Tapping 2009

[Gary R]

I keeping with years past, I started a tapping thread for PA. As always, everyone is welcome. This should be easier for us to keep track on how well everyone is doing.

It was 35 today when I awoke. I put in 68 taps on buckets. By noon it was already 50 in the shade. Almost all the taps ran when I drilled them. I didn't expect to see sap until tonight. This afternoon I'm going to rinse my head tank, lines , preheater and pan. I hope to be boiling tomorrow evening.

Got stuck once in the snow with the BAT mobile. Was able to get out by shoveling. The snow is melting fast! Good weather expected for the week.

Good luck:)

[Dennis H.]

I am glad to see another PA'er tapping.

I got all mine out yesterday and they were running some by the time I got to the last few buckets.

The temps right now are 41 degrees and sunny, a few clouds here and there.
I will be filling the evap pan this afternoon and getting her ready for the sap that I will be collecting this evening.

I am hoping to have maple syrup on my pancakes by morning!

[Sugarmaster]

I started tapping some of my smaller southern bushes today. Let most of the sap run on the ground top clean out the lines. Still working on up grading the rest of the bushes, not adding any just making sure things are up and right for good flow. It will take us about 2 1/2 weeks to finish all the tapping. will probably boil alittle this week. A couple of sugar makers talked me into trying the new stubby spout with the disposalable tips. Said I should up the sap 15 to 30 % more. When we were changing the health spiles to thses new ones 80 to 90% were pluged tight with bacteria. We will see how this does with the sap production.

[Gary R]

Sugarmaster,

Ed Grzandziel was at the NWPA maple meeting. He bought a new 18X48 Dallierre from you. Although I don't have much experience, I stopped at his place outside of New Castle PA. He is very excited and set up well for his first mapling. He's going to have a great time.

[mapleack]

Sap's running! As I posted in the general section, over the last two days I'm up to 659 taps on tubing that are tapped and running as of tonight. Hopefully we'll be boiling tomorrow night. I'm still planning on adding at least 80 more on tubing and hanging 150 buckets. Gary R, we had a stuck truck incident today as well, took a tractor to rectify! Sugarmaster, I've seen the plugged health spouts, and improvement with replacable tips. This year I've finally got mine all on replaceable tips or stainless steel that can be cleaned and sterilized.

[Sugarmaker]

Not tapped yet. Hung tubing in the snow banks today:( I could tap within the next day or two if the weather looks favorable. We had a very weak start last year and really made the majority of the syrup in March 08. Only time will tell now.

I got the bucket washer out of the sugarhouse and the new sink installed. Very nice unit Thanks Nate!

Looking for a few good trees!

Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaster]

Gary R Yes Ed gets almost as excited as Theeron does and I think this is going to be a good learning year for Ed. He is keeping us updated on how he is doing.
Mapleack Hope you are right on those spiles, we are putting alot in this year hopeing this will help with our vacuum systems.

[White Barn Farm]

I tapped yesterday and most started a little. This morning the wind from southwest to northwest and the sap really picked up. I am gathering towards dark and should have enough to start the evaporator.Looks like a good week here in Bradford county. Hope to put my new press to good use thanks to Andy.

[Dennis H.]

Boy did the sap run today!

I went out this morning to collect and ended up with almost 30gal.
So I fired up the evap again, 2nd time in 2 days, and boiled it down.

I will be able to make at least a gal or more with what I got the past 2 days.

[Gary R]

Sap did not run well for me. I'm guessing maybe 20 gal. from the 68 taps. It was cool today but the next 4 days are supposed to be almost 50 everyday. I didn't start a fire. maybe tomorrow? Maybe I need vacuum? It worked well for Theron.

Jim Brown stopped over to see how things are going. He turned the light on in my head about my sap refractometer. ADJUST THE FOCUS. Things look great now! Thanks Jim.

Chris, Have you ever seen the roadside trees on Angling road? It's about 2 miles south of Rausch's. The road comes out on Rte. 18, a few miles north of Springboro. No houses on that part of the road. Maybe check with the locals as to see who owns them. Probably close to 100 taps.

Dennis, Great to see things flowing for you. enjoy that syrup:)

[Dennis H.]

Hey Gary I see you got one of those Refractometer from Ebay also, pretty cool aren't they?

I used mine a few time so far. The one thing I used it for was a 5gal bucket of partially forzen sap, about 2 gal of liquid the rest frozen solid. checked the sap to find that it was right around 2.5%. let the ice thaw some and found that it contained no sugar as I could see on refractometer. So I tossed that out. Natures RO!!

I also picked a refractometer that reads from 45-82% for syrup, I should be using that in the next day or two.

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
Thanks for the idea on the Angling road taps. I lost 20 taps this year. But just talked to a guy that will let me tap his rental property and the roadsides next to it, maybe about 30 or 40 taps? Which are on my route. I also picked up another small group of 15 hard maples in a yard that will be easy to gather, another 30 or so taps. So I need to get some more spiles, tees and totes then hang more tubing.
I may tap tomorrow afternoon and try to get this "first" run. I did tap three holes in the front yard in soft maples and I had about a pint of sap in 3 hours. Not a great run today.

I got all the totes set today for the tubing that is up (about 380), so I just need to tap and sanitize the holes.

I really would like to move away from one woods because its just sloping away from the road to much and hard to gather there. It is also a cold woods.

Chris

[Maplewalnut]

I'm convinced this time of year it is all about the sun more than the temps. Find the roadsides with an east/south exposure and you can tap them 2 weeks early. Find some with a north/west exposure and it balances everything out at the end. Looking forward to a big week. Evaporator with floats, tubing and vacuum all new this year. What could go wrong....??? Looks like cold by end of week here, perfect let me catch my breath and tweek some things before the sap really starts running. Good Luck everyone. Some are tapped and others will probably be busy this weekend tapping

Mike

[Sugarmaker]

Well I jumped in and tapped 380 for a start this afternoon. Several others in the area tapped today to try for this warm weather run on Tuesday. I finished about 7:30 and had a call from Tapping and Sappin about tapping theory. Hope I gave you the right advice Jake? Only time will tell. Should be plenty of season left too.

I lost some taps so in the process of replacing those I gained about 40-60:) funny how that happens. Ordered some fittings from Wiggers and Cheryl picked up four more totes so we should be at around 450 taps this year.

Should be boiling Tuesday evening if the weather is as they predict? Some of the taps were running at 4:00 but had shut down about 7:00
It was cold enough to freeze the water that I forgot to drain in the sugar house last night. :(

Still a bunch of moves to make to get the sugar house ready to boil. But this always forces me to get going once I have tapped.

Nate if you are on here, Cheryl gave a big approval on the sink It really looks nice and fits right in the sugar house like it belonged there. Thanks for going through the hassel of picking it up and delivering it to me.

Chris

[Dennis H.]

Alright Chris glad to see you took the plunge!

I have been boiling the past 3 days straight, the 1st day for 3 hrs, yesterday 4 hrs and today for 2 hrs.

I should have 2 gals made come tomorrow! I know , I know only 2 gals, but that is almost what I made ALL last year.

Well Good luck to everyone in PA on their tapping adventures.

[Gary R]

Sap did not run well for me yesterday. East wind and overcast for the afternoon. Already 40+ today and raining pretty well. I think this will help and should be boiling tonight!

[Maplewalnut]

Well all, just heard from my second in charge (at least in this operation) and she said the releaser is dumping every 2-3 minutes. Big sap day.

Put in a couple of those new straight clear disposable taps and its pretty cool to see the sap coming out of the tree. Vacuum is a beautiful thing, now if I can just keep it going.

Looks like its going to cool down after today, perfect opening for me to get all the bugs worked out before the season really starts.

[Gary R]

Maplewalnut, good job! Like you said, cold weather coming. Great to work out the bugs.

I collected about 50 gal. yesterday. I had about 65 gal. of sap to boil. I boiled it all in 4 1/2 hours. That included from the time I lit the fire until I shut the lights out. The new rig is running well. Jim Brown stopped by for a couple hours. Helped watch her run and suggested we keep raising the air flow till we got a good boil in the back of the pan. Occasional flame coming out the end of the stack now.

Wireless air card has not been getting good connection from home and been pretty busy at work. Trying to keep up with things on the Trader.

[tappin&sappin]

Hi all, glad to hear you guys are boiling sap.

Sugarmaker... Jan Woods told me the same thing you did... wait! so I am. But it's tough!!

Gary R - sounds like ur getting a decent rate out of that evap of urs.

Looks like the temp is going to plummet after today...

I spose everyone that tapped is busy boiling. Have fun!

- Jake

[Gary R]

Jake, good luck fishing. It does look like things will freeze up soon. It will still be here when you get back.

Collected just under 40 gal. tonight. Was going to hold it but decided to boil incase I get alot tomorrow. Had steak and baked potato in the sugarhouse. Read the maple news also. This head tank stuff is great! No more bucketing the sap. I'm on a 6 min. firing schedule, so hauling wood is keeping me busy:)

How's everyone else doing?

[Sugarmaker]

PA folks, Cheryl and I just finished for the night. I was to pooped to post last night:)
Gary your boil time matches mine.:)
Jake go fishing and don't worry about the sap.
I gathered last night after getting all the tanks washed and the truck arranged. It took me 2 hours to gather the 380 taps and considering I drove about 30 miles that's not to bad, I got 330 gals of 2% sap.
We made 2 gallons of med syrup last night. Jim and Chase (Father and Son) stopped over and visited after visiting at Bileks too.
I worked on the back of the arch tonight the rear clean out doors kept poping open about 6 inches last night. I took them off and ground all the mating areas they fit much better and one less thing to worry about. Tonight Nic helped me gather and we got 220 gallons of 2% sap.
We have made about 6.5 gallon so far with some sweet drawn off in a 5 gallon pail and the evaporator flooded with sap. Things have been working well so far this early start up allows me to get the bugs out and make improvements before we get hit with that BIGGGG SAPPPP.
I do have another 60 taps to put up over the weekend while its cold.

Regards,
Chris

[Dennis H.]

Just wrapped up with finishing my first syrup of the season, now I can have pancakes for breakfast.

It looks like I may be chasing buckets in the morning. The weather says that the wind is to pick up and be near 25mph thru-out the night!

Gary, steak and potatoes? I am finding that this is a great weight loss program, no time to eat. I wake up around 4pm go collect buckets for an hour and a half and then boil for 3 hrs then go to work.

The trees are slowing a little today because the temps are so high, we were in the low 60's today. It looks like are Thurs we will grt back into better temps.

[Sugarmaker]

Dennis,
Congrats on your first syrup for the year. Enjoy the pancakes. A lot of effort went into that!

Regards,
Chris

[Maplewalnut]

Wow, this wind shut down the taps like my kids slamming the front door. Trees were running well yesterday morning, slowed a little in the afternoon and stopped almost completely by early this morning by the volume in the tank. Now its 36 degrees with 30mph winds and gusts even higher. I was hoping all the snow would melt out of the woods but it didn't happen. Looking forward to the next run.

[KenWP]

I only tapped one tree to see if there was any action here. Temp was over 40 degrees for a few days but sometimes the sun hid and the wind blew so nothing came out yet. Will have to wait till March now most likely for the next warm spell. I know i will be relieved when I actually seem some sap for the first time in my life.

[Z/MAN]

My taps shut down also. Ran good Tuesday, slow yesterday and done now. Might run tomorrow with a cold night tonight but it looks like we are done for a while after that. Boiled yesterday and made 1/2 gallon of syrup. A good start for me this early in the season.

[Turtlecreek]

Blame this wind on me. It goes to figure, I'm out tapping last night and my fire pager goes off with a thunderstorm warning. Then today we get these next to gail force winds and I have to either chase buckets on by trees have shut up. Batter luck tommrow.

[Dennis H.]

Collected a few gals today while chasing lids thru the woods. I will keep it for tomorrow or Sat. The weather forecast is looking real good for me down here.

I also had my pancakes this morning with fresh syrup, boy was that good!!

I have to run some syrup over to the guy who gave me permission to use his trees. It will be the 1st installment of the year.

I also had a neighbor that I never met before stop by while I was collecting and we talked a few minutes about syrup and stuff and before he left he told me that I could tap any maples on his land if I want. Very cool. I will have to keep that in mind for next year.

[Turtlecreek]

Dennis or anyone for that matter, what is the usual payment for using other peoples trees. Do you just give them some syrup and call it even or what?

[Sugarmaster]

What some of us do up in Tioga County is:
A few trees some syrup is what your neighbors want for tapping their trees, but if you get into putting some money into the bush 30 to 50cents per tap and maybe get a lease for 5 years to recoup what you put into the bush.
Hope this helps getting different ideas.

[Turtlecreek]

Sugarmaster, first, its a pleasure to communicate with you. I read an article a few years ago about you and your operation, so I partialy blame you for this addiction.

Thanks for the info I have been eying up some other trees in the area I can't handle them now with the modified turkey fryer and sink evaporator, but if I ever come across a small pan at a reasonable price I'll be tapping some more next year.

[Dennis H.]

When I asked for permission he right off the bat said sure go ahead, all those trees are doing is just standing around!
I then asked if he wanted anything for letting me use the trees, he said no. So then I told him I will drop off some syrup when I get some made.

It sounds like from what I hear is that 30 to 50 cents per tap is the going rate. If it was me I would be willing to pay the higher fee/tap if I could put in a tubing system and be able to leave it in for a few years. If it were buckets, I would stay to the lower end, lots of labor and not a big deal if you have to relocate to another bush.

The way I see it, if you are only going to use a few trees then I would offer syrup, if you are looking at several hundred or a thousand than $/tap would be the better option.

[Maplewalnut]

In this case my experience is that people don't want the money-they want syrup! Theres gold in them there trees

[Jim Brown]

On the original lease we sent to the land owner(150 acres) we put down the amount of money we would pay per tap on vac. He called an said he wanted to change it to his call either money or equal amount in syrup. He has always taken the syrup!.
Works for us!!

Jim

[Sugarmaker]

Sap is running a little even though the thermometer is just below 30?? Probably 75 gallons out there.Not sure I am going to gather it up yet.

I gathered last night and got 110 gallons of 2.2% sap. boiled it in and have about 8 gallons on nice medium syrup. Have more taps to put up this P.M. as I took off work again due to partial power outage at work. I also hung tubing for 46 more taps in a yard sugarbush with real nice trees.

Don't forget the little misses for valentines day.

And if you don't have your taps in in NWPA your to late and might as well wait till next year:):)

Cheryl and I had a real nice visit with Laura D and Darell S. last night as I boiled in the small run, They took some more buckets out of the sugar house giving me some much needed room. Darell Hope those are filled in a week or so on the next run!

I just bought 4 Sterlite 35 gal totes to store syrup jugs in in the sugar house to keep them clean and secure. Good suggestion by Jim Bortles (thanks)

Regards,
Chris

[jrthe3]

chris i will be tapping monday hope to have stack up tomorrow we will see how it goes

[Daryl]

Chris, I enjoyed the visit Thursday night. I just walked the woodlot out back, found about 150 - 175 more that I could tap. That would be way too many for my 2 X 3 W.F Mason evaporator. Scott D brought over 25 or 30 gallons that we boiled last night. He didn't have enough for his outfit to fire. Get ready for that BIG SAP.
Daryl

[Jim Brown]

Well we got 750 drilled today with the help of Gary R. and my friend Gary McPartlin.Many thanks guys!!! Got to go put 40 buckets in my daughters yard tomorrow, my 13 year old grand daughter said she is ready to collect. Will get the other 300 of the main bush tapped first of the week. and then it will be time to keep an eye on the temp and keep the pumps ready!

Would not be able to run this operation if it wasn't for great family and friends!!

Jim

[Gary R]

Over the course of the week, I've collected 113 gal. of sap. Just finished and canned. 1 5/8 gal. of syrup. Sugar content on the reds was LOW. Expect a couple of weeks being froze up but, we might make the high 30's this coming week:) Pans rinsed and ready to go.

I have a cousin that lives up by Sugarmaker. He lives along Conneaut creek. I gave him my old pan and he put in 15 taps last Saturday. He had to collect by canoe 2 days last week! He got 25 gal. sap.

I gave a call to New Castle Ed. He's a virgin sugarmaker. He bought a new 18X48 evaporator and put in 130 taps! He held his sap and boiled Wednesday. Well, 20 hours later he finished. He's getting the hang of how to fire it though. He'll need it when the sap really runs.

Chris, a few weeks ago weren't you going to wait to tap;) I guess this spring weather got to you.

Looking for BIG SAP. Good luck to all:)

[Dennis H.]

The southern part of the state is looking like it might get a really good couple of days of weather.

I just am glad the wind has stopped, no more chasing lids!

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
I may have jumped at that warm weather we had, thought I might be able to make 15 gallons, ended with about 1/2 of that. Today we tapped 31 buckets in the yard ( Mike's sugarbush) And will add another 20 on tubing when I find some more 30P. Need about 100 feet. That should put us at about 500 taps. And if Keith taps I may boil his also. He is still waiting for his pans and not sure if he will get them this year:(.

He is looking for a good clean 100 + gallon tank to hold sap in his loft.

Jim Brown, Your are getting a good start, may warm by mid week! BIG SAP coming as Theron would say.

Only 1 month till open house.

Gary, I draw the line gathering by canoe. But I did have one road flooded and had to take another rout through Albion to get to some taps!

Chris

[Turtlecreek]

Things are slow here at turkle creek. I have all of my trees tapped all 8 of them woo hoo! Yeah i know its only pittens to most of you. I had a ok run today, I got about 5 or 6 gallons of sap today. Yesterday I got 4 gallons. If we get a good run tommrow I might fire up the evaprosink (my stainless evaporator). I tapped a week earlier than last year but I think I'll be alright.

[Sugarmaker]

Yes crank that "evaposink" up!

Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Daryl,
I have more buckets!:) You can get Cheryl to boil!

Chris

[Turtlecreek]

I have been chomping at the bit I test fired today and I tink my modifications to the burners will increase my evaporation rate.

[Gary R]

Turtlecreek, fire it up! That sounds like decent sap flow. Mine can be highly variable. One tree will put out over 1 gal. a day and the tree beside it might put out a quart.

Dennis, you probably have good sap weather down there. The past few days the line between cold and warm temps has been along I-80. We've been just a little too cold for sap.

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
You almost doubled your taps for 09. Nice job. But you also increased your evaporation rate with the new larger pans so you should have about the same boil time and make a little more syrup.
Thought about you when we passed Angling road tonight did not look like any buckets down there, but its in another sugar makers territory too. I think I am more than maxed out now. I will need to take some days of vacation to get sap boiled if we ever have another run that is a good one:)

I drained the water from the evaporator and from the water system. It was froze this morning. Waiting for the next run.

Regards,
Chris

[Turtlecreek]

I fired up the evaprosink today. I had ten fallons of sap and ice. I got one and a half quarts of medium, the first time I have made anything darker than light amber. I did everthing the same as in year past, I guess I'm making dark this year.

If I had to guess my evaporation rate was about 3 gallons an hour. I may be able to do better but I wasn't pushing it.

[Jim Brown]

Well we got 800 in over the weekend including 47 buckets in my daughters yard for my grand-daughter to collect. She has her collection tank on the trailer,hooked to the four wheeler. and she is ready!

Hope to get the other 300 in the main bush done Thursday. and then bring it on!Total should be about 1100 when we get finished.

Got to love an RO!

Chris-Great news about your Grandson!

Jim

[tappin&sappin]

Well boys... I'm back.

What a trip. Lucky we even got on the ice w/ the wind and rain.

Lost a monster at the whole. My dad landed 2. All in all though, nice to get away.

Sounds like everyone made some syrup, thats great.

Closest warm up looks like this wednesday, but only 42 and breezy. Hmmm... when to tap...

- Jake

[jrthe3]

got 500 taped today will havre rest in tomorrow

[Sugarmaker]

Jake,
Check the forecast and tap next time its warm should be about right timing and no use freezing while tapping and chancing splits at the tap. I am going to get the rest of mine in this week. If it stays cold I think it will be OK. If it warms we will get something.
Glad you had a good time fishing. You did not miss much of a run. Kind of disappointing, but must start some time.

The syrup sure had great flavor! And that's what we sell!

Gary R change the oil in the B.A.T. saps coming!!!!

Jim Brown, 1100 taps you need some help to keep those gathered each run!

Chris

[alwaysadntaps]

I started tapping some of my smaller southern bushes today. Let most of the sap run on the ground top clean out the lines. Still working on up grading the rest of the bushes, not adding any just making sure things are up and right for good flow. It will take us about 2 1/2 weeks to finish all the tapping. will probably boil alittle this week. A couple of sugar makers talked me into trying the new stubby spout with the disposalable tips. Said I should up the sap 15 to 30 % more. When we were changing the health spiles to thses new ones 80 to 90% were pluged tight with bacteria. We will see how this does with the sap production.

I tap around 7000 in Ontario Canada . We found the tips extended our season by close to 2 weeks. There is another trick being disscused to prevent tap holes from healing over. When drilling tap holes make sure your drop line sags below the lateral . This will form a trap so to speak . The sap left in the sag (trap) will not allow fresh air to enter the tap hole when the vacum is off. With the price of darker grades soaring a longer season can really increase profits. We are planing to tap 1st week of Mar .

[Gary R]

Chris, I didn't know we had territories. I'll be careful next time. I don't want to get caught eyeing up someone else's trees;) That must be close to ogling someone's wife! You shouldn't worry about maxing out your operation. There's alway's bigger evaporator's or those high tech widget's :)

Stopped and seen New Castle Ed yesterday. He was cleaning his pan and getting ready for the next run. Can't remember how many gal. he made. It all looked good. He had me taste it and as he commented, it tasted like vanilla. Don't know why, but it tasted good.

[tappin&sappin]

Don't think tomorrow will be much of a run if it's windy. Going to hold out and put them in this weekend while it's daylight out. That should give me a good 5 weeks.

Will see what happens.

How many taps you up to Chris? I've got dibs on your 3x10 when you make the move on a 4x16...:)

[Father & Son]

By the looks of the Accuweather extended forcast we might be boiling the end of next week. Time to wrap up the loose ends and tap Monday and Tuesday. Sugarmaker; find those extra 100 taps, tighten up the boot straps, and as Theron would say - Big Sap is on the way!

Jim

[Sugarmaker]

Gary R, Yea your right , !!!!!!!ITS EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF, ITS SAP TIME!!!!!:)

Jake we are going to be about 500 taps and that was not really planned so we will see how it works and how I hold up:) That old 3 x 10 should have been retired long ago:) No 4 x in my future! Just need some young folks to fire it for me.

F&S I bet that new tubing system is looking great. You will like that a lot.

Get things shined up boys its right around the corner!

Regards,
Chris

[Maplewalnut]

Gary R- seems like a cut throat group out there is the west! LOL

Been fighting releaser freezeups all week on the tubing. But did manage to hang all the buckets on Monday. It was only 30 degrees and every tree was dripping by the time we got the spout in. ahhh.... the power of the sun. I hinestly have no idea how many taps I have this year. Probably somewhere around 300. Might be some long boils coming up soon. Looking forward to it, its therapy for me.

Looks like next week might open the flood gates. Someone check on Theron now and again. All of Pa is banking on him having a banner year.

Mike

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I heard Theron bought new life jackets for him and the boys....wrote it off as a sugaring expense:rolleyes:

[Jim Brown]

I hope he writes off his internet connection as a syrup expense also!


Jim

[Dave Y]

He can also write off the feed for his bull ! :)

[PATheron]

I just like keeping you guys fired up. Im not getting anything now. Last three days I havent even really done anything maple. Came home and ate supper and played uno with the kids. Terreble. Been pooped. Gotta get things ready to go for next week. I think I have the shed pretty finetuned other than the filter press setup and Im going to work on that this weekend. Mostly this weekend I think Im going to try to go get some more taps. I think I can get another 150 maybe pretty easy so I think Im going to do that. Next week we should make some syrup hopefully. Theron

[Gary R]

It warmed up to around 40 last night. I decide to gamble and not empty buckets until this morning. I just made it. It was 29 when I went out and dropped 5 degrees during the hour it takes to collect. Blizzard like conditions. I think I have about 40-45 gal. of sap in the BAT tank. It's parked in the garage so it won't freeze. Hope to boil it down tonight, then it looks to be about a week before anything else happens. Every little bit helps!

[Maplewalnut]

I am actually looking forward to the break. I was able to work out a lot of bugs with my new set up the last run last week but have some tweaking to go. Looks like sap is dripping today in buckets but I didn't turn the pump on this morning for the tubing. Will probably have a little sap to do Saturday but otherwise fine tuning everything for big sap next week. Get ready its a coming

[Jim Brown]

We we tapped the last 300 this morning in a BLIZZARD!! Snowing side ways!
We are as ready as we can be and not have sap. Don't know if the end of next week will be warm enought. But will be watching close!

Final tap count-1050 on vac and 47 buckets!
Almost got the 1100
Bring it on!(now we are ready)

Jim

[Dennis H.]

Went out and emptyed all the bucket this evening, temps were right at 29degrees. There was a little natural RO going on in the buckets. I had a few buckets almost completely full, thats 2gals!

It looks like the next few days down here will be too cold for the trees to run but it shuld give them a good kick start again. It will also give me time to finish off the sap I collected today and whats in the evap pan.

Now if I can only get over this darn Flu bug that I got.

[Turtlecreek]

Dennis hope you feel better! I have managed to dodge any sickness so far I hope the BIG SAP starts soon before I catch something. We are having a baby girl in early March so I am going to have to hold some sap and boil between baby duty and tending to wife duties.

[Sugarmaker]

Cheryl and I picked up all the sap late last night and Like Boyd whte ever could go wrong did. Rain soaked gather is the best. But we mostly drive around and throw the pump out once and a while:) GalsD I did not have to gather 500 buckets last night. The romote hose was frozen with slush had to come back and get hot water to thaw the out. The wiper fell off the truck. The door handle fell apart on the sugar house. All in all we gathere 180 gallons of 2.6% sap (dumped some ice). Boiled it in and did not draw any off. Tonight I had to do some minor thawing of valves to get the 50 gallons drained from the evaporator. Just the normal sugaring issuse when mother nature doesnt want to give up that sap.:)
Like Jim Brown said, Bring it on!
Boyd, Watch the fan!
Dave Y feed the kids well and send them on to great sap gathering adventures.
Gary R, Your nice and warm boiling while the wind is howling and snow is flying? Hope the freeze ups are not a problem moving sap around!
Regards,
Chris

[andyp]

Finished taping yesterday.We have about 175 taps in, down about 75 from last year. It must have run late last night I gathered 155 gal. this afternoon in howling snow squalls. Boiled off about 100 gal. Hope to finish tomorrow.

Andyp

[mfchef54]

Andyp,
Where are you located?

[Sugarmaker]

AndyP,
Hey glad to see you are out there making maple. We do have some nice honey. And I just dropped off some Taste and Tour brochures at the Green Roof Inn, famous for their catering to Steelhead fisherman.

Regards,
Chris

[andyp]

Mfchef
We are in south western Pa. about 12 miles south of Kittaning in armstrong county.

Andyp

[andyp]

Sugarmaker
I probably would not be making syrup this year if we were still using the five gallon jugs to gather. My bum leg wouldn't take it. We switched to gravity tubing and totes. The same system you are using. It is working great.It sure is nice to pump everything,and not have to lug those 5 gal. jugs through the bush. I would like to have some of that honey, but I don't know when I might get up that way. Maybe if we have another end of maple season dinner I could get some if you have any left.

Andyp

[Turtlecreek]

Just a quick update from down here. I have been froze up so I making sap pops right now. Not such a bad thing at least it keeps longer! Looks like big sap comming next week. We should all get lots of sleep over the weekend because I think we will all be boiling by the middle of next week!

[Gary R]

Andyp, glad to see your still at it. Hope that leg get's better for you.

Turtlecreek, weather must be good for you. See you just finished off some syrup! Just too cold up here.

Chris, good idea with the Green Roof Inn. Hopefuly some of those fisherman will stop at your place and get some treat's for their families. You did highlight your place on the brochure?

I'm going to boil the sap I collect this week, today. A new backyarder is coming over to watch. Probably will leave it in the pan as sap might be running later this week:)

[Dennis H.]

Just finished boiling down all the sap that I have on hand. I will go back up later after supper to finish it to syrup on the stove and filter and bottle it.
It looks like it might make about 2 gals.

Went out this morning to check on lids, yesterday was kinda of windy down here and with better temps coming the next couple days I wanted to be sure they were all on. I couldn't get to a bunch of my buckets the other day to empty them and they are frozen solid. I let the natural RO go a little to far on those.

My tank that had the remainder of sap in also was frozen, but not all the way so that helped cut some time out of boiling this afternoon.

[PATheron]

Dennis- How much syrup have you made so far and how many taps did you manage to get? Your in a fun area thats pretty much ahead of everyone but maybe Brandon. Your our early season producer for sure. Theron

[Dennis H.]

The sugar content of the sap has been a little low, just above 1 3/4%. Really sad if you think about it, but then again they are all Reds, so it doesn't surprise me.
The 1st batch I made 5 quarts, that was last week, If I remember right 4 days worth of sap.
I just pulled off syrup this evening to finish tomorrow. It should make about 1 1/2gals. That is from 3 days worth of sap.

I have been getting larger and larger runs as time goes. Heck the other day I had a ton of sap that ran sometime during the night. Whe I went to collect in the evening they were loaded and the temps at that moment was right at 25degrees. It was like dumping slushies.

It looks like Tues will be the start of a good run of several days for me, can't wait.

I believe the total is 145. I wish I had one of of the stands of trees on vac. It is weird how some trees run like crazy and others just dribble a little?

[Sugarmaker]

On Syrup Hold In NWPA!

Chris

[Maplewalnut]

Dennis- I am a vacuum believer. Especially for reds in the woods. The few marginal days I have had weather wise this year have been close to my better days towards the end of the season. I am still not convinced that vacuum will exceed my roadside trees with 7/16 souts and four gallon buckets, but we'll see.

Fitting freeze ups like everyone else. My pump line from the woods froze up and then I tried to force the block out and blew out two pvc fittings that are twenty feet up in the air. Now I have to fix them and hope for a quick thaw. Thought I had it pitched to drain but evidently there is one spot that is not.

Should be good the end of this week and then cold again?

[tappin&sappin]

Okay it's 'official', i'm ready. Got all my taps out this past weekend.

C'mon sap!

- Jake

[Sugarmaker]

Jake,
You should make some syrup later this week with the rain coming in on Wed.
Hope your season starts well.

Chris

[emericksmaple]

Well i am late in posting on here, it is a total nut house around here.. We started tapping on the 12th of Feb. and boiled our first on the 14th and made 20 gallon. Then we got a run on wed night and made 41 gallon on thursday the 19th and that has been it. We have not even had a good enough flow to walk over all the vaccum an get all the leaks out. At the moment we have 150 to tap and then we will be all done, Giving us 2800 on vaccum and 400 yet on gravity.
My wife's hand is slowly getting better but it has been a slow process healing.
Looks like we will be busy the next couple of days so good luck to all!!!!

[Sugarmaker]

Matt,
Glad to see you back and hope the wifes hand progresses well. I thought about you and her when I was stiring some syrup at 260 deg to make sugar.

Glad your season is under way.

Thanks,
Chris

[tappin&sappin]

emericks,

Hope your wife heals up soon.

I can't believe you made 60 gals of syrup already. 40 gals in a day blows my mind. Guess I have something to strive for... lol :)

JZ

[Dennis H.]

I got out this evening and emptied all the buckets of sap and ice. The trees are starting to run today, temps were in the 40's and tomorrow is to be in the low 50's. So I think this is may be a big run.
I wasn't abke to boil today so I now have about 45 gals of sap sitting there, I should be able to boil tomorrow.

I finished another batch of syrup the other evening and man was that abig pain. I tried filter media and my flat filter this time. I think I put to much media in the syrup. It took FOREVER to filter after over 24 hrs I still had about a pint of syurp on the filter? But the syrup did come out really clear. I will have to try again with less media.

I hope everyone is ready for the next few days it looks like it might be a good one. Emerick glad to hear your make syrup, I thought for a moment that I was the only one down here making any.

[Turtlecreek]

Moved a couple of taps that just wern't producing any sap, yes they were maple trees not oaks! Those taps were really running, the rest of the taps havn't fully thawed out. I think since they are on a north facing hill its going to take a day or to to get things going again.

I have a bunch of rock hard frozen sap sitting in my storage tote. Do I need to be worried about anything, and how long can I hold frozen sap, I would think as long as its frozen it would be ok. Let me know your thoughts!

Dennis, your not the only one down here I'm only one county away!

[PATheron]

Dennis- I wonder with the amount of syrup your doing if you could just do it the old way and make sure its to density and let the syrup sit. Its pretty remarkable how all the sediment will go to the bottom. I think thats how they did it in the old days. Not sure how long to let it sit but I know it works and I think pretty good. That or save it all and bring it up after season and well press it. Theron

[Sugarmaker]

Sap alert in NWPA,
We had sap begin to run about 3:00 this afternoon as the temp finally hit high 30's.
We choose not to gather because there just was not that much sap flow at 5:30. Cheryl dumped the ice from the buckets in the yard just as they thawed.
I will check in the morning and determine if it is a full syrup day or work the morning and gather after lunch day.
I think the sap may run all night, especially if we get some rain.
Made a batch of Maple Mustard and a batch of HOT maple Mustard. Preparing for open house.
Boy those new vinyl labels look nice and should hold up much better on the MM containers. Still need to make Maple BBQ in mild and Hot, Plus maple peanuts, More sugar, Candy, and cream.

Chris

[Dave Y]

Chris,
Sap ran here all afternoon but did not make much. The temps got to 47. There has been a breeze from the south blowing all day. Until it turns out of the west i dont expect to much to happen.

[Sugarmaker]

DaveY,
You old sugar maker you. I felt that breeze tonight and had similar thoughts. We were so cold the last few nights its going to have to warm up a little longer to kick things loose. I thinks its going to run into Saturday morning.
If I haven't ruined the preheater by forgetting to drain it, we should be ready.
The frozen sap 5 gallon buckets in the sugar house will need to be added back in the evaporator as it thaws during boiling.
Chris

[Dave Y]

Sugarmaker,
You dont have to get personal I know I am getting old. I may not have been making syrup as long as most of you old farts but I am a quick study

[tappin&sappin]

Looks like the sap ran fairly well last night.

I am unable to take the day off of work, so will probably gather it tonight, get it into the SS insulated bulk tank and then boil tomorrow night. :)

[Jim Brown]

Sap ran a little yesterday nothing to write home about! Turned the pumps off at 9:00pm last night no sense of buying gas for the generators for a couple of gallon of sap. Started them again at 5:00am this morning going to let them run all day see what happens. Not too optimistic slight breeze in the tree tops this morning and temp is just hanging around 40 and cloudy . Don't think this is it just yet, but we are close now!!

Jim

[Gary R]

Poor run over here. I collected this morning. Only got about 49 gal. of sap. Here, I think the biggest problem is the ground is still frozen from that cold weather. We had a few inches of snow and still this morning after a couple of days in the 40's, we have snow on the base's of the trees. I will probably boil later after work. Next boil will probably be Saturday. I hope the buckets don't freeze overnight.

Turtlecreek, I'd pitch what ice is left in the totes today. It keeps your sap cool, but there may not be much sugar in it.

Dennis, I haven't heard of filter media for filtering for the small producer. I use the cone filters and have had no problems. Just need to us a couple paper pre filters also. I believe Sugarmaker uses them and he makes alot more syrup than both of us combined.

[Maplewalnut]

Poor run here in the east also. Turned off the pump around 7pm temp had already dropped to 30 degrees. Doesn't look like it will hit 50 today as it was supposed to. Snowing and 28 degrees currently. What a life a weatherman must have. Plan to run the pump overnight since temps are only suppose to drop to 36 degrees. We'll see.

[Turtlecreek]

today was the closest thing to a run yet this year. I almost had a few full buckets. it cooled down thisw afternoon if it stayed warm it may have been better.

[Gary R]

Well, the sap hit the pan today. First while boiling I noticed there was almost a steady stream of condensate flowing from my outlet of the hood back into the pan. I fixed it after the boil by riveting a piece of aluminum under the drip to send it to my condensate drip channels.

Things were going great. I drew off a couple times and was going to have great syrup. I was eating a maple cream, peanutbutter and banana on toast:) Man was that good! Then I checked in the pan and saw a big black spot on the boil. Then I noticed smoke coming out from the hood:( Then the sap really hit the pan! I can not print the words that came out of my mouth! I got it under control and finished everything. I ended up with just over 1 1/2 gallon of black as coal syrup. It tastes ok, but I'm not giveing any of that away. Burnt spot was about 6X10. Cleaned everthing and fixed the hood.

Tomorrow's another day.

[slammer3364]

Sap finally ran today ,got about 60 gal. today, checked when I come from work at mid-nite jugs had sap in them when I checked,collect in the morning then boil only working 3 days a week so I have 4 days to boil

[tappin&sappin]

Gary.... sorry to hear about the burnt pan. Sounds like you caught it in time though before things got too out of hand.

Gathered last night. Agreed, was a slight dissappointment. Thought we might get more sap than we did yesterday. Brought in around 170 gallons. Going to get out of work at a decent time tonight and light the fire.

Checked the taps this morning and w/ this wind and no dip in temp last night, things look like they are winding down. Will probably gather what is in there either tonight or tomorrow morning, as long as it hasn't froze in that time...

Thats enough sap for me to get all the bugs worked out of the operation.

- Jake

[Maplewalnut]

Gary-congrats on catching you pan just in time. of course you know it could have been alot worse.

Share in the disappointment of yesterday's run although vacuum helped some. My buckets were either almost full or had two inches in them. didn't seem to have any correlaton to direction, size of tree, nothing. some ran like heck, some not at all.

We'll see what today brings, although a projected low of 37 turned into 27 at daybreak and everything froze up again.

[Dave Y]

tappin and sappin,
I have thr perfect formula to keep you from being disapointed about how much sap you get per run. Tap twice as many tree as you can handle at one time and you will always have sap.

[Turtlecreek]

Lets here it how did everyone make out today. I had an awsome run today!! I should fire up tonight but i may wait until tommrow morning. I got 10 gallons of sap out of 8 taps.

[Gary R]

Everyone must be boiling? I collected 70 gal. tonight. Almost done boiling. No mishaps yet.:) Thinking about doing some sugarhouse visiting this weekend. All froze up here.

[Dennis H.]

I collected about 100 gals of sap today. I have two 32 gal cans full, 2 18gal totes full and a bucket full. All this and the trees were still running good when I collected the sap at 5pm.

I had to wait for tomorrow to boil. It will take me all weekend to get it all boiled not including what I collect tomorrow and Sunday.

It was wiild to take the lid off a bucket and see 2gals of sap, all in just 24hrs!
Several buckets were so full that the sap was running back out the hole that the bucket hangs from. So who knows how much I lost there.

I hope everyone is getting the big run, and good luck.

[emericksmaple]

Good morning to all. We have been very busy the last 2 days. Made 153 gal on thurs and 95 gal yesterday, and we may have to boil today. Wow, does vaccum make the differance. We walked lines wed evening and there was still ice in some of the holes but when it warmed up on thurs things broke loose.
I am surprised that you guys in northern pa did not get more sap??? Well happy sapping to all!!!!

[PA mapler]

Hi guys! I've been trying to find the time to keep up with everyone here, and the time just isn't there. Working and keeping a house and family going interferes with my leisure time in a big way!

I actually got out tonight and tapped about 20 trees, just to say I did and to get back into the swing of things. I thought I'd gotten everything ready to go, but found out the one section I skipped was the one the squirrels hit hardest, so I made a trip back to the house for more line and connections. At least the sun was shining, and I think I even heard a few birds! I love this time of year.

Looks like maybe a small possibility of a little run later this week, so I'd like to have everything tapped by then. This last thaw really took the snow down, and even on my north slopes the snow is way down.

Good luck everyone!

[Turtlecreek]

Hello from the sugarhouse (gotta love wireless). Looks like its going to be a late one this evening. I had about 18 gallons to boil down, so I started up the evaprosink. Then my son and I went to collect sap and when we brought it bact to the tank it filled it back up to the previous level before I started to boil.

I think we can sound the big sap alert it running great here in union county!

[Dennis H.]

Turtlecreek I understand what you are saying.
We had a massive run yesterday and did a marathon boil today, about 6 hrs. only got thru about half of the sap I have close to 100gals. Then my dad and I went out and emptied buckets and brought back about 30 gals. so that takes us back about half of what we boiled down.

Now tonight and tomorrow they are saying the temps will not get above 32 so that will give me a chance to catch back up. Actually it loks like the next 3 days are going to be no run days, it will give me a little break.

emerick that is great with how much syrup you have made so far. It makes you wonder how us down here are have a few really good days while the guys up north are just getting the 1st runs of the year.

[Sugarmaker]

Gary R
Thankls for stoping in to the sugar house to visit.
Keith and I enjoyed going over to Kurt's to see his new rig and the first syrup to come off of it. He has some nice features built in and as you mentioned seemed to be very efficient.
Dave Y,
Yes you have caught up fast and passed me by in a hurry. I would imagine that the sap was keeping you busy just before the cold spell.

Keith and I gathered Thursday night and got 460 gallons. Cheryl and I gathered Friday afternoon and got 560 gallons which I held till Sat morning to boil.
I made a mistake and scorched the front pan on Friday night! I had syrup too close to being finished and started a small fire to just keep the sugarhouse from freezing and it made syrup and burnt the center section during the night. After 3 hours of scrubbing and loosing several gallons of syrup I was back in working order and the pan was not hurt. We have made about 30 gallons of medium syrup to date.

Matt,
You are really getting good syrup weather in Sommerset area! Nice job.

Regards,
Chris

[Jim Brown]

Well we finally got the season offically started today with 1000 gallon to start the day off. Ran the RO for about three hours before we built a fire and then got the 'old girl' crankin up. Ran about 6 hours and put 12 gallon in the finisher and left about 5 gallon in the rig for the next run. Got all the bugs worked out except one! My son who is a partner in the business and normally comes and runs the rig during the season. Has got emergency orders to Iraq he is leaving Tuesday.(any were from two weeks to a year) He is a Master chief in the Air Force intelligence at Wright-Pat. Has 19 years and 7 month on the books and now get sent to Iraq
Go figure!
Our daughter came over today and ran the rig since I'm scheduled for an MRI on Monday due to an ongoing back problem.

Well so much for letting me vent.
Have a good week
Jim

Jim

[Sugarmaker]

Jim Brown,
Hope the back is going to be OK! Our prayers are with your son as he provides strength that this country needs!

Regards,
Chris

[Turtlecreek]

Jim- Our best to your son from our family. I really look up to men like him, lets face it if it wern't for him we may not be doing this! Gods speed.

[Gary R]

Finished our syrup Sat. morning. Then headed to Erie county for some visiting. Stopped at Sugarmaker's. A few retail customer's were in during the short time we were there. Looks like business is good. Then off to my cousin Kurt's. His first boil on his new homemade rig. I had sent him the air over fire document and he built that into his arch. It boils very efficient. With a crowd of 10 people standing around, he was able to finish it right to syrup on the rig. Only one problem. He boils outside and it was 20 degree's when he finished and we were standing on concrete. I think we finally have him convinced to move indoors next year. It was quite a "festive atmosphere" though last night.

Beth, good to here from you. hope things are thawing out on Bradford.

Jim, best wishes to Doug. Hope he stays safe and your back mends.

[PATheron]

Dave Y- WHERE IN THE HECK ARE YOU YOU CRAZY BUCKET DUMPIN, HOLE DRILLIN, SAP HAULIN SUGARMAKER? Theron

[Dennis H.]

Well I just finished up for the day, I have to go to work, oh joy!

I boiled sap for 6 hrs today, went thru about 60 gals. I also emptied buckets and got another 46 gals so that gives a total of about 80 gals to boil down now.

Between today and yesterday I went thru about 120 gals of sap!
It looks like it is going to slow down for the next few days so that should help me catch up. I may even take a day or two off work, this is more fun than going to work!

[Z/MAN]

Boiled down about 30 gal Saturday. I thought we would have had a better run then we did here. Taps ran for a day and a half but didn't produce a lot. Looks like we will have to wait until Thursay for above freezing. Also see single digit nights again and highs in the teens. This cold weather this winter just will not let up!

[Dave Y]

I currently have more sap than i can boil ! Started boiling on Sat. never got the fire lite till 11am boiled till 12 am. made about 10 gal. Sunday got the fire lite at 9:30 am and started to boil and just couldn't get it to make syrup,fought with it all day. finally hung it up at 8:30pm. The sap line coming in to the building kept freezing.The front pan wont boil. the sugar house is freezing and I have to work today. If I can get things straitened out this week I will be off work the rest of the month.

[PATheron]

Dave- I knew youd be getting BIGSAP with all those buckets. Can you take a whole month off straight. Thatll get you a bunch of drums full. Theron

[Maplewalnut]

Well collected about 450 gallons from last weeks run and made some syrup this weekend. Got the new rig dialed in pretty good and was averaging about 45 gallons an hour. Not to shabby, plenty of draft, a blower and a preheater turn this 2x6 into a boiling machine. Throw in a combo of hardwood and dry pine and you almost need protective sleeves when firing. Now fighting freezeups again. Probably be close to 0 tonight and tomorrow night then maybe a warm up agin towards the end of the week.

Jim...good luck on your MRI and we'll keep your son in our prayers.

[tappin&sappin]

Hi all, glad everyone is making syrup.

sugarmaker, sorry to hear about your pan. Glad you got it cleaned up and it wasn't too bad though.

Boiled friday night for 6 hours, 1st boil of season. Drew off about a gallon. Gathered saturday, everything in buckets was froze solid. Probably lost 50 gallons... oh well. ended up getting 75 gallons from the drums. Boiled that in saturday afternoon. Drew off about another 1.5 gallons.

All and all though, things off to a good start. Had a few hiccups, but that is to be expected.

Jim Brown... tell your son I said thanks for his service. Regarding your back, not sure where it hurts, but if it is lower and makes your legs ache, do a google search on "mckenzie exercises". Order the book from amazon. Those stretches have been a real life saver for me.

[Dennis H.]

I made a nice batch of dark syrup for the wife today.
For some reason everytime I made a batch of syrup it always came out light colored. I think it tasted really good but the wife said that it didn't have a strong enough maple taste. So this time I did a batch and I boiled it longer than I would normally do, It tastes really good and it is darker.
Now it will have to be checked by the boss to see it meets her approval.

Right now we are having another few days of very cold weather, it looks that Wed will be the start of another several days of good old sap running weather.

[Dave Y]

Theron,
I will be off from this Friday till April 1st. I am hoping I can get caught up before the next run. I didn't boil last night due to freeze up and needed to fix a couple of things. But I should be in good order for this afternoon.

[PATheron]

Dave- My dad and I were talking about stuff freezing up last night. Thats my biggest pain. Once we get into the season better thatll quit messin you up hopefully. So aggrivating. Hope you get caught up so your ready for the next run. Just think how nice thatll feel to have that much syrup barreled this early. Might have a banner year. Im not doing anything much more for a couple years but my next big investment is going to be a tank house. AN INSULATED ONE. Theron

[Dave Y]

Theron,
I will not be expanding next year un less I can get a new sugar house built. If I do then look out! 10,000 taps here we come.

[PATheron]

10,000 taps???? HOLY SAP BUCKETS!! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND??? I hope you do that but youve got to get the GPH up a little. CRIMINY. Theron

[Dave Y]

Theron,
A new sap house will also mean a much larger evaporator!

[PATheron]

Are you going to get a great big wood baby? Theron

[Dave Y]

Yes I am! may be 6x16. yee haw!!

[Father & Son]

Well, I think I've broke and froze up everything possible. All the bad stuff out of the way and better days coming. Last week the mainline problems - FIXED - Friday night collected 200 gallons of sap and the temps dropped so fast froze up three lines. After we finally lit the evaporator at 8:00 the boil went quite well. It took 175 gallons to sweeten the pans, drew off a little syrup and now we are ready for the run that should start Thursday. By the sounds of things everyone has their bugs ironed out, and the rest of the season should be a breeze. ha ha. Rest up. As Theron would say, Big Sap is Coming!

Jim

[Sugarmaker]

Jim,
Thanks for the advice on the cream and sugar in the new "old" Hobart. I may have to try it this weekend.

Chris

[Dave Y]

These are certainly trying times! got home from work last night and started to thaw things out i had two busted elbows in the sugar house. I ce 3 inches thick in the sap tanks. I had one heck of a time getting started. finally made about 10 gal. shut down and went to bed about 12:30. I am still not getting the evaporaton rate i did the last couple of years. I am thinking maybe a new blow?

[PATheron]

Dave- Your probly on top of all this stuff but on my evap we cleaned the flues better by raising the flue pan up and then I had my bricks run to far back towards the stack and we removed a row of them and holy cow what a difference. Theron

[Father & Son]

Dave,
Hang in there, things will get better. Just listening to everyone, the bugs are getting ironed out and they will for you too! When I boiled Friday night I had the freeze ups, couldn't get the steam out of the sugarhouse and other issues. The severe weather we are having right now with the high and low pressure fronts moving through might be contributing to your evaporation rate. The bubbles in the syrup pan didn't look right and I was drawing off at 223, but it was right on density. I even used 2 hydrometers just to be sure and I had calibrated my thermometer also. The weather that is coming looks to be better sugaring weather and I'll bet your evaporator will start acting better this weekend. Pour the wood and the sap to it and watch your syrup barrels fill.

Jim

[tappin&sappin]

ditto on all the issues.

I had trouble w/ freeze ups, steam, etc.

Jim... it took me about 170 gallons to sweeten the pan as well. Probably only drew off 3/4 of a gallon on Friday night. Boiled some in on Saturday too, but not much.

Like you said, looks like we have some great sugaring weather coming soon. Should make for some fun. :)
- Jake

[Dave Y]

You guys are spot on. My biggest concern is that I dont seem to be getting the flame that I used to get. We cleaned the arch and it helped some but not what i think it should do. I think the cold may have some thing to do with my syrup pan not boing the way it should. It was 8deg last nite when i was boiling. darn near froze. I am thinking about putting a 1200 cfm blower on the rig. I think that would help. I has a 980 cfm on it now. so the increased air may help?
Jim you made syrup at 223? wow. what are you using as a thermoeter? I rarely get above 217.

Theron the ramp on my rig have baffles in it to push the flame up in to the flues, do you think adding more arch board or vermiculite may help?

[Father & Son]

Dave,
I'm using a 3" 0-50 maple thermometer. I just calibrated it to 212 (boiling water) at 0. That's what I was meaning, with the radical weather changes things aren't running at what we consider to be normal.

Jim

[Maplewalnut]

I also have been drawing of alot higher. I use the thermometer more as a get close guide but use the hydrometer to tell me when to open the valve. I drew off Sunday at 220 degrees, when I finally had syrup. I did not calibrate my thermometer that day but had three days earlier.

[tappin&sappin]

I was drawing off at 218 last weekend.

I too use the thermometer to tell me when it's close but use the hydrometer to tell me when to open the valve.

[Father & Son]

Jake,
175 sweetened the pans for the first draw and I was ready to draw again but ran out of sap. I will no more than light the fire this next time and and it will be "SYRUP TIME"

Jim

[Dave Y]

Guys i hate to tell you water only boils at 212 at sea level. I am at 1600 ft and water boils here around 209-210. I have a Marcland barometer/thermometer. It gives me the barametric pressure and the point of boiling water at that time. Then add 7degs. it has never been over 217 ,ever.
Maplewalnut, you shouls calibrate you thermoeter ever time you boil as the point of boiling water changes with the change in barometric pressure.

[Father & Son]

Dave,
That's why there is an adjustment screw on the thermometer, to calibrate to 212 when you're not at sea level or for the barometric pressure that day. Like Jake, the thermometer sits me down beside the draw off valve and the hydrometer tells me when to open it.

Jim

[Dave Y]

Jim,
take that 212 number and throw it out of your head. unless you are at sea level water doesnt boil at that number. it is 211,210,209,208. based on your elavaton and the current barometric pressure. 0 is the point of boiling water not 212. after you have started to draw off, and after you check the syrup for density,and it is correct then set your thermometer to 7. then that is what you draw off at. any way thats the way I do it.

[mfchef54]

The bubbles in the syrup pan didn't look right and I was drawing off at 223, but it was right on density. I even used 2 hydrometers just to be sure and I had calibrated my thermometer also.
Jim[/QUOTE]

I thought I was the only one. Been drawing off at 220-1 and finishing on propane, somewhere between 223-4. did the two different hydrometers also to make sure. thanks for sharing.
Mike

[Gary R]

I can't even get my hydrometer to float until I reach about 221. It's about the same temperature no matter which batch I canned. The question would be, how acurate is the temperature device your checking water with? I've been using a $30 digital with 1/10 degree increments. But, I believe it is only acurate to +/- 2%. Thats more than 4 degrees. I should get my new digital from the maple guys any day. It is +/- .6 degrees F. Then I'll see if I make syrup at about 218.

Good luck everyone, saps hitting the pan tomorrow!

[Turtlecreek]

All froze up here for the last couple of days. There is a small amount in the buckets but nothing to write home about.

My wife and I had a baby girl today so if things stay frozen that would work out in my favor.

[3rdgen.maple]

Turtlecreek congrats on the baby girl remember all of us maple traders, we could use a boiling cigar. lol

[Dave Y]

Congrats,
Turtlecreek that baby girl will grow up fast. spend as much time with her as possible. Mine is 21yrs old and it seems like yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital.

[Gary R]

Congrats Turtlecreek, now you'll never get any sleep. Boiling and diaper duty:) Hope all goes well.

[Maplewalnut]

Congrats Turtlecreek. My youngest is 5 months now and I slipped him a finger dipped in syrup after canning last night. Should have seen his face. I beleive I have another sugarmaker up and coming!

[Dennis H.]

Congrats Turtlecreek on the addition to the family.

The sap is running again after the last couple of days of cold weather, just not sure for how many days though. It looks like after tonight we are not to go back down below 32 for at least 4 days, but at least I should get a goos run tomorrow.

I have a family coming over tomorrow morning who home schools their kids. They would like me to show them what it takes to make syrup. It should be fun.

With all this cold weather I cleaned up the sugarshack, it was overdue for a good cleaning.

Well good luck to everyone over the next few days it should be a good one you all you in the northern part of the state.

[Gary R]

Got up to 57 degree's today. Not much sap though. About 20-25 gal. South wind and the ground is frozen. Some of the taps were really dripping though. Put in a few mineral licks for the deer.

[Paddymountain]

Hi everyone, I got around 28 gal of sap this evening, the neighbor brought
about 50 gal also ,taps are still running good will collect again tomorrow at noon. just had some welding done on my sap pan to convert it to continuos
flow, I'm anxious to see how it works.

[andyp]

Sap started running late this afternoon gathered 100 gallon this evening. It was running real good while I was gathering.It may run all night. Looking for a big day tomorrow.

Andyp

[Turtlecreek]

Colleted sap tonight after brining home the new bundle of joy, and putting the 2 year old to bed. I got 25 gallons out of 10 taps. BIG SAP has begun. I'll be boiling tommrow between visitors.

Paddy Mountain, Where are you located out there I'm down near Winfield. I thought I was the only one in Union County.

[Paddymountain]

Turtlecreek, congrats on the bundle of joy, I just found out I'm going to be Grandpa again, number 4. I'm out past the West End Fairground about a mile.
This is my third year I'm up from 29 taps last year to 60 this year, I think I'll try for 100 next year . We had a heavy run today took off 60 gallon at noon,
and my bucket are half full already ,I boiled to about 10:00 tonight, and finished some at the house also. I'm gonna have to get a jump on it tomorrow
because the neighbor will probably be bringing another drumfull.

[Father & Son]

Picked up 275 gallon of sap yesterday and boiled till 10:00. The taps were slowing down. Don't know how hard it will run today, the 60 degree temps and warm nights need to stop. Extended forcast shows some colder night temps Monday.

Jim

[Gary R]

Sure is quite on the thread. Sap flow has been disappointing. Can you believe know were all saying it's too warm out? Trees are shut down. I only collected 113 gal. from thur. through Sat. morning. Canned a gallon for my wifes girl freinds. Pans full of sweet. Made some fudge yesterday. I waited too long to get it in the mold (dish). Tried to press it out the best I could. I sure could have used a nap after all that stirring. I was all done with my mapling by noon Sat. Went to Jim Brown's yesterday to help a little. A first year small time backyarder is having a maple syrup party today. Taking the fudge and maple wine over there and will have a few boiling sodas while we watch his sap eveporate at about 4gph.

I called Sweetwoodmaple yesterday. Bad news is he isn't making syrup this year. Good news is his wife gave birth to twins last fall. They now have 5 young children. All his free time is spent helping with them. He's excited about making some improvements to his operation and getting back to it next year.

Hoping for cold weather:)

[Sugarmaker]

Gary, Jim &Chase, Jake, Jim Brown, Dave Y and Dave 3%, Boyd, Daryl, and all the other PA folks,
It doesn't get any better than this! You may go a life time before you see another syrup season like last year 2008!

Now Listen! This year is a "real" syrup season. Unpredictable weather, extreme cold spells followed by days of too warm temp, followed by rain and weather too darn nasty to be out in! Yea this is sugar making at its best!:) if you haven't become frustrated, frozen, fried, frazzled and or fuming then your not making syrup.:)

Some NWPA stats form our sugar house:
We have made about 50+ gallons of syrup on 500 + taps, Most nice medium with some dark syrup yesterday. Biggest run so far 700 gallon of sap Friday night. Boiled till 3:00 Sat morning and made 17 gallons of syrup that run. Sap has been 1.9 to 2.5% sugar content.
Wood supply is holding up well and should allow us to make 100 + gallons of syrup if the weather cooperates.
We have had a steady stream of visitors, friends and neighbors at the sugar house. Great fun visiting and entertaining. (most end up doing some sort of work for me to!)

I gatherer the 700 gallons Friday afternoon by my self and didnt break a sweat. Love the short run tubing !

Cheryl has been a life saver, helping boil, make maple products and keep me fed too. She just ordered a new double burner electric hot plate for the sugar house to get my cooking out of the kitchen. Also got a couple more of the digital thermometers that read in tenths since I use them a lot and one failed last week.

We have made two batches of maple sugar 1 gallon per batch and 1 batch of maple cream in the A-200 table top Hobart mixer. This machine is a keeper as it really saved a lot of arm twisting if trying to make these by hand. I now have ideas about making a candy "head" for it.

Also heating up 5 gallons of nice clover honey to stock the shelves for the Taste and Tour event.
Still need to make maple candy, peanuts and maple BBQ, plus heating another gallon to 232 deg for cream this after noon.

Looks like Tuesday is the next possible sap run!

Regards,
Chris

[Daryl]

Chris,
We just made about 3 gal. since Thursday, Did't boil yesterday,on the 2x3 Mason. We had about 85 gal. of sap Friday. Started boiling at 5, didn't get done until after 11.
Our trees don't seem to want to run yet. We have 90 pails out. Dont know what we do when we get a good run. Possible get Laura D. to boil.
Hope to come up next weekend.
Daryl

[Z/MAN]

Daryl, I'm in the same boat as you. Weather seems to be great for sap to run but I only collected 40 gals. on 40 taps since it started running Thursday. I wonder if the roots are still frozen as I know my water line to my garage is still froze underground. ( I forgot to shut it off and drain it a few weeks ago) Maybe when it starts running again Tuesday we will have better luck.

[PA mapler]

Congratulations, Turtlecreek, on your new little helper! Hey, wouldn't "Amber" have been a neat name . . . .

Boiled all weekend, after getting about 270 taps in last Thursday. The sap still hasn't quite quit running since, but it's hardly a drizzle now and I'm done til it recharges. I think I got about 600 gallons off the trees, but the sugar was low, running between 1.7 and 1.9%. The first run last year was similar, then the sugar went up the next run.

I got a neat digital probe-thermometer this year that really works slick, and takes alot of the worry off about when it's time to draw the syrup out. I'll still finish with the hydrometer, though.

Hope everyone is having fun!

[Maplewalnut]

Hi all. Was completely swamped with sap the last few days. Roadside trees were filling buckets in a 12 hour period and all taps on vacuum were gushing for about 30 hours before they started to slow down this morning. Recruited some friends to help collect buckets, bring in more wood etc. They were a big help. Will probably get caught up tomorrow as I still have 200 gallons in the tank and another 250 in the tank in the woods. Wife will start the rig tomorrow while I am at work.

Looks like this week will get cold again, turned off the pump and will give it a couple days to recover before firing it up again. Still producing medium amber.

Happy sapping.

Mike

[Dave Y]

I have sap! I am to busy too post!

[Dennis H.]

Well I finally got some free time, I am at work.

The past 4 days were just nothing but boiling and collecting!
I started on Thurs evening and didn't let up till Sun when the trees stopped running. I was surprised that they ran that long, we haven't been below freezing temps since Thurs!

The one day my dad and I collected over 90 gals from the 100 bucket bush, not bad for about 12 hrs.

I will have to continue in a few mintues!

[Dennis H.]

Now that the boss is gone I can finish.

I had a two days of 6 hrs each boiling. I finished a batch of syrup, nice and dark for the wife.

I got into the local paper also, very nice article, front page top of the fold. It even continued onto page 3!
A day later I had a person call me to ask if I would have any extra syrup that I might want to sell, dad also ran into someone that asked if I was going to sell syrup. So I have to say that I shouldn't have to much trouble selling some syrup here.

I broke the news to the wife that it looks like I will have to expand more next year.


Any way, It looks like I am done for right now. The next cold spell isn't until Wed and I am not sure how much the trees will run after 6 days of above freezing temps night and day, I will wait and see.

[Jim Brown]

Well with the help of Gary R and my pastor we made it through Sat.boil.Our daughter Kim ran the rig for 8 hours ,processed 1400gallons of sap( got to love an RO) Making Dark Amber and yesterday(Sunday) ran 150 gallons of cloudy sap through and made 'B'. Trees have shut down like ever ones have.(to warm) Hope syrup will lighten up with the next freeze.Looks like it should come on Tues-Weds.. The news from the Dr. is I have a ruptured disc L4-5. Thanks to great friends and family hope to make it through season before I have to have surgery.Got an e-mail from our son he is in country(Iraqi) don't know for how long.Sure could use him to fire the rig this year.

Holding on by a wing and a prayer!!

Jim

[Breton heart]

From york county, yes the sap has stopped due to the temps and I have more ants than sap, do they affect the taste of the syrup (formic acid ?) yes I do strain them out.

[Dennis H.]

Breton I have an ant problem this year also. Last year I didn't have any ants in the buckets but for some reason ants are finding the sap.

I also noticed I get a lot of baby flies in the buckets, it amazes me how they find their way in there, there is just the hole that the tap goes thru.

[PATheron]

Dennis- Im unleashing the power of the bucket like you guys. Im sick of you fellas making me look like Im a slacker. Got a 150 out and still tapping. Theron

[Dennis H.]

It is about time you got with the program Theron! It's fun collecting buckets isn't it Theron?

It amazes me how much a tap can hold in weight.

This was my day off from sugarin', I went and got a new sap hauling wagon. My little Ford Escort is on its last leg so I had to get something to replace it.

Tomorrow looks like I will be back out doing a little boil I have to finish off about 30 gals of sap and then take it to syrup.

It sounds a little quiet on here, a little too quiet, either everyone is out busy boiling or you all are just bored.

[slammer3364]

We have about 100 taps on milk jugs My wife and son picked up 40 gal Thurs evening I picked up 60 gal Fri morn. Son picked up 40 gal Fri evening picked up another 25 gal Sat eve Boiled Fri from 2pm til 1 am boiled Sat from 2 pm to 8 pm Trees went to sleep here also,cold tonite dont know if we will get a run tonite or not should be good run weather by Thurs 18x48 D@G

[PATheron]

Dennis- I think the buckets are fun too. How much sap do you get in one on the reds on a good day? Theron

[Turtlecreek]

I finally got caught up last night, and bottled another gallon or so. I'm around 3 gallons for the year now. This is the best year for prodution thus far. The addition of a few new taps was a good call I don't seem to be getting the amount of sap I had got in the past. The evaprosink is kicking but with the addition of the new 144,000 btu burner, it just cost more each time I get propane but but the evap rate seem to me much better that with the single 55,000 btu burner I had last year. I also can't figure out how to stop the sides of the sink to stop burning that is really anoying snice I clean the poan each time, I wire wheel on the old dewalt works best after at good soak in water.

I'm trying to figure out when i should pull the taps, this weather has me confused. Is there some rule of thumb as to when to pull them? I have the same amount of syrup now that I had at the end of last year but I have more people that want some of the sweet gold, or medium amber if you will.

[Jim Brown]

Turtlecreek; The "old saying" is when it about as thick as molasses and the color of a black rubber boot it is time to quit!

Jim

[Dennis H.]

Theron the other day when the dams let loose I got 2 gals in alot of the buckets, if I had bigger buckets it would have been more, the sap was running back out the hole that the tap comes thru. I am using 2 gal buckets by the way. So how is everything running up that way Theron?

I finally got everything caught up tonight. I made another gal of syrup and boiled down about 20 gals of sap. Now I wait for Wed or Thurs to see if the trees run again and if they do if the sap is any good to use. I have a feeling that this week will be the last for me this season. It has been a good one though.

[PA mapler]

I really didn't expect any sap yesterday, since it really didn't seem to get cold enough nor warm up enough. But, I checked the sap tank after I threw some supper on the grill, and my eyes just about popped out of my head. I had maybe 300 gallons already, and it was coming in (stop watch and measuring cup!) probably 30 gallons an hour. So I was up until 2am boiling, and found just now that I STILL have 300 gallons in the tank. The sugar is poor, though, about 1.7%, but I'm making a nice dark amber, and the taste is great.

[Dave Y]

A short up date from the wilds of forest county.I have been boiling like a mad man here and finally made some head way monday nite/tuesday morning. I put a 1202 Cfm blower on my rig. Man will it boil a true 165 gph. I will tell this it is not for the faint of heart. I have a pump that feeds my head tank it pumps 50 gal each time it comes on. It was coming on every16-18 mins. boiled like that for 13.5 hrs. emptied every thing at the sugar house made 45gal. I have made 155 gal so far.all dark to C. half the wood is gone. Iam sending some one out to start cutting wood tomorrow. We have brought in around 10000 gal of sap and have boiled over 8000. Hope everyone is having a good season. Ihave sap calling. Good luck.

[Dave Y]

I forgot to mention my 3x12 will more than likely be for sale at the end of the season. If anyone is interested send me a pm.

[Dennis H.]

Dave Y they are some impressive numbers. Keep plugging away at it and you will be fine. 165 gph! compare that to my 10gph!

It sounds like it is really picking up up in the great north of PA.

Still nothing going on here, maybe tomorrow. It is to go down into the 20's tonight so maybe that will kick start the trees for one last run.
If it doesn't it looks like I may pull the buckets and taps on the weekend.

[PATheron]

Dennis- How much syrup have you made? Is it a good season you think for your area? Theron

[Gary R]

Hi guy's! We haven't drown or fallen asleep. I dropped my laptop monday morning. It's a Panasonic toughbook. Well it wasn't so tough. Got it back today. Sap was slow so I put in another 6 taps. Well yesterday and today we got about 1 gal. per tap. Boiled till midnight last night. Got a better start on things today. Canned another gallon tonight. It's been dark amber. Sugar content the past few days has been 1.5. Buckets have mold in them. We're going to try wash them Saturday. Cold next 2 days then all good sap weather in the 10 day forecast.

[Dennis H.]

Theron so far I have made a little over 6 gals of syrup.
I still have some in the evap pan waiting to see how the rest of the week goes. I figure I can make about another gal with whats in the pan.

So compared to last year I feel I have had an excellant year. The weather has been the complete opposite of what I had last year.
Last year once the trees thawed it would get warm and stay warm for several days and then would get a day or two of cold then back to several days of warm.
This year it stayed cooler longer with only on day here or there that was warm. This past week has been the longest warm spell so far.

I will need more trees for next season!

[Z/MAN]

Well, it seems everything has finally thawed out here in the N.E. ( including my garage water line) Finally got a good run on my sap yesterday and today. Pulled in about 40 gallons and boiled about 30 down . Had other business tonight so I couldn't finish it. Weather looks just perfect for the next 7 days. BIGGGSAPPP, here it comes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PA mapler]

Between work and then getting too cold to boil last night (lines freeze), I didn't boil yesterday, and have a full tank of sap waiting on me. It finally quit running yesterday afternoon. Hopefully it'll hold until the weekend! The sugar is still low, 1.7%, and the syrup is still a dark amber.

[Father & Son]

Full buckets for the most part yesterday, gravity tubing ran some. Boiled 200 gallons and left 100 gallons in the woods. Temps dropped into the mid 20's by 10:00 PM. Thought my season might be over this weekend, I was lazy this summer and didn't work very hard on firewood, but I have a load coming this morning. Temps are not supposed to come out of the 20's today so will spend this evening splitting the wood smaller, clean the pans, and get things ready for this weekend.

Jim

[Paddymountain]

It finally got cold here in Union County again and the sap is starting to run,
Have about 10 gal of syrup made,which was my goal. I think this weekend is
going to be it. I have to shut down by early next week. I'm leaving Thursday nite for Honduras to help build a medical center. All the money from syrup I'm selling is going for building supplies for a church in Jamaica, that we will help
build in 2010.

[Turtlecreek]

I think this may be the last hoorah this weekend for me too. The trees shut down this week for the most part. We collected 10 gallons of sap today and tommrow even looks better. If I collect for 3 more days i should be able to reach my goal of a 4 gallon production year.

Paddy mountain, good luck in Hondorus. I was hoping to look you up to see your set up out there but my time is shot with the new baby. Who did your welding for your pan, did the Martin boys do it? I may need to have one made this summer if I can get up the $.

[Dennis H.]

Had a slight freeze last night it got the trees starting to run again. Tonight it is to get down in the 20's so I am hoping that will really get the trees running.
Not sure if this will be the last week or not, I just checked the weather forecast and it is looking better and better. I am just worried that this past week did the trees in, high temps and all.

[Sugarmaker]

PA folks have been busy either fighting the cold weather or boiling sap I assume.

We are at 74 gallons of syrup most medium to dark plus some B. about 3500 gallons of 2% sap gathered.
Have the same mold issues in the containers not sure if it is in the lines too?

May try to wash them?? Right as if we have time to do that with the Taste and Tour on us this week end should be fun!
Will post more next week!

Big week coming up. Having my head, beard, and probably mustache shaved off for a good cause, ST Baldrick's kids with cancer cause. You can google this and donate if you want. We are the LORD. This happens on St Patrick day. Pictures to follow!:)
Also should pick up the new ride next week too. some trips planned for that unit.

Regards,
Chris

Need candy machine!

[Gary R]

We are up to 7 3/4 gal. and the pan is full of sweet. It's been to cold for sap. Canned some syrup last night and restocked the sugar house with wood. Tonight we took down and WASHED all our buckets. Thanks to my wife for the help. Also drain and cleaned evaporator. Refilled with sweet and ready to go! Some of the trees were dripping good while washing.

Looking forward to adding air over fire next year. I will probably burn through 1 1/2 cord and maybe make 15 gal. of syrup. Need efficiency.

The entire next week looks good for sap. Planning on taking Tuesday off.

Good luck to the taste and tour guy's. Tomorrow should be a beautiful day.

[Dennis H.]

The trees are running today!

These past two nights have really helped the trees. I was surprised that the sap was clear as it was. I thought with the warm temps the buds were starting to open and that would give me cloudy sap. So I am going to keep plugging away until the they stop.

The wife was a little dissapointed that the trees started to run again, she that now I would have time to do a few things around the house!

[Dennis H.]

It looks like it is going to be winding down here in the next day or two.
The trees ran good today and I was able to boil for a few hours and I just went out and collected about 40 gals, I will boil that tomorrow morning.
The weather man says that tonight we are not to go below 35 and it looks even worse for the next 5-7 days.
If I don't get much tomorrow I will most likely pull the buckets and taps and call it a season.

For me it has be an excellant year, I tapped Feb 6 so that makes it 5 weeks, not bad.

I also finished 1 1/2 gals of syrup this morning after I boiled all my sap. The batch of syrup ended up nice and dark, so the wife should be happy she loves the dark syrup. So my total for now is 8 gals 1 pint and once I finish tomorrow I will most likely get another gal out of that batch.

[Gary R]

Collected 74 gal. today. Still have not achieved 1 gal. per tap in 24 hrs. Had a red put out 3 1/2 gal. Hope the cold nights hold out. If this sap flow holds up, I'll be busy every night! Sugar content this week has been at 1.5%:(

Where'd everyone go?

[Dennis H.]

It has been kind of slow here on the trader, everyone must be boil or busy getting ready.

Gary It seems the sugar content has been low for me also.

1.75%, I had one day when it was 2% but right back down to 1.75%.

I was hoping for a little higher but I will take what I can get.
I think 1.75% works out to be about 60 gals/1gal of syrup, I will have to recheck.

[Paddymountain]

Its really winding down in Union County,I collected about 40 gal today from 60 taps, my friend brought about 60 gal from his 30 taps(giant sugar maples along his dad's driveway). I boiled from 10:30am til just now and made about 1 1/2 gal really dark syrup. tomorrow after dinner I'm going to collect and pull my taps the trees are just about budded out. Total this year from my 60 and my friends 30 almost 15 gal. I don't think that's too bad. Time to think about
next year, 100 taps, make a bigger arch, and expand my sugar shack. One thing I got going for me, I have a transmisson shop at my house and the shack is right out back, couldn't do it if I wasn't self-employed.

[Sugarmaker]

Gary,
Day one Taste and Tour in the books appox 200 folks visited and toured.

Gathered 230 gallons of 2.1 % sap tonight with Keith Talbot.. I will boil it tomorrow. Today we pushed syrup thru with water during the slow boil of the open house.
Made a gallon of syrup into sugar using the new mixer that work very well. Tried making candy with some Med from this year and it did not turn out great but will have to do.

Later:)
Chris

[PATheron]

Dave Y- How you holdin up? Did you get the mother run yesterday? Theron

[tapper]

If Dave had the same sap run that I did on tues and wed he is still working on that. If so that one run could have made him 60 hours of boiling. How about it Dave?

[Dennis H.]

Today was the day that I decided to pull the plug for the year.

I collected a whole 10gals of sap today and there isn't a cold night in the forecast for at least 5 days, so I decided to call it quites.
I now just have to finish what is in the pan and then the fun part of cleaning everything!

[sapsucker]

Today is my last day too. I started February 1st and both the sugars and red maples are still flowing a little, but not enough to make it worthwhile. On top of that, the ants are EVERYWHERE!!! I mangaged to make about 11 gallons of syrup this season and roughly 9 of them where grade A fancy according to the grading kit from mapleguys.com. Not sure why I got higher grades while most others didn't but I'm not complaining. I'm glad to be done, but I'm also already dreaming about next year. This was my first year and I hope to at least triple production now that I know what I'm doing! Good luck to everyone and thanks for all the helpful information. Also, it just blows my mind that some people up north are just starting to tap. I thought it was cold where I live...can't imagine how it is up there!

Ken

[Gary R]

Dennis, sorry to hear that it has ended. Your a ways down south, so I guess It's an average quit time.

We had the mother of runs in my short time as syrup maker. We collected 109 gal. in 24hrs. Boiled 129 gal. today. also canned 1 3/4 gal. before I made the last sap run. Glad it was the weekend. If this keeps up I'm going to need a bigger evaporator or less taps. Just a few days ago I was complainiing about weak sap runs. Sugar content sucks. I've got a full time day job (like most). We'll keep at it! Big thanks to my wife. She's been firing while I collect or on the Maple Trader:lol:

Maplealk, if your girlfriend is hanging in there, you may want to marry her!

Chris, I hope you paid for your new truck this weekend.

Hope it doesn't get to warm the next few days. Got more syrup to make!

[Father & Son]

No run to speak of on Saturday. My wife and I visited Casbohm Maple and Honey and Hurry Hill Farm on the Taste & Tour. It was a beautiful day and the people were enjoying their sugarhouse visits. Yesterday gathered and boiled 250 gallons of 2.5% sap and made 5 gallons of dark amber. Only complaint is this stuff filters hard. This is the first dark amber I have made in my short mapling career and it was a real fight to get it through the filters. I'm thinking of draining and cleaning the evaporator and starting again with fresh hoping to bring the grade back to medium.

Jim

[tappin&sappin]

I brought in about 175 gallons yesterday. Everything I made was dark too. I haven't made dark like that since the "olden" days when I was boiling with an old kettle in the driveway...

My guess is this will be a busy week for NW PA.

- Jake

[PATheron]

MAYDAY!!! MAYDAY!! Dave Y, where the heck are you?? The power of the bucket has reared its ugly head. Your getting 8000 gallons a day and only getting rid of 2000. You need a darn swimming pool. Send up some smoke signals or something so we know your all right. Theron:lol:

[Dave Y]

Theron, I have not drown yet,but may soon. we have brought in 18000 gal of sap and made 300gal of syrup, all dark. I currently have 3600 gal at the sugar house. Going to go boil. Have a happy!

[Maplewalnut]

Guys...I have hit 'the wall'. As Theron knows I added taps based on no vac for a 2x6. The vac was a last minute add on once all the lines were run and well, you know how it goes I just couldn't stop drilling trees! Now I am paying for it. My final count is almost 350 taps about 75% on vacuum. Holy crap have I had some long boils. Brought in over almost 800 gallons of sap on Saturday alone. Looks like they will stop this week but may restart towards the weekend. Wood is getting low, family is getting tired but I will go on. Keep at everyone, I'll update more after the season.

[Jim Brown]

Maplewalnut; You need an RO!! We run 1100 on vac with a 2x6 WaterLoo Small Raised flue and a Steamaway.1600 gallons of sap last Sunday morning when we started the RO at 7:00am. Lit the fire at 10:30am and pulled the fire out of the fire box at 7:00pm and the tanks were empty and the RO was on rinse cycle.I tested the sugar content of the concentrate coming off the Steamaway going into the flue pan last evening while I was boiling and it read 11% going to the rig. Learned a lesson bigger is not always better!

My two cents:)

Jim

[Maplewalnut]

Jim-I agree with you completely. But it may have to wait a year. I need a filter press and another milk tank first. It didn't help that I was swamped at work (real job) the first two weeks of March either. I usually take a day or two off to get caught up but it was not possible this year. Keep on cooking, at B grade now but plan on finishing the sap I have today and then a quick cleaning and hopefully back to A medium although some buds are starting to appear already on the trees with these warm temps.

[Gary R]

Weather has been bad! After the best run I've ever had (Sat.-Sun.), we are at nothing. Had the day off today. Collected 27 gallons from the last 2 days. Canned 1.75 gal. today and boiled the sap so it won't spoil. May not freeze until Thur. night. This weekend could be the end for us. No freezes in the forcast after the weekend:( We've made 9.75 gal. this year. A little more than last year with almost twice the taps.

I might be a Sugarhouse visitor soon. Hope everone is doing well.

[Dennis H.]

It sure sounds like up north is going good.

Gary R sorry to hear that it is slowing down for you. How many trees did you have to make that much syrup? I finished that last of my syrup this evening and my GRAND TOTAL is 9gals 1qt 1 pt. That is on 145 tiny woods trees.

Maplewalnut, that is awsome what you are trying to do with the size of evap. You have to watch out for Theron, his excitement rubs off easy and it will get us all in trouble sooner or later.

I have to now clean out all the buckets and clean up the sugarshack and then it is time to start lining up more trees for next year and decide how much expansion I want and can do.

Good luck everyone.

[Jim Brown]

Well as Gary R. so stated 'The Fat Lady Is about to sing" here in NW Pa. If we get the freeze they say is coming then Friday will be the last 'gasp" for us. VERY VERY Disappointing year for us.About 60 gallon in the books and a rig full of sweet.
Lets recap:
1. L-4-5 disc ruptured two weeks before season started need drugs just to stay on our feet.(sugery scheduled ) :(
2.Son who comes home to run the rig during season( twenty year man in the Air Force) was sent to Iraq with 4 days notice one week before season started.(daughter who is a full time college student took up the slack.)
3.Generator in our main bush blew up at 9:00pm one a day when the releasers were dumping every 3 minutes. didn't find it till 8 hours later.lost that run! :(
4. Pump used to pump sap up an 850ft hill died and had to spend $400.00 for a new one.
5. Had to work at my regular job two days when the over night was 23 and the next day was 50-Lost that run-couldn't start the pumps. :(

6.Start capasitor went out on our 3hp motor on the pumps on our small bush shut the pumps down- lost that run! :(

Other than that we had a great season!

Keep praising the Lord any way!!


Jim

[Gary R]

Dennis, I have about 70 trees tapped. All are woods trees. Some are about 20" , so I've got 2 taps in them, for a total of 77 taps. Disappointing year. Only the sap runs in Feb. was my sugar content at 2% average.

How about them guy's further north? Should be good?

Chris, where's the picture?:lol:

[tappin&sappin]

Jim... sorry to hear you've been having so many problems, i think this has been a trying season for most.

I've been buried in sap. The big runs during the week just don't work that well for me. Work tends to get in the way. I try to get the fire lit by 7:00 or so in the evening and go until about 1:00. That typically gets rid of about 150 gallons of sap, but it's a tough pace to keep up with. I had to dump 70 gallons monday night and about 90 gallons last night. Just couldn't get through it all. Oh well, worst things can definetly happen.

Beyond that, season is going fairly well. Probably made around 20 gallons or so off of 160 taps. I could use a couple day break and then would like the flood gates to open again this weekend. Maybe for one last hoorah. Most everything I have to hold syrup is full and I need to get some bottling done.

I heard sugarmaker pulled taps the other night... I thought he was kidding, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't, said he was out of wood.

- Jake

[Maplewalnut]

Jim-definitely a challenging year for you. Get that surgery scheduled so you are up and about fully recovered for next year.

Going to leave my taps in through this next 'cold spell' we'll see what happens after that. Definitely not a banner year here, seemed like it was either too warm or too cold much of the season. This weeks forcast has the fat lady warming up I'm afraid.

[Father & Son]

Jake,
I know what you're talking about. These smaller rigs just don't allow work, syrup, and sleep all in the same sentence. I'm at 21 or 22 gallons and hoping for a few more boils. I haven't dumped any sap yet but I did sell a tank full Monday night. Last night I went to "B" and I'm going to clean everything and hope to bring the grade back with the next boil.
Talked to Chris last night and he did pull his taps Monday and picked up all his tubing and totes last night.

Jim

[Gary R]

Jake, Dumping sap? We've been begging the trees to produce down here.

Chris, Let's hear the story. I thought you had extra wood this year;)

Where's JRTHE3? How you making out with 1000 taps on your flat pan?

I hope you all get a few more boils in. I'll probably tap a few birch trees after this weekend. Try make some more beer.

[andyp]

The last two weekends were great. The last weekend it ran for about 30 hrs. non stop and the week before it ran for 48 hrs. Had to boil around the clock two days to keep up. We just got caught up with everying yesteray. It feels good to have a break today. According to the weather forcast this coming weekend looks good. Gary R this could be a big weekend up your way also. This may be the big sap run. Jim sorry to hear about all the troubles you had. I hope everything works out for you. Chris looks like you might miss the big sap.

Andyp

[Paddymountain]

We pulled our taps on Sunday, finished boiling Monday, official total
12 gal 6 1/2 pt. 60 red maples in the woods, 30 sugars in the open around a farmhouse. definatley want 100 taps next year and maybe try and find
someones sidehill to tube!!! will try to make a bigger evaporator this summer.

[Turtlecreek]

I threw the towel in on Saturday. Pulled the taps and finished boiling. Total production for the year 3 gallons and 1/2 pint from 12 taps. Now its time for clean up.

Whats on tap for next year? Well I got permission to use my neighbors trees that should give me 5-10 more good trees. So I need a bigger evaporator and have to build an arch to fit the pan when i find one.

[slammer3364]

Had some big runs last weekend, Hope for another one this weekend by the weather forecast. At 10 gal with 1 gal. in evap Good Luck Everybody

[Gary R]

Paddy Mountain and Turtlecreek, Great to here expansion is coming. I will probably not tap any more trees. I'll try move my ratio of about 50/50 sugars to reds, to more sugars for better sugar content. Also add air over fire and parallel flow preheater.

AndyP, hope your right for big sap this weekend. How's the leg holding up?

Dumped all my buckets tonight. Actually had about 30 gal. of sap. Couldn't believe it since it hasn't froze for at least 4 nights. Anyway, it was cloudy, yellowish and a LOT of dead flies:o I shure am glad we boil and filter this stuff. It was nasty. Makes you want to have regular metal buckets. You notice everything in my white plastic ones.

[andyp]

Gary R, The forcast sure looks like perfect weather Fri. Sat. Sun. for the big sap. We also cleaned all the buckets and totes today. The leg still gives me problems. Some days it doesn't hurt too much,and some times it hurts so much I can hardly walk on it,but I am able to keep going.

Andyp

[Sugarmaker]

Gary, Andy, JIM/Jim, Dave Y and Dave 3% and Jake. and all the rest. We are back!!!!
Just did not have the time and or energy to type a message during the last week.
Gary which picture do you need?
Sunday we had another 200 + folks visit the sugar house. Final count around 500 we had 461 sign in on the boards.:)
I had a great time and seen just a ton of friends and family and I had a story for every one. We closed the MAple Taste and Tour week end with record sales. Most of the stock was depleted on the shelves.

We went out and gathered Sunday night and brought in about 600 gallons of 2% sap. Boiled it in, finishing about 3:00 Monday morning. went to work 1/2 day. Gathered another 600 gallon on Monday night and Keith pulled the taps while I pumped the sap. Boiled till 4:00 Tuesday morning. Tuesday night Eric and I pulled all the tubing totes and pallets and loaded his trailer and brought home and unloaded by 10:00. I was whipped! Still need some sleep. The chest frezzer is chucked full of syrup for the year!

Oh yea in between this I picked up a new F250. :) Jake its a keeper! Cheryl gave it a good review before I had even seen it!

Also on St Patrick's day had all my facial hair and head shaved for kids with cancer! We raised about $2500 and had a lot of fun. BUT I really look weird!

Heading that new truck for Columbus this weekend to visit the new grandson, daughter and son-in-law. Dorsey is home and is doing good. Heart doctor said he is doing fine! Just have to watch about colds and sicknesses. He is still very vulnerable to things due to a weak immune system.

Final syrup total = 105 gallons on 500 + taps of all grades, just a little light, lots of med., lots of dark, and lots of B. All good flavor! Like Jim Brown had to scratch and claw most of the way. Burnt pan and wasted several gallons, several freeze ups, dumped 300 gallons of "missed run" ice, lines broken due to cold, one tote smashed, poison ivy from tapping. I was actually very please with this season. Finished with only about 8 wheelbarrow loads of wood in the wood shed. Heard the peepers when we took down the tubing
Keith and I went to watch Jan Wood boil on Wed eve.

Sounds like it was feast or famine like a normal season should be.:) Did Dave Y ever get out from under all that sap???:)

Regards,
Chris

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Chris,

With that kind of run Sun and Mon, sounds like you threw in the towel early. Looks like good sap weather end of this week and weekend??

[Dave Y]

Chris,
I am still swimming. I have about 1500 gal to boil yet be fore the next run this weekend. I have brought in 20200 gal of sap so far. and have finished 370+ gal of syrup all dark or darker. I am not going to quit till I run out of energy or wood or sap . Hopefully that will happen at the same time. I have been cutting fire wood also trying to stay ahead. I have about 8 cord and i think I will need at least that much more to finish the season.
you pulled the plug early did you Chris? at least one more week or maybe two we will see,

[3rdgen.maple]

Sugarmaker above all the syrup and sap everyone has or are getting That is great news that Dorsey is home and doing well. That has got to be a big relief for you and your family. Sounds like your gonna have a maple partner.

[Sugarmaker]

Yea it would be great to get Dorsey in the sugar house in a couple of years. :)

As far as quitting early. I just ran out of wood. Kieth even brought me some and I knew I would not have enough for another run. I need to compress the pallets more next year.
The evaporator has a small fire in it and the hoods and preheater have been pulled off for easy access to the pans for cleaning. Using vinegar again this year as the pan cleaner.
Also have to start on the tubing cleaning early next week.

Several good orders this week already.

Talk to you guys later,

Chris

[Gary R]

Not much sap yesterday although some were dripping good at 6PM. I didn't collect. Down to 20 degrees this morning. Will collect after lunch.

Chris, enjoy your time with family. It's good to hear Dorsey is home and better. The "pictures" were from your post at 190 on this thread. I assumed they would have been of your shaved head;) . That is a nice justure, with money raised for kids.

Dave Y, Ill be stopping by some time next week. I need to work in Kane so I'll drive right by your place. Want to see what big sap looks like.

[Dave Y]

Gary R
I hope to be boiling next week. Right now I only have 1600 gallon. I hope to boil it today, Then hopefully collect tomorrow. I will need something for in the pans as I have a class of 1st graders coming Monday and the 5Th grade class coming Wed. Feel free to stop any time.

[emericksmaple]

Still hanging in in the south. It froze very hard last nght down to about 18. We are up to 1310gal off of 3200 taps. most of it is dark amber or grade B. Anyone heard of a price yet???

[Father & Son]

No run to speak of yesterday even though if froze Thursday night and the ground was white with snow Friday morning. The trees didn't start dripping until about 2:00. Thursday rinsed all the tanks, cleaned the evaporator, and dumped all the buckets. Boiled what was in the sugar pans in the turkey fryer and made 3 1/2 gallons of dark amber. By the looks of the weather, the next three days could be good run days. My wife and I are going to a reverse raffle tonight so I'm going to collect and hold it till tomorrow. I hope this little break lets eveyone get rested and recharged.

Jim

[Dennis H.]

It is good to hear there are some still boiling here in PA.

Emerick thats great to hear that your still hanging in there, Your out in the somerset area right?

I had a few nights of cold weather since I shut down but when I went to look at the tap holes, nothing, and the buds are starting to open up. So I believe I didn't miss any late runs by pulling my buckets when I did.

I took a few days rest and today I started to clean up the sugarshack. I got most of that done. Now the big job of cleaning all those buckets!! Oh what fun.

Well good luck to everyone in the last few days of '09 sugar'in season.

[Gary R]

It's been slow. collected 38 gal. yesterday and 55 gal. today. Just getting ready to shut down the evaporator for the night. I have 6 taps that are only 1 1/2 weeks old. They aren't doing any better that the ones I put in on Feb. 7th. Looks like a couple more days and that is it. Hope some more of you guy's are hanging in there.

[Jim Brown]

Well Gary R. came over today to help out. Kim was running the rig and Gary ran the axe. Make a good pair! Thanks ever so much Gary!!. Helped the old mans back .
Collected 450 gallons of 1.95% stuff Sat evening and boiled that Today. Got to Love an RO!!just finished collecting 225 gallon of 1.55% stuff and the hard maples are starting to slow down. We closed our 350 tap bush yesterday ,the reds just couldn't stand the pressure. and gave up!.Supposed to freeze again tonight so we will start the pumps again tomorrow on our 700 tap bush of hards and see what happens. The Fat Lady is in the wings!!:(

Hope others are making some syrup

Jim

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Matt,

Sounds like you guys are having a great year, 1310 gallon. You are pushing .5 gallon per tap. With this deep freeze, it looks like you might get enough sap to get you there!

[mapleman3]

Mike(Maplewalnut) how many gallons? how much wood you use?

[andyp]

Well so much for the big sap run this weekend. They didn't run at all fri. ran a little sat. and ran some today. Will gather every thing monday and boil off. May have about 40 to 50 gal. That's it for this year time to pull the taps.

Andyp

[Z/MAN]

Taps are running here but slowing down. Weather is great for sap but only took in 20 gallons Fri & Saturday. Looks like they will run everyday this week. I see some buds on one roadside tree but the others look bare.
Maplewalnut, Thanks for the tour Saturday. That is a very nice setup you have over there. Everything I seen was first class. I hope to have a setup on that order in the next few years. By the way, my grandson lost a shoe somewhere between leaving your place and arriving home. Did you find it by any chance?

[Maplewalnut]

Well we are still holding on but only because of the vacuum. Bucket trees have all but stopped may re-start after a hard freeze last night but only time will tell.
Held an open house this weekend and had probably 250 people for total. Lots of interested folks who have never seen such a process. No one got hurt and educated a few at the same time=successful weekend

Jim-been a funny year here, either too warm or too cold but have gotten Alice dialed in and a humming. Have probably close to 60 gallons so far and after a big runs this weekend and hopefully this week we should approach our 75 gallon goal. Going into our 4th cord of wood now, should hold out with maybe some pallets thrown in at the end. Will need more for next year, for sure.

ZMan-great to see you, nice to have another sugarmaker in the vicinity. Look forward to your expansion plans. Found the shoe, Pm me or give me a call tonight and we'll get it back to you.

[sugarin4fun]

Washed everything out last Tuesday and put it back out on Friday afternoon hoping for more. Got 25 gal Fri, 35 gal Sat and 60 Sun from 46 taps, I hope to get 40+ gals/day over the next 2 or 3 days. The weather looks right for it, 24 this morning with highs in the 40’s. Will finish off the 120 from the weekend tonight and hopefully get enough for 2 or 3 more gals this week. I plan on pulling the taps Wed or Thur. Took a walk in the woods yesterday and the buds on the red maples are opening up. All the trees I have tapped are black or sugar maples and there buds are nice and tight. Last year I finished up on the 23rd not for a lack of sap but I ran out of wood, don’t have an abundant supply this year but I should be able to boil thru Wed.

[Father & Son]

Gathered 200 gallons of 2.3% yesterday and boiled everthing. Made about 3 quarts but it was starting from -0-. Cleaned everthing at the end of last week and had to sweeten the pans again. I didn't grade it last night but it looked to have gone back to light amber. I'll have to check that today. I looked at my notes from last year and on March 22nd we were at 30 1/2 gallons. This year we are at 25 gallons. I'm going to keep boiling as long as there is sap and maybe I can get alittle closer to last years crop. DON'T PULL THOSE TAPS! There may be more to come. Hopefully.

Jim

[Gary R]

Oh no Jim! I pulled about a dozen tonight. All on reds. They just aren't putting out. I think you guys will be able to go a little longer than us. I only collected 32 gal. tonight. It was 20 this morning and didn't warm up until afternoon. Sugar content averaged 1.4. Oh well, It's still about a 1/2 gal. of syrup.

I had a bit of an issue. Last night after boiling, I didn't flood the pan deep enough. I went to start up tonight and had about 1/4" of honey thick syrup in the whole pan:o . Didn't know what to do. I would have had to dilute to drain it and filter. I decided to flood the pan, fire it up and stir it with a stick. I'm at B grade anyway, so I don't think I hurt it. Any suggestions for next time?

[Jim Brown]

Father and Son; Hey Jim don't get too attached to that light syrup it may be 'buddy' a friend of ours over your way(Atlantic) called last evening and said he was back to making light and med syrup after the freezes but it had a funny taste!He said woody-his wife said kind of a 'bland'and not sweet even thought the hydrometer said syrup.Yup Buddy!!:(

Hope yours is good!

Jim

[Maplewalnut]

Well, the sap is running today but I am still having releaser problems. Now it fills up and won't dump backing up the whole system and sucking sap into my vacuum lines. Arghhh. Definitley not comfortable leaving it run without having someone check on it continually.

Hopefully will get a decent run on the buckets today/tomorrow then it looks like thats it. Dissappointing year, but you'll have that from time to time. Just glad I added taps and vacuum, not sure where I would be without it this year.

[Sugarmaker]

Jim Brown,
That flavor sounds like metabolic that I made several years ago. Very nice grade but awful taste.

Picked up a hive of bees tonight that my bee mentor had taken from a downed tree. Keith helped me set them in the apiary. That's the first work that new truck has done, about time it started earning its keep:)
I began washing tubing tonight. only another 500 taps to flush. Hopefully will have it all washed by the weekend.
Went to Jim Bortles and Paul Burgess last night and watch them both boil. Paul had pulled the taps and was at around 140 gallons on 500+ taps.

[Father & Son]

Jim Brown,
You're right, off flavor. Sunday night what I drew off left an aftertaste I wasn't quite sure of. Monday night Sugarmaker stopped by and said he could smell it in the steam. Metabolic, buddy, what ever pulled the taps yesterday. Who knows of anyone buying bulk in NW PA and dates.

Jim

[Jim Brown]

Jim we are buying bulk give me a call

[Gary R]

Well that's it. I'm calling it quits for the maple. Collected about 50 gal. over the last 2 days. Don't know how it will turn out. Boiling as I type. I'll add up all the figures in a couple days. Need to pull the taps and clean buckets. Tomorrow will finish whatever is in the pan.

Stopped and seen the maple barron (Dave Y) today. He's still hard at it. Looking for a couple more weeks.

[Sugarmaker]

About 100 taps on tubing washed tonight with water and air system then purges with air. Several more evenings and should have all tubing washed. Several folks interested in those 3 x 12 pans for sale this Sat near Hartstown PA.

Still catching up on my sleep:)

Jim Brown how did you finally come out? Seemed you had several things you were struggling with.

Father and Son: Jim that syrup should be ok in mustard. Sryup may be a little scarce this year. ( We had to go the the Valley Freeze for supper or I would have had more tubing washed:))

Gary, Better plan on more taps next year!

Dave Y, Are you still boiling? What is the gallon count at this time? And the grade?

Later,
Chris