Maplwrks Blog

[maplwrks]

After Tapping On The 23rd And 24th Of February,things Have Started To Let Go Here A Little. We Had Ok Runs On The 4th, 5th, 6th,of March, The Vacuum Pump Was Running On Those Days At 18" With No Problems. Today We Had A Hard Run And The Pump Would Only Pull 14". Sap Was Pouring In And All I Could Think About Was How Much Sap I Was Missing By Not Having Higher Vacuum. Regardless We Pulled 2500 Gallons Of Sap Today. We Had Our 1st Boil Of The Year Today. I Processed 1500 Gallons Of Sap To 22% And Boiled It In. From The Time I Started Til The Time I Stopped Was Roughly 3 Hours. Lots Of Company Stopped By,no Sales, The Syrup Was Too Light For Most That Stopped! Still Tasted **** Good!! We Got The Pans Real Sweet And Made 17 1/2 Gallons Of Fancy. I Think We Will Boil Again Tomorrow, As I Still Have 1000 Gallons Of Sap And It's Still Running At This Time. We Are Expecting A Lot Of Rain Here This Weekend, With A Little Sleet And Freezing Rain Thrown In For Fun.

[maplwrks]

Plenty To Do Today---i Just Got New Vanes For My Vacuum Pump,gotta Rebuilt That Today. The Wife And I Will Ride Up To 802 Maples' Today To Get A Load Of Syrup Barrels. I Will Probably Boil Late This Afternoon. We Have Enough Sap To Make Maybe Another 20-25 Gallons Of Syrup. Looks Like We Have A Freeze Up Coming Our Way For A Couple Of Days. This Will Be Welcomed As We Have A Few Little Things To Get Caught Up With.

[802maple]

It was good seeing you bring the boss with you yesterday and the future line runner. Sheila talked about him most of the day. Did you have much ice damage? I bet I know where you were last night and maybe today too, overtime will keep your sugaring going. LOL

[maplwrks]

I Was Boiling When I Got The Call. I Had To Turn The Boiling Chores Over To The Wife. She Did A Great Job---she Made 12 Gallons Of Fancy! I Spent The Entire Night At Work And All Of Sunday Night Also. I'll Take The Day On Monday To Check My Lines. After Talking To Some Of The Lineworkers That Were In The Area Of My Woods,they Said It Didn't Get Hit All That Bad Whew!!

[802maple]

Now that she has done it alone, you've got it made. The biggest job you are going to have to do is go back and forth to the bank and order the beer. Tomorrow I get to destroy Steves R.O. I will let you know how that turns out. I think it is going to be nice to have his panel out beside his evaporator though and all of his pumps hanging on the wall for easy access. He said he was going to keep his frame in case he ever wanted to sell the unit we would reassemble it.

[maplwrks]

I Got My Pump Rebuilt Today And Took Some Time To Walk Through The Woods. What I Saw After This Ice Storm Was That A Lot Of The Branch Tips Were All Broken Off. To Me, It Appeared To Be Like All Of Last Years Growth. The Snow Was Really Hard And Very Icy.
No Sap Today, And It Will Start To Warm Up Tomorrow. Looks Like Weds. And Thurs. Will Be Pretty Good Days.

[802maple]

Everything worked out fine with Steves R.O. This is what the companies should be doing as it really makes everything easily accessible. We could change yours over very easily and you also pick up alot of room with all of the pumps and columns on the wall and the panel out beside the evaporator without the unit sitting in the middle of the room. With yours it would be very nice with the wall being so close to the evaporator. Drawing off with one hand and adjusting the R.O. with the other.

[maplwrks]

I'll Need To Get Up To Steves' To Look At His RO. I'm Very Interested In Moving The Panel Of My RO Out Onto The Wall By The Evaporator.This Would Free Up A Lot Of Room For A Tank Of UVO To Sit In!

[802maple]

I welded up brackets for the high pressure pump to mount to the wall and was able to put the feed pump right under the high pressure pump so that got rid of the frame. Steve had some beams to work around so it was out in the room alittle, but with yours it would only be 10-11 inches out in the room and it would make a lot of space. It took about 5 hours for the whole change over. About 2 hours into the project with parts all over the floor it looked like a mess but it all came together.

[maplwrks]

The Past Couple Days Have Tested My Patience Pretty Good. The Vacuum Pump That I Rebuilt Is Shot! We Had A Decent Run On Friday And I Had No Vacuum. Did A Lot Of Soul Searching On Friday Night,(I Found It At The Bottom Of A Labatts Blue Bottle)and Decided To Make The Plunge. I Called Glen Goodrich And Bought A New Atlantic Fluids Pump. Gotta Hook It Up Tomorrow And Get That Thing Suckin'!!

[maplecrest]

hey mike, that was some storm last week end, i had my new generator to the rescue. we had no power for 14 hours and r/o , sugar house ran like on grid. thanks for the advice earlier

[maplwrks]

Glad Everythiong Worked Out For You. Hopefully I Can Sneak Down To Your Place This Year. I Would Also Like To Go Down To Wheelers To Check Out His Operation. Have You Had Much For Runs Yet?? We Still Have 18" Of Snow In The Woods And Makes For Tough Going Trying To Find Leaks.

[maplecrest]

had three good runs, first one alot on ground do to getting everthing tight, second during storm, thrid slowly came in over the week boiled that in two boilings. new set up is drawing 50 gallons off an hour. cold today. wheeler is doing well. finished tapping friday. he must be over 2000 by now. was at 1400 last i talked to him

[maplwrks]

Yesterday Was Social Sunday. We Had 1000 Gallons Of Sap To Boil. Mr. And Mrs 802 Maple Came To Visit.(Sheila Came To Boil For Me!!) Lots Of Local Celebrities Stopping By. Sheila Managed To Make 20 Gallons Or So Of Real Nice Medium Amber. This Brought Our Total To 55 Gallons For The Year.
We Hooked Our New Vacuum Pump Yesterday And Discovered We Have A Few Leaks To Fix. We Did Some Repairs And Got It Up To 15". Today Was Cold And When We Got To The Woods Tonight, The Vacuum Was At 23" And The Sap Was Running As Hard As It Has All Season So Far. As The Sun Started To Set, Everything Froze Right In Place And The Pump Shut Off On Low Temperature. With The Higher Vacuum Today We Got 500 Gallons Of Sap That I Never Thought I Would Get. It's Going To Be Real Cold Tonight, We'll See How It Runs Tomorrow.

[802maple]

We had fun down to your place, I especially liked being able to shoot the BS with your dad. Glad to hear the vacuum is working for you, it looks like everything is on it way for you now.

[maplwrks]

Pete And I Cut A Bunch Of Valves Into The System Yesterday. I Hope This Will Help Us Isolate Leaks. Man, It Was Good To See The Vacuum Up That High!! YOU AND MY DAD WERE DOING WHAT THE TWO OF YOU DO BEST!!

[802maple]

The valvas will help a ton. The truth of the matter is he taught you very well in that department too.

[maplwrks]

We Made Another 7 Gallons Last Night---the Grade Has Dropped A Little, Down To Dark Amber. I Am Going To Clean My Rig Tonight After I Get Done Leak Hunting. I Hope With Some Fresh Sap And A Clean Rig The Grade Will Come Back Up.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Mike,

Nice looking rig and sugarhouse!!!!!!!!!! What kind of gph rate are you getting on it with oil and I assume a preheater too??

[maplwrks]

I Get Around 70 Gph With It. It Has A Preheater Hood, Which Provides Me With All The Hot Water I Need For Clean Up And Rinsing Barrels. I Appreciate The Comments, I Like It Pretty Well Also. If I Was To Do It All Again , I Would Probably Build It A Little Bigger. 802 Maple Can Attest To The Fact That My Sugarhouse Can Get Pretty Cramped Fast!!

[802maple]

Especially when we get all of our big guts in there, although looking around at the fairer sex that sometimes show up at your sugarhouse, not having a lot of room, has it's benefits. Now I am getting accused of being a dirty old man.

[maplwrks]

As Martha Would Say---It's A Good Thing!!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Mike,

I can see what you mean. I don't have that problem with a 2x8 in the middle of a 24 x 48 sugarhouse. Might be a little overkill but I am hoping to put a 14x12 bedroom/bathroom and a 10x12 kitchen on the one end this year and the other end aprox 18' is the tractor and atv storage. This will still leave more than enough room, but you can't have too much. Worked out good with the open house this year when we had as many as 30 people at a time eating and walking around.

[maplwrks]

We Had A Decent Run Here Yesterday, The Vacuum Was Purring Along At 23". We Got 1200 Gallons Of Sap Offa Single 500 Tap Bush. I Sweetened The Snot Out Of The Sap, To Around 22%. I Boiled For 1.5 Hours And Made 25 Gallons Of Syrup. I Will Hold A Bunch Of Sap For My Open House This Saturday, So That I Can Make Some Steam.

[maplecrest]

like the artic here 10 below with the wind chill. got a little sap yesterday, but i know i have leaks as my dry line froze at the releaser, and lines were freezing faster than i could look for leaks. not looking like sugaring weather for a few days. every year the week end before the vmsma open house is this cold. good luck with your open house!!

[sweetvt]

Mike,
Curious if your grade came back up or not, in that amout of time sap must of only just passed thru the pans before drawing off? Still an ice box up here as well and about 3-4 inches of snow and howling winds! somebody pinch me, the calender says March 20, but it looks and feels like Jan 20, today

[maplwrks]

The Syrup Came Fast And Furious For Sure--- The Grade Did Come Up A Little. You Need To Come Down Some Time And Boil On That Rig, It Will Be Hard For You To Go Back To Boiling Raw Sap. Your Dad Just Shakes His Head When He Comes Out. Wayne Gets All Nerved Up When It Goes To Syrup And I Draw Off 5 Gallons In 1 Draw!!

[802maple]

Mikes is the place to go if you want to see what it feels like to boil high concentrate. Just go in push him aside and takeover. That way he gets to shoot the bull (what he is actually good at) I came in last year and he handed the rig right over, we went down last week and he handed the evaporator to my wife , you always feel welcome there and he has a open house this weekend ,so go down have a good time. Plus there is usually boiling sodas at arms reach, if not the store is ony 25 yards away.

[sweetvt]

You gotta love the location right next to the village store, get thirstyor get hungry, walk a few yards to the store and then right back to high concentrate heaven.

Keep up the good work Mike!

[dano2840]

well i havent been able to get my uncle to bring my 18"x6 down yet but the pan is finally done. i have boiled 3 times on my 24x32 and have made 3 1/4 gallons of nice fancy. only 10 out of the 75 are tapped, but i am going to get the 18"x6 this weekend come hell or high water so i can actually get sugarin' but first i have gottta get out and finish up my laterals, once the weather lets up.

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

Mike what is the times of the open house?? and is it just sat or sat and sunday??

Andy

[Rob Harvey]

Mike can't talk now, he's busy getting all the beer bottles out of the sugarhouse before the civilized folks arrive (inlaws, if you know what I mean).

[maplwrks]

We'll Be Open On Saturday From 10-3. We're Also Going To Have An Open House Next Weekend On Both Saturday And Sunday, 10-3 Each Day. Don't Worry If You're Late Or Early, I'll Take The Time To BS With You. I Hope I Have Enough Sap To Have A Decent Boil Tomorrow.
We Have Enough Sap To Make About 25 Gallons, Though We Won't Concentrate Very High As We Need To Make Steam For A Long Time!!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Can you make it thru the day boiling raw or close to raw sap burning all that oil.

[maplwrks]

It'll Probably Only Be 10%---it Kill Me!! But When I Make Steam, I Tend To Sell Syrup Also.

[maplwrks]

Today Was A Pretty Good Day. We Had A Lot Of Folks Stop By And Made Some Good Sales. We Are Still Making A Low Medium Amber, Which I Wish I Could Get To Come Up A Little. Tomorrow I Am Going To Wash My Entire Rig, Maybe The Grade Will Come Up Then.
The Maple Cream Donuts Were A Big Hit Today. It Helped Sell A Lot Of Cream.(I May Need To Get More Made) As Of Today We Are At 130 Gallons.

[maplwrks]

Another Kick In The A___ Today---the O Rings In My Releaser Crapped Out On Me Yesterday. We Can't Build Any Vacuum. Hope I Can Find Some Today. This Has Been The Most Disappointing Year I've Ever Had As Far As Having Bad Luck. I Do Have A Decent Amount Of Sap Coming In This Afternoon. Maybe I Can Make Some Syrup Later Today And Lift My Spirits. If Nothing Else, I Could Drink A Couple "boiling Sodas".

[3% Solution]

Hi Mike,
Yeah sometimes bad luck just seems to come in bunches!!!!
By the looks of your previous posts you were doing good.
Just think, if it weren't for repairs and other stuff we'd all be rich at this game!!
Think about last year, what did you have for repairs??
Maybe this is just the year when things are getting tired.
Keep your chin up and full steam ahead!!!!

Dave

[sweetvt]

Hey Mike

At least you guys south of the Middlebury- Dixon Line are getting some sap! the only thing to be done up this way is the drinking of "boiling sodas", last two days highs of 35-37 and a stiff cold wind. Saps wants to go but when it get down to 0-5 degrees at night it takes til 2:00 PM just to get above freezing.

Looks like the season up this way may end up being 4-5 runs in a week to 10 days, which if it runs good we all know can be just enough. Alas, so much anticipation and more waiting, thats all we can do. The evaporator is one giant ice cube at this time.

[maplwrks]

Things Are Much Better Today In Maplwrks Land!! I Got The Releaser Fixed And Vacuum Up Around 23". The Sap Was Running Great!! I Made 47 Gallons Of Medium Amber Last Night While Draining A Few Cold Ones. Started Getting Things Ready For The Open House This Weekend. I Really Hope All Of Our Small Misfortunes Are Behind Us Now And We Can Get On With This Sugarin' Thing!!!

[maplwrks]

Boiled Some 24% Sap Last Night--made 35 Gallons Of Medium Amber. The Nitre Has Been Real Bad--we Need To Clean The Pans Daily Now. The 10 Day Forcast Looks Real Good For Sap Flow.
Gotta Go Bbbbbiiiiiggggsssaaaapppppp

[maplecrest]

mike i was wondering how you were making out with the niter and r/o ing that high a number. scott stopped by and asked what i was doing and at the time 10%.then thru the steamaway. he was having niter problems in his flue pan and scaled back on %. so at his advise i went to 8% before steamaway. seem much better. getting alot of lime deposits in tanks and wash tank of r/o. seen some in finish pan. still a cold wind here not alot of sap.most sao from east bush out of south west wind

[maplwrks]

I haven't had much in the flue pan yet, but the nitre in the syrup pans is real bad. I looking at putting the acid to my pans again tonight. The upside to this is that the syrup filters much better with very little DE

[Pete33Vt]

Same here, bad niter build up. I am swapping pans out every boil. After about 5-6 hours you can feel it coming back fast. Luckly for the preheater I have plenty of water. So as soon as pan comes off it gets rised out then filled with acid and cleaned up, rised a few more times then back on next boil.Wind has been keeping sap flow down here. Haven't had the big sap yet, still hoping to get it.

[maplwrks]

In The Past My Nitre Was Just The Baked On Hard Type. This Year The Nitre Is Just Like Beach Sand In The Bottom Of The Pan. I Cleaned My Pans Early In The Week And None Of It Is Sticking So Far. I Have Seen This Type Of Nitre In The Mountain Sugarhouses, But Never Here. The Cool Thing Is I Was Able To Filter An Entire Barrel Of Syrup Without DE. The Down Side Of It Was That There Was So Much Of It That It Plugged The Outlet Of My Drawoff Tank!!

[maplecrest]

when i finished boiling last nite there was a 1/2 inch in the bottom of my draw off tank. white beach sand

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I always get the beach sand nitre as you refer to it. One boil this year, I had someone else boiling and he boiled about 7 hours without reversing and he had a nice scale build up in the drawoff dept. I never saw anything like that before. Took a lot of scraping and scrubbing to get it off. Rather not see any more of that, I like the beach sand variety better.

Least amount of nitre that I have ever seen this year, but all the syrup was pretty light, even a lot of the Dark I made don't look like dark coming out of the jug.

[royalmaple]

Getting the beach sand here too. Notice the next day the tops of my flues are coated pretty hard. Doesn't seem to be scaling up just suspended.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I like to run the evaporator level down really low at the end of a boil 2 or 3 times a season and drain the syrup pan and flue pan and run it thru the filter press and wash out the pans good and dump everything back in the syrup pan and start out with fresh sap in the flue pan. Makes the level in the syrup pan deep, but it goes down pretty quick. It is a little easier with a drop flue vs a raised as there is a little more liquid in a raise flue, but if you had too much you could dump a couple of gallon opposite the drawoff side every little bit until it was all gone. It won't kill the boil long.

[802maple]

I run the all of the sap in the front pans thru the filter press and back into the pan after I get done boiling every night and that eliminates a lot of the sugar sand. Most of the time when you come back to boil the next day it all comes right off when you fire the evaporator. I have done the flue pan at times also.

[maplwrks]

Vt Maple Open House Weekend Has Come And Gone Without Too Much Trouble. We Had Lots Of Visitors And Met Lots Of Nice People. Now It's Time To Get Down To Making Syrup. The Vacuum Pump Was Purring Along Yesterday Afternoon And The Sap Was Running Hard. I Don't Think It Froze Here Last Night, I Think The Pump Ran All Night. We Are Looking At Big Sap Coming This Week. We Are Supposed To Get To 60 Degrees Tomorrow, Then Back Down Into The 40's For The Rest Of The Week. This Could Be The Make Or Break Week!!

[maplecrest]

this will be the week. 10.20 am mon.march 31, still 30 degrees and no sap. too cold all weekend. but people still came for open house. burned more oil in my furnace to heat the sugar house than the evap.good showing and on saturday govenor douglas stopped by for an hour. we talked syrup prices, and energy issues facing the maple industry.what the public can bear before they will look for a different sweetner. vermont should get top dollar for maple as people think vermont and maple

[maplwrks]

On Sunday, My Grade Had Dropped To A Dark Amber And The Sap In The Flue Pan Was Looking Very Dark. I Had Boiled The Flue Pan Down Pretty Low On Sunday So I Could Drain It. Last Night, I Drained The Flue Pan, Ran It Through The Press, Back Into The Front Pans. It Was Probably A Grade B By The Time I Got It Boiled Out Of The Front Pan. Once The Fresh Sap Came Through, The Grade Jumped Up To A Nice Medium Amber. The Sap Ran Ok Yesterday, The Ground Had Frozen The Night Before And Never Really Thawed Out. The Temp. Here This Morning Was 48 And The Sap Is Running Great. We're Looking For Bigsap Today!! As Of Yesterday We Are Almost At 300 Gallons.

[maplwrks]

We Had An Awesome Run Here Yesterday. We Gathered Around 3500 Gallons Of Sap. I Made 35 Gallons Of Medium Amber Last Night With Another 30 To Make Today Not Counting What Runs Today. I Think If We Can Get Another 3 Weeks Of Sugaring Here We Will Hit Our Goal Of 600 Gallons. The Weather Looks Good Here For Another Couple Of Good Runs Before It Starts To Warm Up. The Grade Is Holding Really Well At A Nice Medium Amber.

[802maple]

Mike-I went up to Bens yesterday and he made 320 gallons Tuesday on that little 3x12 and was going to boil again yesterday afternoon. I still like the way it was better, but it is producing pretty well for a little rig. I think he is going to finish tapping today and he will be around 14000.

[maplwrks]

312 Gallons A Day On A 3 X 12 Is Rocking!! We Had A Good Day Here Yesterday, 75 Gallons Of Medium Amber. The Sap Ran Ok Yesterday. I Hope It Runs Well Today, As We Have Bright Sunshine And 45 Degrees At 10:00.

[maplwrks]

The Sap Ran Ok Here Yesterday, Brought In Roughly 4000 Gallons. Sugar Content Is Starting To Drop. The Bush That I Have On High Vacuum Has Dropped To 1.4% The Grade Has Dropped To A Dark Amber, With Awesome Flavor. I've Still Got 6 Empty Barrels Outside The Sugarhouse And I Need To Fill Them!!

[Breezy Lane Sugarworks]

same here mike....my vacuum trees(500) at 18" dropped to about 1.2-1.3ish???? and things are slowing down here too. it also went from a light a medium to a light dark amber, with great flavor.

[maplwrks]

Yesterday Was A Lot Of Fun---i Hauled Sap For A Couple Of Hours In The Early Morning And Got The Ro Up And Running. While Waiting For The Sap To Concentrate A Friend Stopped By And Informed Me That He Was Throwing In The Towel As He Was Out Of Wood. He Looked A Little Worn Out And Stated He Had 1500 Gallons Of Sap And Would I Like To Buy It. I Thought It Was A Foolish Question , As Any One That Knows Me, Knows That I Will Never Refuse Sap. As It Turned Out , We Had A 4 Hour Boil Yesterday And Made 65 Gallons Of Dark Amber. This Was A Nice Sunny Day And It Was Difficult To Keep Our Boiling Soda/gal.of Syrup Ratio Down!! This Put Our Season Total Up To 500 Gallons. We Are Hoping For A Freeze Here Tonight, But The Rest Of The Week Doesn't Look Good For Sugaring. It Does Look Pretty Good For Golf Though!!

[jtbucket]

only 30 last night. no ice in the mudpuddles. vacume is going on. will be in touch if it runs.:p

[maplwrks]

Didn't Get Very Cold Here Last Night, Maybe 32 Degrees. The Vacuum Pump Has Not Shutoff For 6 Days Now. We Made 47 More Gallons Last Night, 115 Total For The Weekend. The Grade Has Dropped To Grade B With A Real Good Flavor. Most Of The Wannabe Sugarmakers Are Calling It A Season, Not Me!!!! I Think We Have Some Cold Weather Coming In For This Next Weekend, So We Will Hang On. It Doesn't Cost Me Anymore To Keep The Taps In For A While Longer.

[maplwrks]

Sap Ran A Little Yesterday---Enough To Make Another Barrel Of Grade B. We Are Inching Ever So Close To The 600 Gallon Mark. I Am At 575 As Of Last Night

[802maple]

Mike-I have got more barrels if you need them, We got a hard freeze here lastnight, although it is very windy.

[maplwrks]

I Don't Need Any More Barrels!!! I'm Trying To Fill What I've Got So That I Don't Have To Mow Around Them All Summer!

[802maple]

If it doesn't go buddy on you in the next 3 days, you will sugar for 2 more weeks with looking at the long range forecast.

[802maple]

It is running here in Lincoln, as good as I have seen this year.

[maplwrks]

I Boiled Again Last Night After Delivering 13 Barrels Of Syrup To 802 Maple. We Started Making Commercial Syrup Tonight--not Bad Tasting For End Of Year Syrup. Sap Still Testing 2%!! Added Another 20 Gallons To The Season Total Of 585 Gallons!!

[maplwrks]

I Did It!! We Hit 600 Gallons Last Night---not The Prettiest Syrup I've Ever Made, But It's Syrup! I Will Give It The Weekend, But I Think We Are All Done. The Vacuum Pump Has Run For 14 Straight Days And Is Begging Me To Give It The Summer Off. I Will Start Washing Tubing Next Weekend. It's Been A Long Season!