring time isnt here as of yet, but I will tap more this weekend.

[pennslytucky]

ive never even seen 4 feet of snow. only in pictures. a friend from college had pictures of the snow at his place way up at the top of minnesota.
(ely i believe it was http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=home&formtype=address&popflag=0&latitude=&longitude=&name=&phone=&level=&cat=&address=&city=ely&state=mn&zipcode= ) the road had 12 foot walls of snow on either side. they looked like they were cut with a 500 foot tall snowblower. ( i think they actually did use some kind of snow blowing attachment to cut thru the big banks and deep snow up there) they were jumpin across it on snomobiles without regard for any traffic since they were higher than the state plow trucks travelling down the road.. very neat stuff.
i remember diggin tunnels in the big snow banks over the back side of the pond dam when i was a kid. even those banks were probably ony a few feet deep although i remember them being like they were 10..

[Jim Brown]

pennslytucky: I sent you a Pm

Jim

[Sugarmaker]

Hunkered down again, as Jim Brown says this is not sugaring weather YET! Jan Woods local sugarmaker is praying for mud. I am sure spring will come to our area soon. Maybe within the next few days. Temp is about 20 degrees and blustery with 12 inches of snow pack. Sunny.
All tubing is froze solid. All the containers are empty of ice and ready. So we wait and ride the trader while we have a spare moment.
Several more syrup orders coming in as the newspaper articles prompt folks that its fresh maple syrup time again.
I see we can sell bulk syrup in downtown Marionville this year also. Things are booming in that town.

Regards,
Chris

[Dave Y]

Chris,
Marienville is the sugar capital of forest Co! :)

[PATheron]

Guys- Make sure you guys check your buckets and tanks. Todays a sleeper, Ive got barely over 32 degrees and its running. Not great but it is dumping. I think the west wind is making it happen. I also think they are going to really start doing something tomarrow becouse I never expected them to do this till tomarrow. So they have a day head start. Theeron

[PATheron]

False alarm- Started for a little then quit. Too cold. Theron

[802maple]

The lines cleaned out, just like ours did, when they were empty so wasn't the releaser.

[Dennis H.]

We got up to 36 today and tomorrow is looking even better. I took a walk in the woods to check the jugs and buckets and they are running!
I forsee tomorrow will be the start of a good run for several days.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Well, after Theerrrron got me all excited and said thing were running, I turned on the vacuum system and started walking the lines.

Found the usual cap missing (or three), plus one tree I forgot to tap. After fixing those, 24" of vacuum at the releaser. Hot dog!

I get back to the sugarhouse and as I approach, I notice the vacuum pump was a little loud. Not good.

Go inside...sounds like someone dumped in a bucket of bolts into the pump. Major rattling.

Anyway, tore the reservoir off and saw the problem. The first stage high flow bypass reed valve came loose and was floating around in the oil reservoir making the racket. Put everything back together with new oil and voila. We're back in business. Whew.

If the weather nuts are right, 56 and sunny Monday. Might have to fill the bathtub with sap at that rate!

Good luck all.

[PATheron]

Guys- Monday is the mother load. Hang on the hills are going to come unglued. BIGSAP! BIGSAP! BIGSAP! Theeron

[PA mapler]

With any luck, it almost looks like I might get my first run tomorrow! They're calling for showers, cloudy, and 55 here, so at least I'll get the lines flushed out. I'll finish tapping today and hang some more buckets, and get the evaporator put back together. Good luck everyone!

[sweetwoodmaple]

Yup, no freeze for two days and sunny.

I only have about 1250 galons of sap storage for 500 taps. Two years ago, when we had weather like this, I got almost 3 gallons per tap.

Looks like I better get that extra 425 gallon truck tank cleaned today, I may need it.

[VtSugarhouse]

It is 16 degrees out and no sun as a matter of fact the snow is lightly coming down. I dont see any sap running today. Will see if we can get more trees tapped today.

Good luck

[Jim Brown]

We guys if it is going to run today it's going to have to hurry! Temp this morning was 4 above at 6:00am. I'm going to check lines and install different vac pump in main bush today. got to be home soon wife is having birthday party for my mother-in-law she will be "95" on Tuesday. and a great lady!

Hope every one is right about tomorrow or there are going to be a lot of disappointed folks on Tuesday!(me included)


Jim

[Dave Y]

Don,t worry it will come. I just checked the hourly forecast and it will be 40 by 2pm and not freeze to night. tomorrow you will have BIGSAP!

[sweetwoodmaple]

It's almost 2 pm, and not near 40. Clouds again.

We'll see!!! :-)

[sweetwoodmaple]

At this rate, I can boil my sap on the stove.

[PA mapler]

Hurray! I actually heard 3 "plinks" in the bottom of a bucket this afternoon! 'Course, that's all I got, but hey ya gotta start somewhere. . . . . tomorrow or bust!

[Sugarmaker]

My two cents,
29 deg at 8:30.
I think it may start tommorrow but the run will be Monday night. We will see!

Chris

[tapper]

34 degrees at 10:10 pm with a southeast wind . This is the warmest its been all day but the wind is not in our favor and doesnt look like it will be till Tuesday morning just as it gets cold again.

[sweetwoodmaple]

Had about 50 gallons at around 9 pm when the temp spiked to 36 degrees. The trees didn't have much choice but to give up something at 24" of vacuum!

Was mostly scuzzy stuff, so it got dumped.

Probably going to shut the vac pump off and start again fresh in the morning.

Got the evap cleaned and fired for the first time (pan cleaner and water). Cleaned the 700 gallon overhead tank too.

Built a woodsaver this year and it worked pretty well as far as air flow. The diverter bricks need moved back a little farther to mimimize the ash coming through the front door.

Should be boiling tomorrow night. (not saying that too loud)

[PATheron]

This is a test of the emergency BIGSAP update system, this is only a test, should this have been a real BIGSAP emergency this message would have been followed by pertenant information. Weather observations, bulktank levels, vac readings, etc. Stand by your computer for further information. Brian, keep that 24 inches going. How can you have 24" and 50 degrees and no sap. Beth, stand by for many drips. Chris, maybe itll crank up like your saying with it so warm today and really run hard in the night. Gotta go back to bed and rest up. Theeron

[sweetwoodmaple]

3:00 am EST. Turned the pump back on wtih the temp @ 47 degrees. Sap was flowin in.

The season (at least for me) has begun.

[tapper]

46 degrees here and with the south wind taps are dry!

[dhbiker1]

So Theron do you ever sleep?
It is over 50 in the sun here and the releaser is dumping slowly. I've got about 60 gal so far today from vacuum. I'm starting to wish I had some sugars around here. These reds I think are just sucking up ground water and spitting it into my tubing. The hydrometer reading isn't even over zero, and it's a new hydrometer this year. started out at about 1.5 and it keeps going down. I checked what was in the flue pan entering the syrup pan to see if it would register and it was about 6. Well enough complaining for me. And also Theron, keep the pictures coming. I want to see the bigsap coming into that releaser with you sitting there and your jaw dropped. good luck!

[PA mapler]

Just got home, and the sap is running pretty good into the tank, maybe have 50 gallons, so it must have started running late. I'm TOTALLY disappointed in my new red maples, though. I have 30 taps on buckets around the shack, just two are sugars, and they have more sap combined than the 28 red maples. If this keeps up, I won't ever bother to tap another red freakin' maple. Anybody know, do reds get better as the season goes on??

Hope the temps keep up thru the night and it keeps running so I have enough to boil tomorrow! And hope you guys have more sap!

[dhbiker1]

don't hold me on it but they'll probably give the buddy sap before the sugars. Do you know what the sugar content is for your reds?

[tapper]

Beth,
I have found the red maples over the years to be very finicky. I have a few that give a lot of sap all season but way more that give next to nothing. I keep trying new reds every year with dissapointing results. Tried 3 or 4 nice size trees last season with big bushy tops and had not even a gallon of sap combined on a dozen buckets over a months time. There has never been any more than 1.5% sugar content in my reds.

[PA mapler]

Thanks, Jon, that's kinda what I'm finding. The best red of the lot was a scraggly 12" tree, which gave twice the sap as a big beauty with TWO taps. How's the sap running over your way?

I tested the bulk tank from the tubing, some reds on buckets, and one sugar on a bucket, and they were ALL 1.6-1.7%. My sap has always been low, and was one reason I didn't worry too much about introducing reds.

The sap is still running strong into the tank, so I'll definitely be boiling tomorrow. YAY!

[Dave Y]

Man I would hate to work for you guys. If i didn't produce what you thought I should in the first hour you would probably fire me. Patience! We had a south wind all day. You are lucky you got any sap at all from any tree. when the wind turns around and comes from the north or west those red will give you more sap than you can boil! By the way I brought in 550 gal tonite and my pipeline tanks are half full . I will bring that in in the morning and the start boiling

[Sugarmaker]

Just got in the house from cleaning a little scorch off the front pan.:( Still learning about the Marcland. An old sugarmaker stopped in to visit and suggested that I might need to boil deeper and move the temp probe more towards the front of the pan. I will try that tomorrow. We moved it around a little and there was a big difference in the temp like 7 degrees!

I gathered the 440 taps and got 210 gallons of 2% sap. I was rather disappointed in only 1/2 gallon per tap but got all the containers empty and ready.
I loaded the evaporator with the sweet that was setting around the sugarhouse mostly frozen in buckets. Dumped off just the sweet and pitched the ice. We made 2+ gallon of really nice light syrup which was the stuff from the last run. Got the evaporator good and hot and then proceeded to allow the Marcland to draw off to much syrup too fast. Or I just had a lot of syrup ready. And I added some emergency sap a little too late. A little bit of vinegar and steel scrubbing pad and some elbow grease and the pan looks good as new. Ready for tomorrow.

I think the trees may run all night since it is raining here and that might get them going. We will gather what there is and boil again Tuesday.


Regards,
Chris

[sweetwoodmaple]

Well as they say, what can go wrong...will go wrong.

Let's start with the "right"...got about 800 gallons off 450 taps and it's still going, though slow.

The bad stuff started with my wife checking the vac pump before noon. She said the sight glass looked white. Told her to shut off the pump and I would leave work. Hated to do that, but did anyway.

Got home...oil had some moisture...no big deal. Started the pump back up (mind you, it's 55 degrees and sunny and the pump had been off for 45 min).

Bad idea...my releaser does not have a check valve on the vacuum line, so all the massive sap overwhelmed the releaser and I had the pump take a big gulp of water.

Soooo....argh....4 oil changes later it still looks a little milky, but ok. Added a moisture trap (thanks Jim) to help be warned in the future of water in the line.
(of course, didn't have the fittings to install the trap, so off to the store)

Ok, so pump's back on after two hours of being off....eased the vacuum to 10" so as not to overwhelm the releaser at first.

Ok, pump starts to make some noise like a loose bolt rattling around inside. Soooo....apart comes the pump. Found out the reed valve was broke. Called to get a new one...no return call. Said screw it...I'll run without it. Pump seemed to work fine.

While fooling around getting the pump back on line, sucked in a cap up through the drip leg in the plumbing. My heart sank as the vacuum dropped off. Ok, shut the pump back off and fortunately, the cap got stuck in a pipe elbow and not in the vanes.

Ok, pump back together and running. It's now 4:30 pm. Still have to flush the evaporator and pump up 400 gallons of sap.

Start pumping sap...one of the suction lines has a decent leak. Said screw it and put it on the inlet line and let it suck some air.

6:30 pm. Finally boiling. Sap starts to foam alot. Realized I fogot defoamer, ran to the house and got it.

9:30 pm. Trying to pump last of the sap. Leak in pump line must be getting worse...was getting like 5 gpm. Said screw it, I'll leave the last 150 gallons in the tank.

11 pm. Said I quit. Still need to boil 350 gallons. Made no syrup (expected that), though I was close.

Tomorrow is another day (in like 15 minutes). Hopefully all the bugs are out!!!!!!!

[PATheron]

Beth- I think you are in a cold spot and once it really starts I think it will run good. We had a hard south wind here too. I dont think my trees were really running great but still got a lot of sap I think. I had maybe 300 gallons from last couple of days and I dont know for sure what I got becouse we started roing early. Right now I have 3 barrels pressed and full and another gallon so a 100 gals so far. The lines are running pretty good right now. I think the south wind slowed me down but with that high of vac it runs anyway. Going to bed. Have to work tomarrow but Im hoping I have tanks enough. Im pretty much going into survival mode. May have bored a couple too many holes. Brian- I know what you mean about stuff messing up, it seems like a constant worry and struggle keeping everything running at once. Hope things look better tomarrow. Theeron

[PA mapler]

Thanks guys for the words of patience! Actually, I was quite pleased with what came down the tubing, considering this was the first time the trees ran since probably January. The sugars maples on buckets gave me about a gallon each, which is great, but I was really hoping for more from the red maples. With 300 good trees, I could really make some sap. I might spy out some more areas and see if I can't add 50 more somewhere.

I have about 150 gallons in the tank this morning, and it's still drizzling in a little. The rain has changed to sleet. I have to run to town for another connection before I can fire up.

[Jim Brown]

Well yesterday was highly over rated from our standpoint. Started vac pumps at 9:ooam trees didn't start to run much until1-1:30. Then only when you had 20 inches against them. Was a cold wind in the top of the trees all day and the temp on the ground may have said 55 but it was a cold 55! Gary R. stopped by(nice to have some help!!) and we went to main bush at 6:00pm and only running 1 gallon every 7 minutes(shut the pumps off there) Took 150+ gallons 2% out. Went to small bush and trees were still running at 3 gallon every 5 minutes. Filled gen with gas and left her run.(took out 150+ gallons 2% stuff). got into bed at 10:30pm - Went back a 3:30am this morning and trees were done running(RAINING HARD) 100+ gallons in the tank will pump it out this afternoon before it freeze's in.( had to come to my day job for a while this morning got here plenty early 5:45am)Long term weather done not look good for aweek or more. Ended up with about 400 to boil off . not enough to start the RO and then leave it set for a week and a half-two weeks!

Just enough to tease!!!

still waiting for the big run!

Jim

[Maplewalnut]

Beth- I tap about 40% reds and they definitely are finickey. One thing I have noticed is that if you find a dog of a tree don't waste your time on it next year. I experimented over a 4 year period moving taps to south side, directly under a large branch etc and found no difference in the sap a red gives. If it gives you no sap this year it will give you no sap next year!

Jim- glad to hear yesterday was a dissappointment in the western part of the state also. Left work early yesterday thinking buckets would be over flowing (50 degrees), found south facing buckets maybe half full and north side looked like they just started. This was around 4pm.

See what today brings, my 300 gallons of sap ice is starting to melt.

Mike

[tappin&sappin]

Seems we all had our share of problems and disappointments. Can't say I had too many problems, other than not getting much sap. Was only going to gather last night and boil tonight. Started gathering and said "let's just wait until tomorrow".

I'm hoping the trees ran some through the night. Oh well, going to leave work early afternoon today, go home and light the fire. I've got help coming at 4:00 to gather for me while I boil. Should work out...

Chris, you'll get the hang of that auto-draw off.

Brian, I'm sure you have all the bugs worked out at this point... What more could go wrong! :)

[sweetwoodmaple]

Thanks, all. I was expecting a pan scorch too as that was about the only thing that didn't happen. I guess Chris covered that one for me. :-)

Not much sleep and I'm back to work.

My trees are in a "bowl" or valley. They don't get much wind, so maybe that's why mine were running.

They are also the famed "swamp trees" that everyone keeps talking about not producing high sugar.

Sap tested at 2%, so not bad.

One more thing on the positive, my forced air worked well. I may have gained 20 gph by my rough estimates.

Have to seal things up more as I'm still getting ash out the front!

[Russell Lampron]

Jim,

400 gallons is enough to run the RO. I have run mine with as little as 90 gallons before and won't hesitate to do it again. Did yo finish off the sweet in your evaporator? If you didn't that 100 gallons of concentrate would be about right for a good little boil to get used to the new RO before you get the BIGSAP.

Russ

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

One thing is for sure, no matter how long you do this, there is almost always going to be bugs and kinks to work out every season at the start of the season.

[PATheron]

Guys- Ive had my share of opportunities this year too but I think I have them mostly worked out now. Yesterdays run I think I made roughly 38-40 gals of syrup and filled my third barrell. Today we boiled what ran last night and got 28 gallons, so right now I have 128 gals for the year. I seem to be getting a lot of syrup for the sap but the sugar is good. 2.3% here on this run. Other thing is it comes into 4 tanks and Im apt to start the ro way before its done running so I dont know what I have really till its in a barrell. Got the pump on now and it humms along nice at 25". Yesterday I spent about 8 hrs in the woods tunking spiles in. Trying to keep the system tight. Think its pretty darn good right now. Next run looks to me to be thursday. Hope everyone makes lots of syrup. It was storming today ice and it really seemed great to have a nice dry shed to boil in. Waiting for the next BIGSAP. Theeeron

[Sugarmaster]

Just an update from Patterson Farms
Finally finished tapping on Sat 3-01-08 gathered alittle but not enough to fire up "Big Bertha" so held over about 5000 gals sap. Monday things got alittle hairey around here. Sap really started to flow. All the vaccums did what they are suppose to do. Lots and lots and lots of sap started arriving. Filled the first barrel of the season at 8:40 pm Monday night. You think you are ready for the first but then things start to go haywire. I don't care who you are or how big or small things happen even when you have been doing this along time. RO tripping breakers, more sap coming in and not having enough storage, papers blowing in the press (twice in ten minutes) You ask yourself Did this happen last year ??? Yep!! Well it's 24 hours later. Sap is still coming in , not as fast. Still boiling, still making syrup, TIRED but loving every minute. Going to take a nap tomorrow I think!!!LOL I did'nt think things would smooth out but they are and it's back to happy faces here at the sugar house. (for right now!)

[Sugarmaker]

Wo this was some intense posts. and we havent hit our big sap int he north of PA yet.
Theron you are doing great with 128 gallons made. all that work is really paying off.

Beth good luck with the season. I can tell you are anxious.

Brian,
Sounds like you have a lot of things happening and I hope it settled down a little for you.
Patterson Farms, I just can't quite imagine holding 5000 gallons! WOW.

I thinks most of us have a problem and I hope the maples run good in heaven!

Nic helped me gather today and there was not much sap. We got 150 gallons of 2% sap. The sap had so much ice that it plugged the remote pump and We had to dump into buckets then into the dumping station. Still only took us 2 hours and 25 miles to gather. The 150 gallons was enough to push through 4 gallons of nice medium syrup.

I moved the draw off probe the length of a wooden grading kit box from the draw off box. And this seemed to work real well! I did not have to add any sap the draw were more reasonable in quantity. and we DID not scorch the pan. The sap ran out just when the new fresh sap was coming in to the last compartment. We took off the 4 gallons in about 2 hours since it was partially done from yesterday.

Our new two filter strainer is working good since I soldered the crack.

Rumor has it that we may get sap run Thursday. Back to the day job tomorrow. All the water systems are drained in case it gets cold in the sugarhouse. We have freezing rain right now.

Chris

[sweetwoodmaple]

Thanks, Chris.

We are getting rain like crazy here. Almost temped to fire the pump back up, but...

I'm doing the "family friendly" boiling tonight. My wife is away and I have the kids (youngest is 17 months).

That means I drew off 10 gallons of almost finished syrup to do later, then fire every 20 minutes trying to get the 450 gallons left through the pans. I also run 2" deep when I am away from the sugarhouse for this long.

Oh well, at least it's getting done instead of sitting for another day.