Captain says...Full Steam Ahead

[royalmaple]

I had a small celebration meeting last night with capt. We decided it's time.

Had some good days in the woods last couple. Long ones but getting stuff done. Yesterday I got power run to my electric releaser and pump, that's working just fine. Plumbed up the new ring pump and coolant tank, and wired it up. Flipped the switch and ringo's humming right along. I had 15" and About 1/2 mile away I have a 1 1/4 dry line with a serious hole in the pipe, some manufacturing blow out in the pipe. So gotta fix that first thing today and then I'm going to try and get 500 in. Snow is really deep. Kinda makes you really waaaaaaaant it. Fun lugging all the essentials in waist deep snow +. I feel like I am trying to roll a mechanics tool chest set with me in the woods.

See what happens, I'm optomistic about these next couple of days but more than likely it will be a little bit before we get some decent weather. only have a small window of time today to catch anything, but it was -3 this morning when I got up and the sun has got its work cut out for it to make it happen today. But bright sunshine, and those ladies do like to get into bikini's when the suns out.

Pretty much everything here at the sugarhouse is all set, or as all set as I get stuff. RamOna keeps yelling for sap, so got to shut her up and send her some sap soon enough. Willys just sitting around patiently waiting. Got some of his cloths off, but we can get him back together pretty quickly.


I'll have to take some pictures. Set up looks very nice. Now lets see some payback. Got tons of more tubing to string up once I get these tapped and keep adding as I go. Hopefully the snow pack goes down and makes that job easier.

It would be nice if my snowmachine wasn't bunged up. poor design in the air intake and we had that heavy rain couple weeks ago, well rain kept flowing in the air intake, right down into the carb...you can finish the rest. Filled up the carb and some extent the cylindars and is frozen solid. I got the carb off and dried out but still waiting on those cylindars. It would be nice to take a rip in the woods with all this garbage instead of being a human barge. Just a little test to see how bad I want it I guess.


Big sap, big sap, come on big sap....no whammies

[TapME]

And their off.....................................coming up to the first turn.........

go get um.

[VtSugarhouse]

Matt,
I was just looking at your posted pics. Nice new sugarhouse, and it looks like a nice set up.
Your bush looks like it is on relatively flat ground is that so?
I have 5 above zero this morning and am heading to woods to tap more trees.
With 4 feet of snow this year it is very hard to get from tree to tree.
I am not quite ready as of yet but I will be ready when the trees are.

Lee

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Matt,

I have to give it to you and Theron, you truly believe in PMA

(positive mental attitude).

2 Thumbs up!!!!

[royalmaple]

I'm beat, dead tired. I went so hard today, I skipped lunch and the water I brought with me was broken in the bag and all leaked out. I was so thirsty at the end of the day, I was tapping and some trees were still running pretty decent so I had my mouth under the spout to catch some drips. I should have packed a lunch. Snow machine came out of it today. Freed up the shaft, and took out the plugs and blew the water and crap right out of the cyclinders. Then put the plugs back in and vrooom, started right up. What a difference not walking in and out over a mile strapped down with enough garbage for two pack mules.


I started out with snow shoes, but it was still miserable, tripped and fell too many times trying to get through some thick stuff, so I said heck with it, took them off and sunk where I sunk. Sometimes I was on the crust about little over boots, that wasn't bad at all, then next step up over my belt, and then it was like that for like 50 feet. Pretty hard going for sure. It was much faster but a lot wetter. I can't believe how much snow is down there. Hopefully that will give good pay back with sap. It was very cold this morning, but the sun really kicked in. By noon it was only few degrees above freezing but warmed the trees up. Pretty much anything I drill was at least wet, some were dripping. Trees on the edge of the field were running pretty good actually.

My mainlines were frozen so I didn't get much vacuum transfer up into the top of the bush where most of the taps were. Plus I couldn't understand why I wasn't getting much vacuum when I got close to the last booster. BINGO, how about opening the valve? Kevin and I turned it off when we were washing tubing and never opened it back up. Sap was racing down the dry line but by dark that froze up and there was no vacuum coming up. Pump was just humming at 20. I can hear some serious air in the line going to the pump, so I know I have a big leak somewhere. I bet there is a cut in the line on that new section of wet/dry I ran. Sounds like a whole mainline is off.

Pick up where I left off tomrrow. Suppose to be sunny and bit warmer, hopefully get the rest of the taps in, I have about 150 more then it's time to run more tubing. That is going to be a chore.

[royalmaple]

Vtsugarhouse-

Yes that is pretty flat land in there, have to make pitch in most spots. The area with the high concentration of maples is pretty low wet area, but there is a slight pitch to the land, I follow that with my mainline. Beyond that spot it does drop off pretty decent, I can get 2-3% grade consistantly to my releaser just about 1/2 mile away. There's dips and high spots to deal with, so I have to keep the pipe consistant regardless of the terrain. In spots the mainline is 12-15 feet overhead, then it's almost touching the ground in spots.

There's no shortage of maples in there. Thousands and thousands. Just need to go get them.

[TapME]

Glad you made it back, get the captain and have a talk with him and rest for tomorrow. First run for you should be Tuesday. I'm still looking at the first week in March.

[gmcooper]

Too many projects going on but I did get back in the woods this afternoon. Holy crap the snow is deep. As Matt said few steps on top then up to your waist. I had to pick a mainline out of the snow that I usually can just step over if i push down on the line. No problem today. More repairs than I planned on. Some limbs down and some squirrel chews. Several places laterals were burried. Had hoped to start tapping tomorrow but not looking good.

Good news more snow coming Tuesday. maybe 8-12" I don't know the total snow fall for the season here but we have to be running well above average. If not for 3 sizable rains here this winter we would be tapping in crowns this spring.

Mark

[TapME]

Mack, the Lewiston area is up to 120+" of snow this year. I think that most is still on the ground or it seems like it is.

[Revi]

We were out fixing up the lines this weekend. We had to dig the mainlines out in about 10 places. Fortunately it was nice and sunny. We still have a bunch of fix ups to do this week, but I am planning on tapping next weekend. Now let's see if Mother Nature cooperates...

Nice to have the sun back. Our solar hot water was up over 112 degrees. That's the hottest it's been since last fall. It may not be above freezing, but the sun is working again.

We tapped a few and they were running some yesterday and today.

Season 2008 is beginning!

[royalmaple]

Mark your kidding 8-12 more, I haven't watched the weater much last few days. I'm running out of body. I'll be up to my neck. I like near the brook where it is all thawed out, and 4' banks on each side. Gotta do a hail mary across the brook, which is fun when you are hauling a small barge of crap-o-la with you. I did get my carpenters pouch so I had a place to put my hammer and reducer fittings. I was in such a hurry I forgot early yesterday.

It will be funny going in to pull taps. I'll need a man lift to get to some of them.

I'll take what they throw at me. Gotta hit it hard today. Get that all tapped.

I found a couple of drops that had some weird nicks in them. It wasn't like normal squirrels crewing out chunks, and didn't seem like deer where they are normally mashed. It was like someone took a razor blade and did a light slice, but left the piece of tubing, not all the way through, just on the edges. Like the drop was prickley. Weird. Oh I know, it was sasquatch. That's what those tracks were.

[gmcooper]

Caught a bit of weather update. for what it is worth (not much) looks like 3-6" nearer the coast 5-10 inland and 10+ mountains. Coastline will get some rain. Yahoo another layer of thin crust would be perfect.
I hear you on the brooks and streams. I have a couple sections of mainline that follow small streams. I have been walking in the water (1-3") vs plowing thru 3' snow when I can.

[royalmaple]

Had a few opportunities as theron and I like to call them. Or blunders.

Pump on the electric releaser was frozen solid, even though I had the drain plug open, I think it froze up before I got the plug out last night. Messed around with that. then left it to go tap. Had to leave the vacuum off since there was no way to get the sap out of the releaser if it did fill up.

Went home and got some hot water and ran it through the pump and thawed it out. THen put the piping back together and manually hit the switch on the releaser, pump turned on then kept kicking out. Called tech support on the pump and on and on, finally I took the back plate off the motor and low and behold, a pump wired for 230v likes to have the switch internally set for 230v. It was on 115v and kept tripping out. Fixed that, and bingo, worked fine. Ran back up the hill to start tapping, got the vacuum on and went for it. Felt the releaser was 100%.

It was 330 now and finished tapping what I had lines to, I'd say about 550 now. Some were really dripping pretty good. Wasn't long and the sun went over the hill and skreeeeeeeching hault to the sap. Vacuum shut right off with the lines frozen solid.

Tried going with snow shoes, took alot longer but all in all I'd say it was worth it. Bought a new pair from Cabelas this morning, paid for overnite so should have them in the morning to give them a run. Snow shoes were definately worth wearing. I took them off and tried walking around and it was miserable. I guess I'll take a slower pace and not be soaked.

Looked in the 1550 gallon tank and there might be 75 gallons in there. so I guess were in the serious sap business now. Needless to say I left the sap there.

Brandon, I like the PMA. Gotta have it. It really does make a difference.

[TapME]

royalmaple, glade that you have a pma, it can your day go a lot easier. I think it may be another 2 weeks before any good sap weather is here. Was warm 42 but not much happening. March 11 is BIGSAP TUESDAY.

[Russell Lampron]

March 17th St Patricks Day. Killians Irish Red Boiling Sodas and fresh hot syrup out of the canner! BIGSAP Monday Loudon NH style.

Russ

[TapME]

Russ, not to change the subject but I heard that the racetrack sale was off? You heard anything.. Boiling green sodas sounds interesting.

[Revi]

We had a few drops in the buckets we put out on Saturday. It's perfect weather today, but I have a feeling it will be the time to tap next week.

It's supposed to turn colder now and be that way until Saturday.


9 inches of snow will be interesting. We'll have to unbury the mainlines again!

Here's a youtube video of a couple of years ago when we had no snow at tapping time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISbkO-NKA9o

[TapME]

My test tree dribbled a little today, but nothing to take home. Great day for making hot water today Revi.

[Revi]

No hot water today, with the clouds, and I'm pretty sure my indicator buckets won't have anything in them. It doesn't look like this week will be the beginning of the season. Maybe next week.

[gmcooper]

Plumbed the vacuum pump to the releaser today. Finally something went as simple as it should have.
On a less than positive note the snow we are getting is going to bury more mainline again. And a good guess is more than what I just dug out yesterday.

For a PMA thought of the day "There were no mosquitos yesterday or today and tomorrow looks good too!"
Mark

[royalmaple]

I went down and tried out my new snow shoes today. Ordered a set from cabelas, had them overnighted so I could use them sooner rather than later.

They work great, much easier in the snow and lightweight. All I wanted to do was keep walking around in the woods.

Got the pump on the releaser thawed out, that is a pain in the balls.

Then started up the vacuum pump. Had 22" everywhere, still have a couple small leaks to deal with. But closing the gap for sure. It was barely warm enough for anything to happen but the trees were wet. Mainlines still had ice in them so I was really pushing it to get any sap. Afterall it was only 33 degrees here.

Glad it wasn't running too hard, my line going from the releaser pump to the tank was frozen solid. I forgot to add a T and a valve to drain the vertical column of sap that remains above the check valve and also allow the pipe to drain at the end of the night. without it causes the whole pipe to remain full and not fully drain. Now I got the valve in there and she'll be fine.

Eye'd up the next mainline location. Should be another 250-300 in there easy, probably closer to 300. Then off to the next spot.

Mark-

Also no ticks either, even better than no mosquitos!!

[TapME]

Matt, weather outlook shows 3 good days next week for you. Are you ready?
Mark, are you?

[royalmaple]

I must be ready, I have fresh jug of captain waiting. Either that or lots more work to do.

550+- in now, few blunders to fix. Then adding more. Still got pleanty of tubing here to put out. Tubing in the sugarhouse won't make any sap.

[Revi]

We stomped out the paths to the buckets yesterday. Lots of nice fresh snow on top of the 3 feet of old stuff. And it sounds like more coming!

We got our pan soldered. I guess the part where the pipes come out is typically soldered. The rest is stainless steel.

We are almost ready, except for the fact that the mainlines are probably buried again. They were about a foot under the snow the first time, and another foot has fallen, so I think we'll have to dig again...

We plan on doing some tapping on Saturday. What do you think, is it too early? What's the forecast for next week?

[gmcooper]

Matt,
Better get the "Capt'n" a pair of snow shoes! More snow coming!

Revi,
I may start tapping this afternoon. It is time for us regardless of the weather. It will take some extra time getting around the woods this year tapping.
The current forcast calls for a couple marginal days for sap next week. All subject to change in next 15 minutes! Maybe 10 below tonight! No mosquitos tomorrow!

[royalmaple]

Mark-
I'll have a flask on me just in case.

Those new snow shoes work great, now I don't mind the snow, as much. Snowed here almost all day. I think we have pretty much enough at this point. It's be a long time since I remember this much snow. Especially down here in the tropics, compared to where I'm from.

Might cut loose a little next week, pump will be running. And I'll be adding more taps. Gonna put in some long days this weekend getting some infrastructure ready. Then I'll add the next mainline and some latterals.

I've got maybe 100 or so gallons in the tank down in the woods. It's not going anywhere. Could have had more yesterday but missed the window. Had to frig around and change out the pump on the releaser.

[TapME]

Revi, I am still looking at the end of next week. Might miss a run but that's OK.
Just saw the snow pack map and we are right on the edge of the huge pack. The snow is so deep that I can't see the rear tires on the ford 8n. Running out of place to snow blow and their is a lot of space here.
Royalmaple, it's coming to your store soon, all the sap you want.

This season is a lot like last year isn't it? Lots of snow and cold hanging on.

[gmcooper]

We only had a few flurries here today but I did see on the weather that Matt you got a very special dumping of snow. Funny just a small band from OOB to Baldwin. I did get started tapping this afternoon with that new Canadian bit from Bascoms. Wow does that bit drill a hole. Clean and in 2 seconds with no effort. I have bought other tapping bits before but none drilled quite this good. I only did about 50 before I got a call from my dad that his trailer brakes were not working. He is leaving for Florida with his 5th wheel for a few weeks in the morning.

Started using the new spout extensions from Leader today. They do seem to slow things down a bit. The fit seemed ok but I will know for sure with vacuum on later.
Came to realize that my 425 gallon pick up tank is buried under a glacier! Kind of fogot about it as it has been buried for a while now. Looks like lots of shoveling. Amazing but I had to pull more mainline out of snow again today. There are places usually I duck under the mainline but now I have to be careful not to trip over it.

Maybe 10 below for morning.

Mark

[royalmaple]

It was -15 this morning at 7am, without wind chill.

And yet another 6-10 inches of snow starting tonight.

I'm planning on sugaring till about August 10th this year. Snow should be about all melted by then.

[VtSugarhouse]

I had a -23 this am with the same prediction on snow coming. You gotta luv sugaring this year..

[mountainvan]

Only -2 here in the catskills. Another foot of snow tonight.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

balmy +12 and snowing here this morning. maybe +34 this afternoon

GMCOOPER keep us posted on the extensions thinking about them for next year

RICH

[gmcooper]

Matt, If we ream the holes mid season (about late June eh?) and put new adapters on the same time I think we can catch the fall run without even stopping!
For some reason we only dropped to -10 this morning. We are in a very cold spot here and would normally been lower than that considering what other areas got down too. Must have been global warming! Or the emmissions from my dads outdoor wood boiler!

[TapME]

Looked at my records last year and we didn't tap until March 8th. Looks to be the same this year. Making tubing drops to go to buckets in the evening, we have 20 triples, 2 quads, and 10 doubles to add to the taps we had last year. It will make things interesting.

[royalmaple]

Mark-

You got some serious global warming over there. Maybe my outdoor wood boiler has not been effecting the area as much and that is the reason I didn't have as much global warming over here.

Can't wait, we got more snow on the way. Got a bunch of wood cut up for the boiler.

Gonna hit it hard in the woods this weekend, getting ready for big sap March. Should be a full month of big sap days. I can feel it. Hopefully get alot of loose ends done around the sugarhouse and then stinging up more tubing. Dawn till dark. I'll be like the energiser bunny, or more like a teenager pounding fur.

[Russell Lampron]

Captain,

You should be getting some of that global warming from my wood furnace. I know I have been throwing a lot of wood into it lately. The neighbors don't complain about the smoke though. I would shut off the valves to their house if they did!

Russ

[Revi]

We are going to fix up a lot of our tubing and tap today. It's snowing like mad and it sounds like more on the way, but the sap will start flowing if it warms up like they say it will next week.

We are almost ready....

[TapME]

Russell, can you send some of that warming to me?

[Revi]

We'll probably tap next weekend. Just digging the tubing out of the snow and fixing up all sorts of things took all day. It's not supposed to start warming up until Wednesday, anyway. I think it will be the perfect time to tap. The snow must be 4 feet deep in places up there. We stomped down around the mainlines, but it still touches the snow in places.

[royalmaple]

Snow's not any better down here. I'll try to not be negative nancy, but man is it difficult in the woods. I hope this will translate into a great season. This week should be good, hope to catch several runs. I was planning on adding a bunch of taps but honestly might have to wait till this snow gets knocked down some. Everything is 10x harder. All the more reason to have this crap done in the fall, but not much you can do now about that. Grin and bear it.

Think i've solved the problem at the releaser, enclosed the entire releaser and transfer pump in 1" insulation board and have a light bulb running inside. Should keep the edge off the freezing problem. Fingers are crossed.

No coca cola here at the house, so I'm SOL on a much needed adult beverage. Dasani lemon water is not cutting it.

[gmcooper]

Finally got out tapping again today. Not fun at all! More mainline under snow. A couple hundred feet will have to be shoveled out. I finally gave in at noon and grabbed dads snowshoes out of his basement. They used to be my grandfathers. I bet they haven't been used in 40 years. I've been on snowshoes once in my life and that was 35 years ago+/-. The snow shoes did the trick and I only fell once. Tapped about 200 which is not many for what I usually do in a day. Those Leader adapters take time to put on for sure. I could go right along on the new tubing but slowed way down with the adapters. More limbs down and more tubing repairs coming up. Only saw a couple taps drip and a few were wet. It was cold here this am.

I still have a lot of stuff to get done here before making a drop of syrup. Back in late Jan thought I was way ahead of the game and going to be ready and waiting for Bigsap!

For fun this am after loading up hay for a customer I went to repair electric fence on snowmobile. No problem getting around as snow is over most of the single strand wire we use. Some of the 4' pagewire was nearly under snow. Good thing the snow is too deep for the cows to bother walking out thru or they would be long gone.
Mark

[Revi]

Well we are going to have some freezing rain, so I tapped a few of the trees yesterday. It was a really nice day, but none of the trees I tapped were running yet. I think that they will get going next week.

We're going to try to tap everything this weekend.

[royalmaple]

I found a couple more vacuum leaks yesterday.

I have found that my lapierre strap manifolds are leaking, just very faint leaks but none the less leaking. If you twist the top where it swivels you can hear it increase or decrease. Not sure what's going on. Never really noticed it, but maybe it was because of lower vacuum and less cfms.

Still a pain in the balls.

ran wire and fixed a section of dry line about 800 feet long yesterday and checked some taps. Most all trees were frozen still. Just about everything had a chunk of ice in the tap hole. Some of the sunnier and smaller trees were giving up a little sap. Got about 100 gallons yesterday down there. Ran the pump all night, maybe the 1550 gallon tank is full?

It was 38 here at 7am, and didn't freeze up too hard last night, so take this morning sun before the rain and stuff comes in. Might run decent today till the next freeze.

come on baby, big sap, big sap no whammies.

Have to get some shipping done today so I can keep the lights on. But might have an approved break at some point to go and "Check" on things.

[maplwrks]

Matt,
The Guys Around Here That Run High Vacuum Have The Same Problems With The Lapierre Strap Manifolds. They Have Said That The First Year Is Ok But Year 2 And 3 They Develop More Leaks. What They Have Been Doing Is To Cut A Chunk Of Mainline Approx 2" Long And Slice It Lengthwise 3 Ways So As To Make 3 Shims. They Use A Small Screwdriver To Release The Straps And Slide One Of These Shims Under The Straps And Retighten. The Problem With These Manifolds Is There Is Not Enough Room On The Strap To Tighten Them Up.

[gmcooper]

Maplewrks
I noticed the same issue on some last year. It looks like they were made for heavy wall pipe 160 psi and not the 100 psi most maple people use.

Matt we were down to 28 this am. It is warming nicely now. Off to the woods!

[royalmaple]

Mike-

Thanks, I'll try that. Those straps are a pain to loosen up as well. I'll have to bring some really small screw driver to get the gripper to back off.

I'll try it. I had some wire ties on them and just didn't seem to be able get enough on them.

Well pump ran all night, but must have froze up cause no sap coming in. Figured out another blunder while I was down there, the coolant was gettting too hot and friggin up my vacuum. so I ran a section of about 200' of 3/4 and put a sump pump on the end and dropped it right in the barrel and out side the pump house in the snow and back into the barrel, in about 10 mins the pump was at 20" and I added about 10 gallons of cold water from the brook to jump start the process and pump was at 25" when I left. I was going to do this anyway. I just didn't think it was going to be that critical. But certainly is and makes a world of difference.

Lines were just starting to break free when I left and sap was coming in pretty decent. See what happens by the end of the day.

[TapME]

Well this not a maple related but, spent the last two days shoving roofs of snow. What a workout. House roof in the back 3 ft. and many crust, camp and the work shop. All had the same or more on them. The last two it makes the 3rd time this year. To say the least I'm ready for it to stop. Now back to mapling. Got more sugar wood to day, blocks for a temp arch and sand tomorrow. We will tap this weekend if......... the weather looks good for the 2 week outlook or if royalmaple has BIGSAP.

[gmcooper]

Spent most of the day tapping. What fun it is to tap in the rain with 3 feet of snow under your feet! From about 10-1 trees were running great as I tapped. A few gushed to the point the sap kind of surged out almost like the tree had a pulse. Think I did 350 plus today. Not great but better than yesterday. Found a dead pine across one main line this afternoon. Found a couple more squirrel chews as well. Thinking of going with a prechiller on all our sap this year. Going to keep the sap really cold on the way to the releaser and tank. Just going to leave the mainlines buried! LOL
More snow sleet and freezing rain tonight. Maybe some rain thrown in for good measure.

Lou, at this point in the year I would tap regardless of the extended forecast. It changes by the hour anyways.
Mark

[gmcooper]

Jeremy,

Good to see your back and tapped.
Mark

[royalmaple]

Pumps still at 25" and purrring along.

Must have had a little motivation on some of those trees, it was just over 200 gallons in the tank when I left this afternoon, and it was solid 300-350 when I went back tonight. I think it's pretty much quit in there for the night, but I'll leave the pump on.

Gave a tour to a local police officer today, she stopped and came down to see if I was broke down. Then made a wise comment on my "crack shack" as she called it. I told her it was a much less profitable business. Hey that's a nice looking pump house. Then gave a mini tour of the releaser, vacuum pump and tank.

I wish I had someone with me to shoot the video this afternoon, I dug out the 300 gallon stock tank in the woods and decided it was coming home. Looked like a fox hole when I was done. Well on snowshoes I dragged it out to the snow mobile trail. Then said, hummm, yup. Thow it on my snow machine and ride em cowboy. I had just barely enough room to stand at the handle bars, hold the handle bars with my right hand and the throttle, then wrap my left hand around the inside of the tank to hold it and me on.

What a circus, I almost had to stop and pee my pants I was laughing so hard. Not much I won't try. Got it out though. Things you do when you are alone and need to get stuff done.

On the way back in to get tools etc, I missed my normal turn around trail and then I started sideways and I knew it wasn't long before I was going to be stuck, so I jumped off. I thought I could push it up to keep it from falling sideways. Yeah! I was up to my chest in snow. Maybe if there was 6" of snow that would have worked. Not chest deep. Completely soaked and about 1 hour later I got it out. Glad I left the truck running, cause I was going to be right back.

Lou- This is all just bonus sap, or practice sap. Be tapped in for Thursday!!

[IRDSDJD]

Boiled today for first time this year almost 25 gallons syrup just finished up around 10:30 tonight. Started to collect 1:00 this afternoon not expecting to get a lot of sap when finished after dark we had collected over a 1000 gallons! Good day for first time collecting. taps have sat for 1.5 weeks with not much movement ran fairly well this morning. RO works great would never like to go back 9% going into the oilfired 2.5/8 saves alot of time.

[TapME]

welcome to the site. look forward to your posting.

[Revi]

We got the tanks cleaned out, and the evaporator. The boys were bored, since we had a snow day, so we went up to the sugarhouse and got everything ready. We stomped out the paths to the buckets too.

We're ready now!

Tomorrow is supposed to be around 40 degrees, so I'll bet we'll have a little run.

We're tapping everything this weekend.

[TapME]

Glad to see you are ready to go Revi. I will put a few in this weekend, looks to be to cold still. Keep us posted as to the amount of sap you get. Looks to be great when it starts.

The Captain must be taking on water and bailing with Ramona.

[royalmaple]

Nope, I had to work. I was lucky enough to get called into a rush rush commercial plumbing job in the old port today that had to be done by tomorrow morning for inspection. Just got home abit ago. Haven't even had time to go down and check on stuff. Maybe that tank is full. Just strapped on the feedbag, so when I'm done I'll take a ride.

Where are you located in So. Maine, IRDSDJD?

[gmcooper]

Spent part of the afternoon working on vacuum system. While tightening the 600' wet and dry lines from the releaser to the woods i gave a couple more clicks on the tightner and snapped the wire. Finally got it back up. Snow depth is making it tough as this section has a high spot of ground that the lines skim the ground beside a pine tree. There is a good distance of lines that are now setting on snow pack. grade is a little iffy but should be ok. No sign of anything running today. Should be able to finish the rest of taps on vacuum tomorrow.

[IRDSDJD]

Alfred maine I am part owner of Giles family farm we are on rt 202

[royalmaple]

Great, well keep us posted, nice to have you on here. I saw you guys up to lyles the other weekend.

Big sap today!!!

[gmcooper]

More delays today. And tomorrow isn't looking any better. Doing morning chores discovered our new herd bull had tried to jump over a gate. The gate hinges let go, gate fell, bull came down and broke his neck. Got his nose on the wrong side of the post when the gate broke and his weight must have carried him forward when he dropped.

Now on to maple stuff. Had the vacuum pump humming along nicely at 22" with the lines frozen. When the lines thawed and cleared vac dropped. Ah, I bet there is a leak or two. Found several still didn't get back up to 22" but I do know I have a couple big leaks. Went to shut down vacuum pump about 7 tonight and no vacuum on gauge. Pump was running but not circulating liquid.
Will have to figure out that one in the morning. Getting close to finishing tapping the vac. Next will be the gravity systems and dreaded buckets.
going to be ready by June for sure!

[Revi]

We're tapping all the tubing tomorrow. Not much sap yesterday, but we may get something next week. Maybe. The temps don't look too warm until after next Wednesday. Oh, well, we'll probably have a maple season some time...

[Revi]

Today is looking good!

http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/graphical/sectors/northeast.php?element=MaxT

[TapME]

I may put some taps in this weekend. Went out and broke the trails with Sap-hauler and found the snow to be very deep. On most trees we could not see the old tap holes. Started on the arch today(nothing like waiting till the last minute) wanted to build one out of angle but ended up with another block arch for this year. I'm taking pics so i can post them. We will make the metal one this summer. We should come out with about 150 taps this year. Hoping to make more than 7 gallons. We are going to run some tubing to plastic containers and was wondering if we have to hang cable to put the tubing on? Looking for a little advice on this, thanks.

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

the only time you would need cabe is if you do a mainline.. if all your tubing is 5/16 there is no need. What I have done in the past is done a normal loop or saddle at the top tree and then used 2 y's at the last to make another loop. Thenpull tight..

[IRDSDJD]

yes that was us at lyles had to pick up a few supplies for the season also splirged? on one of the new electro gen auto drawoffs our dads help us out alot so we try to make it easy for them finaly got vacum pump up and running must have shoveld 500 ft of maineline out so it would melt out and run was working on 5/16 lines got tired of shoveling them so I took them apart at fitting and pulled them out from under the snow then put them back together again

[TapME]

Thanks for the advise, using 5/16 to tubs to save on buckets that we can use on isolated trees.


Another question, How much sap do you need to start and run a 3x61/2? It's a drop flue with a 3x3 syrup pan. I know it takes 20+ gallons to fill, but how much in back storage to make syrup? This continuous flow thing is new to me, should be exciting.

[gmcooper]

We used to like a minimun of 150 gallons to fire up our 2 1/2 x 8 evaporator. I would guess it might take 250 gallons to make syrup from the first boil? Hard to say as sugar content makes a difference also. Some times it is better to fire up and boil for a couple hours than to let sap hang around.

[royalmaple]

Bright sunshine and almost 45 here today. Wind is slightly out of the west and sap is just pounding into the releaser. 1550 gallon tank in the woods is almost full for the second time today.


Huhh, wait a minute. I was day dreaming.

Not much to speak of. I had a visitor show up yesterday. Seems the governor was bored at home and going stir crazy. He's on injured reserve and light duty. We pretty much got my releaser line all up to snuff going to the tank before it really started raining this morning. Saps coming in a little, wont say running. Probably boil tomorrow. Got close to 700 gallons in the tank now. Gonna go putter around and get the sugarhouse up to snuff and ready to boil.

Jeremy, if you get too much sap you let me know. I'll buy it, or you can bring it over and run through the Ro and leave a lot of water behind. But at 5% you almost got a natural RO in the trees.

[TapME]

Worked on the smoke stack for the evap today. Made it so we can use it on the metal arch next year. Getting everything ready here for next week and tapping. Here is a picture of the stack. It is 32'' at he base and 8'' at the top and 5'' deep. The stove pipe is 9''.

[jemsklein]

looks really good

[royalmaple]

Lou-

Heck of a job. That should work just fine.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

Nice job looks good and should work

RICH

[gmcooper]

Had the vacuum running all day here. Sap was coming in but not a great day. Seal for releaser should be here monday noon. Best I can do with the bad o ring is 17-18 inches. Still have a bunch of stuff to get ready.

Weather for next week keeps changing by the hour I think. Might have a few good days. Maybe a BIGSAP day or two.
Mark

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jeremy,

Glad to see ya back at it. 450 taps and a 2x6, you can do it. We know about the 24 hour boiling marathans you do, so you will be fine.

Good luck!

[Revi]

We tapped all our tubing and a bunch of buckets yesterday. Today it got colder, but we're ready to go now. It looks like it won't be running until Wednesday at least, but we're ready for it now.

There was a flood and the highway department were down in front of the sugarhouse trying to fix it again. They need to put a bigger culvert in.

It's always an adventure.

Sugaring has started for 2008. Let the games begin!

[MaineMapleDave]

Finally got the last of the taps in, MaineMapleSamantha got her first taste of fresh sap, let the fun begin. I'm going to tap a few more lines of tubing this weekend--I just can't get to it right now.

I figure that some of the snow drifts in the woods are 3+ feet high--I'm going to need stilts to pull the taps!! Just loooove my army surplus magnesium snowshoes--light as a feather, snow doesn't stick, and when it's that horrible combination of snow, slush, mud and water, they won't get damaged like my old wooden ones.

Anybody got any pix of an easy home-made sap gathering sled to be pulled by hand? The absolute worst thing about making syrup is lugging sap on snowshoes.

[royalmaple]

Dave-

You could try getting a couple of those aqua tanks from wally world. I think they are 6 gallons, might be 7 gallons. They have a scew on lid that seals well. Then just pull them in a regular kids plastic sled. That way if they slide out or tip to the side you won't spill anything like you would if you had the sap in a 5 gallon bucket.

When you get sick of boiling from all the big runs we are going to have, let me know. I'll buy your sap.

[Revi]

I just got the exact tanks you are talking about, and am planning on hauling them in a plastic sled. Great minds think alike!

[danno]

Kids plastic sled - that's what I used when I was tapping 15-20 trees around the house on bucket - with wallyworld totes on top. Worked fine in 12" of snow or less. If it got deeper, I would just make a hard pack trail for the sled with the snowmobile.

[gmcooper]

Dave,

Check with Matt as I remember he had some skis really cheap. Use them to make runners. Build up a platform for clearance and put your sap containers on top. You could also make a frame or strap to hold the containers from tipping or sliding off. Set the skis far enough apart to give it some stability to prevent rollovers.
Mark

[royalmaple]

Dave-

Marks right, really cheap like FREE. Stop on over and I'll give them to you then make a box and couple of blocks to get the box up and lag it to the skis. No problem at all. I actually thought of that after I typed last night.

Great minds or similarly corrupt minds do think alike.

[MaineMapleDave]

I think I'll take you up on that Matt--I had meant to come meet you last season (I live about 4 miles away), but "never got to it."

I'll make contact later this week--maybe Saturday??

[IRDSDJD]

Well with all the cold weather we haven't had to collect so we finished up tapping all our buckets. So now we are working on expanding the pipeline have vacum on the line so try to get all we can. How many suger houses are going to be open on maine maple sunday the 23rd. I see a few are going to be open this weekend and also a few will be open the 22nd. We are staying with sunday the 23rd. Two years ago when it also fell on easter we didnt have as many people but we were able to talk and answer their questions about the operation.

[Revi]

I went up to the sugarhouse and checked the tank. We put the mainline tube in yesterday. It was frozen solid. Today I shook the tube and a big chunk of ice plopped out and it started pouring out like a garden hose.

It was like a flood! Then I checked the buckets and there wasn't much in them. It was probably frozen sap from Sunday or Monday in there.

Anyway we had a little bit in some of the buckets, so I suppose the season has started around here now.

If we get enough to boil this weekend that would be great. It's only Tuesday, so that's entirely possible.

[royalmaple]

Ro is just purring in the back ground. Had 900+ gallons in the tank, and started trucking tonight. Still might to get more before I call it quits. Probably boil in the morning.

Nice to be making the sap disappear and be on the computer and not have to worry about burning anything.

I'm gonna be open saturday and sunday 22nd and 23rd. See what happens.

Dave-
I'm heading over to the governors saturday to get him tapped in. Stop by anytime. If you can't make it till saturday I'll leave the skiis out by the sugarhouse and you can just pick them up.

Or stop by one night this week I'll be boiling.

[TapME]

Well the syruping is almost ready to start. Been cold here and will tap our trees this coming week. ConcreteO will be happy with the additional wood. Puts us at 2 1/2 cords. We should be able to make a quart or two. Can't wait to put those taps in the big sugar maples around town, it should be sweet. Everything is falling together pretty well.

royalmaple, have the trees let go yet?

Revi, must have caught you off guard when the sap ran full blast.

MMD, glad to have you back on the site, and lobsterfair as well.

Wish everyone more sap than they can boil.

[PATheron]

Talkin to Matt right now. He just lit the match on his 2008 season. He's got Willie running at max boil. Just gave Willie a shot of captain to celebrate. Figures he has about 875 gallons to boil. Not bad for a days run. Figures he should have it boiled in a few more minutes. Theeeron

[Revi]

If the weather gets just a little warmer we may have enough to boil this weekend. Maybe, maybe not. We have only about 10 gallons so far, but there's more on the way if the temps hold up there. Saturday looks good. Over 40, and sunny, but there's a chance of snow Friday night into Saturday morning. We'll see what happens.

Not much in the buckets today, and not much coming out of the tube either. C'est la vie.

The sun will come out tomorrow.

[gmcooper]

We are doing Maine Maple Sunday o the 23rd. We did it on Easter 2 other years and the turn out was ok down slightly but not as much as some predicted.

I should have been boiling tonight but things didn't even come close to happening. Way to many outside disasters to get anything done. Have about 300 gallons sap in tank, some is frozen. Sap was really running this afternoon but still waiting for my releaser seal to show up. Hard to pull much sap when inside the releaser looks like a gyser inside with the leak around the flapper.

Tapped about 24 buckets in Gray this afternoon. Nearly all big old lawn sugarmaples that look like they have never been tapped. They were almost squirting out. The first tree had the bottom of the bucket covered in sap in 1/2 hour. The family was really impressed at how fast sap was running. Wait till they have to start lugging 5 gallon pails thru waist deep snow!

Should have all issues resolved tomorrow.

[royalmaple]

Boiling went well. Made some super tasting medium last night, just what I wanted. No idea how it ran yesterday but the pump was on. Stayed pretty warm all afternoon till evening, once the snow cleared. I was surprised when I woke up and it was a snow storm. I was up till 4am trucking sap the other night so yesterday was like coming out of a fog all day. Got willy all spit shined up and got him ready for the big date last night. RamOna and Willy really hit it off. They had sort of a connection I guess you could say.

MORE sap MORE sap, I gotta get some more tubing up and get this operation up to full production. That is the fastest I've ever seen 875 gallons of sap disappear. Few hours of boiling and I was done, I was just getting into the swing of throwing wood. Pans are certainly SWEEET!!

Next few days look good, today seems like it is going to be cold but starting tomorrow should open up the flood gates, see if I can add a few hundred more by the end of the weekend.

[maplwrks]

You're Spoiled Now! You Won't Boil Raw Sap Again!!!

[royalmaple]

Mike-

NEVER!!! I earned my wings with the 1% sap last year right till the end.

Out of the trees it is currently 2%. Gotta concentrate higher next time. I'm not taking it to the mike level yet.

[Russell Lampron]

What level did you take it to? I am glad that you finally boiled. I thought I was going to have to send you another picture message so that you could see what boiling sap looks like again.

I am going to be pretty busy this weekend but will be on vacation the 22nd through the 30th. I know that it will be getting late by then but maybe I can come over and help with the tubing then.

Russ

[royalmaple]

Russ-

I only took it to just over 30%, figured I'd start out low then increase later on.

Kidding... It was at 10% but when I rinsed out the concentrate in the membranes it got diluted to about 7%. Gotta go higher next time. Still not big enough draws. Higher production!! Nice to zap that much sap in a small amount of time.

Started tapping more trees today. New ones were running pretty good when I drilled them. Still coming off way too cold of nights though. Just about everything that was tapped has ice in the tap hole. With a little sap weeping around.

[Revi]

Went up to check the buckets and found a little coming out of 200 trees. We have a little in the tank now, very little.

Talked to another old sugarmaker and he said that the season really starts around here the 15th of March. Only 2 days away, so it might still happen.

I'm sure that we will be getting lots of sap soon enough.

[gmcooper]

Finally got the o-ring for the releaser. Supposed to be here on Monday and showed up today at 2 pm. Shipping slip says it was not even sent until 2:56 yesterday! Got everything running this afternoon. Held 24" till all the lines thawed. Mostly stayed 21" after that. I found 3 sections 5/16 laterals that the tubing pulled off the tee. All with in 100' in the woods. I usually don't have one every 3 years let alone 3 the same day let go. They were not new but had been checked before tapping and I have been through one other day checking for leaks.

Sap did finally start to run in the sun this afternoon. The 24 taps in Gray ran quite well today.They gathered 30+ gallons from them and it barely made it to 33 degrees today.

Matt maybe you should trade in Ramona! Get her big sister maybe? I'll help you out I'd give more than the scrap dealers! LOL

Mark

[royalmaple]

Mark-

Your made from the good salt. Thanks. I'll definately keep you in mind before I send ramona down the road.

More taps today, sap is on the way my friends. Gotta up the production.

[TapME]

Mark, what side of Gray are you on? There is one person on 26 north that taps some trees is that you?

[MaineMapleDave]

Dave-
I'm heading over to the governors saturday to get him tapped in. Stop by anytime. If you can't make it till saturday I'll leave the skiis out by the sugarhouse and you can just pick them up.

Or stop by one night this week I'll be boiling.

Will you be around on Sunday???

[MaineMapleDave]

Dave-
I'm heading over to the governors saturday to get him tapped in. Stop by anytime. If you can't make it till saturday I'll leave the skiis out by the sugarhouse and you can just pick them up.

Or stop by one night this week I'll be boiling.

Will you be around on Sunday???

[gmcooper]

Lou,
The trees I just did in Gray are on 115 and Hancock street. Just East of the center of town. The ones on 26 are freinds of ours I believe. At least they usually tap some every year. The other trees i do in Gray are on Campbell Shore road off 202. I tapped all but the buckets today there and they were really running.

Vacuum tank was running over today. Still running at 8:30 tonight but slowing down for sure. My sap transfer pump has a crack on the inlet housing. Not sure how or when it happend but looks like maybe it was dropped or knocked down over the summer. Looking for new part in the AM otherwise its a new pump. Found 2 more good size leaks in vacuum today. A limb dropped and pulled out a spout and the other was some type of bite. Maybe tree rat? or a larger cousin?

Weather man really missed today. Thankfully it went our way this time. Hopeing tomorrow exceeds expectations as well.

[PATheron]

GM- How you making out with your vac levels? Seems with mine I have to back off the regulator pretty much all the way off at night becouse if it freezes it kind of deadheads it and it goes too high and sounds like it doesnt like it. Mine seems to like the 25 or 26" mark. I run mine backed off at night and it runs around 24 or 5 and I adjust it down about a quarter inch during day and it runs 25 on the pump and 26.5 at the releaser. Gages could be off a little but seems to run nice around there. If it gets up around 27 you can tell be the sound it doesnt like it so I keep the reg hissing a little. Theeeron

[gmcooper]

Theron, I have had a hard time keeping the Vacuum levels up where I want them. Lots of leaks and had a bunch of tubing pulling apart. I am thinking the tubing coming apart might be from the really cold nights we had and the lines filling with sap just as temp drops to freezing. Still have had issues with releaser filling up with slush as temp drops to freezing. It plugs the releaser then sap flow goes to the vacuum pump. I have had to shut down when I get close to freezing here to prevent that. With no major leaks i can run 20-22" vacuum. Guess that means I still have plenty of small leaks out there.
I really do like the liquid ring pump. It is quiet and really runs great. No issues with liquid heating up either. Of coarse with the cooling line run out thru 3' snow has got to help on that end of things. Need a bigger tank for next year as I ran the tank over yesterday. Not for long but that is never a good thing.

Snowing here this am about 2"-2 1/2" so far. 2-5 forecasted. Looks like I will start pump later this am as we get above freezing.

[PATheron]

Mark- I had the same problem with the releaser. What I did was to build a quick little box around it with two by and that sheet energy shield insulation. We cut a hole and put some plexi for a window. Then we put two like 40 watt bulbs in it, trouble lights whatever. Then Jerry told me to lube the moving parts with Pam cooking spray. I havent had it happen again since that. Seemed to fix it good. Im probly having better luck with leaks couse of new tubing. It does take some time in the woods if its possable to do it. I am very lucky becouse my dad likes to boil so I have the time. Let me know how you make out. Theeeron

[gmcooper]

Didn't start the vacuum till noon today as it still was only 34 and snowing. Looks like BIGSAP day after all! Sap was pouring in even after 15 minutes. Warmed up to 40 here in the last hour.

[Revi]

We got some sap today, finally. After the snow melted a bit we started to have a run. It even got sunny for a bit and warmed up into the 40's. We added 15 buckets and 15 tubing taps. We are ready to boil tomorrow.

I think the season has begun!

Captain says full steam ahead! It will be nice to send some steam heavenward again.

I thank god for the ability to do this. I may not be quite as enthusiastic at the end of the season.

[gmcooper]

Came in about 2:30 last night from boiling. Made about 10 gallons. Sap was 2.25% not bad but I would have prefered 3%! LOL. Had about 800 gallons here before boiling. I never seam to remember how long it takes to draw syrup starting with a fresh pan. How ever long it really is it takes way too long. Shut down the vacuum about 2:45. it was pulling slush when I got there. Hoping it will warm back up soon this am. Have about 150 gallons here to boil and 200 in the woods to bring home. That should give me plenty to boil for the reporter coming around noon.

Hoping everyone had a great day yesterday and a better one today!
Mark

[TapME]

got back from New Hampshire today and the Sap hauler wanted to put a few taps in. Started with the large sugars on the front lawns of two house at 2:30, next thing we knew it was four and we had put 46 taps in on 5 gallon buckets.Snow is still deep(2to 3 feet). Sap tasted really sweet(wish I had Russell's sugar meter). When we were done some buckets had a inch in the bottom. Now to get storage in place and finish bricking the arch and setting the pans. It could be the BIG SAP. Will set the rest of the taps tomorrow afternoon. Hope to push 150. The rest of the week looks great for sap. Happy sugarin'

[TapME]

GM, will have to get down and see you before the season ends.

[tessiersfarm]

I finally found the time to tap this weekend. I tapped about 30 with buckets and 45 on gravity tubbing. I decided not to tap the ones that are too hard to get too. This morning while I tapped the ones on tubbing the sap was running out while I tapped. I had about 6 or 8 gallons of sap in the three hours it took me to tap 50 trees. Hope it will be a good season.

[Revi]

We sweetened the pan today, and got everything ready for a pour off some time later in the week. Everything worked! (well almost everything)

We had a pretty good run, so I think we boiled about 100 gallons off from 1:30 until 5:30. I guess that's ok. 25 gallons per hour. We had nice sap, so it should make some light syrup. The front pan was getting close to being ready. Next boil we'll start turning out some syrup.

[gmcooper]

Just got back in for the night. Boiled twice today. Three times if count ending at 2 am. Starting and stopping is never that much fun. So far made 22+ gallons since 5 pm Sat. I still have sap in tanks in Gray from today and one barrel here on the farm.

The whole deal with some people doing Maple Sunday on the non official day would not appear to be working well for some of the visitors. We fielded dozens of calls from people that were really not happy that some were open today and most next Sunday. Media really gave the impression that because a few changed dates that most had done so. Hoping the Easter on Maple Sunday issue does not happen for 10 years! For those that were open I hope everyone had a good day! Looking for good weather next weekend!

Mark

[IRDSDJD]

mark you are not alone with all the phone calls with the GFF store open had alot of calls also and peaple asking who is having it on the right day? had to run up to lyles friday he said they are going to see if it can be registerd in the MMPA so that you can only call maine maple sunday the forth sunday in march as it should be would be nice seems as though it confused a lot of people

[MaineMapleDave]

Dave-
I'm heading over to the governors saturday to get him tapped in. Stop by anytime. If you can't make it till saturday I'll leave the skiis out by the sugarhouse and you can just pick them up.

Or stop by one night this week I'll be boiling.

Sorry I didn't make it by this weekend--Saturday imploded and Sunday was gathering and boiling day.

When's a good time? MaineMapleSamantha is letting me use her (very nice) wooden sled as a gathering sled, but I think I want to rig up a couple of outriggers for stability.

Speaking of gathering--every step on snowshoes, and MAN, we've got some snow drifts. My arms are about 3" longer than they used to be.........

[royalmaple]

Dave-

Anytime now, most any evening at least after dark I am out of the woods. might even catch me boiling. Ro's running right now, got about 650 gallons to boil tonight, ONLY after it is sweet enough.

[Revi]

I got up there after work and the tank was filling up again!

I may do a little boil tomorrow, just to get it down a bit.

We just boiled yesterday, but it is going to be quite a year.

I'm saving some sap to boil on the weekend.

It's really flowing now!

[gmcooper]

Made about 8 gallons tonight. Never thought sap would run today so I never did turn on the Vacuum pump. Should have as it ran quite well inspite of the wind and cold. Those 24 new buckets tapped in Gray will be at 180 gallons so far tonight. By tomorow night I expect they will be at 10 gallons per tap in less that in 1 week and they are 2.5% or better. I might have to keep those trees!

Big house fire just down the street from where most of my vacuum taps are. Big old farm house, I think they saved the granite foundation. There was some type of explosion early on or starting the fire not sure which. Too bad the family lost everything.

Big day tuesday!

[TapME]

Just did the math and 46 taps gave us 110 gallons of sap. We are both felling not the best so we collected and sold the sap out. Starting to feel better so we will start to boil. Next few days look to be favorable for making sugar.
Royalmaple you must have had a decent flow today? That was a great idea about the tap in the top of the bucket, thanks.
GMcooper, those big roadside maples have the sap this year don't they.
Revi, gota like the way things have started.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Lou-Hopefully you don't have the flue thing?

[royalmaple]

Thought today was going to be MOAL. (Mother of all runs) but didn't get pecker. Just over 100 gallons. Got really cold here last night and took till after noon to get above freezing. Sun was certainly strong though.

Mainemapledave- I'll send you a PM with my phone number call me when you want to come over for the ski's.

Jeremy-

Nice article in the paper on you.

[TapME]

Lou-Hopefully you don't have the flue thing?

so far it seems to be a bad cold, and headache. The sap hauler has it pretty bad. It's funky to see him that way.

[gmcooper]

Just got back in for the night. Made 7-8 gallons tonight. Thought today was going to be the day for bigsap but ended up same as yesterday. Vacuum line didn't thaw till 1 pm. Shut the vacuum pump off at 11:15 and it was pulling in slush from the wet line. Not much below freezing but just enough. Looking forward to the vac making something out of tomorrows messy weather.
Mark

[Revi]

We did get some sap yesterday, but there wasn't that much at around 3:00. It didn't get going until later. I know it was sunny because our solar hot water got up to 120 degrees. That's the warmest it's been since October.

The day seemed to be warmer than Monday, but we got less sap. Who knows how it works? It always surprises me.

[davrhods]

Just talked to my sap hauler she said trees finaly letting loose.Seems like they have a mind of there own.

[royalmaple]

Hello-

Where in Rumford are you? Wouldn't happen to be on the So. Rumford road are you?

[gmcooper]

Not much happened on the sap front today. The buckets I put up yesterday did really well and by 11 am 3 out of 15 were running over with the rest 1/2 full or better. Vacuum did squat all afternoon. Did school tour with 60 first graders this am. They traveled 45 minutes to get here. Good kids!

[Revi]

We finally poured off after the third boil this season. We have been having 2 hour boils lately, and we made 6 half pints of light! We had a little left over, so we boiled it down a bit more and poured it over snow. Yum! Taffy.

I think the 2 hour boil would make it an easier season all around.

I plan on spending a couple of afternoons a week up there. I may not even pour off, just sweeten the pan for the weekend.

We'll see. Sugaring has started once again.

[TapME]

Collecting has been difficult with this cold. Sap hauler and I have all we can do to gather. Got another 55gallons today from 46 taps, not bad. May have a small boil with some. Hope everyone is busy with sap.

[Revi]

Excellent haul, TapME! We only got a couple of gallons from 30 smallish trees today. We maybe got 20 or 30 from our tubing too, but it wasn't a very big run today. We are storing some sap up for this weekend. We'll boil it all down on Saturday and visit some other sugarhouses on Sunday this year. We're not going to be open on Maine Maple Sunday, which may be a good thing since we really haven't made any syrup this year.

[IRDSDJD]

we also saved some sap today for this weekend put about 400 gallons in the cooler to have on hand. sounds like a cool and windy day for friday so if it ends up runningwe will be that much ahead. we have dropped the nozzle in the burrner from a 3.5 to 1.5 gph so the sap will last all day before it is alot more controlable than running at full boil with all the questions, comments pictures,people,children,and 100 diffrent distractions going on a busy day. hope all goes well with everyones maple sunday! may we all sell out of syrup and have a great day.

[gmcooper]

Just shut down vacuum tonight. Should be 300-400 gallons to pick up in the am. Spent much of the day bottling to get ready for Sunday. Phone rang all day with questions about Sunday. Sounding like a very good day except for the cold. Paper ran in interview today on us. It started out to about the maple syrup but ended up about maple, miniature horses, cattle and the greenhouses. I think it came out OK. With some reporters you never know what they are going to print.

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

Has anyone heard from Royal?? had he gone down in the flood of the decade??

[royalmaple]

Still going....

Not much to report. Boiled few hundred gallons yesterday but decided to save some sap for the weekend. Not sure what came in after I checked yesterday but there was a few hundred gallons in the tank. I dont think much is going to happen today in the sap world. pretty cold out and not going to be very warm. Gotta clean up the sugarhouse and do some last minute prep for the weekend.

Looks like middle of next week "antartica" is going to start to warm up and might get some sap flowing.

[maplwrks]

It's Been Colder Than A Mother-in-laws Kiss Here In Vt. Also! Hope It Warms Up Pretty Soon.

[TapME]

I didn't collect today but there was sap in the buckets, most about 1/4 full. It probably ran late afternoon yesterday and some into the night. We were finally able to get out of our own way today.
One more week like this one and we will have as much sap as last year. Time to get uh done. Hope everyone get loads of sap.

[gmcooper]

Emptied out the tanks today. Just about 400 gallons. Most all of it was from yesterday. Going to boil some of it and leave maybe 200 for Sunday. That sure was one nasty wind today!

Sunday is looking to be a busy day for us. Have had more calls than ever at this point. Some people still confused about who is open on what day. Had a few thought we would love to be open on Sat so we could feed them a pancake breakfast!

Matt, If your going to be open Sunday get me some directions so I can send some of the people down to you that are looking for more sugarhouses to go to. Especially since you are newer they will not have been there before.
Mark

[tessiersfarm]

I was able to boil down 3 1/2 gallons of syrup this weekend, a lot for me. I went to a couple of sugar houses for Maine maple sunday and neither one of them was boiling. Hopefully the weather changes a little.

[royalmaple]

Mark-

Sorry I just got the message. I was open and boiling today. Had lots of visitors and sold a good amount of syrup.

Lots of new faces. Going to offer more next year to draw in more people.

[gmcooper]

Matt, should have asked you earlier on directions. Really didn't have that many ask this year about where else to go. May be the holiday and fuel prices cut down on travel.

We had a good turnout today. down from the past few years but still good. The sample crew still gave out over 1300 ice creams with syrup. Sold most of our product and did well with the breakfast. Had all new crew on breakfast cooking crew. There was a sharp learning curve! Did manage too keep the pancake line down to maybe 15 minutes. Ran out of pancake mix at 1 pm so we ended an hour early on the breakfast. No major disasters cept for a few mudslide fatalities!
Mark

[Revi]

We went around and checked out sugarhouses for the first time in years. Really fun. We saw nine of them, including our own and had a great time doing it!

I was amazed at how different the sugarhouses were. They all tap the same resource, but each person's way of doing it is a little different.

Maple Hill in Farmington was impressive. Huge evaporator in an old, very picturesque sugarhouse.

They were all cool in different ways, though.

[davrhods]

royalmaple no I'm on swain rd Rumford a couple/few days aweek the rest of the time in hampton n.h. for now anyway.

[royalmaple]

My inlaws live on the So. Rumford road and there is a guy with a small sugarhouse and some taps right there. Never met the guy.

Came out of the foxhole today and had the white flag partially out of my pocket. Russ talked me into keeping the flag out of site. I'm about 99.9875 % ready to call it a season. My blunders have not seemed to stop or ease up in the least. Todays were right up there. Frozen vacuum line because the electric releaser frigged up and the pump line was frozen and burnt up the transfer pump in the process. Great fun was had by all. Out to spend some money in the morning. Next is to take up oragamy or bird watching. Till I figure out a way to screw that up.

[gmcooper]

Matt I hear ya on the screw ups. Had more than my share this year. Never had so many little things go wrong and take so long to fix.
Looks like some maybe sap days this week but only one good day if the forecast holds. Need to make a lot of syrup in a hurry here. Made some tonight but not nearly what I hoped for.
Mark

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Theeeron was giving the orange flag alert the other day for a BIGSAP and now your about to wave the white for surrender?= That's not good

[Parker]

Straighten up and fly right man!!!!! Get ahold of yourself!!!! (slap-slap),,,,,you have a hole season ahead of you!!!! Lots of syrup to be made in april!!!!!!! It will come (might not last long) But it will come!!!!!!!!,,,,KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL MAN!!!!!,,DONT GIVE AN INCH!!!!!!! NOW START THAT PUMP AND SSSUUUUCCCKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sweetwoodmaple]

I hear ya, matt. My screw up list is very long, plus I tapped late and missed a record season. I still can't believe I scorched my pan. Still useable, but man.....

[gmcooper]

Matt, Time to get ready! This ain't your grandma's Nascar! Put the peddle to the metal and no lifting till the checkered flag waves!

Spent the afternoon in the woods fixing vacuum leaks. Not where I was supposed to be! Finished all but one small section and with sap running I was holding 22" in the woods. Shut down about 6:30 pm and we were running 24" and temp was just getting down near 32 degrees. Best vacuum levels all year!
Mark

[Revi]

We had our share of screw ups too.

Starting on Saturday we had a big maple breakfast where I was bussing tables and a much bigger sugarmaker berated us for being so small. I picked up his plates and took them to the dishwasher and didn't say a word.

Then we had a bunch of people over at the sugarhouse and pandemonium ensued when our sap level dropped enough to cause the back pan to rear up and almost foam over. We had a bunch of kids there, not in the evaporator area. They were herded out and we spent the next few minutes shovelling snow into the evaporator. The crisis was averted, but we had to get rid of everything we had boiled for the past few days.

We cleaned the evap out and put vinegar in the drops. The next day we washed it out, and checked out a bunch of other sugarhouses.

On Monday when I went up to check the buckets I found that there was some serious vandalism. Great... I reported it to the police and am still looking for the culprits. We'll see...

Today we are going to re-sweeten the pan and start again. I think we'll make some syrup this year.

It is a bit discouraging, but that's three things, so I figure we are ready to start again.

Maybe we need Father Maurice to bless the operation again. We could use a little positive divine intervention at this point.

There's a lot of season left, so I think we can make some syrup still...

[royalmaple]

Today seems like it will pan out to be the first honest day of sap run for the 2008 season. It was 32 at 8am sunny and suppose to hit 46-48 by 3pm. It is going to happen today. PMA.

Gonna try and squeeze in some paying work today and then run some blue haze. Should be able to add 150-200 more taps pretty quickly with the new mainline Russ and I ran the other day inbetween the blunders.

Had a mini melt down yesterday. It was a good thing russ was there because the releaser and pump were next. Luckly I stopped when the insulation box around the releaser was scattered around the site.

Good things today, that is all I am going to have.

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

I think this waiting is starting to wear on us all, I don't mind all the small stuff as long as I am getting sap but man it drives me crazy when nothing is happening..

I hope things turn for you

[Revi]

We are at the beginning of the struggle, but it is about to get better. We're boiling again today, and it looks like the next 2 weeks are going to be big. With the price of syrup going up, and nobody having any extra we should have a good season whatever happens. I intend to keep a lot this year.

We've got to make hay while the sun shines.

[Russell Lampron]

I think I brought some of the bad luck back home with me from Maine. Last night when I was running the wash cycle on the RO I forgot to close the valve to the feed tank and the contents of the wash tank went into the feed tank and evaporator. Fortunately I was all done drawing off syrup before this happened. The evaporator and tank are all washed out now and I will start over tonight. The silver lining to this cloud may be that I may be able to get back up to Medium Amber.

[Revi]

Our luck may be turning. It's got to be over 40 today and the sap should be flowing now. Last night was cold, so we may get some sap now, boys! (and girls) We are boiling again tonight and we should have something to work with if it ran today.

[royalmaple]

Attention!! Attention!!

De de de deet, de de de deet, this just in this just in. NO BLUNDERS today! Best day of my life.

Releaser was pumping sap to the holding tank. Not tons but I don't even care. It was blunder free. Then went home to ship some goodies to not so patiently waiting customers. I went down in the woods around 2pm and ran some blue haze. Nothing with maple bark was safe today. Now to make up some drops tonight and cut them in and tap tomorrow. Should be darn close to another 200 with some blue wrapped around them tonight. I'm letting the tubing and the trees become aquainted before I introduce the holes tomorrow.

I figure if I can't get sap, add taps and eventually I'll get something from just sheer numbers. And might even get run over when all heck breaks loose.

[TapME]

Matt, sorry to here of your troubles, but It will run It has to. Mother nature needs this to happen and when it does those trees don't stand a chance with you in the picture. The only trees that are running for me are the large road side ones, the others stink.
On my note 46 taps and 55+ gallons. 2 day total 110. Tomorrow I will boil for the first time. Should be an interesting day. New arch, pans, and tons of things that could go wrong. Will keep you posted. Need to collect more often for some of the 5 gallon buckets are running over while the next tree is only 2/3 full.

[gmcooper]

Had our first decent sap day. Brought home about 700 gallons. More to get in the am. Vac system was at 23" at 10 am and sap was coming in from all lines. Wish it came faster though. The buckets I did in Gray on the new trees have been doing great. 270 gallons + for 24 taps. They have been 2 1/2% or better. The buckets here on the farm did very well today. I emptied them about 11 am and several are nearly full this evening.

Boiled till I ran out of steam here tonight. Made almost 12 gallons. More to finish tomorrow and looks like sap will run tomorrow.
MArk

[Russell Lampron]

Matt,

It's great to hear that you had no problems yesterday. I got my pans sweetened again from the bad luck that I brought home from your place. The silver lining in the dark cloud turned out to be gold, as in the color of the Light Amber stickers that I had to dig out of the bottom of the box I keep them in. I collected 400 gallons of sap yesterday and made about 4 gallons of Light Amber which is the first Light Amber that I have made in a long time.

My son took sales to a new level yesterday. The secretary where he works told him that she thought that the fake maple syrup wasn't that bad. He told her that fake maple syrup was the Hot Dogs of syrup. She said I don't even like Hot Dogs and bought a quart of syrup from him.

Russ

[Revi]

We boiled until 7:45 pm last night. I went up to check the sugarhouse and the sap was still pouring in. We made some nice light and are back in the game!

Our luck has turned now. Maybe we'll make some syrup now.

Today should be a big sap day too. It looks like the temps should be perfect.

[TapME]

Finished ConcreteO, and struck the match to light her up. Sap hauler was real excited to do it. Started with 110 gallons and picked up another 70 at dinner. This arch and pans sure make quick work of all the sap. 30 gallons to fill her to a decent level and 4 hrs of boiling and learning, and the sap was gone and no draw. Pans are real sweet now. Check out the pics. We were having a blast putting the wood in the arch. Sure does take less wood than last year to get a rip roaring boil going. We think we did 30 gallons/hr. Can't wait to get more sap to get the first draw off.

[danno]

Gentlemen - your time will come, I guarantee it! We first heard about the big runs in WV, and then through PA. Central New York is now getting crushed. You guys are next. Be ready. If you're burning wood, top off that pile. If oil, make sure your tanks are full. It's coming and the runs are crazy!

[Revi]

Well it looks like the boil is on now. We have a lot of sap and we just boiled yesterday. I think I'll fire up for a few hours again tomorrow. It's coming in like mad now.

We may need to boil all weekend, but we'll get it down. I think we'll make some nice light syrup too.

God willing and the creek don't rise...

[TapME]

Our forest trees have not started to run yet, I think that this weeks weather will start to change their minds. It is another 80 taps and if it runs like the rest of them I will run out of wood before the season ends.
Revi, It's nice to see the sap coming in this year.
Matt, Has the frozen tundra started to let loose yet?

[Revi]

Ours are all woods trees, and they take a while to get going. They are on a north facing slope, so we're late too. I think that they are getting going now, though. Thanks to our neighbors who cut all their lots down to twigs and are letting lots of light in to our biggest trees we get a nice run on the tubing late in the afternoon. The trees were running until at least 11 or 12 pm the night before last.

[gmcooper]

Boiled down about 550 gallons sap last night. Brought home 400 more this morning. Vacuum pump ran till I shut it down at 1:45am as the tank was running over. Finally making decent amount syrup but wood pile has taken a severe hit. Makes one of those RO's look like a good investment right now. Just had 650 gallons oil delivered for greenhouses at $3.59 gallon ouch!

Lou, nice to see you got to boiliing finally. Do you have any way to close off part of where you fire wood in. I think you will gain some effiencey if you could close off the top half at least when not loading wood.

Revi, Spring will get to you as well! Looks like we will all be makiing syrup for a while.
Mark

[TapME]

Mark, I have a piece of sheet metal that we use as a door. When she is full of wood sitting on the grates it can make the boil in the pans jump like it was doing at Russell and Matt's when I was helping them. I'm pleased with the amount of boil for being on blocks and bricks. It did it yesterday again, sounds like a train when its running right. Now to go out in the woods and getting those trees to run is next on the list( think I will go and hit them with a stick to wake them up LOL) just kidding.

[royalmaple]

Brought home 800 gallons last night and boiled that. I had my wife's friends husband come over and was dying to make syrup. So even though we didn't get the fire lit till about midnight, we hammered along till 6am this morning. He stuck in there through the whole initiation, even let him draw off. Made right around 15 gallons of some quality product. That sap was not from that days run, it was what I got from the last few days.

I started cutting in drops and doing one of my favorite things, drilling little holes in maple bark. Put in 100 more drops and drilled them yesterday. Sucks making drops on the fly in the woods. They were all running very good. But the rest of the tubing didn't seem to be doing much. Same bush, relatively same stand of trees, just freshly drilled. Hard to figure it out. I guess it was the new holes and they were ready to roll. I have to say if you haven't used any of the IPL 4 seasons pink stripe tubing get some. It is awesome to work with and you can see what's going on in the lines perfectly. Latterals and drops all the same stuff. Fits very snug on fittings.

Sap was still "running" or at least not frozen at midnight last night. Snow moved in around 4am and still coming in now, got about 4 inches.

Ramona just got out of the shower, she's all clean. Willy said frig it and he's gonna wait and get cleaned up later. Gotta get some decent runs so I can start boiling nightly.

[PATheron]

gmcooper- Just for your info. When we had made 500 gallons of syrup dad figured out how much wood we had used and I had it all stacked so you could figure it pretty good. 6 cords to make 500 gallons. If a guy can afford it, and they are really expensive, the fuel/labor savings is very significant. I totally understand people not buying them as expensive as they are but after having one I personally would never be willing to make syrup without one now unless I was just hobbying like ive always done in the past. To try to make a lot of syrup though I think they are really nice. Theeron

[TapME]

Looked at the extended forecast and it looks good for the forest trees to start. It going to be 40's during the day and high 20's at night for 2+ weeks. Matt you better get the truck ready for some extra duty. We will all be in for long hours and lots of sap. As the governor says "better get your swimies on". Picked up only 32 gallons today, but change is in the air I can feel it.

[Russell Lampron]

Theron is right on on the wood savings with an RO. You don't have to be a large producer to see the benefits either. After you boil concentrated sap you won't want to boil raw sap again.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I don't think most people will disagree with anyone about the benefits of an RO, but $ 10,000+ is a lot to sink into an RO when most of the members on here don't have that much in their entire operation. As far as cost, I can cut 6 to 7 cords of wood for less than $ 50 each year. I know this don't include any wear on the equipment, but I have a Stihl 310 I have had for about 6 or 7 years and it was $ 359 and the only other wear is my tractor to haul it.

I don't owe a splitter, but have a cousin whom I usually give 3 or 4 quarts of syrup for using it each year. I would rather make 4 to 5 gallon of syrup an hour vs 1+ without one. Besides the initial investment, it is extra expense in maintaining it and new membranes every few years, etc.

Not saying I won't ever owe one, I have absolutely nothing against them except the price. The wood savings isn't a valid arguement for me.

[jdj]

I agree with Brandon. The RO's have tons of benefits but the price of them is a major drawback. If you fire your evaporator with wood it is by no means free or cheap but it is cheaper than fuel oil. I fire with wood and have alot of land so wood is very plentiful. With the price of oil I hardly think it would be worth boiling if you didn't have a steamaway or RO. I do have a steamaway simply because I got a heck of deal on it from a neighbor and it was practically new. The thing I like about the steamaway is there is very little that can breakdown/wear out BUT the bad part about the steamaway is it only works when the evaporator is up and running.

I guess the bottom line is everything has pros and cons.

[Revi]

They don't make RO's small enough for us little guys. We haven't had too much trouble boiling off the amounts we're getting so far this season, but I can see that the savings in time is another big factor. We all have busy lives, and it's hard to find time for mapling as it is.

I don't foresee getting RO, but I can see how it must make life a little easier for those who have it.

Meanwhile we are boiling tomorrow, and it looks like the perfect day for it. Since we have the sugarhouse, it's great to be able to boil whatever the weather is doing outside.

Steam should be coming out of the cupola.

[gmcooper]

Boiled the 400 I picked up this morning. Sugar content is slipping on the reds. I can't fiqure out where the wood went. Well I know but not sure why I used as much as I have for the amount of syrup I have made. Same wood as last several years and some of this was left over from what was not used last year.

Future plans include an RO when I get more sap to make more syrup. Plan was too make significantly more syrup this year. That hasn't totally happened yet. Still have a way too go for the season to end.

Tomorrow i start filling drums or at least 1 anyway.

[IRDSDJD]

the year before we owned an RO we started the evaporator on a monday around noon and ran it for 96 hours strait around the clock only shut down 5 mins a nite to switch draw sides. made a lot of syrup but with collecting boiling running the store eating and little sleep figured we had to do something knowing we will still add more taps every year. now we boil 8to 10 hours a day with 1000 gal days not bad with a 2.5 x 8 . thurs we got over 2000 gallon biggest day ever!!!! do the math you couldnt up grade your evaporator and still do the small days imo

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Brandon-Is that $50 for 6-7 cord or $50 each cord? Whey if i figured in my time say for an operation that was burning 25-30+ cord of wood a year and i could cut all that hours down by 75% i'd be ahead of the game spending the $ on an electric evaporator and in a couple of years it would pay for itself?

I figured it out many a times that it used to take about 500 hours to run the operation all by myself and 50% of all that time was in thinning and getting the wood out,cut,split,stacked and burned. If i could burn say 70% less wood then that would save across the board majorly.

Yes the inital investment is what cost if you can absorb the hit/but in the long run there is no doubt that it was the best investment made. You could sell the wood (20 cord) that you would have burned otherwise and made like $4000 a year/but then you need to include your time, supplies to get it to the customers.

Supplies like filters, soap and acid for the membrane is like maybe $50 a season?? Cheap labor=let the machine do the work not your back.I wouldn't want to go into the woods and haul out each stick of wood back to the sugarhouse by hand would i??/so i use machinery and let it do the bulk of the work... Besides i have heard that RO's make the syrup taste bad anyways=Have you heard that?? Electric evaporators are not really made or priced if your making only a couple of drums a year/need to process more sap to make it pay for itself/otherwise it takes longer to pay it off..

[Russell Lampron]

I work a full time job fixing cars which isn't easy on the body. I also travel 45 minutes one way to get to work and back. Four years ago I need to do something so that I could tap more trees to keep up with the demand for the quality product. The Sugar house was too small to just get a larger evaporator. I didn't have the time or money to tear down and rebuild the sugar house and start over. I was nervous about doing it because I had heard the rumors about bad tasting syrup, all light syrup and expensive membranes but decided to go with the RO.

Since I have made that purchase, which was far less expensive than the new sugar house and bigger evaporator, I have found that it is the best piece of equipment that I have added to my operation so far. All of the myths are false. My syrup taste great, I make more than enough dark syrup and I can get a new membrane for less than $300 at http://formembranes.com when I need one. I get more sleep, spend fewer hours cutting and splitting wood and enjoy sugaring more because of it.

When someone talks about adding a Steam Away or Piggyback or adding an RO I try to steer them in the direction of the RO because the efficiency gain is much greater. The Steam Away for example says that you will get up to a 75% gain. An RO is 400% or more. My RO is rated for 150 gallons per hour but I can add another membrane housing to it and gain another 150 gallons per hour. With that I could run my sap through twice, concentrate to 16% instead of 8% and gain another 400%.

I haven't priced a new RO recently but about every time that I go to Bascoms he has at least one used 600 gph RO in the $7500 range. I paid $5000 when I bought mine new 4 seasons ago and Jim Brown got his new one for less than that this past summer.

Sorry for high jacking this thread.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I was referring to less than $ 50 for 7 cords of wood total, not for each cord. I am not trying to start an arguement with anyone on here, especially Russ as he is a nice guy and I consider him a friend along with everyone else. In time, if my work load increases to the point I can't keep up with it or lose help, I may very likely have an RO.

I was just pointing out the other side of the coin. I do think it is ridiculous how much these things went up in price the last 12 months. Why?? I know everything we buy has, but this is crazy the increase. More greed than anything else.

[royalmaple]

Agreed, there should be a lower cost alternative to the "maple" ro's. There's no doubt they do the trick, but they sure do still sting the wallet. Savings is there but if you don't have the money to begin with what good does it do you.

I got a good used machine at a fair price. That's probably the way most of us will have to get introduced to RO's then upgrade into a brand new one.

I gotta get cracking and build up some machines and sell them at a reasonable price. Problem is the components aren't cheap but still at 10-15 grand for a new one they are making money, it's not come to a charity event selling RO's or anything maple for that matter yet.

Unfortunately, I hate to say it but until someone sneeks into the equipment arena, like a country that basically makes everything for the World and begins with a C, and isn't canada. The manufacturers can just put whatever price on these items and get it. But it would be interesting to see what would happen if an outsider jumped in producing some of these items. Global market on equipment isn't there since we are such a small niche market. So there isn't the incentive for a company to jump in and start producing this stuff. But you'd see prices drop over night, if they did.

[Russell Lampron]

Part of the problem with the price increases is that the US dollar is about equal with the Canadian dollar now. Most of the maple equipment including RO machines is manufactured in Canada. That means that the price to US customers had to go up to meet the exchange rate.

I was shocked the other day when I went into the local maple supply house and saw a new 2x6 Leader evaporator with the new Max flue pan for $7200. How does someone get into the maple business at the entry level with prices like that for just the evaporator. I'm not picking on Leader here, other manufactures are charging prices that are almost double what I paid for my evaporator 8 years ago.

[802maple]

The price of that evaporator though is a prime example as to why it would not be wise to buy it. You would be much better off buying the 2x4 that they have and their Hero r.o for a similar price with a better per hour production rate at a third of the fuel consumption.

[gmcooper]

I know this is heading further off course here. I have been thinking of making releasers here. I know there are other maple producers looking to possibly build and sell maple equipment. I really wonder how the big Maple manufacturer's would react? Would they just let competition startup and move in on thier market share or would they throw up every possible road block? What I mean is would they have every gov. agency possible checking you and your product out. All that comes to mind is the guy that made the Hudson car and what the big 3 did to him. Just a thought and nothing against the current manufacturers as I have something from almost all of them. Good products just not a good price for the maple producer.

[royalmaple]

Mark-

Ready when you are. Just have to excavate the toys out of my 40x60 barn and we'll have a very nice work environment.

She's gonna hammer today, get the swimmies ready. I even got my flippers ready.

[TapME]

My forest trees started to run yesterday and you know the temps didn't get to high and the wind was strong so today it should run till thursday none stop. We are going to have a banner days this week. Check the wood get a good breakfast and hold on to your swimmies the way is coming.

[danno]

After a cold, slow start .... you guys are about to get crushed!

[Parker]

OOOHHHH PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!CRUSH ME IF YOU CAN, I double dog dare you,,,,:)

[royalmaple]

I'm ready to be crushed with sap too. Ran good today, cut in 150 more drops and tapped those guys in. They were all pounding sap. Almost like a faucet on some, drips were so close it was almost like a trickle. Think I'm done tapping, might put out some buckets this week who knows. Ran the hardest yet of the season today. Still coming in pretty good. Those trees might finally be waking up, The sleeping dragon looks like it has awakened.


Ramona is going to town on what I got home so far, strapped the feed bag on for a few minutes then back out to get the rest and boil tonight.

[TapME]

THERE ALIVE I TELL YOU ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The woods trees are here buckets are half way to full and dripping. Did a small boil this morning and put yesterdays sap 60 gallons through in less than 2 hrs. Only fed it once after we started and it seemed like that was it. It now makes 240 gallons and still no draw off. Pans look really sweet. maybe this next time. Should be a couple of gallons, don't know for it is new territory for us. There is 1 1/2'' in the pans just to make sure we do not burn them.

[Revi]

We rediscovered the magic of maple sugaring this weekend. No mishaps, and we even made a couple gallons of syrup. We had a nice run today, so I think I'll boil it into the evaporator tomorrow afternoon. It looks rainy the next few days after tomorrow, so that will take care of most of it.

We didn't boil today, but yesterday it was good to get it all boiled off.

Walked around with people today in the bright blue and white world that is our sugarbush.

What a day! We're back.

[gmcooper]

Good to hear everyone is getting some sap now. We had a cold north wind all morning here. Trees didn't really start till afternoon. Brought home 1 tank full and left 150 for tomorrow. Made enough tonight to top off the first barrel.
Wood pile is getting awfully small! For the wood i have used i should have made 30-40 gallons more than I have. Looking in to having sap run thru RO before I boil. Not sure how much per gallon to pay for RO from 2% to 8%.
Mark

[Revi]

I'm headed up to boil off everything we got yesterday, and maybe today? We'll have some warm weather tomorrow, with rain. I think we are going to have to wait for some more until later in the week. Thursday looks good.

[royalmaple]

Mark-

Bring a load over and I'll make you one heck of a deal.

[maplwrks]

Jeremy,
It Sounds To Me Like You May Have A Touch Of Metabolism. You Will Need To Go Boil To Boil To See If It Subsides. I Have Seen It Happen To Where It Will Stay With You For An Entire Season, And I Have Seen It Where It Leaves After A Couple Good Freezes. This Week Could Tell You What Will Happen. Keep Making It And Sell It As Commercial!

[royalmaple]

I had some interesting foam the other night while boiling and kinda weird smell. I got that right out after boiling last night and the bubbles cleared right up and seems to be going up in grade. It was some older sap and I got some fresh stuff from yesterday and pounded that right to the rig and seemed to purge it out.

I gotta do something on my 1550 gallon tank in the woods, it has the standard 2" fitting on the side and the siphon in the tank but I can't pump it out totally, so always some crap-o-la on the bottom just sitting there. Must be about 50 gallons always in there. I was going to take off the siphon and put in a bushing and neck it down to 3/4 or 1" and extend a line into the tank and maybe cut in a couple of t's so that I had it drawing off the bottom of the tank in the couple of low spots to really suck it down. Gotta go spellunking and jump in the tank to see what I can cobber up. Hopefully before the transfer pump kicks on and I'm swimming in sap to get out.

[Russell Lampron]

Matt get your swimmies on before you get into the tank. If it takes as long as changing the transfer pump did you'll be drowning in the BIGSAP before you are done.

The temp here right now is 33 degrees and it is drizzling out. All of the taps in the buckets are running slow and the BIGSAP is coming into the releaser. I think it is finally here. Looking skyward I could see that the reds haven't even started to think about budding yet. Come on BIGSAP I need to make 30 more gallons of quality product to make 100.

[tessiersfarm]

I emptied all of my tanks (only 55 gal drums) this past saturday because I was afraid the residue on bottom would ruin new sap coming in. Mine are small enough so I just tipped them up side down by hand. No suggestions on a large tank though.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jeremy,

Didn't you throw the entire first batch in the front yard last year for about the same problem??

[royalmaple]

I should have brought my camera with me, nice footage could have been shot.

I got in the tank not so bad but lets just say getting out was no piece of cake.

Took out the siphon tube and put in a bushing to 3/4 pipe and t'd off a few times to get the low spots in the tank. She's sucked right dry now. That's what I wanted so I can keep the sap out and not have it lingering around in there.

Got the line all set and noticed the light outside keeping the pump warm dimmed for a minute, then here it comes. Releaser pump just started up down by the brook and here comes the sap. Kinda weird feeling being inside the tank and having the level come up while you are in it.

Sap was coming into the releaser pretty good but really didn't start till the snow stopped this afternoon, drizzling out now. Not gonna freeze tonight so should stay running. See what tomorrow brings.

Brought home 575 last night and 250 today. Ro's taking care of it's end of the deal now while I eat and type. Then I'll give willy a short walk around the block. Early night tonight.

[TapME]

sap-hauler(Russell) did a great job today. After school was out I let him light the evaporator and we were off. Started with yesterdays sap 60 gallons and he started to get the woods trees, one trip with 2, 5 gallon buckets on snowshoes (8 gallons total a trip don't want to spill any) then a 2nd, 3rd and on for a total of 8 times. All I have to say is better him than me, so we ran that through and decided to get the large maples, another 80 gallons. So to say he has earned his share today. So today 140+ gallons and the temps never reached 40. Can't wait to see what the next 3 days bring. Did have a interesting moment on the first draw-off, got 2 gallons, with a close call. Seems like I couldn't get the sap to push the syrup through fast enough. Matt and Russell it looked like when we were making syrup on your rigs, except I didn't have you guys around to make sure nothing went wrong. I would have to think that it has started here. Oh we also made a small dent in the wood pile.

[Revi]

We made some more syrup today, and boiled off 130 gallons in a little over 4 hours. I figure it at 32.5 gallons per hour, which isn't bad considering it took a while to warm up and cool down. I think the evap does over 40 gph when it gets cranking. The sap was around 3%, so we should make some syrup. We drew a couple of gallons off, and probably have a couple more ready to go. We may salvage the season after all...

We're banking any syrup we make from now on.

Maple syruping has gotten back to fun, and that's what really matters.

[gmcooper]

I never turned on the vacuum pump today. After working I had some errands to do and forgot all about the 150 gallons I didn't get home last night. Looks like a long night tomorrow. I did find a sourch for more wood. Just have to go pick it up and haul home. Except for a few reds that look like they have huge buds i think we are still couple weeks from ending. Early to mid April often gives us some of our best sap flow weather if the trees are still running.

Revi if it does not warm up to quickly you could be making syrup May1!

[TapME]

I think Mark that the snow will moderate the temps for us in the next weeks to come. There is still 2 feet on the ground and that's stays at 32. Glad to see you found a source for wood to keep boiling.
Revi, glad to see you are having fun making sugar again. It was a sight to see yesterday snowing to beat the band and steam coming from our pans and just rolling for 100ft. over the snow. Makes me want to boil under cover. Drew our first syrup and will can that this morning.
Sap should run straight through till Friday non stop.
Hope everone is making steam.

[Revi]

We boiled off every last drop yesterday, and are ready if anything else comes in. I cleaned out the tank of any lingering sap and it looks like we're ready for the week, if anything happens.

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Skowhegan&state=ME&site=GYX&textField1=44.7757&textField2=-69.7134

[TapME]

Revi, things are happening here how about there? Made 3 gallons off the evaporator yesterday. I want to make more, more.

[Revi]

We boiled off everything we had last night. I don't expect much today, because it didn't get very cold last night. It doesn't look like it will freeze until Wednesday night. I think that the next boil will be at the end of the week. I could be wrong. It was around 34 this morning at our house, and the sugarhouse is about 500 feet higher up, so maybe it froze up there. It's always about 2 degrees colder up there.

Would that be enough to get the sap running again?

[TapME]

Remember that sap flows best with a west wind. The trees need to reset at or below 32. The snow is at that temp. Just hang on to your hats because it's coming full stream.

[Revi]

I don't know. In Vermont the temp is up, but the sap flow is down. The pressure at the tap is way down today, despite the higher temps:

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

Scroll down the the treemet stuff.

[royalmaple]

Squeezing water out at the moment, had a pretty good run today. Didn't freeze last night but was pretty cold in the woods this morning, Collected almost 800 gallons today. Pretty decent, think the trees are starting to come into it a little. Gonna go make some steam soon.

I figured out that when you are pumping sap into the tank on your truck, it is best to close the valve on the tank. Funny how sap will run right out on the ground. Nice 50+ gallon puddle at the back of my truck when I came to check on the tank. Yippeee

[TapME]

Pulled another 110 gallons out today in less than 24 hrs. We are averaging more than a gallon a tap for the last 3 days. Had half of the buckets flowing over and that has never happened till this year. The trees were running when we gathered and should run all night. Temps here are good and the fog is thick as pea soup to about 3 feet off the ground. Going to boil in the AM and check to see if I will have to collect. If I can't keep up we will have a storage problem in a hurry. Finished the syrup this morning and it is about the same color as miller high life with a great taste. Hope everyone is making steam. Lou

Matt, glad to see it breaking loose in the tundra.

[Revi]

It did run today. We had about 5 gallons from the buckets and about 50 from the tubing. It was only about 40 up on the hill, so it may have frozen up there. I hope it freezes tonight. That could start the pump up again. I think I'll boil tomorrow if there's enough to do in the tank. I think a hundred gallons or so will be enough to fire up for.

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

Matt-

Good think that wasn't a 50+ gallon pile of concentrated sap!!!!!

[gmcooper]

Sap did run here today. Didn't get it all home only one truck load. Turned Vac pump on at 8am and checked it at noon and tank was running over. Shut pump off and gravity kept heaping sap on the tank. Funny how the tank holds 400 gallon level and 400 gallons heaped and rounded up.

The new trees we put on buckets in Gray this year have done very well. Averaging 18 gallons sap per tap for the season. And that is on the conservative side. Most of it has been 2.5%. Think I'm going to have to keep those trees! Just about 1/2 gallon syrup per tap.

Matt if you think sap thru an open valve is bad you ought to hear a bucket of of hot syrup run out the filter tank valve onto the floor!

[royalmaple]

Yeah I guess in the scale of things, sap is better than concentrate is certainly way better to dump than syrup.

Only time will tell, there's always tomorrows round of blunders that will certainly top todays.

Wind has really picked up now but still fairly warm. Lou how the heck are you making miller from maple trees. You might be onto something. If you RO that you might concentrate it to a labats or something?

[Russell Lampron]

Lou it is good to see that you are finally making some quality product. It looks like you guys are finally getting some decent weather.

[Revi]

Today seems cold, but there may be a run later on when the sun gets up there. The wind is incredible. I hope it calms down a bit by this afternoon. I wouldn't want to have to fight it when I'm gathering. It's liable to blow the buckets out of my hands.

I think we'll make some syrup now.

[TapME]

Matt, tried to drink one like a Miller but just didn't taste right. The wind here has kept me up since 1:30. The gust are incredible as Revi has said. Will go out and check buckets and see if they are still on the trees. Was that fog something last night or what? Mark, the sugar bush that we taped has 34 taps in it and it is up to 15 gallons a tap average. That one bush has given me more sap than all of last year with 82taps out. What a change from last year. Russell, its nice to have some time and make memories with my family that will last forever. I wouldn't change a thing and do it in a heartbeat again. Hope everyone is making steam. Lou

[TapME]

Just got back in from checking buckets and making at least 4 gallons of syrup. Still have sap left and have not collected but it is running even with this wind. Had a hard time getting a boil but when it came it was fast. Royalmaple and Russell you would be proud to see me draw the syrup right off the evap. Never thought I would be able to do it, but learned a lot by helping you both on the Governors weekend. Thanks again
Have to go get the sap hauler from school and will start to collect and maybe boil again. Need to get syrup storage any suggestions. Least expensive way would be great. Thanks in advance.

[MaineMapleDave]

I finally got out to gather yesterday after work (hadn't in a couple of days) and was surprised, given the relative warmth: every bloody bucket was nearly full.

Every one of the buckets in the woods had a good-sized chunk of ice in it, too, so the sap was nice and fresh.

I can only handle the gathering pails about 3/4 full tops, so that meant 9 round trips to the woods trees and three to the front trees.

Every. Step. On. Snowshoes. Actually, given the topography, they're really snow,mud/ice/grass/water/slush/gravel shoes.

The only part of my body that doesn't hurt is my face.............

[TapME]

After gathering yesterday we got another 60 gallons so it was off to the races again. Sap is really sweet and made another 2 gallons. What a day. Sap hauler talked on of his classmates into helping him do buckets and the young man had a wonderful time helping with everything. Think I may have hooked another sugarer. He left wanting to tap trees so I let him use some left over supplies that I had. Have to can and filter this AM. Hope everyone is making steam.

[TapME]

After gathering yesterday we got another 60 gallons so it was off to the races again. Sap is really sweet and made another 2 gallons. What a day. Sap hauler talked on of his classmates into helping him do buckets and the young man had a wonderful time helping with everything. Think I may have hooked another sugarer. He left wanting to tap trees so I let him use some left over supplies that I had. Have to can and filter this AM. Hope everyone is making steam.

MapleME, welcome to the trader, hope you are doing great making the sweet nectra of the maple tree. Look forward to reading your post. Lou

[TapME]

I finally did it.oops

[Revi]

We boiled off some sap yesterday. We went around and collected buckets, and then collected again 3 hours later. We had 3 gallons on the second haul. I figure we have about 10 times as many taps on tubing as on buckets. That means it was flowing in around 10 gallons per hour. No wonder we weren't making much progress boiling at first. During the boil we must have gotten at least 50 gallons! I figure we boiled off around 180 gallons in 6 hours. That's about 30 gph, which isn't bad with start up and cool down.

We are finally making some syrup too. We made around 3 gallons and poured off a bunch more to finish on Saturday. Fun.

We need to get some made, because I saw buds on some of the red maples already. Fortunately we only have a few of them. The season may end soon.

[TapME]

It's raining here in the falls and we are at the mercy of the elements when we boil so no boil tonight. The need to boil is critical no more storage 120 gallons, and buckets that are full in the woods trees. We have an early start. Have commitments in the evening so boil early. Should make some quality product.

Revi; Hope you continue to have fun. Memories are a great thing to have and share.
Royalmaple; keep on hammering. I want a post when that woods tank is full.

[tessiersfarm]

I got 85 gallons on tuesday out of 60 taps, then 100 more gallons on thursday and just checked there is another 30-40 gallons tonight. I have boiled 3 evenings this week and I still can't keep up. If I am too far behind I am going to bring some sap to Revi tomorrow afternoon. I need a bigger evaporator! Anyone know of a cure for the maple bug?

[TapME]

Hang in there, if you can. Trading isn't a bad thing. We sold some sap at the beginning of the season to get us from behind the eight ball, now we are OK and can keep up till the wood is gone.

[Revi]

About 2 inches of slush fell from the sky up at the sugarhouse. I stomped around and only collected about 3 gallons. That means we only have around 30 gallons. Not worth boiling yet. Maybe if Jason brings some over we can fire up.

The sun is supposed to come out Sunday. Maybe it will run again then.

[TapME]

Revi; it looks great for the next week. Temps in the 20's nite and 40's day, get ready for the gusher.

[royalmaple]

Finally had the most relaxing boil of the season. It was great. Made just over 15 gallons last night. Syrup was flowing very well and the best thing is once I got the grade right where I wanted it, it stayed right there. Didn't even lighten up a bit, which is what I was after. Pretty excited to boil now. Evap - Canner- double check density- drum. Giddy up.

I'm gonna do this in raw volume not color.

[brookledge]

Matt
How's your season going? Mine is just about over. You should have another couple of weeks probably. This was the first year in all my 30 plus years at it that I was praying for it to either freeze up or slow down so I could keep up. I burned alot more time off from work than I anticipated. But now that I'm caught up on sleep I'm glad I made as much as I did.
Keith

[royalmaple]

Keith-

Very slow. Things are starting to cut loose. I Went down the road and I had 600 gallons in the tank and it was running pretty good. Washing the RO now and gonna boil in the morning.

[Revi]

Maybe it got going in the afternoon, but we checked at 2pm and there was very little sap today. I went out and checked out Tessier's Farm. They were boiling away. He has it under control and it looks like he can boil it all down this weekend. We have had a little reprieve, but I think we'll have the big sap next week.

[gmcooper]

Just came in from boiling. Had to get the tank empty. Made about 8 gallons. Still have about 250 gallons to pick up in the morning. Finally got some decent wood. Burned kiln dried pine boards all night. the 1x4 is easiest to use just chuck in in. The 1x12 needs to be split some but at least it splits like butter. Really had things cranking for a while tonight. Did 2 tour groups today. Wife did 5 or 6 during the week. They keep whittling down the syrup inventory.

Friday night was not a good one for sure. We had our best mare foal and we lost the foal. Naturally it was a filly! Likely would have been worth more than this years syrup production.

[tessiersfarm]

We are having a good weekend. Boiled over 200 gallons this week, a lot for a small flat pan evaporator. We added air and that helped a lot. Over 10 gallons of syrup for the year, which is what I was shooting for, and it isn't over. Life is good here but the sleep is way behind. Looking like a good week this week then I think it will wind down, but who knows?

[mooseman]

Well I just set some taps yesterday. As a small timer I just haven't had the time to do it. But looking at the weather report for the next 4 days I will amke enough to last my family until next year. One thing I am concerned about is that one of my best producing trees last year didn't even show a drop yesterday. It is a sugar maple about 3-4 feet in diameter. Any ideas? I drilled two holes and both were dry when I checked a couple hours later. All the other taps I set yesterday were producing.

[tessiersfarm]

we collected sap yesterday at about 1:00 and it was not running then, I don't know about later.

[royalmaple]

Went down to the tank last night around 10pm and decided it was time to haul some home so there would be enough room for the flood today. Tank was up to 800 gallons, and by the time I had a few loads out I went to the releaser at about midnight and it was still running.

I'm feeling VERY confident that I can hold grade. But I am going to have to make sure that I do everything correct. Because one false move now and I could be in danger of loosing the grade. Which I just don't want to risk it. There's no reason that I can't keep on keepin on.

I'm looking into getting some acid to do an acid wash on the EE, since flow rate is going down, and down and down and down. Couple of washes last night helped but still not where a million dollar operation like mine is can afford to run at.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

My, my, what a few days makes. A few days ago Matt was ready to jump off a cliff and now he has a million dollar operation and is smiling from ear to ear!

Anyways, he is going to have to take over the BIGSAP for theron who now isn't worth pushing off a cliff! LOL!

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding. At the end of round 1 the 3 judges score the round as follows. Maple Hill scores the bunny at 7 and the whombat at 2, Red roof maples scores it at 6 for the bunny and 3 for the whombat, PaTheron scores it at 9 for the bunny and 0 for the whombat.

You got em' against the ropes now keep hammerin' em'.

Captain rinse long and see what the flow rate is? if not up to snuff then do a soap wash first and only if that wasn't effective to restore the flow rate back to 100% then you do a Chemical wash.

Soap is for bacteria and the chemical is for minerals in the sap/Niter and such. Usually a quick rinse will get you back up to 90%+ of production.

[Revi]

It looks like we will be doing the after work boils next week. Nothing today or yesterday, but that's ok. It was like having a regular weekend for a change. I had a chance to visit the Tessier operation. Lots of cool innovations allowed them to boil all that sap off. I like the blower fan. We might have to install something like that to speed the production! Gotta love that Tessier savoir faire! They are building an evaporator for next season, which may come in handy if we have a big year.

Meanwhile we finished off a bit of syrup at our sugarhouse and had people stop by. We gathered the tiny amount of sap we got this weekend and it was fun.

Check out our video on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISbkO-NKA9o

It's gotten a lot more popular now that it's maple season.

[royalmaple]

Brandon-

Couple of key points, sap is starting to finally run, which is great.

I've totally changed my position on syrup, I am just going for gallons.

I never said what grade I was at....hint hint. Kinda hard to go lower than the lowest. So my PMA now is just to make product. What color it ends up being is irrelivent. Just filling drums. It was coming in a little today, probably only a few hundred gallons so far. Cold damp and dreery outside today.

Working on the EE now. I have to kick it up a notch and give it a royal flush. Ramona might get some captain if this doesn't work. If it does work, then I'm getting one for me.

Soap is not working.

[TapME]

Boiled yesterday and did not draw off. thought it was not right and this morning when I started the sweet had backed up into the flue pan. It was OK just keep going and add new sap and it will come around and It did. Had to go out and buy a Hydrometer. Got tried of doing the apron test. First and only draw was about 3 gallons today. It's filtered and bottled now. We are learning more as the rig is fire, thinking that we need at least 200 gallons to run and get better at drawing off syrup. By the time we figure it out the season will be over. WE did get 50 gallons today and 50 left over so we did boil for the family to see and have treats with maple on them. Hope everyone is making steam. This week looks to be very good for sap flow.

Matt; nice to see you getting some sap.
Gov; good to see your post again.

[Revi]

I just saw the stars, so it may get cold enough to start the pump up again. We haven't gotten anything to speak of the past 2 days, but it looks like next week could be good. We are pretty late in the season now, and I think that the reds are just a week or so away from budding, but we'll squeeze everything we can get out of the sugars, and keep the steam rising to heaven.

We need to get some syrup. We are way behind last year, and last year was not great. We'll see how it works out. We'll make some more sweet stuff before the end of the season, anyway.

Up at the sugarhouse it's got to be about 4 degrees colder than here in town, but I think a temperature inversion happened a couple of nights ago. The cold air may have pooled down in the valley, because a friend said that his maple in town was running, and ours weren't up on the hill. It probably froze just enough here. It was Friday night when it was snowing and around 36 degrees. The clouds could have hung up on the hills more than down here, and kept it warmer.

That's another thing I really like about sugaring. It really makes you aware of the weather.

[mooseman]

Well I just looked at the weather and they are calling for rain on Thursday and Friday. This is great. I planned on boiling then and all I have is an OUTDOOR fireplace with a 3x3 flatpan. Not going to boil much off if the rain keeps going in.

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

I talked with the Captain last night for about an hour and i think he ready to climb up to the Crow's Nest and put out the double whammy red rectangular flags with the black rectangular in the middle. Yes it's hurricane season and the seas are getting a little ruff up there/but i believe and have great confidence in him-that he will be able to steer the ship north and keep it from heading south.

His swimmies are strapped on tight and he's ready for anything mother nature will throw his way. It's not "Man over board" yet? but if he does decide to jump/at least his swimmies will save him-unless he gets into an undertow. Hopefully this newest blunder will be solved and he can move into full production in a day or two?

Gotta go check on my pond and make sure it isn't filling up as i want to clean out the dump tank and then the other (2) 1100 Gal. plastic storage tanks and then i'll be ready for BIGSAP??

[MaineMapleDave]

Kinda hard to go lower than the lowest. So my PMA now is just to make product. What color it ends up being is irrelivent.

Agreed-usually dark or xtra dark and proud of it. Tastes yummy.

What's a PMA??

To recap my Sunday of boiling:
1: Broke the chainsaw pull cord.
2: Fixed the chainsaw pull cord.
3: Repeat #1.
4: Repeat #2.
5: Accidentally dump what seemed like 10 pounds of chainsaw dust into the sap dump tank/sump pump thingy.
6: Cleaned that up.
7: Inadvertently flooded the pan and brought an utterly perfect boil to a screeching halt. Never really got it back.
8: Barn door fell off.
9: Haven't really fixed that yet--it's kind of propped up.
10: Witnessed a truly spectacular boil-over in the finishing pan. Should have set the timer for 8 minutes.........
11: Cleaned that up.
12: Broke the hydrometer.
13: Dug out the spare.
14: Ran out of wood.

Pretty typical day, all things considered............

[royalmaple]

PMA=Positive Mental Attitude....

Arrrgggg, Thinks says I, we might be onto er.

Twisted the knuter valve on the thing a ma bob, and the pressure pump works, much Mo-Betta.

Ramona wanted to take it easy, but I found her special button. Gave that a crank and turned an old lady into a woman of the night. I think were up to snuff here at the blunder bunny ranch. Not to be confused with another similar ranch in the west.

[Russell Lampron]

Matt there are plenty of those blunder bunny ranches in maple country. This season hasn't been as bad as others in that department but @*%$ still happens.

[Revi]

We've had our share of mishaps, some caused by us and some by others this year. The struggle continues, and the bigsap is coming. It looks like today was a perfect day. I am headed up in about 45 minutes to see what has happened.

Illigitemati non carborundum!

We're going to push on.

[mooseman]

Well I just collected my 21 buckets and ended up with about 33 gallons of sap. Not as good as I had hoped but it could be worse.

[royalmaple]

I just speed trucked 600 gallons home, slightly more maybe 625. Ramona is taking care of her part of the process, don't want to have to boil too long tonight. 10-12% then I'll kick in willy.

Mixed that in with the sap I had yesterday. Should hold grade tonight for sure. Fresh sap and high sugar content. Couldn't believe how high sugar was today. Almost off the charts. The chart I was looking at only went to 1.7.

I'm gonna see if I can set a new record, not gallons per tap or anything like those normal sissy goals. I'm going for the most commercial syrup per tap in a season. Who's up for the challenge? Any takers?

[Russell Lampron]

Go for it Captain. I cant seem to make anything darker than A Dark this year.

[tessiersfarm]

We just got in from collecting and had 95 gallons from 75 taps. A couple of more days like this and we will be boiling for 3 days. My 27"x40" Flat Pan evaporator is looking smaller and smaller every week. Xtra Dark but thats fine with me, it has been selling pretty well.