february Journal

[Dave Y]

No doubt buckets will make sap better than gravity. But I had to put up tubing so I wouldn't wear my self out. At my age you have to pace yourself if you want to get to the finish line! I will put out 300 more taps after work today. I hope to be tapped by the 25 or 26th. Parker I have already looked at a 6x16 wood eating monster about 100 miles from home. the only thing that is keeping me from buying it,is a building to put it in. And then if i did have it I would add more taps. there is no end to this crap. Its like if i dont have wood to cut or buckets to empty or sap to boil, or get ready to boil I have nothing to do!

[dano2840]

got the tank up on its blocks today, going to run the line down to the nieboring drive way today, i cleaned the tank and found out i not only have to paint the rust spot but the whole tank, as the old aluminum paint the previous owner put on is starting to chip off, bought some latex based aluminum paint yestarday, uncle said it shouldnt matter a whole lot because sap wont be in it much more than 6 or 7 hours, i really dont know any thing about it, but i dont have a replacement tank i cant just throw over there, so im stuck with this one.

[Dave Y]

DanO,
Instead of painting the tank you could put a sheet of plastic in the tank. when the the season is over throw away the plastic and get a new tank.

[caseyssugarshack93]

Dave Y , u must get pretty tired with all thoes buckets!!! you must have tons of maples in ur area,

[royalmaple]

Does anyone have a drop line maker that they are not using currently? I've got about 1700 more to do and wouldn't mind borrowing one to shorten the burden. Send me a message if you do.

Glad we still have a few months before sugaring season, right?

[NH Maplemaker]

Matt, I have one,But there was just a big lay off were she works !! I don't think she would appreciate me loaning her out to do more work on top of what they just dump on to her!! LOL

Jim L.

[jrthe3]

boiled my first boil today did not get any syrup off but will go to sugar house tomorrow to fire up the finisher had to work out a lot of kinks today but got it running smooth learned a lesson today befor checking to see if the exhaust fan is free make sure it is turned off cause when i trunned it by hand it turned right on tore up my gloves bad good thing a had them on cause it could of been my hand

[royalmaple]

Jim-

Sounds like you have the deluxe model. I'm just looking for the simple bench, desktop mounted one. I wouldn't know what to do if I had one like you got.

Plus shipping might really be expensive.

[NH Maplemaker]

Matt, I find that this deluxe model talks back too !! Got try figure whats wrong with it one of these days.

Jim L.

[3% Solution]

NH Maplemaker,
Did your unit come ready to make drops.
Mine needs a kit to get it to make them!!!

Dave

[maplekid]

well its been a crappy day anything that could go wrong did. first sap feed line froze so i had to jimmy up something finally i got sick of it freezing so i stacked a couple buckets and put a hose into a 5 gal bucket and did it that way. doors would not keep the smoke in the fire box or the fire for that matter. got burnt; grabbed the door and there was a hole in the glove and burnt me pretty good. but im sure everybody has these days

[jrthe3]

maplekid i had the same day i had the rope brake on the stack cover and the cover close filled the shack full of smoke

[Dave Y]

Casey,
If things go right, and they seldom do, I will handle my buckets twice this year. Once when I put them up and once when I take them down. I hire young fellas like you to empty them for me. And yes there is a good amount of maple in my area.
I managed to get 400 more taps in tonite, only 2300 more to go!

[Dave Y]

some days you get the bear and some days the bear gets you!

[caseyssugarshack93]

Dave y,How much syrup to you make a year? u must boil 24/7 without a r/o

[Dave Y]

Casey,
last year I had 1800 taps. 700 buckets made 445 gal. I hope to hit 600 this year. I usually don't quit till the sap stops running or I run out of wood.

[caseyssugarshack93]

You eventully going to go vac ? i hope to make around 300 gallons to get things going, il have around 900 on vac this year and a r/o will help out alot since i have a 2x6 how many taps do u plan on having? you going to get a r/o or bigger evap?

[PATheron]

Managed to work up a little ambition today and ran 1200 more feet of slow measured growth(3 quata main line). Got about 150 misc taps or so that I really need to get on line. Pretty much pressed for time so this stuff is going in on the quick. Just got to get it to the big belly Ill make it fancy this summer. Now that Ive got the belly in the sugarhouse I can put my double across the road so I need to do that. Then I have to make a better fix for my filter press and I should be pretty well set. Then its leak patrol or boiling till she quits running. Making quality product takes a lot of time even the kind of product I make takes a lot of time. Have plenty of time to rest after season. Cant wait for the first big run. Were bypassing the BIGSAP and going right to SH$#ASTROPHE SAP! Theeron

[Sugarmaker]

Trying to stay warm in the deep freeze again.:) May have tapped to early? Time will tell!

[Dave Y]

Casey,
I am maxed out at this level. There are a lot of things that need to happen before I get any bigger. I had thought about an RO but I am backing off on that at this time. I am leaning towards a bigger evaporator. Along with more boiling capacity. I plan to ad vacuum. But I do not like to bank on just one thing so I will hang on to buckets as long as I can.

[mapleack]

Sap ran last night, my dad gathered 360 gal this morning, boiled it this afternoon and was finishing when I got home from work at 6. Total for the season is about 1200 gal sap. Used our new 7 inch filter press for the first time tonight, filled two five gal jugs and left another five gal or so in the bottling tank.

[brookledge]

Today seems to have been losy for some of us. Well it was for me also. I broke my UV lamp when I was taking it off the wall to clean the quartz tube.
Not going to kill me but it's around a 100 bucks for a new lamp. Now I need to make an extra 2 gallons to pay for it.
keith

[sapman]

Dave, I'm like you. I may get 1000 on tubing this spring, but still plan on running at least 500 buckets. Can't stand to lose those big roadside producers! Now whether I'll have time to collect them or not remains to be seen.

Tim

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Yesterday went better for me than for some of you. I did manage to have the tractor and trailer slide down a hill backwards with both wheels spinning madly trying to climb...luckily everything stayed straight and I found another way around to get out of the woods. Got a lot accomplished Finished the last of my ladders and lifts. There are of 23 of them bringing a total of almost 800 taps into the vacuum system. Got my dump and measuring system for purchased sap set up. Will be able to unload the sap, filter it and measure gallons. It will then flow by gravity into a storage tank before the ro. By using the measure tank for storage also, I will have 1400 gallons of storage space at the sugar house and an additional 1700 gallons in the bush.
Got most of the plumbing done on the ro. Need a couple more fitings and she is set to go. In the afternoon, I moved my old hydrovac back to my new bush and got it plumbed in to the system. Had to drain the old gas and start fresh but then it fired right up. Was pulling 25 and 1/2 inches at the releaser. Better than it ever did last year. I have a shorter rum between the pump and the releaser and a larger pipe.
Whats left? finish plumbing the head tanks to the evaporator. Put in about 100 more saddles. Put in some line fittings. Plumb my new vacuum pump to my front bush and set up the tanks and releasers. Oh yeah, farm taxes are due March 1. Maybe I had better get at my bookwork. But this sugaring stuff is much more fun......
Doug

[Dave Y]

Sapman,
Dont worry you will have plenty of time to empty buckets. You can send anyone to pump tanks for you while you are empting buckets.:)

[PATheron]

Doug- Sounds like your pretty darn close to being ready especially for all you had to do. Does it look like those guys are going to bring you a lot of sap? Theron

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Theron,
Right now it looks like there will be about 1000 to 1200 buckets being hung. Not 100% sure on the last 200 yet. If my help situation crystalises (how the heck do you spell that?) I may tap 200 her at home on buckets too. I had planned on 50 for show purposes but might go for the rest. Visitors love to see the horses work!
Doug

[3rdgen.maple]

Some of us had lousy days yesterday, Im in that boat for sure. Outer 4 wheel drive hub assembly on the deere blew up yesterday pretty cheap part only about $1700 bucks ouch. Woke up this morning to 12 inches of snow. I don't recomend john deere to anyone. I have had nothing but problems with the steering assembly and the hub assembly. I have replaced that hub once already along with the ball jaoint 3 times and the steering arm twice. Yep nothing runs like a deere. Should have never traded in the old case.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Not to mention how expensive the green paint is!! Guess there are poor ones out there in all makes. My 2 cents.

[3rdgen.maple]

Yep I paid good money for that green paint. And still kicking myself for it. Like you said though I think I got that poor one. After doing a little research for parts I found out that yanmar actually made the model I have don't know if that is the difference or not.

[sapman]

RE: the tubing and buckets, I hear it takes some time each day walking lines to make sure the vacuum is up good, so that will add to the collection time.

I took today off to work in the woods, and woke up to 12+" of new snow, and still coming. Slows everything way down, hence I'm still here writing this morning. Hope my laterals aren't all under snow.

3rdgen, do you know if you can get parts for your Deere/Yanmar from Ran-Mar in Pulaski? I know he's a good guy. Good luck with it!

Tim

[dano2840]

i love all of our green paint, but ive slowly taken a liking to orange paint too (both Allis chalmers and kubota), but i still like the green too
,

[dano2840]

DanO,
Instead of painting the tank you could put a sheet of plastic in the tank. when the the season is over throw away the plastic and get a new tank.

cant do that, the sap is going to run from the tank to the drive way by gravity, which means i need to use the bung on the tank which means plastic wont work

[3rdgen.maple]

Sapman yes I checked with him he is indeed good to deal with. Spent the whole morning on the phone calling state to state with the same result. John Deere has made there Yanmar/ john deere parts for anything older than 10 years obsolete. Called Yanmar dealers to there model of that tractor and was told that every part has a change to them so they will never fit the john deere model. Used parts dealers told me they get 10 to 15 calls a week for that particular part and if I could find one buy it regardless of the price cause it won't be there tomorrow. So short end of the story have a used assembly coming monday and trading it in after Im done boiling for the year. So if anybody is looking at john deere make sure you ask if it was made by yanmar and if it is DON"T BUY IT cause if it breaks your in trouble.

[3rdgen.maple]

Disregard that last line in my last post. FOR SALE JOHN DEERE 1050 with loader 4 wheel drive 3point hitch !!!! Will throw in couple kids and wife for free. Any takers. Man I gotta get some kind of entertainment outa this.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Please Send Picture Of Wife And Kids

[3rdgen.maple]

Haynes I was waiting for that one. Pretty funny, nice that when ones having a bad day the trader members get me laughing Thanks.

[dano2840]

i think he means he will pay the money for the tractor wife and kids, but you can keep the tractor, hehehe

[Haynes Forest Products]

I need weight and Zip code to check shipping cost

[3rdgen.maple]

I deliver at no extra cost

[caseyssugarshack93]

R/O's FINALLY IN :D :D :D

[jdj]

Dave Y , u must get pretty tired with all thoes buckets!!! you must have tons of maples in ur area,

I'm going to have 2,000 buckets out this year. Every year I keep saying that I am done with buckets but I know nothing about pipeline and buckets are retard proof as long as you have a strong back!!!

[jdj]

i love all of our green paint, but ive slowly taken a liking to orange paint too (both Allis chalmers and kubota), but i still like the green too
,

I have 3 allis tractors, find they are cheaper to buy, cheaper to fix and still get the job done.......just my two cents.

[PATheron]

jdj- 2000 buckets? HOLY CRAP, TALK ABOUT HARD CORE, I THOUGHT DAVE Y WAS THE HARDEST CORE SUGARMAKER BUCKETMASTER OUT THERE. I love it. How long does it take you to collect them and how much sap do you get on a good run? If I didnt have to work Id run buckets too. Theron

[PATheron]

Firing up the cordless tomarrow. Gotta go violate some more trees. NEED MORE SAP!!!! Gonna make some more product next week. 40's on the way. Dump rate is way slower with the bigbelly but looks like about 20 gallons per dump. 20 bucks a dump. Oh yeah baby, Oh yeah! Theeeron

[caseyssugarshack93]

how many taps are you going to have all together theron 4000?

[PATheron]

Casey- I dont have that many. I thought I had more becouse I wasnt keeping track till I tapped in but I think I will hit 3500. I think that is going to be a pretty accurate or close number. No more than that. Next year Ill have all this stuff finetuned becouse Im not adding on so Im hoping maybe then I can do some buckets too. See how it goes. I have to quit spending Im kind of in a recession. Had to have my wife give me a five hundred dollar stimulous package for saddles the other day and now its "Jeepers, seems like your spending an aweful lot of money on this maple syrup stuff, and how much is that gonna cost me?" You know, stuff like that. Ive got some money comin so Im going to pay her back so Im not into her anymore. Its tough, Guys got to have the saddles, whatya gonna do? Theeron

[caseyssugarshack93]

Should make some syrup this year, yeah this year we really spent too started on a new bush and everything new 700 taps so far maybe around 850-900 when all done next year and added vacc this year to this bush and a other small one and tanks and a r/o and all kinds of fittings and releasers, Got a used one came in all broke from FED Ex which sucked so had to bring that to leader and get that fixed got it all fixed and went to my hardware store for a 2inch elbow and they had one for the realser and when i got home and put it on the relaser the manifold for the realsr dont fit down as far as the old elbow it was deeper so now when the manifolds in the realeaser its a lile wobbly ill probably have to brace it with some wood and if it leaks the use silicone but it shoulnt leak, the guy sold this to me and said it sticked so im gunna have to test it out before i put it in the woods and get things tuned up, and next weekend tapping up here ill have around 1700 this year and around 950 on vac, lets hope for a good season


nate

[PATheron]

Nate- Sounds like you should be pretty busy. Youve done a lot for one year. I like the lines. What is the vac pump and is the RO brand new and does it have a recirculation pump on it? Theron

[caseyssugarshack93]

Well for the pump its gunna be a surge bb4 for the 700 tap bush this year and a bb2 for the small bush id like to get a liquid ring evenully for the big bush,and the r/o is a lapieree 200gph jouiour from what i know it had reciulation im gunna have to conentrate pretty high to keep up on a 2x6, hope to go with a 3x10 sometime next year or the year after (have alot to pay off this year) i think once we make a barrel of syrup were going to sell it go over to lap a get a filter press for the rest of season but maybe will just hold off till next year for the filter press, i just got a canner made so maybe i can get by with the canner this year. hope the r/o works good, its a little small but better than nothing i may have to wait 4hours before i can boil but thats okay just more time in the woods.


nate

[PATheron]

Nate- Sounds like your working your way up pretty good to me. You might want to get the press if you can. Thats a super big help. You can always ro and boil longer but the filtering is a pain. Keep us posted once it starts running. Theron

[Sugarmaker]

No Maple today except for running a add in the girls softball booklet that they are using as a fund raiser.

jdj,
wow 2000 buckets! Need a good crew to do those kinds of numbers:) I could only ever do about 100+ per hour, and on a big run it took a little longer.

You need to look at tubing it is the best time to get into it, the quality of the products are very good. Not a cheap date but would help on the gathering.:)

Regards,
Chris

[Dave Y]

jdl,
Buckets aren't bad if you can talk someone else into dumping them, right!

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I never minded dumping buckets. We used to do 1500 of them. Sometimes hauled sap with 2 teams of horses and 2 rigs. One guy would just move the rigs to and from the sugar house while a crew of 3 or 4 would keep filling the gathering tanks. Gathered 3000 gallons in 6 hours that way. I did sleep well at night then:rolleyes:

[danno]

Plain and simple - 2000 buckets is hardcore, especially in deep snow pack.

Speaking of which - looks like winter has set back in. I'd say it's snowing about 3"/hour at the moment. Tim (sapman) and 3rdgen - you guys dug out yet? Looks like 2' or so for you guys since last night - with a clipper tomorrow and possible Nor Easter Sun/Mon.

I don't see much tapping whether forcasted.

The Tug is having a banner year. http://www.northernchateau.com/webcam.html

That's right - 6 1/2' of standing snow on the ground. Want to collect buckets in that?

[3rdgen.maple]

Everytime we get dugout the old snowplows fill us back in. About 2 feet since yesterday and still coming. News says 8 to 12 overnight. Yeehaw Why do I live in the northeast? Oh yeah MAPLES BABY MAPLES! Thanks for asking Danno

[danno]

3rdgen -

Where in Altmar are you? We have a camp right up the road from you on the Res. in Orwell. Spend alot of time up there fishing the lake and river in the summer and snowmobiling in winter.

[3rdgen.maple]

Danno on rt 13 between pineville and altmar. Redfield Res. is a great fishery
Little tidbit for ya, Favorite place for Teddy Rosevelt's flyfishing was on the East branch in Redfield. His summer Home is still there and currently occupied. Great Grouse hunting there too. There use to be a pretty big syrup producer over there too. Not sure if he is still around, he had a pretty nice setup. Definatetly snowmobile heaven.

[jdj]

Theron- Last year we had 1600 buckets and darned near killed myself, so with 2000 this year........well I guess you could say I am a glutten for punishment. My father and I are in this together but he isn't getting any younger. He has a knee that is wore out and has a hard time walking through the woods so I delegate him to driving the tractor as much as possible. Usually there are three or four guys to gather and it takes most of the day since I tap four different sugarbushes. It wouldn't be so bad but I work full time, usually the midnight shift, so when sugaring arrives I don't get much sleep. To me the worst part of buckets is washing them but it is something that has to be done.

We gather everyday that there is sap even if there is only a pint in the buckets so we can make good syrup. Our evap. is a 3x10 so we don't have to have tons of sap to run it. Last year we didn't get a "real good" run. I think the most we gathered in one day was 2200 gals of sap. We just never seemed to get the right weather combinations, hopefully this year will be better.

Dave Y- Usually once someone experiences one day off gathering sap from buckets...................they never come back!!!

[802maple]

When I was a pup we had 3500 buckets and I didn't mind them at all, but now it is a little different story. We have a family in northwest Vermont that still uses buckets to the amount of 10,000 and gathers with oxens, it is kind of cool to watch.

[Dave Y]

Well I don't have any livestock teams to drive around to collect with, but I do have an antique dump truck. I have a bunch of young fellas that are still growing to help between 16-18 yrs old, full of piss and vigor. We are going out this morning and try to work some of that out of them.

[Jim Brown]

DaveY: do you use the guys from Abraxas to help if not I have a connection there that may help you.

Jim

[maplekid]

well got the evap strated up everything seems to be going well. chasing whats in the pan with water now. sure hope i make some syrup today.

[802maple]

Just got in from a successful day of marketing syrup products at a local ski area. We gave away 350 cotton candy cones,325dishes of sugar on snow, 150 pieces of donuts with maple cream on them and tons of crackers with maple cream on them.

Sure had a ton of fun handing out products to all those snow bunnies, made me wish I was 20 again

[sapman]

I'd say we ended with around 2' of new snow. I got to the bush yesterday at 10:30, still snowing like crazy, but worked through it installing drops. Fortunately, the bush is 10 miles south, and they don't usually get as much as us, so the walking wasn't too bad. Finally brought the loader over from work this evening and got all cleaned out.

A man on the Tug Hill I've bought bulk syrup from in the past used to do 5000 buckets, with a crew of 2 or 3, I think. He said they'd hit every bucket every other day. There is still a good sized operation around there that is all buckets, horses, and no electric at the sugarhouse. They were featured in the Syracuse paper a couple years back.

Tim

[PATheron]

Worked in the woods all day today and it seemed nice. Got the lines in across the road to roughly 100 more taps. Just have to finish up the drops in the morning and tap them in and they will be done. Think I might go after another 50 thats over a bank tomarrow and try to suck them up to the main line if I can come up with the components. Bearing down on being out of stuff which is good becouse I need to spend some time on the sugar house plus I need to change out the releaser across the road. Just a lot more fun tapping trees. Looks like Wednesday and Thursday is the next good run. Hopefully the sugar will be better and well get a bunch of sap. Looks like everyone is tapping in. Cant wait for the BIGSAP stories. Dave Y "BUCKETMASTER" How many taps in now? Whens the first boil? You better keep us up to date becouse once those buckets are in if I want to know whats going on in the west Im going to have to drive over there becouse you wont have time for any maple trader. Next year I want to do the buckets too. You guys have got me feeling bad about myself. Im going to put a ton of those suckers out if I can. I just have to get the kinks out of the sugarhouse taps first so Im not so swamped with this stuff. Theron

[Dave Y]

Jim,
No I dont use anyone from Abraxas. I too have connections there, My neighbor happens to be the most senior employee. But thank anyways.

My crew and I hung 560 buckets today in about 5 hrs. That was with a lunch break. Thanks Tapper! I owe you.

[Dave Y]

Theron,
We just started the buckets today. Tapper came down and set taps for me and I drilled holes. Had three fellas hanging buckets and lids. it was hard to keep ahead of them. I had to cut the day short to take care of some of other business that came up. I have around 1500 taps in so far. another 1500 to go. that should do it. no more taps until I get more boiling capacity.

[PATheron]

560 BUCKETS!!, WHAT IN THE SAM HILL?? I thought it was too early for the buckets. Syrup will be .90 cents a pound now. Wont anybody need any more syrup once you start dumping those babys. Criminy, Ill have to hold my crop till your to old to boil anymore. Theron

[PATheron]

Dave- Im not telling you guys my real numbers at the end of the season with you cheating like that. You better get all those buckets hung before the end of the week becouse they might be running like crazy. Youll have 4 gallons per tap before my mainlines thaw out. Theron

[Dave Y]

I have about 600 more to put up and access to about 2000 more if I want them.

So you may have to wait till I am dead.

[PATheron]

I might as well settle for the .90 cents probly be a long wait. Bet that was fun hanging all them. Makes me want to go out and drill a 7/16 and hang a bucket. I bet it was great just drilling and seeing them go up so fast. Will you have the rest of the buckets in before thursday. Theron

[Brian Ryther]

After working in Shawnee PA today I came home to put in the first 100 Buckets. 100 to go. That is enough for me. All road side big trees. 1650 in so far, 2000 or bust. I found one of the releasers with the dump flap frozen to the body this afternoon. The releaser was full to the brim. I hate to think of the sap that was not collected today because of the frozen flap. BIG SAP THURS AND FRIDAY!!!!! i hope...

[Dennis H.]

Dave Y glad to hear that you have help hanging buckets. I only did 145 and that was time consuming for one person, 560 in a day, good job.

Theron you can't stand seeing a maple tree without a tap can you? So how many gals is in the belly releaser when it dumps. That has to be something to see and hear!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

3rdgen,

Sell the green paint and get some orange paint. It don't cost nearly as much as a comparable green paint and they sell more orange painted compact tractors than everyone else put together for a good reason.

[Dave Y]

I hope to be completely tapped by Thursday. I am going to finish my tubing tomorrow. and try to do some buckets also.

[PATheron]

Nice job Dave- The weather keeps changing but now its too the good. I think your hitting it just right. Your going to be starting your boilathon soon I think. Hope you get your 600 gallons. I bet you might even do more with all the buckets but whatever we get, we did our best, well be proud of it. Thats how I look at it. Dennis- I think it must hold darn near 20 gallons. Thing looks like a fish tank. And when it dumps its right now. One thousand one, one thousand too you have 20 gallons or whatever it is. Its amazing. Theres a six inch outlet thats why its like instantaneous. I like it better than the double. Its simple and really smooth and quick. Pretty cool to watch. Ive got to get some pics for you guys becouse theres a lot of new stuff to see. Heading out back tapping this morning. Got to get the count up. Theron

[maple flats]

Going by the 10 day forcast looks like I will tap Wed and Thurs this week. Still looking for final tap count, I think it ended about 600-625. Will count as i tap to verify or while walking lines to look for leaks after tapping. Yesterday I finished my new install bush section and repaired another 150 from last year at same bush. Today I am going to my own bush at the sugarhouse to do final walk/repair. On my 150 repair from yesterday I only had 2 small chews that i found but I had several trees and limbs down on laterals, none on main. Some of the lats were burried so deep in the snow and cructed in it tool lots of time and effort to fix, expecially going from the bottom of the hill across a flat about 150' wide to the mainline where more trees were which is also along the road. That flat is thich underbrush ands has NO maples. Before next year i am going to redesign, put a branch main along the hill and tie it to my wet dry line I put up this season, and eliminate the flat. Don't know why I didn't do that in the first place.

[Sugarmaker]

Trying to stay warm. The sap from late last Thursday is froze in the buckets and my guess is that there is a small amount of ice holding the roadside totes down. So we wait and work on other maple stuff like making cream and candy.

Chris

[Sugardaddy]

After working in Shawnee PA today I came home to put in the first 100 Buckets. 100 to go. That is enough for me. All road side big trees. 1650 in so far, 2000 or bust. I found one of the releasers with the dump flap frozen to the body this afternoon. The releaser was full to the brim. I hate to think of the sap that was not collected today because of the frozen flap. BIG SAP THURS AND FRIDAY!!!!! i hope...

Thurdsay and Friday do look good. I started to get a decent flow and then froze back up here. When it drops down into the teens at night and barely hits 35 during the day, it makes for a poor flow. :( Of course, it'll open up full bore for me when I have the least time to boi. It's all good and we're ready to make some sweet stuff!

[jrthe3]

Dave y when do you plan to do it i may be able to get away one day this week during the day to help you out if you need any help pm me

[mapleman3]

Well I spent the last 2 days in the north bush, got a good part of my drops in, ran a few last minute lines, set the tanks, I hopefully will finish drops tomorrow after work. Still have to get a few pieces of sheet metal to cover the tanks...

I will finish up the sugarhouse stuff this week, guess I wont get to test boil.. oh well.

I will tap this next weekend and hopefully get a good run right away!. LETS BOIL Massachusetts !!

[sapman]

Stopped by a friend's on my way home from working in my new bush, and he was just finishing tapping. There were a few drips after he drilled each one, so I know things are thawed around here. Can't wait til I'm ready to start tapping. Hopefully in another week or so.

Tim

[Dave Y]

I finished tapping the 1600 tap bush today. I did not get any more tap as I was pooped. Snow is hard to walk in and not deep enough for snowshoes. I carried my pack basket all day with gear in it and it wore me down. I am going to try to finish up this week evenings after work . jrthe3 thank for the offer, but I don't believe I am take any days off to tap. If something comes up I will pm you.

[PATheron]

Worked on taps all weekend. Got another 160 to 200ish in. Didnt have time to count. Worked flashlight to flashlight. Feel pretty sore. There all on high vac so should help on the dump rate. Didnt even run wire. Looks pretty signature though even at that. Ill pretty it up after the sap quits running. Looks like later this week were looking at S@#tastrophe sap Im hoping. Gonna clean the shed this week and do some odds and ends. Wednesday Ill have to take off work and pump the tanks across the road so they dont run over. Pump line froze up so had to leave it there. Next months it for me, I dont usually make syrup in april so itll probly come fast. Sap quits I quit. Not going to do one darn thing till I tap in next year. Gonna take some time off and smell some roses. Hope every one gets lots of sap. I get another freeze up Im going to put in another 100 and thats probly about it. Theron

[Dennis H.]

Theron stop and smell the roses, I'll beleive it when I see it!!:rolleyes:

If you are done adding for now Theron Once it starts to flow into the sugarhouse, That will be what the work was all for! Wishing you luck this week man.

Now I got to goto work, Mondays Suck!

[PATheron]

Did a count this morning. Turned out to be 210 taps for the weekend. Think Im going to work in the sugarhouse this week get everything spiffed up and ready. Might be some BIGSAP end of week hopefully. Wanna see some sap run. Gonna boil till nothing runs and then Im totally shutting down rest of year. No house projects, no sugarbushes, nothin. Gonna go fishin and give the woodchucks payback with Booy and Brother and ride my four wheeler around and enjoy life. Theron

[PATheron]

PARRRR(so much wood you could single handly deplete the ozone layer in one season)KEEEEEER! WE NEED AN UPDATE DOWN HERE NOW. Your a serious producer and we need to know what the heck is going on. THEEE(so much lateral line you can see it from outer space)ROOOOON

[caseyssugarshack93]

Got my permit today and the gas 5hp honda engine just came from ups for the vac, What a great day :D

[Parker]

TTHHEER(bigbelley)RRROONN- wow, another 12" of snow-glad the tubing is pretty much ready to go,,,have to get Marvins front on, add another layer of brick to the firebox in the arch, run the HIGHVOLTAGE wire to sugarhouse,set up blower,move pumps to woods, set up trucks,clean out tanks,finish plumbing tanks, ect. really,,,a lot of stuff to do,,,but am feeling pretty good about it,,,turns out I have 298 nice buckets,,151 spiles and 155 bucket wires,,talked to George tonight,,said I could use his 600 buckets,,got premission to tap over 300 road trees so far (some VERY BIG) not sure how the bucket thing will work {alot of labor as I remember},gonna ask a fellow about another 200 later this week,I have 2 new 7/16 tapping bits, figure Ill just go as long and as HARRRRRRDD as I can,,if some sap goes on the ground (heaven forbid),so be it,,,,hopefully we wont be lacking for something to do when it starts to run... gonna get a case of AMP with my last pulp check, think Ill need it,,,,,,hope to start in ernest this weekend,,,thats the Update from here

[mapleman3]

Stayed out in the woods doing drop lines till dark tonight, I'll finish up the north bush tomorrow! and tap it next weekend... I'm close to ready.. just sugarhouse stuff and get the tanks on the trucks.. yes , running 2 sap trucks this year, The wife will run the smaller Dakota with the 210 gal and I will run the GMC with a 500 gal on it. (although I won't fill it-yikes)

picked up a small glass milk releaser on ebay today for 56 bucks.. I bet I can get that to work on the 100+ taps in the back woods next year. something to play with, still have my big electric releaser for sale.

[royalmaple]

Parker-

Are you gonna tap the ones that are near that farm on the left hand side of the road as you head to Rt 11 bush?

The big suck arrived today. Glad you guys had a few pre-season days to warm up your pumps. Might as well turn them off after tomorrow, you should see a pretty steep decrease in sap once I turn on bertha.

Only one that might benefit from the pump besides myself is GMCooper, mark's close enough and upwind from me that he could get some residual sap from my pump.

Hopefully fixed some if not most of my pre-season "opportunities" and now time to get under way. Had a few doozies.

You guys have already tapped and left me in the dust. Well I'll play a little catch-up soon enough.

2000 should be definate, and 2500 if I'm lucky. So couple of 1/2 way decent runs and I should be in the lead.

Time and Money, and I'm out of both.

[Dave Y]

Parker,
you couldn't stand to see some of us have so much fun with all them buckets, could you? You got to have buckets! I worked till dark hanging buckets to night. tap count is up to 2565. just a few hundred more to go.

[caseyssugarshack93]

What kind of pump are you running royal? how many taps u putting on it?

sounds like your going to make some seriouse syrup is all your 2000-2500 on one bush ?

[peacemaker]

so i boiled friday for the first time on the new rig boiled nicely rolled the steam nicely ..sap dancing out of the back pan took 50 gals down to 30 in maybe 3 fires

ok sat i pull all the sap to the front fill back with water
ok fire up cant get her to rip smoke everywhere found holes i never new existed
ok so i figure i choked the opening leading to the stack i fix it yesterday and today i fire water up its worse i tried everything could not fix it i reduced my stack from 10 to 8 i put a flip cap on my stack and a spark arrestor ...


any guesses why i had smoke i know but like to hear you alls thoughts
oh and nate u dont get to say cause u know

[gmcooper]

Way to much to get done this week. May have to replace a tank that I should have planned to any ways. Weather not looking real good for a while yet so maybe I'll be alright. Broke the binding on snow shoe Sunday. They are 50+ years old. Looking for warranty card!


Matt, I heard that when you start up the vacuum pump in Buxton the Poland Spring Water plant in Hollis has to shut down for lack of water??????

Mark

[royalmaple]

75CFM LIQUID RING - complements of a dealer I know very well.

that is going to put the big suck on 2000 taps in my main bush down the road.

THe other 500 will be on gravity tubing and buckets and residual taps here and there.

The plan is to be able to have entire mainlines open and still pull 27-28 inches on the taps. Results will follow.

Mark-

I think some people will be happy cause there will be fewer trucks running on Rt. 112 going to get water.

[caseyssugarshack93]

is that the bush that i was looking at on ur youtube that had 450 taps and u added on or a toatly differnt bush ? r u still running the pumps at ur house ?

[Sugarmaker]

Went to Father and Sons tonight to view the great sugarbush. Jim, nice job on getting all the laterals up, looks real nice. You will need a piece of paper to stand on to tap a couple of those end trees:)

Thanks for getting the fittings I needed.

Get those tapped for the big run this week.
Regards,
Chris

[royalmaple]

same bush. I just added alot more to it. Those shots were from several years ago. That first section I call zone #1, then I and Theron added zone 2, and zone 3. Lots of serious taps in there. It all heads down about 2000 feet to the releaser and that's where I have 100amp service installed as well.

[caseyssugarshack93]

you got a serious bush there, you added on alot, is it fully tapped or is there more ???, do you own the land, i hope to own a piece of land with atleast a 1000 taps so if i loose all my other places i can still sugar,.. do you run a electric releaser, i purchased a single bernard and it sticks i was told rice in the float? does it work or any ideas i noticed u have a single.

i seem to add more taps each year you gotta love it


nate

[royalmaple]

There are more to be had, maybe another 1000 if I looked around hard enough. I've got the "easiest" ones now. At least in relation to where I had lines and concentration. Nothing is perfect but it is alot of taps in one spot which is nice and the landowners are super nice people and could care less about getting anything from me. They are just happy someone is using the land.

I have an electric releaser over there only because that's what I had that was big enough to handle the taps and I have to pump the sap up the hill to the road so the releaser is about 400 feet from the road.

I have never had an ounce of trouble with my single. At least until I shipped it to PA for some luney toon to use this year. Honestly the rice thing was new to me, I agree with the theory. In fact I was thinking of doing the some thing when we were trying to figure out some problems with the float not coming down hard enough. I was there with theron when Richard's main man todd told us about the rice. Makes perfect sense.

After this season I should be able to let everyone know what a couple thousand red maples will do with the big suck on them. There are some pretty serious ones in there.

[Revi]

The guy I do the sugaring with just got a snowmobile, and I think it may come in handy with all this snow. We can pack trails with it.

It is going to be great to get our taps in finally. Now we need a little sugaring weather.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Matt,

So what is the boiling plan for this year, did you get rid of your evap and what is in its place.

[royalmaple]

Willy went down the road to Dean (Acer). Then came the sprint to find a replacement the 4x12 deal fell through the night before I was going to get it.

So I ended up buying a 3x8 with intensofire arch, preheater and hood. Pretty sweet boiling rig. I cleaned it all up and painted the iron on it. got some stack from Bill Mason this weekend and did a test fire on Sat night. The original plan was to get a small fire under the pans to heat the water up in them to clean everything. Well a few minutes after than and the sugar house was full of steam and I started pounding the wood to her. Pretty amazing stuff it's almost as much fun to look inside the viewing window on the door to watch the fire as it is to watch the bubbles!

[Parker]

Matt- I have premission to tap all the trees on my road and flaghole (heading to rte.11) I have premission to tap the 500 prehistoric (most 3 feet thru) rockies in the pasture to the left down over the hill,,,but I dont know how I would get the sap from the buckets to the road??? I know my skidder would make a real mess,,,I dont have a team of horses,,,dont think a 4 wheel drive tractor would do it,,,,think I would need a snowcat,,,now that gets me thinking,,,I know a fellow with a snocat (bigone) hhhmmmmm,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[PATheron]

PARR( so much sap even the Canadians are getting pissed)KER- You guys with all these buckets are making me sad. Im happy for you guys but sad inside knowing what Im missing. Is there any way you could dump it down there in a tank and then pump it up to the BIGSAP truck with your sap pump? Probly not feasable with so many. I got a 100 out. Were going to put a 100 in. I know that doesnt make me much of a sugarmaker but next year watch out. Im going to be ready on the bucket thing. My main problem is I dont own a pickup. The only thing I have to haul with is my lincoln. It does have airbags in the back so I could probly haul a lot of weight. Next year Im focusing on the buckets. This year Ive just been so busy on all this sapline stuff Ive just really dropped the ball. Hope you get tons of sap. Theron

[jdj]

Theron,
You will probably be just about done sugaring when we start so you can come on up to my place and gather 2,000 buckets. If you can't make it up here while we are sugaring I will wait for you to come wash them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PATheron]

How far up in New York are you? Im at the southern line of New York. Theron

[jdj]

I am near the canadian border, about 2 hours east of watertown, ny. What part of ny are you near?

[Russell Lampron]

I tried the rice trick in my releaser. I was able to get it to stick just moving it by hand in my kitchen. Added a 14oz box of rice to the float and no more sticking. Brought it down to the woods, turned on the vacuum, tapped some trees and watched as it filled and dumped. No sticking there either. Bring on the BIGSAP I am ready.

[peacemaker]

theron how close to corning and addison ny are u
?

[Jim Brown]

Well the Pa.Dept. of Ag was in our sugar house yesterday and inspected our operation. We passed with flying colors. Now all we need is some sap!!!
Hope the next couple of days get things rolling!
Jim

[PATheron]

Got my check from Grove today and they graded my syrup. All 5 drums were graded C. I asked Jerry when he was down here what he thought the grade was and he said Pennsylvania Fancy. Sounds like I must be doing things right. Four dollars a pound they must have loved the stuff. Gonna try to keep up the good work. dont want to lose the grade. Theron

[royalmaple]

It is refreshing to see you finally try to make some quality product. I mean quantity product.

every 4.00/lb helps.

[Maplewalnut]

arrrrgh...the pirate is jealous of the earlier Pa season start. Seems like the northeners are chomping at the bit again.

Looks like all hell ought to break loose starting tomorrow. A swimming we will go, a swimming we will go....bring on the sap!

[Gary R]

Grade C ! Come on Theron, there are high standards in PA. Maybe you shouldn't listen to the "northerner's";) Glad to see you making some money though.

Look's like the tree's will wake back up tomorrow. Looking to make some fine quality product.

[Dave Y]

Still tapping! 187 more buckets tonite. got a late start. sap was dripping and it was 25degs. another 200 and I should be done. Tap count so far is 2772. I may not make 3000. a fella that told me he i could tap his tree backed out yesterday. probably 250 taps. Oh well.

[Sugarmaker]

Talked to Tappin and sappin tonight comparing notes. He was dumping Ice and I was just heading out to dump mine. I must have dumped 300 gallons of ice on the gorund:( That last run must have continued as the snow came in and most of the totes had 5-15 gallon. Well the big ice chunks just do not work well with the pumping system so it had to go.

Jim Brown, Glad the inspector was pleased always nice to get a good report from the inspectors. I need to call and let them know we are making syrup too.
Have the water sample in but the results are do in a few days. Did get the results from the syrup sample back and they results looked good. So we are anticipating a run starting late Wed night and into Friday.

Gary, Get some rest its coming!

Jim Bortles did you get those taps in? Your rig looks ready to go.

Chris

[PATheron]

Peace- Im really close to Corning and that area. Probly 35 or 40 minutes is all. Sounds like everybody made dark syrup on this early stuff around here for some reason. Richard said it had something to do with the weather. Staying home today and tying up some loose ends around here and getting ready to make a bunch more product hopefully. Everything is a mess. Gonnna clean the shed and finetune my pressing. Hook up the tanker trailer to the new tub in the shed. Run some main. Pump out a froze tank. All the fun stuff. I think the big run will be tomarrow and Ill be ready. Wanna fill some barrells. Dave Y- full buckets by saturday better get ready to fire up that rig. Brandon- Talked to a guy does maple over by Richards. He was hooking up a big vac pump. Guy has 8000 taps on a steep ridge and he told me that he never ran vac becouse you could go up on top of the ridge with the sap running and put a spile on your cheek and it would stick there becouse of the nat vac off that hill. Other funny thing was he said It would freeze the mains down low and so many taps would be running up above that it would go to to freeze and blow out the saddles and guyser everywhere. Real nice guy. Hes putting a 150 cfm pump on it now so Probly really stick to his cheek. Theron

[peacemaker]

my sister lives out in woodhull ny so next time i am out if u dont mind the visit may stop down

[maplekid]

well got the pan off and assessed the damage. burn all the way throgh the floor and through one of the cross members in the sugarhouse last saturday. by the looks of it my season is probly over. if i cant find a solution within the next couple days

[PATheron]

Sounds good Peace. Theron

[KenWP]

As long as its not a huge hole somebody should be able to weld it. I can actually weld but don't own one and can weld pretty thin stuff with a stick welder even as long as nobody is watching me do it. If I have a audience I tend to blow holes in it every time.

[PATheron]

Sap ran here but not very much. Any of you guys have any luck today? Think maybe next two days might be pretty good. Theron

[Dave Y]

Maplekid ,
What the heck did you do? did you burn you pan up and or burn a hole in the floor of the sugarhouse?

I just came in from tapping. I hung 210 more buckets tonite after work. need to finish tomorrow evening. I am 16 taps shy of 3000. I will pick them up tomorrow with out any problem. Sap was running today but not hard enough to make anything serious. Maybe tomorrow.

[maplekid]

well my fire was going good and hot and i walked out to get something and seen smoke coming from underneath the sugarhouse. then put the fire out drew off near syrup and then today i finally got around to looking at it and i had a gaping hole in the floor. the pans fine. i filled the hole in with rocks and stuff today and will pour some concrete mabe tomarow. i had 2-3 inches of concrete under my grates i thought it wouldnt bother it. guess i has a lapse in judgement. im very lucky to still have a sugarhouse

[3% Solution]

Dave Y,
So are you saying I better get it in gear??
It was 3 below here this morning, so I don't imagine to much happened today.
Going to set the barrels up tomorrow.
We're going to tap Saturday.
Have fun.

Dave

[danno]

Put 400 taps out this afternoon. I was moving pretty good - got them done between 1-6 and also replaced a good bit of tube that the squirrels had their way with. Ran the vacuum while tapping - it's a good time to find leaks.

Trees were running decent, releaser had probably released 10 or so times while I was tapping. Let all that go on the ground. Just turned up the vacuum and now I'm collecting - so I guess the season has begun for me.

Guess I better finish those arch modifications and get the sugarhouse ready.

[Dave Y]

Maplekid, glad every thing is ok with your pans. you just have to be careful boiling on a wood floor.
3% now is the time to get tapped. you will have sap before you know it.

[Sugarmaker]

Dave,

3,000!

I remember you standing in the sugar house when you bought that little 210 gallon tank for the Ranger! You have come a long way from there my friend. Good luck to you and all the other maple nuts out there.

Maple Kid, Glad to hear you still have a sugar house.

Tomorrow is sap day! Should be boiling along with most every one that is tapped in the NWPA area.

Regards,
Chris

[Dave Y]

Chris,
Yea I know I think I am a little OCD.

[Sugarmaker]

DaveY,
Keep up the good work, all that prep and tubing is going to pay off big time in the next few weeks. Hope your gathering squad is rested and ready. Do you let them take the dump truck on their own to gather?

I am debating about boosting the economy and buying a new truck. F-250 4x4 short bed but with more goodies this time. Debating on a super cab or go to the full crew cab? Suggestions are welcome!

Need to look good while gathering:)

Chris

[Dave Y]

Sugarmaker,
The gathering crew is resting at the moment. I let them take the dump truck to gather while I stay at the sugar house and boil. I also have a dodge 2500 that has a 425 on it. It will be out pumping tanks also. I have two young adults that help also. One young fella has become my right hand man since been laid off in November. He has done a lot of work for me that I would have never gotten done ,plus he has been doing truck maintenance for me.

[jdj]

Sugarmaker,
I have an '06 f-250, extended cab, diesel that I bought brand new and it has had nothing but problems. Brakes have been a big problem, three calipers have been changed. Computer went up on it, mass air flow sensor died as well. Back doors on it started to rust from the inside out with 20k miles. Sometimes when I start the truck the radio and power widows/locks don't work for the first three or four miles. The truck has 38k on it now. It will be my last ford for sure!!!!


I'm not sure if you are looking at buying a gas or diesel but if you are going to buy diesel I would go dodge with the Cummins. Also dodge's have 4 full doors on there version of extended cabs, the extra room is nice.

[Dave Y]

I just went out and checked my yard buckets. one of them was half full. it looks like the sap ran all night, slowly. It looks like we will be collecting tomorrow and boiling on the weekend.

[maplekid]

got around to checking my buckets today and they are all in the half full range. stayed home today to move furniture( dad hurt his back) so after i move the furniture ill start fixing the gaping hole in the floor of the sugarhouse.

[PATheron]

Guys- My run mirrored yours. yesterday off maybe 26 or 2700 taps I got probly 700 gallons with the night too. Nothing really on the north bush. I think today may get better. Looks like its over freezing till friday night. Maybe itll just run steady once it gets goin till then. Have to see. Theron

[caseyssugarshack93]

Put out two test taps today, they were RUNNING... drip.................drip.


BRING IT ON,

[jrthe3]

just in from the sugar house and finished boiling for the night had a good run today had a small prob with my filters a quick phone call to sugarmaker and prb solved thanks chris worked great built a hood and new preheater yesterday work awsome don't know how every boiled with out a hood checked tanks on way home still running will have a few hunder gallon to boil tomorrow

[mapleack]

Just got home from boiling, got 520 gal of sap today.

[Dave Y]

I finished Tapping tonite. just slightly over 3000 taps. 1200 an some odd buckets. had a valve leaking on my expansion tubing. pump 300gal out of the tank and fixed it. worked in the sugar house trying to get that in order. the went out and pumped a tank to keep it from running over in the middle of the night. and that was the second shift.

[PATheron]

Sap ran pretty good here yesterday and last night even with some south wind. Looks like Ive gotten over this run this week about 4000 gallons or maybe a little more up till now. I had to go out in the middle of the night too, around 3 am to pump out some tanks. I think it may run pretty long and hard today with the rain. Yesterday I took all afternoon into the night going through the woods fixing leaks. Fixed a lot of squirrell chews and found 4 drops off. Dont have too much more left. Started yesterday during the day with 20 at the sugarhouse releaser and 18 across the road. Some of it was the pump being a little warm and the sap running hard. Now with everything running Im holding 25 at the sugarhouse releaser and 24 across the road. Im very happy about that. I like to keep the woods perfect but with everything involved and having to go to work its hard. Hope everyone gets a good run today. Dave- Will the buckets be full tomarrow? Theron

[Dave Y]

Theron,
This doesn't apeer to be a great run. time will tell last nite a couple buckets in the yard was close to over flowing, while some only had acouple of inches. I will be very pleased to start with 3000gal tomorrow morning. that way I will have all weekend to boil. The tanks are runnind well so I assume it will play out to be a decent run.

[PATheron]

Dave- I think your going to get the sap. This wasnt a perfect run for sure I dont think. Too much of the south plus things are kind of waking up I think after that really cold spell we had. I think you may hit it big today with the rain plus today the winds going to change to the west. I hope you get it becouse like you said going into the weekend is perfect timing. Theron

[Jeff E]

You guy are killing me....
Minus 2 last night, 6" of fresh snow, high today of maybe 10, maybe 14 tomorrow.

On the bright side I got laterals out to another 80 trees this morning...boy the tubing is tough to work with when it is this cold...

[Brian Ryther]

Finished boiling for the day around 3pm. The good news is I was able to get the evap to do about 550 gph. I found a direct relation between stack temp and gph. @ 600 degrees I was pushing 600gph, at 300 degrees I was lucky to do 300 gph. Good info collected today firing the evap. The bad news is the sugar content. 1.5 % at best. What gives. Any one else with low sugar?

[maple flats]

I collected 160 gal on 200 taps tonight. Pumped it into sugarhouse feed tank. Will test sugar in am before I start boiling. My woods don't seem to have woke up much yet. This 200 is all new, all gravity. It is ready to go vac as soon as I get an RO. I am still only about 400 tapped, Only the 200 ran. Will tap my last 200 this weekend. Was looking to get 800 but only hit 602 for this year. That is still a 20% gain from last year.

[Jim Brown]

We collected 1000 gallons last evening and this afternoon before the blizzard set in.. goingto get the RO and the rig fired up tomorrow morning. Would of had more but one generator shut down on low oil level. Better that than to burn up the gen. all sap is at 2%

We have only just begun,Say that would make a great title for a song!!


Jim

[Dennis H.]

Holy Cow! That is all I can say.
Man did the sap flow last night and today. I now have right at 100gals of sap waiting to boiled tomorrow. I wanted to get started this evening but the wife got the flu this week and I have to take care of the daughter.

I had several buckets overflowing for who knows how long! They were still running when I collected so I have to figure I will have a good bit to get tomorrow. But I am beat.

Dave Y I just can't imagine you doing all those buckets, my 140 was enough.

A guy from the local newspaper managed to search me down and stopped by yesterday to take a few pics of me collecting the sap and then a few pics while I was boiling. He asked a bunch of questions. It was fun talking syrup. If it makes it in the paper in will be this coming weeks edition.

[Dave Y]

I brought in 1900 gal in the last two days. we emptied 800 buckets an took seven hundred of of tanks to keep them from running over. the bucket brigade is coming at 8am to get the rest of them. If my calculations are correct we should have over 4000gal off this first run. I should be boiling till after work Monday!

[PATheron]

Dennis- PRESS RELEASES, WHAT IN THE SAM HILL, I SPEND TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS AND IVE NEVER HAD ANY PRESS RELEASES. Thats awesome Dennis. Glad to see you got the big sap. I better get some of that to try on my pancakes. Dave- Hit the buckets just right. Did it ever go gangbusters or did the sap kind of add up slow and steady? I ran the ro all day yesterday and got what Im guessing was at least 4000 gallons all into one 1500 tank. Be honest I think it may have been closer to 5000 but Im not sure. The ro exceeded its rating for 12 straight hours. The lowest it got was 660 gph but usually it was running 780 or even higher. I think theres some pretty sweet stuff in that 1500 gallon tank now. Going to boil that as soon as the ro is rinsed this morning. Looking foreward to boiling actually. I still have almost 3000 gallons of raw sap down in one section of the semitrailer. Thats some of the newest stuff. Ill start recircin it today once my ro is clean again and maybe boil it tomarrow or I may have to monday. So far Im really happy. Im not getting much sleep becouse I can only sleep 4 hours max and something has to be pumped etc. If Im pumping tonight up from the semi I can only go 2.5 hours on the sap pump. Theres a lot going on at once. I have the releaser across the road dumping into tanks. Then theres a gas sap pump running there to pump it to the semi. Then at the semi theres a gas pump pumping it to the sugarhouse tank or the releaser. Then the ro is running and the vac pump is running. Lots of stuff to fail but thats sugaring. Knock on wood it going pretty darn good. Got 25" of vac pretty much across the board now with the sap running which is very good I think for so many taps on that pump. Im only running 1. somthing cfms per 100 on 3500 taps. Lot of vulnerability. Hope everyone is having fun. Once I get coffeed up gotta go get started in the sugarhouse making Jerry some quality product. Theron

[maple flats]

Dennis H., congrats on getting an interview with the paper, but be careful what you wish for. Last year I got in 3 times, with big pictures and good in depth articles (2 different papers). When our maple weekend came I had easily 5 or 6 times the traffic I did the previous year. My sugarhouse was FULL TO CAPACITY, with a waiting line outside for 5 of the 6 hr long open house on both days of the 2 day event. It seemed great at the time but it cost me dearly. I had set my prices at a level about 15% above the previous year and I sold out my season's entire crop and I had my highest production year ever at the same time. I did not get to take advantage of the late season price climb of huge price increases. The only thing i did not sell that weekend was my commercial stuff, which I sold to Bruce Bascom at his open house in may. This year I am trying to hold some crop for the Christmas season and would like to start next season with just a little carryover, maybe about 5 gal each of Lt, Med And Dark grade A. I did buy some bulk from another producer but I would rather sell my own product.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

It is still definitely Winter here in the North Country! I woke up to clear, starry, skies and 0 degrees. Won't be any sap here for a few days. Those that tapped for the 2 day warm spell will be frozen solid. Long range weather really shows nothing for the coming week. Good thing as there is always more to do. It is now down to fixing things up. A few sags in the lines, fixing a better pump line, etc. I have about 30 more taps and laterals to do. Left them 'til last as they will block off access to the back part of my bush for all but foot traffic. Was gonna do them today but at ) I don't know if I want to.
Got both vacuum pumps up and running this week. I moved the old one (hydrovac 30cfm) to the new bush for the 840 taps there. When we got it running, had 25" at the releaser. Better than any time last year. Put the new one in the front bush (liquid ring 75 cfm that some old pirate sold me) for 1750 taps there. Had 27 inches at both the releaser at the pump and at the remote releaser 1400 feet away. Tried the inverse slope pump to move sap that same 1400 feet. Worked slick with rainwater so it should be fine when we finally get sap.
I will have somewhere between 40 and 100 buckets to keep the tourists satisfied and will be buying sap from another 1000 buckets with the possibility 0f 400 more. I will need lessons on time management from Theron and Dave. If they can get a workable schedule (that includes a little sleep) and post the details, maybe I can figure out how I will keep up. Keep that southern sap flowing guys!
Doug

[PATheron]

Doug- Make sure the sugarhouse is real ready. Those are SERIOUS vac levels. 25" plus at the releaser will turn everything to a whole new ballgame. Once those trees start running as long as its over 32 degrees youll never see them stop. West wind, east wind, south wind, windbag neighbor, whatever. Theron

[mapleack]

I got a paltry 90 gal of sap this morning, lit a fire for an hour. Managed to add 23 more taps on tubing after that, hopefully add a few more tomorrow. I would've gotten alot more done if I hadn't spent the whole morning waiting to get my spare truck inpsected, had to get the everyday truck towed in last night, unknown throttle problems. My south facincg trees were running hard late afternoon, looks like I'll be boiling a little tomorrow, plus I've got some canning to do and need to wash tanks. Ah, the relaxing weekends!

[maplecrest]

been a wild three days. 7000 holes drilled, three vac pumps running finding leaks, fixing problems. ect. good shake down cruise. averaged better than 1/2 gallon sap per tap yesterday from 2 pm to 2 am. not bad with the snow depth

[Sugarmaker]

Break time again in the cold north.:)
Sap flow averaged about 1 gallon per tap twice this week. We are at about 30 gallon of syrup. Main wood shed has not been touched as I have worked off all the wood that was the extra. Most syrup has been medium grade although the sap looks great? Just got into light range once today then fell off again to medium.

It was very nice to boil in the morning I really like that time of the day to boil better than the evening. Just seems nice to look out side and see the sun shine.
We had Visitors Thursday evening friend Paul and his wife from work we boiled eggs in the sap, and had a couple of boiling sodas made from our maple syrup and our honey. Very Good! thanks for our friend Zach Form work who is a home brewer.
Sat. Gary R. , Laura and Butch stopped by. Also another friend from work, Dave his wife and her father. Also Ward and his wife plus Keith T. and neighbor Russ and his daughter. It was nice to have friends drop in, set a spell and visit !:)

Viewed out door boiling at Kurt's tonight on his high-tec efficient two pan evaporator. He made some nice syrup too!
Hope all is going well.
Dave Y,
You still boiling?

Regards,
Chris

[PATheron]

Guys- Boiled today. Feel like Ive been on the front lines of a war or something. Barreled 100 gallons of some pretty nice syrup. Had plenty of opportunities. Still have 2500 gallons of sap in the tanker trailer but cant get it to the sugarhouse becouse of freeze ups. Dont have enough filter press for what Im trying to do. Ive decided im not a serious producer but I tap like Im one. Have to get better in the sugar house to survive. I feel like im doing a good job becouse I havent lost any sap yet and its all gone in the barrell but its been a struggle. 15% seems to be the magic number in the evap. It really works very well. The ro is working very good and the evap is performing great. We seem to get a nonstop draw and it is very easy to keep the density perfect becouse you just get a constant draw off into the pails. The sap is basically syrup when it leaves the flue pan. Its 10 degrees light when it hits the syrup pan and we had some draws that were 10 gallons before it stopped. My biggest problems now are filtering and pumping sap without it freezing up. I basically need a bigger filter press but im trying to come up with a system that will get me by for the season and I think I can get along. The freeze ups are a real pain moving the sap but Im going to keep working at it. Next year will be easier becouse Ill get things finetuned in the off season. Gonna sleep in in the morning and enjoy a little down time. Had a few too many boiling sodas tonight. Glad to be kind of cought up. Hope everyone is having fun. Good luck on the BIGSAP. Theron

[Parker]

THHE(LITTELPRESS)RROONNN- has it really opened up and RUN down there yet,,or are these the first small runs of the year?

[PATheron]

Parker- I think I had one day on the house bush they all turned on and I think that was the only honest run on everything Ive had. Across the road I dont think Ive seen a serious run yet. When the house bush did that my double was dumping every 30 seconds all afternoon. I dont think Ive seen the real thing yet but as of tomarrow night Ill be at 300 gallons. Thats nothing to snease at but this early season stuff is a pain. To much freeze up. I told Matt once I get things paid up Im not tapping till it quits freezin nights. Sounds a little unconventional but man I hate frozen stuff. Theron