Began Tapping in Whately

[brookledge]

I began tapping in Whately on Saturday. Looks like after Monday we will be on hold again for a while.
Keith

[royalmaple]

Keith-

How's the snow pack there?
Anything wet when you drilled?

[brookledge]

I got a good 2 feet in some places,where it is exposed to the sun or south side there is less. Most places I can walk on the crust but on slopes and hill it makes for slippery walking. So I've been trying to break the crust to keep from sliding.
Today the sap ran good, wished I had all my taps in. I got about 1/2 to 2/3 gal per tap. I'm about 1/2 done tapping another 600 to go
Keith

[saphead]

Kieth,
Up here in Colrain we've got about 3' +- and it's snowing again.I'm running out of room to push it in some places.Pushed some back w/crawler loader where the ice wasn't to bad,pads are shot and I don't care for that sliding feeling! How many taps you add this year? To the sugarhouse or remote tank? Vac.?
Craig

[brookledge]

I added 455 taps all on vacuum to the sugarhouse.
Made about 10 gallons on Wednesday night. So I'm on the books
Looks like a good week ahead by Monday. I need to finish tapping this weekend
Keith

[mapleman3]

Keith looks like you got the early run !! Yep hold on to your hat it should be a good week... I say "should" it's New England, that could change any moment... !! Keep up the good work.

[brookledge]

I'm up to 42 gallons so far was hoping to make about 30 gal/day but that hasn't happened yet. Sap should run all night for me tonight.
Yesterday I walked the lines checking and digging out laterals that had gotten snow covered and found most that were burried were frozen and had good vacuum on one side and pressure on the other side. Even lines that had good slope were frozen from the past week when it got down to the single #s at night.
Keith

[brookledge]

Sap ran all night for me and I got well over 1 gal/tap so I boiled 7.5 hours today. Still have sap but it will have to wait till tommorrow
keith

[mapleman3]

Same here Keith, appx 1.15 gal/tap... can't complain, I haven't even finished tapping and I get about what my normal take is with less taps in... Friday I will finish.. maybe the trees I haven't tapped yet will be bursting.

I figure after I get back from the kickoff I'll finish the vacuum.

you should still get a good run today then it looks like cold for the weekend.

[softmaple]

down here in agawam were over flowing with sap, 120 trees and about 200 gallons each day, my 2x4 is going to be working hard this weekend. brookledge were going to the inn on saturday are you going to be around? is that right down the street from you?

[brookledge]

I've been so busy between my paying job and sugaring that I haven't been on the trader since the 5th. So there will be alot of post that I won't have time to read. Boiled from 11-5:30 today. Saphead visited with me today and we had a good chat. I wish I had time to travel around to other sugarhouses and chat and see other operations but seems like its either boiling working or sleeping. I made alot of light Amber and I'm glad it finally changed to medium for me. I had wood for 400 gallons and I'm over half way there so I decided to go get some pallets and start cutting up some more wood. Maybe this will be the year for .5 gallons per tap.
Keith

[brookledge]

I don't know where to start other than say that the last 3 weeks have been a blur. I have not been on the trader since the 11th. All I can say is this is the year of the mother load. Many days I have been getting 2 gallons of sap per tap and have been boiling 16-17 hrs to just keep up, get some sleep and right back at it. The way things are looking I will get atleast .6 gallons of syrup per tap which is mindboggling to me. I have run out of wood so I started cutting up pallets to burn and probably have burned 1,000 or so.
hope everybody is having a good year also.
Keith

[saphead]

Keith,Is it RO RO off to the bank you go? or will it be all cash from this years record crop? :)

[mapleman3]

Keith How many gallons??

[royalmaple]

Keith-

What's your snow pack like?

[maplecrest]

matt hows your r/o working?

[royalmaple]

Great! I'll send you a PM.

[brookledge]

I'm basicly out of wood so I sold alittle over 1,000 gallons of sap today. Then this afternoon boiled for 6 hrs. If I add in the amount of sap that sold as if it was syrup then I'm at 670 gallons from 1165 taps which is .58 gallons per tap and I think with a few more runs it will end up at 700 with out a problem.
If I get some more pallets I may boil more my self but at this point I'm happy selling the sap.
Royal maple
This weather today really burned up the snow it has been so foggy all afternoon and tonight. So the only places with snow left are areas that don't get much sunlight. Any southern slope is bear now.
I have thought alot about an RO but at the moment it is on hold. The first thing in the big picture is to get more electricity to my sugar house which currently is sub feed across the street from my parent's house. So I don't have enough amps to add in an RO at the moment but will either need to put in my own service or have theirs upgraded to a 200 amp service. I'd rather pay them to upgrade theirs so that I don't have to pat for a seperate service but then I need to upgrade the lines feeding the sugarhouse also. So for now I'll have to get real busy cutting wood this spring.

[mapleman3]

A great year indeed, great job Keith, Scrape up those pallets ;) I know I could make another 10-15 gals before the sap stops, I never get into the C grade, with the buckets, it takes too much time to collect little to boil, so I'm done at 100+ I don't want to buy more oil... although I'm sure if I bought now it would be cheaper than next season.

[TapME]

Mapleman, if you bought oil now and made syrup could you not pay for more oil for next year?

[maplecrest]

Keith, as i have worked thru the new r/o upgrade and the power situation. to upgrade to 200 amp you will be in the 6000 dollar range for parts and labor if you hire it done. that is what it cost me to split the meter with 100 amps to house and 200 to sugar house.plus the hooking up of the trans switch for the generator. but what a difference in the way the r/o runs not starved for power.

[mapleman3]

I could buy oil, but I will need to add a tank or get a bigger one for next year(find a used one for free) I should be using even more next year with double the taps. so I will add another 275 tank. But I am seriously thinking of an RO or steamaway if I can find one.. gotta decrease my oil consumption

[brookledge]

Jeff
I know I'm heading towards an RO but for now with my elec. upgrades plus the cost of RO and heated room for it it would probably be $20,000 or so.
Way to much at the moment so as long as wood continues to be free other than the cost of fuel for chainsaw,splitter and some for the pickup I figure it's like having a partime job as far as my labor towards cutting the wood goes. This year if I had oil I'd have burned about 2100 gallons X 3.50ish that would be over $7,000. So I have a partime job that pays 7,000 a year.
I figure I need to get atleast 25 cord of wood for next year. My parents have just had a wood lot logged this past winter so there is a ton of tops and small logs that are already cut waiting for me

As for today I will boil alittle today. I kept alittle sap and have about 1 cord of wood left.
I'm also making a list of other upgrades for next year
Keith

[maplecrest]

keith, i pondered the r/o for 8 seasons. bought the steamaway, and then the r/o. as you work thru this, start thinking what your time is worth. not the price of oil or cords of wood. i went from 16 hour boils to 3. draw off 50 gallons an hour. have more time to get other things done that were not done due to time. or lack of. then the sleep factor.yes i did spend 20000. but life is much different. for the better.as for the heated room i have a small electric heater that i bought at home depot for thirty dollars that is cheep to run and works great.after three seasons. and this one with a 1200 i would never make syrup with out one.it took me along time to work it out, but the price of oil made the move for me. it was spend 9000 on oil or 11000 on the r/o. i bouth the r/o and it paid for itself the first season.using low amp 100 amp service

[brookledge]

Jeff
If I boiled with oil I definately would be using a RO but for now I can't put 20,000 into it when I've been spending $100 on gas for the saw,splitter and pickup.
I only have a 60 amp service and already am close to that with current pumps and lights. It will happen but not just yet.

I will boil for the last time tommorrow unless more pallets show up. Anyways if the sap does run any more I will sell the sap
Keith

[Parker]

Keith- your done? That makes me pretty nervous

[brookledge]

Parker
I'm out of wood. I got about 1/2 cord after todays boil. and will finish that tommorrow. I will sell sap if I continue to get any but looking at the future forecast I don't expect much since most nights look like they will be above freezing.
Keith

[brookledge]

Collected a little more sap today and sold it, may be the last of it. Anyways I'm happy with my season except for running out of wood and not being able to boil every thing. Even though I was able to sell the sap after I ran out of wood I would have made another $600 or so more boiling it myself
Keith

[Russell Lampron]

More words of wisdom from the Governor. I used to use 5 or 6 cords of wood to make 50 plus gallons of quality product. Now I am kissing 90 gallons plus on the season and have only used 1.5 cords thanks to the Electric Evaporator. The time that I save by not having to cut and split wood allows me to spend more time adding mainlines and taps.

[PATheron]

Keith- I did a lot of thinking and almost didnt buy my RO but now I think it was one of the best things Ive done. I personally think if a guy wants to make a lot of syrup the ring pump is a great thing becouse of the levels you can run pretty much effortlessly and I really needed the ro just to keep up. Seems like if you can reduce the labor as far as possable you can do way more syrup and make more money. So if the RO is expensive big deal your just talking bigger numbers all the way around. Still, they are darn expensive. I think I went through around 8 or 9 cords of wood to make 800 plus gallons of syrup and that was with a standard evap with no forced air, preheater or anything. Thats pretty remarkable. ONly about a cord per 100 gallons. If you have the ro with all the less wood you have to do you can put in more of your butt kicking half gallon per tap tubing systems you like to run and really get some BIGSAP.* Theeron

[PATheron]

Keith- I lied to you. I just talked to my dad and he figures 10 or 11 cords. He said he figures we need 11 to be safe so it took more than I said. Still pretty efficient though. Theron

[brookledge]

I agree with all of you that time is money. And I will add a RO in the near future. But as long as I'm doing the work and not paying someone to cut the wood I will do it another year or two. I have two sap pumps,the vacuum pump, the filter press, two electric heaters, lights and that is maxing out my current service. There can be times where all are on at once, so my first step is to upgrade my electric.
I don't want to put in a seperate service because I'd have to pay year round and then would be considered a commercial hookup instead of a residence and would have a demand meter and pay a higher price per kw.
So I want to upgrade my parents service at their house to 200 amp and then I could sub feed a 100 amp service to my sugarhouse.
keith

[maplecrest]

when you re do the power, 100 ampsto your parents and 200 amps to the sugar house. you wont be sorry. take a lot to start your new r/o

[brookledge]

Jeff
I'll keep that in mind. Definately will add up everything and then add in some cushion.
Keith

[brookledge]

Well as of today for me the drilling began once again. Put in some after work. It was winding when I started and I thought I'd get cold and quit but the wind died down and it was comfortable in the woods. Some of the hole were weeping. I just need to get started. I looked at the 15 day forecast for me and it was disapointing. A few warm days but no good string of days in a row.
Oh well happy tapping to others.
Keith

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

But the bright side to the forecast is that is changes about every day and it is time to make syrup in NE

[mapleman3]

it's not bothering me that I have a few more days to get things ironed out... mother nature always seems to wait until " I " am good and ready !! maybe it's the exceptional belchertown syrup she likes and will wait for year after year !! ;)

[brookledge]

Well I got all but 50 or so taps in by Friday and boiled on Sat. Boiled for 15 hours and made 30 gal. Looks like I'll be back at it on friday and then many days in a row.
keith

[brookledge]

Wow!!!!
I've been boiling every day since early March and finally a night off. Sap flow has been amazing just no sugar. I'm now down to 1.5%. Most days over the last 2 weeks have been averaging 16-17 hrs. I'm not going to make 1/2 gal per tap by the looks but will be in the mid .4s per tap. Made some nice Lt. Amber at the beginning and then it wasn't long before i was making dark syrup. Going to take a while to catch up on the trader
Keith

[Russell Lampron]

Kieth I figured that you must have been busy because I haven't seen you on here for a loooooooong time. Sounds like you are having a good season.

[brookledge]

Russ
you are right for three solid weeks nothing but boiling and then a little sleep and back at the boiling. All while still trying to work at my real job for a few hours here and there. Lokks like I may get another run or two mid week. But it is definately commercial syrup now.
Keith

[brookledge]

Well it's time to dream and plan for next year.
I did alright compared to some around me.
1165 taps
536 gal of syrup
.46 gal of syrup per tap
Far cry from last year
Keith

[saphead]

Keith,
Never made it for a visit this year,I was sick for a good part of the season.This was only the 2nd year out of 37 that I didn't work for a sugarmaker.I did get a chance to visit a few places I'd never gone before and I did get a chance fire once, does that count? Maybe I'll be able to afford to buy some plastic if the prices continue to go down and start my own operation if HR875 doesn't get through.

[brookledge]

wish you the best
Keith