How's everyone doing getting ready?

[PATheron]

Thought it might be fun if anyone wanted to way in on what they are doing to get ready for sugaring this year or any changes or neat ideas they have for the upcoming season. Kind of like Andy saying he's thinking about making the clear boosters. Theron

[royalmaple]

Serious tap count this year.

Big Sap = Childs play

Tsunami sap is what I am going for.

[jemsklein]

Well so far I have built my sugar shack. Have gotten couple of tanks I bought a fiberglass tank that holds 22000 liters. I also bought a tractor its a 4wheel drive with loader so there will be no getting stuck in the snow this year. We are also building a 6x10 evaporator to do some tsunami boiling this year.

[Dennis H.]

Slow and steady! They say that wins the race???

Got the room in our garage converted to a sugarshack, I have a bunch of trees lined up to increase the number of taps this coming year. I think I have enough wood ready. I have been thinning the pines and junk trees out of the woods in the back half. I got all the supplies and fittings to make the sap hauling tank set-up.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I have had about all the wood in the woodshed for a few months and evaporator is clean and will do minor tune-ups to the firebrick and etc on inside of arch before putting pans back on as I like to check everything each year. No changes for next year other than I might add 15 or 20 taps but that is it. I want to get into the woods and check everything and make need repairs this month so I can relax and hunt for a couple of months and will do it again just before tapping.

I did get a wooden board fence built around the back and side of my sugarhouse property and it looks really nice and got all of the extra lumber from when I built the sugarhouse moved next to my lot 3 years after the fact. Hope to get the kitchen and bedroom/bathroom framed up next year and was wanting to get a start on that this year, but too many things have been going on and too busy at work to have a lot of extra time living 30 minutes from sugarhouse.

[Parker]

I will be lucky to get the woodshed full,,,been really slacking,,,was up in Hill the other day and saw the small stream that flowes thru the bush rose high enough to wash the 2 big bridges there about 50 feet downstream (which amazes me) and moved my tank right off its foundation and 10 feet downstream,,,I have to repaint a couple of sap tanks that are getting pretty rough,,,,I did service the 3 vacuum pumps yesterday,,made sure everything was ship shape there,,,,would like to add 300-500 taps in Hill,,have most of the stuff,,just need to make the time,,,,,,,GOTTA FIND A FILTERPRESS!!!

[3% Solution]

Good rainy morning,
Well let's see ............
For this little operation we have to;
Cut up the wood
Finish stocking the woodshed (1.25 cord)
Cut up the remaining bundles and stack it
Run some more tubing (which will cut 30 buckets out)
Do the valves for the 3 barrels to catch the sap in
Make the stands for barrels
Seal up the EEU a bit better than we had it last year
Not much really, should be able to knock a couple things off today!!

Dave

[maplecrest]

spent some major time with land owner walking his 60 acres i am going to thin and put 1300 taps this year i hope. we agreed on power usage, where the vac is going and the tanks to set.will be two lift systems.working on what i am going to use for vac. hope to get to 6500 taps at this point. major sugar house work to do. new r/o combo vac room to save running around. will be able to see vac levels and what the r/o is doing from where i draw off at the evap.putting in two new storage tanks to feed r/o a 1500 and a 2500 gal. using last years 1200 for permeate.will have 2000 gallons of permeate storage never enough. cross flow pans for evap and new insulation and smoke stack. going to change drops in one woods. do like the lapierre clear spouts going to try 1000 of them.

[maple flats]

Finished pouring the floor earlier this summer. I have been cutting and splitting wood off and on all summer. I still need to round it all up, finish splitting and stack to final dry. In fact I did some today before the rain hit. Then I went into the sugarhouse to work on my forced draft plan. I have the blower and sort of decided on a plan to hook it up. I am drawing the air from outside and blowing it thru a trench I poured in the concrete floor. I have been trying to decide how to run the air into the arch. It will blow thru the trench into the base of the arch but from there I am thinking of how to disperse it. My blower will be on a variable speed control that will be situated either on a pole dropping from the cieling to just over the fill doors or on one wall opposite the fill doors. I do not have grates to blow the air into so I am thinking of options to spread the air out in the arch. I am leaning towards a set of pipes entering from the rear (maybe 6-8" below the grates) and with several outlets aimed upward and then have the ends toward the front be aimed up and bach towards the rear at about 30-45 degrees rather that aim them straight up. Am I making this harder than it needs to be?
On the bush front I still have to get the go ahead to start installing my additional 400 taps at my biggest bush (and the remove about 100 from others). The last time I talked with the landowner he said he would finish cutting trees in that part of the woods before the end of Sept. Then I can start my woods work. The landowner is not hedging, he has just been busy building an addition for his son who was in a very bad car accident a year and a half ago. The son finally came home 3 weeks ago after being in the hospital and then a rehab home since March 31, 2007. I am fairly well ensured of not loosing the woods because I have loaned my handicap van with hydraulic wheel chair lift to them for the last few months. I hope to get that woods set up before the snow gets deep and the winds get too cold. After that I need to make some changes in the sugarhouse to improve the efficiency of the operation. I also need to finish making my pre heater which I have designed and started building.

[3% Solution]

Hi all,
A little update from the other day;
Got the barrels and valves all set.
Made the stands, got them placed in the woods where they go.
Did a recount, going to have 40 less buckets this coming spring.
Maybe get the family together to cut wood Saturday or Sunday.

Dave

[jrthe3]

well i built the new 16x24 sugar house last year finely got everything moved out of old one into new one turned the old one in to a 12x16 wood shed have it full of fire wood plus the 8x8 leantoo full of wood got all tubing fixed and back up have to put vacuum and more taps on hold for this year may add a few more buckets come spring tanks are all ready to be put out and tree tapped just waiting for that snow to melt but i guees we have to get the snow first

[3% Solution]

Hi all,
A bit of an update;
Got the drops made (66 of them).
Just got to redo the old tubing ( US Maple, real old stuff).
Add some more tubing (as posted earlier).
Finish filling the woodshed (1/4 cord).
Cut up the remaining 4 bundles of slabs.
EEU is pretty much tightened up now, should work a little better than last year.

[Russell Lampron]

I moved out of my parents woods after last season. Dad and Mom are getting too old and fragile to gather sap. Last season was especially hard because of all of the deep snow.

I am adding as many taps as I can in my own woods and putting all of that on vacuum. I need to add at least 150 taps to replace the ones that I don't have anymore but am aiming for 400. If I can get close to .5 gallons per tap that should give me enough to fill four 55 gallon barrels and still have enough for my retail needs.

[mapleman3]

Lots of stuff

bigger evap
double amount of taps
addition on sugarhouse
tube up 2 new bushes
need a bigger 4x4 truck to haul the extra sap

where can I find a "WAD" of cash ????????

[Maple Hill Sugarhouse]

All that $60+ a gal. syrup out there being sold=someone must have some coin to purchase things needed :)

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jim,

Get you a nice small trailer with a 5,000 lb axle under it and it will haul all the sap you want to haul and save a lot of wear and tear on the rear end, bed and suspension on that nice silver truck of yours.

That would equate to a 525 gallon tank of sap behind the truck and be much lower to the ground vs the pickup bed.

[Jeff E]

THe new sugar house (no longer a shack!) is up and doing the wiring now.
Wondering about insulation and interior finish work....

Thinning work is continuing, and the Maples will be happy.
I have mainline and laterals to do for about 1200 taps to go....oh my.

So after work, I get home, work in the woods till dark, then work in the sugar house till I can't take it anymore, then do it again the next day.

I love this stuff. Mapleholic and loving it!!!

[maplecrest]

new r/o is here, she is big. 2, 7.5hp high pressure pumps a 5hp recir. pump. three membranes and towers. now i have to build a room to put it in. and find enough taps to run it

[brookledge]

Jeff
How high can you crank the % up to in your 6X14 before you run into problems? I have heard of producers with large evaps. making syrup in the flue pan if the concentrate is too high
Some day I will own an RO also but I'd say I'm a couple of yrs. away
Good luck in setting it up
Keith

[maplecrest]

funny you ask that question. i was on the phone with randy at leader last week. last year i averaged 10 to 12 percent but had to run the float box dead level or dripping over. when asking about a larger float box to go to higher con. he told me my drop flue pan is not designed for higher con of sap. that the flues are too narrow. the new welded pans have a wider channels for better sap flow and less niter build up. my neighbor scott has problems with his flue pan at 20% with niter build up in the narrow flues. has to shut down and clean, taking hunks of black tar out.and finding his flues shrinking in width.my pan is doing the same thing. i have made syrup in the flue pan. you have to run deep and draw steady. that is why i was at 50 gallons an hour. scott was at 90 to 100 an hour on a 6x16.i like the short boils. with the new r/o i will not have to wait on the r/o.output and intake the same. alot of producers got smaller rigs to match the output of the r/o's to con and boil at the same time. i was always waiting for enough sap to start boiling.

[markcasper]

Finally some news to get back on the Trader. I got my new cdl 600 delivered on Tuesday and the "boys" got done on the construction of 15 x16 feet addition on Wednesday. Then on Wednesday night our forester called and wanted to start his marking project. We are thinning 42 acres. He is going to mark trees all next week, set up the bid process and I told him I want this next spring to tap there yet, so the cut will occur in 2009-10 which will be followed by a tubing revamp and addotional taps.


I want to know who the guy is from Almena, Wis that I supposedly have corresponded with on here. It doesn't ring any bells, but supposedly you just bought a 300 cdl and it was delivered last Tuesday before mine was. This is what Pete Roth told me.

Will be a busy winter preparing that for sure. Mam that RO is wicked for giving directions. Hope I don't wreck it.

Roth quoted a price of 3.25-3.60 /lb for syrup delivered to them.

[Russell Lampron]

Mark congratulations on the new RO. You won't wreck it, after you run it a couple of times it will be real easy.

[markcasper]

Russ, Thanks for the congrats! I am already trying to figure out how many more taps to add next spring! I am glad the higher prices have moved east. It will go well towards the increase of the tubing price. I wonder if tubing will come back down, being that oil is trading at 64 dollars/ barrel?

[PATheron]

Give you guys an update being im stuck in the house watching it rain. Gotta cold or Id be out there anyway. Got a little more wood to split for the neighbor then its back to the woods. The young stand needs to have the drops cut in and saddles and thats good to go. Not sure about numbers but Im thinking 700 new and then theres probly another 200 new on the pond proberty, next door, and my side of the road will be done. Then across the road I have to side tie the main and thats done and then I can run the laterals. Should be somewhere around 800 real nice taps. This weekend the weather is bad but I am getting something done. I did a trade deal on a real nice 1500 gallon tank for the shed. Ive got to move that in there and this afternoon Im going to an auction and gonna try to buy another tank for across the road. Thatll give me 1000 gal storage for roughly 800 taps over there and 2250 gals at the sugarhouse for what Im guessing to be 2600 on the lines that will run to it. A lot of those taps are culls so who knows. Im a little light on storage but that will make Jerry happy becouse itll be boiled as soon as it comes off the hill. The RO gets turned on early this year. That will take care of any storage prob. Hoping to have the lines all in in a month or so. Have to see but I think I can do it. Probly be working right up to season but what the heck it keeps me off the streets. Cant wait to drill holes. When I see that sap run this year itll be all worth it. Theron

[3% Solution]

PA,
I guess your sending the rain this way, it looks more like snow than rain!!!
My wife is right behind me, too.
Well until about the 4th week in March, usually says she is about sick of being in that little building with me!!!!
Got to get the kids back here to run some tubing around here and there.
After that we'll be done!!
Well you know, there's always something!!
Stay safe!!

Dave

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

MARK

oil is always slower coming down than going up


RICH

[Jeff E]

Mark, I am waiting on the same RO up here near Spooner, also from Pete R.
There are more of us around than I realized!

I am working in the woods still, installing tubing. I added another 150 taps last week, and am about 1/2 way to the 2000 goal. It is going much faster now that I have done it a bit, but still a process:)

Build is done, Sap storage getting moved in this week, 3400 gallons of sap, 330 for concentrate, 600 for permiate. Do you think that is light for permiate to clean the CDL 600? I may plumb in to run the permiate back to the bulk storage, so if I empty sap from 1 tank and can use it for permiate.

After dark, I will be bricking the arch.

I know I will be busy right up to sap time. I to am hoping for tsunami sap, and a steam beltching, RO pumping, sweet smelling sugar house!

[maplecrest]

i had an 800 gallon tank for perm storage and never seemed enough for my 600 r/o. pipe and valve is cheep insurance to an empty tank.rinsing took alot and i never paid enough attention to the level in the tank. would always be empty for final rinse.

[markcasper]

Jeff, 600 will work I think, but I have always been told more is better. Roth has all of the ros in house, just not all delivered yet. This is great, we'll have all kinds of mutual support. I have a 900 gallon milk tank that I bought before knowing I was getting ro. So will be using that and roth said thats plenty enough tank for ro.