CNY tapping

[danno]

Where are you guys - Dan, Tim, Maple Flats and anybody else? Boiling?!

I really like the way this season is starting. Cold nights, cool days and good sap. Got completely blind sided today. Was expecting high temps in the mid 30's with minimal sap. Instead it made it to mid/high 40's and the sap poured! And surprisingly, temp has been between 32 and 33 with very heavy snow for the past few hours and the sap is still flowing nicely. I just had to take a couple hundred gallons off the top of my holding tank or it would be over flowing by morning if this keeps up.

Gonna be boiling hard tomorrow and Sunday!

Why do the taps run real well at 32/33 somedays and stop/freeze other days at 32? My sugarbush is about 3/4 mile and 500 feet higher from my collection area and temp read out. Wonder if temps are just a touch warmer up there tonight where usually it's a touch colder up there than down below?

Let me know how you guys are doing.

[maple flats]

I don't know but I had the same thing. It really ran yesterday and one of my tanks was overflowing when I got to it about 8:00 last nite. I guess I need a bigger tank there. I just hate it when I loose sap because it overflowed. I will also be boiling today and maybe tomorrow. The forcase looks iffy for early next week and I have a reporter and photographer coming on Wed so i might save enough to boil for them. Yesterday I got a call from the Post Standard from a reporter who I set an appointment with for when I was tapping my last remote roadside bush and within about 5 minutes I got a call from channel 3 news, they wanted to meet and do an interview. They said they will call again. The free publicity is lots better than paid advertising. If I had gotten the channel 3 news call first it would have been better, but I didn't want to break the appt I had set with the newspaper reporter. This is the same reporter who will be back with a photographer on wed.

[troes30]

glad to hear you guys are gettin big sap. we turned the vacuums on yesterday afternoon and it ran decent...takin awhile to get the lines unthawed. we got another 3-4 inches of wet snow last night, supposedly another 6-8 tonite...sugar snow i guess. gonna be cold up here now until tuesday so we wont have enough to boil til probably thurs or friday. cant wait to try out the new RO. should be interesting. we still have some ice on the trees in 2 of our woods. i'm a little worried about this wet snow snappin limbs. well i gotta work on the new nursery today and watch the SU game later...good luck to you guys boilin', let me know how the syrups lookin'

[eye8astonie]

We're boiling in Whitney Point... sap has been running like crazy, can't keep up with it. Boiling in the rain doesn't help! But we're making headway. Think I'll let the sap in the buckets freeze a little tonight so I can take the ice out and take advantage of Mother Nature's RO machine.

Hope everyone's having fun this weekend... I think the reason it's so cloudy is all the steam coming off the evaporators all over the Northeast!

Duane

[Brian Ryther]

It has bee BIGSAP and littlesugar. Sugar is going between 2% and 1.5%. That has means a lot of wood for litle sap. Today was 1500 gal of sap for 30 gal of syrup. That was a lot of work for 7 hrs of boiling. Loving every second of it.

[sapman]

Well, I regret to say that I still haven't tapped. Didn't really think I was missing much, based on what a friend close-by has been getting, but you guys are making me wonder! We do still have a fair amount of snow here, so that may be slowing things down around here. But I worked in Marcellus yesterday, and it definitely felt like sap weather there.

Will be tapping early this week, hoping for good runs later in the week. Hoping to put out about 7-800 this year, trying to make the RO more worthwhile.

Danno, if I didn't have so much to do tomorrow, I'd be showing up to watch you boil!

All the best,
Tim

[New Hope Mapleman]

Yeh we've been boiling. I finished tapping the larger bushes on Sat of last week. Actually got some awesome help this year. (Always good if the tap is higher than the tube going by the tree. Dad & I usually do it all, but a friend I helped design a wet/dry for was so happy with its performance that he came and helped us tap two days!) It's been so cold up on the hill that we were't getting anything much. Funny thing was yesterday when it was only 32 out we got a good one. I had to keep going and taking the ice off the float on my releaser, but it was rewarding last night to walk out the door with 110 gallons made for the day! Made me happy!!

Did you get an RO Tim? I put a second tower on mine and it is amazing what that unit will do! 5000 gallons of sap used to wear me out!

We've had ice on the trees since the last ice storm. Looks nice but makes a mess of the poor trees when the old wind blows. Haven't had a Full run since we got halfway through tapping. The first boil we got 3000 gallons of sap off the 1775 taps we had in! Waiting for another 10 like that!!!

Sugar content has been going up! It was actually 2.0 off the one woods that has been 1.5 routinely. Alot more fun when theres plenty sugar!

Have fun guys and lets fill all those drums. If I run out the farmer down the street said I could use his bulk tank to store syrup! Boy would I love to have that one full!

Good to hear from you guys.

[sapman]

Dan, 110 gallons for the day, that's awesome! Glad to hear you got the second tower in place.

I located a nice used Airablo at Bascom's a couple weeks after visiting you, and have it all ready to concentrate. 5-600gph expandable. Hope I someday have the need to expand it!

Keep up the good work!

Tim

[backyardsugarer]

Sap ran decent in Rochester on Friday so I boiled off about 1,000 gallons and made 20 gallons of medium Saturday. Too cold to run sat. or sun. Middle/end of the week looks good here.

Chris

[maple flats]

backyardsugarer, I see in your signature you have a 2x6 wood fired and a 6x16 oil. Do you use these either/or or does one feed the other or do they just run seperately side by side??

[danno]

Tim - looks like more mid-40's coming up mid week. Go tap those trees!

After getting the feed lines thawed this morning, got 600 gallons boiled down in just under 6 hours. That's the 100 gph I was shooting for. Thanks Parker! Last year, that would have taken me over 12. Ofcourse, Dan would not even bother starting a fire for 600 gallons:)

Tim, or anyone else, your welcome over any time.

[backyardsugarer]

I have the 2 X 6 wood fired (used for many years as a hobby) for demonstrations when I do not have a lot of sap. I was thinking about selling it but maple weekend is always hit and miss with sap so I kept it to boil on so people can see the process if I only have a few hundred gallons of sap. It is also useful for finishing the last syrup of the year that is taken off the big rig (saves a ton of propane). Plus it is fun to fire the little thing up and tinker every once in a while. Lpoks good by Thursday around here for a big run.

Chris

[New Hope Mapleman]

I'd have started for 600 gallons. If you ever have 600 you don't want let me know. I'm not much into dumping sap. I've only dumped a couple loads in my life. They were .9 percent sugar. Thats 95/1 or something. I told dad just let her go. Now with an RO that might have been a different story but just burning wood-I don't think so. Haven't seen it that low ever since-thankfully!

Glad to hear your boiling!
Dan

[sapman]

Got started after work with 160~ taps. Many of the taps were running quite well, even freezing while I watched, and still running! Hoping to tap all day tomorrow.

Tim

[danno]

Tim - that extra hour of sunlight is nice! Got a bunch more wood split and did some pallet carving. Wish I got that wood split and in the shed several months ago, but what are you gonna do. I split it small, so hopefully it will dry some. After what I've burnt so far, I was looking at my wood pile and said, you're gonna run out again. Still have about 50 pallets, so that should be good.

[danno]

Finished with quart per tap. Last boil was Friday. Pushed out half the evaporator. Still have a few gallons in the syrup pan to finish. Got everything cleaned up today except for the evap. 60 degrees today made it a good day to wash the tubing. The air/water combo sure does a nice job on the tubing, but it certainly sends the water everywhere:)

[powerdub]

I am sorry to see you are done! Keep in touch.