Morgan county

[ericjeeper]

Today I ordered enough taps and supplies to double my operation.. You heard me double.. There might be days that it will over produce my boiling off capabilities.. But for the most days I should be able to keep up..
I built a new woodfired arch and am hoping it will perform better than my old block setup.
Oh my sugarbush will now consist of 20 taps.. LOL Hey I do it for the fun not for production. But I seem to give more syrup away than I can produce.. I started canning it in 12 ounce jars.. Them quart jars was a lot of effort to just give away.
Now if we can just get this cold snap to go away we will be tapping here.

[Sugar Sue]

I laughed so hard my husband came up from the basement to see what was wrong with me. Thanks for the humor.

[ericjeeper]

I was wrong. I thought I had only ten taps and bag setups.. I went out to the garage today to get them ready to hang and you know what? I am a larger producer than I had previously thought.. I already had 20.. Now I will have 30.http://i.pbase.com/o6/98/18098/1/108717349.fpAdG1EV.1st200949.jpg These are the current 20,. I had a lot of taps already running pretty good before we had even left the bush.
My 17 year old son and I Made the trek through almost a foot of snow.. I told him if it did not melt soon I would make a path with the dozer.. You would never guess what he told me.. "Told me to get in shape".. I panted as I laughed at him.. But he is right
I should be able to get all 30 taps into an area about 50yds by 50yds. with very few of them being "Over the hill"
We do not have a lot of flat ground here. Plus we had over 125 maples cut out 3 years ago for lumber..
Is it considered cannibalistic to make maple syrup using maple for the fire too?
But none the less I am tapped and flowing.. Now to get the steam hood hung and the exhaust flue hooked up.. and get ready to boil.

[maple flats]

It is considered good practice in most cases to fire with maple. It usually means you have made improvement cuttings in your sugarbush (thinned to get more sun and growth on desired crop trees)

[ericjeeper]

It is considered good practice in most cases to fire with maple. It usually means you have made improvement cuttings in your sugarbush (thinned to get more sun and growth on desired crop trees)

OOPs I guess we are going at it backwards. We sold the good trees and kept the small and old crippled up ones.,. But hey It is more about timber management here as opposed to Sugaring..
I prefer to fire with poplar rips I get from the sawmill and sassafras split pretty small.. Gets her hot..

[ericjeeper]

I went out this am to check progress. I found two saks with small holes.. Why is it the holes are always down towards the bottom? Why oh why can't they be up towards the top. I imagine the bags were poked in the hauling to the bush process. I made them up in the garage then put them into a tote and hauled them out rather than doing it in the bush.http://i.pbase.com/o6/98/18098/1/108746089.5aDv4bfV.1stdayrun57.jpg
http://i.pbase.com/o6/98/18098/1/108746090.00UmJVJp.1stdayrun58.jpg
Currently 39 degrees it stayed about the same overnight. Hopefully the sun will really drive up the sap as the day progresses.

[ericjeeper]

My son and I managed to cook down a test batch .. got 1 quart. Everything went well with all the home made equipment.

[Sugar Sue]

Eric,
every feel like you are talking to yourself. Are there any more Hossiers on this site???
I think that we will be tapping this weekend. Actually we will need to tap on Wed or Thursday. Thursday should be about 32 up here and Friday is jumping to the 40's. I am a little nervous with this being our first time. I hope we haven't bitten off more than we can chew. I have a couple of my brothers are willing to help.

[ericjeeper]

Eric,
ever feel like you are talking to yourself. Are there any more Hoosiers on this site???
I think that we will be tapping this weekend. Actually we will need to tap on Wed or Thursday. Thursday should be about 32 up here and Friday is jumping to the 40's. I am a little nervous with this being our first time. I hope we haven't bitten off more than we can chew. I have a couple of my brothers are willing to help.

Yes I seem to always be the "Thread killer" LOL
Sue you will be fine there is nothing to it when you have enough help.. My son is very good help. Throughout the season we have guest that come to help and watch a bit.My son enjoy playing in the fire the most.. Good thing he is on his way to being a career firefighter.
I got the arch bricked yesterday before I fired it up.Everything seemed to work great.
I think Thursday we should begin a good run.Maybe the ten new taps and Sap Sak brackets I ordered from Andersons will arrive in time to get put in place.

[Dennis H.]

I am glad to someone else is taking the plunge and tapping. I have 45 buckets as of this morning.

It seems we are the only ones started??

Eric do you like your sap saks? They say you can see if any sap is in them from a god distance.

I also hear you about the nasty/ugly trees. Here no one but me taps and everyone thinks the only good use for a tree is on the back of a log truck. I am trying to change that thinking.

Anyway, good luck in the up coming days.

[ericjeeper]

I am glad to someone else is taking the plunge and tapping. I have 45 buckets as of this morning.

It seems we are the only ones started??

Eric do you like your sap saks? They say you can see if any sap is in them from a god distance.

I also hear you about the nasty/ugly trees. Here no one but me taps and everyone thinks the only good use for a tree is on the back of a log truck. I am trying to change that thinking.

Anyway, good luck in the up coming days.

I love the saks. Yes you can see from a great distance how much is in them. I use the blue ones.. Why? Because the first place I ordered from (RMG sugarbush) I am pretty sure that is all they offered.. There are not to many around my area that tap. One other family taps, kind of their family thing they do. Even the ex son in law still comes almost daily to help. I think they run over 100 taps.. with sap saks.

[DougM]

Eric,
We have a small operation of 130 taps not that far from you near Coatesville, IN.

We originally planned to tap yesterday but held off due to the cold. I can't see them running before at least Saturday.

We also use the blue sap bags with holders we make ourselves. We really like the space and time savings over using buckets.

[ericjeeper]

Of course the bags have sap frozen in them. The funny thing is.. One old maple with almost a hollowed out center seems to be my best producer. Each bag easily has 4 times the amount of sap in the bags. And that tree has two bags on it.I would guess the tree is pretty short term. I might just sink another tap in it as it will likely not make it another few years anyhow.
I will add the remaining ten taps as soon as it warms up.
Once the bags start to thaw a little I will remove them completely from their holder and slide the ice out into a half barrel to let thaw. This is one of the only downfalls to the bags. Pain in the caboose to remove icebergs from.
The weathermen here are forecasting a pretty good run for the next 7 days. Granted they have a difficult enough time predicting darkness at nightfall around here.

[Sugar Sue]

I am going to tap tonight. They are saying about a week of above freezing. I am hoping to put out around 100 taps. That might be kind of hard since I only have 75. I have some one shipping me some more I just don't know when they are getting here.

[ericjeeper]

I am going to tap tonight. They are saying about a week of above freezing. I am hoping to put out around 100 taps. That might be kind of hard since I only have 75. I have some one shipping me some more I just don't know when they are getting here.

Better get the cordless drill batteries charged up. Unless you are going old school and using a brace and bit.., Not me That is the only modern convenience I have.. Nah not really..
I have the ten that I ordered Saturday here from My new supplier.. They did well.I will likely tap tomorrow..
I broke down and welded a drain valve onto my flat pan.. I figure I might as well get it on there so I do not have to ladle or try to pour from a 2x4 pan. LOL
Kind of resembles a Monkey trying seduce a football.

[ericjeeper]

Well my operation is in full swing.. All 30 taps are plugged in and running.. Currently 50° here in sunny central Indiana. Tomorrow afternoon I should have enough to begin cooking hard..
I ran a small test batch today testing out the new blower setup. Now I understand why you need a good tight seal on the door.. I had fire shooting out the top and bottom of the door.. Honestly at this point not a lot I can do about it right now.I might try welding some flat stock to the inside to see if I can make that seal a little better,. I put about 8 gallons in the pan, lit the fire turned on the blower and had a good boil within 20 minutes.
I have a question from those with more experience. Am I better off to add sap a little at a time or just dump 30 gallons into the pan and get the fire going and boil? Sort of seems like 6 of one and a half dozen of the other to me.. But what do I know..
I have the 4x4 tractor in the heated garage so it will start easier..No sense in wasting electricity plugging in the block heater when I can just as easy leave my truck sit outside for a few days.. Maybe it will rain.. It could use a bath anyhow.

[sugarnut]

is there anyway you can put some fiberglass door gasket on there with some high temp mortar? they have mortar repair stuff in tubes for caulk guns. it won't last too long, but it may help a little.

[ericjeeper]

is there anyway you can put some fiberglass door gasket on there with some high temp mortar? they have mortar repair stuff in tubes for caulk guns. it won't last too long, but it may help a little.

No not really cause the door is the same size as the opening minus the thickness of a sawzall blade.. It just needs a whole new front basically.. I will try to figure something out before I fire this afternoon.. have HS Diving sectionals this am..

[ericjeeper]

I was really disappointed when we got in this afternoon. I was expecting a major flow only to find out that the warm night evidently was no help. There was no sunshine today.. Hopefully we will get some cold nights soon.Followed by a warm day.. gee... Why on earth am I asking for cold weather again? I did manage to get 2 quarts cooked off from the past two days sap collection.
Hopefully others had a better day.

[ericjeeper]

And I might add pretty weather lady. Are calling for perfect sugaring week. Here is the forecast.
http://images.ibsys.com/ind/images/weather/auto/forecast_320x240.jpg
Can it not get any better than this? Lets just hope it for once goes as forecast..

[ericjeeper]

My son (17) had a half day of high school today.So we pulled the bags at 2 pm and managed a decent amount.Just finished off two quarts and a cup full.This syrup was a little lighter in color than some of the earlier batches.
Hopefully the syrup gods will be good to me the rest of the week.

[ericjeeper]

Well I am preparing my road into my sugarbush. For the past few years I have been driving through a swag (Low spot). I fired up the dozer today and made me a new road in all on high ground. This should make it a little easier. Maybe I can do most of my collecting with the small 4x4 pickup as opposed to the 4x4 tractor.
The weather forecast is looking good for the end of this week.But I have a couple of days of window sales product meetings up by Fort Wayne next week. So I will just wait til I am back home. I would hate to start to early and have the holes dry up before the good flows come.Our ground here is frozen about 4-5 inches deep right now.