Binghamville Forest 2008

[Daren]

I dont see much on the Vermont front for this year so thought I would get one going. Logged on again for the first time in a while due to this site being blocked at work now, and second for personal issues....wont comment on that one here! Anyway, I have fire bricked and set the pans on the new evap and am more excited than a rooster in a hen house. I have not completely figured out how to feed this new thing enough sap, but I have the pipes and somehow between now and when the month of march rolls around I need to have 100 new taps in. not sure how I am going to manage that one, but I will hell or high water. Anyone else tapped yet up here? I am sure our southern brothers are already ripping it! He Al....when you gonna be home so I can actually make it there. I need a diversion from time to time. Let me know.

[snox244]

we stared on the 18. only got 275 in so far. we are having to fix and add stuff as we go. good luck on the season.

[HHM-07]

Hey Daren,

Where are you located in Fletcher ? I am on Boot Hill RD in Eastfairield jus a mil eout of the village, stop by sometime. I may tap this weekend grankids are out of school next week so hope to get some help from them. there is still a lot of snow in the woods but should be a little better than last year.

What do you have for new rig? Good luck getting it going Regards Dick

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Daren,

Glad you could get things worked out and get back on here and make syrup. Sure would have been a shame if things had prevented you from sugaring this year with that new beauty you have.

[Daren]

HH- I am off school road 9/10ths of a mile from the new stop sign near the white church. Just past the Fletcher General Store and school....If you are familiar with the area my property is part of the old Sizen farm. I would like make the rounds to a few other sugarhouses this year....guess it depends on the sap flow.

Hey Brandon....you must be boiling pretty well by now down there in West VA. Going well so far this year in that new taj mahal sugarhouse you built? You must be in seventh heaven.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Daren,

Thanks and I finally got the outside of the sugarhouse finished this year with the soffit I put on it. I made soffit out of the siding boards and put 6"x12" vents every 6'. As far as syrup, I have just boiled 1,050 gallons so far. It is too cold to get much sap and not much sap weather in sight before March 1. Hope it don't go from cold to warm as season is usually over here around March 20th.

Nothing on the inside is "finished". It is great for making syrup, but hope to finish it over time and hopefully this summer, get the bedroom and bath and the kitchen at least framed up and insulated.

[Mike]

Hey Darren , Im on the middle rd in franklin....East end....Behind a big red farm house...Comming from Byrons store towards franklin its on the right side.....rd that goes up in back....you can see it from the rd......when im a steamin ill be there................any one else is welcome to stop, we always have pancake mix in the sugar house......

[Daren]

Brandon...that new place sure sounds great! Hope the weather straightens out for you as well. I'm sure it will...mother nature really does not have it out for sugarers you know.

[Daren]

Mike....Maybe Ben and I can take a road trip sometime soon. As soon as I get my act together in my own sugarhouse. I still need to put in my hood and pre-heater. I hope it is ready for install next week before the sap starts to flow.

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

am I the last one to drill holes?? I am planning on tapping the 8 and 9th of March, the weather doesn't look like much to me before then...

Andy

[VT maple maker]

Nope your not the last yet. I havent tapped yet either. I would like to but i dont want to get ahead of myself before its good to go.

[Mike]

Hey Daren! Was that you I heard on the radio flea market??? If so, What size tank are you looking for?? Is it for storage or pick up?? I may have one......

[maplecow]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone on here lives in or near the Northeast Kingdom? If so I was wondering what your thoughts are as when to start tapping? Thanks and have a great day.


Sorry I thought I was starting a new thread in the Vermont tapping section.

[oneoldsap]

I like to see a weather forecast for 3 or 4 consecutive days of 40 degerees or above weather. This usually happens a week or two after town meeting. I wish you all the best of luck!

[Daren]

Hey Mike...that was me on the flea market. I was looking for one of those cage tanks or something similar. I had a call as soon as I hung up the phone from the OKO call. I had to pay $100 but got a good cage tank. Should work fine. What did you have up there? I may need a better system for collecting the pipeline stuff as I installed some this year. Being a single person operation, I needed to speed up some collecting. I just finished up tapping today with the last of the buckets going up today. I have 97 taps on pipeline with a few more that I could add, but not sure that i have the energy right now. I have 88 buckets up as well for a total of 185 taps this year. I hope this is a good amount to keep me able to feed sap into this new evaporator. If I need to do more, I will have to put more on pipeline. I have not tapped all the trees I usually tapped in the past as I started tapping a new area in front of the house this year. There were more taps in there than I though. This summer, I will try to open it up a bit to get more sun on the trees and allow them to develop a better canopy. It looks like I have about 50 gallons collected between yesterdays warm afternoon and the warm temps overnight and through the day today. I am not sure that it is going to be quite enough to sweeten my new rig, but I have to say I am very tempted. I cant wait to fire up this thing! -D-

[Daren]

For you kingdom guys....I still submit that you can not go wrong tapping on town meeting day or there abouts. The old timers always did and it always seemed to work out for them. I have tapped at this time every year so far (a whopping 5 years now) and my taps continue to produce late into april without drying out. It does seem that 3-4 days of warm days would be better, but we have borderline temps for several days this week, and yesterdays 40's and todays high 30's seems to have worked pretty well. Still gotta wait a bit for the good run though. Almost anyday now...right?

[HHM-07]

We seem to be missing someone here where's AL wonder if he is too busy boiling??

[Daren]

If he is too busy boiling, maybe he can help me out with a pep talk for my trees! I have 194 taps total with very little to show for it so far. Hope springs eternal though....gonna go to Al's thread and see what is up.