Red Roof Maples 2009

[Russell Lampron]

I had to work this morning but wasted no time getting to the sugaring stuff when I got home. I got my releaser hooked up, turned on the vacuum pump and started tapping. I got 300 taps in before I ran out of daylight and got to see that the repairs that I made to my releaser worked. If you have a sticky Bernard single can releaser I know how to fix it. The sap was starting to run pretty good late in the afternoon and I had enough to cover the bottom of my 550 gallon tank.

[3% Solution]

Hi Russ,
Your usually about a week ahead of us over this way.
Planning on tapping ours next weekend.
Never got above 31 here today.
Best to you for the season coming up.

Dave

[Russell Lampron]

Good luck to you too Dave. I don't think the sap is really going to start running much until later in the week. It looks like temps in the 40's on Thursday and Friday with mid 30's Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. I am hoping for enough to boil this coming weekend.

[3% Solution]

Russ,
That would be nice wouldn't it, have a small amount to work the bugs out before the BIGGGGGG SSSSAAAAPPPPPPP hits!!
Tapping is all we have left to do, we're ready!!!!!
So bring it on!!!

Dave

[PATheron]

Russ- BIGGGG SAPPPPP!!!! Good luck this week buddy. Hope you get a ton. Theron

[Amber Gold]

Russ, Do you think I should tap this weekend or wait until next weekend?

I finally got electric into the sugar house and everything's working except for the pump. I'm wondering if I may have wired it wrong. I removed the extension chord and wired it direct to the switch. I should have the feed tank connected tomorrow and running a test boil and getting things figured out.

[NH Maplemaker]

As of to night we are all tap out for 2009 ! Wanted to Wait till next weekend, But Grand daughter Has a big sliding party. All my help will be there! So this was it, Done deal now !! Will use the remaining time before sap flow to finish up new main line in Sugar bush next door.


Jim L

[Russell Lampron]

Josh if you wired it for 220 like I had it you should have only needed to swap the wires color for color. Is your circuit wired properly? It looks like temps in the 40's Thursday and Friday that is why I decided to tap this weekend. My buckets are going to wait until next weekend if my grandson doesn't bug me too much about it today.

Jim glad to hear that you are all tapped in. I still have 135 on tubing that are going this morning and then it's on to leak patrol. The SP 22 that I got from Matt is working great. I adjusted the regulator to 22" and with 300+ taps in with leaks that still need to be fixed it's still pulling 21.5"

So far things are going smoothly here which isn't normal. I usually start the season with a million things to do and no time to get them done. I like having everything on my own property. I think that is the biggest reason that things are going so well this year.

[Amber Gold]

I checked things out with the pump. The wiring in the motor looked fine. Took a voltmeter to the motor starter and found the current isn't getting across the starter. There's juice on the incoming side, but not the outgoing. Not sure why. Will have to do some more digging when I have time after work this week.

[Russell Lampron]

Josh,

I hope that it is something simple. I bought that motor new 4 years ago and never had a problem with it.

[gearpump]

Russ, it sound's like you are off to a great start. I sure wish I had all my taps on my own property. For the moment I deal with 15 different landowners, and I might stop and knock on some doors to add a couple more. We plan on tapping next weekend. I had one setback last weekend when the spring shackel broke on my truck. Drove all day without relizing it until I noticed a nice bump in the truck bed! It really puts the "to do" list on the back burner when you can't walk outback to work on the lines!

Marty

[NH Maplemaker]

Russ, glad to hear thing are going well ! But with all the time and hard work you and Richard have put in it should ! Yes being right there makes it easier to just go out back and work for a hour or two!! Now lets keep our fingers crossed that the sap comes long and hard for you this year to pay for all the supplies you have put in!! I would love to make it over some time when your boiling and watch that 12% sap boil!! Or was it 15%?
We put up another 300' of 3/4' pipe and wire and pulled up 1500' of 1". Now just got to cut in saddles and will be home free !! Good luck, keep sappin!!

Jim L.

[Russell Lampron]

I got the last 135 taps on tubing tapped yesterday and did a quick leak patrol on my old set up yesterday. The sap wasn't running so I could only fix what I had flagged when I was tapping. I added about 20 more taps in that section while I was at it.

Marty sorry to hear about the truck. That really puts a damper on things. I saw some buckets up at Chagnons on Saturday. I assume that they aren't yours this year.

Jim you are welcome to come over anytime. I always concentrated to 8% or so in the past. This season I am going to recirculate it and try for 16% or higher. I have gotten a lot done but still plan to do more. I'm going to order some more 5/16 tubing and try to get 2 or 300 more taps in.

[TapME]

good to here that the work that you did all year is working well for you Russ. I would guess that you are shooting for a new record at red roof maples in syrup this year. Keep us posted, an may your sap flow long and sweet Russ.

[Russell Lampron]

The sap is finally starting to run. I had about 150 gallons of sap when I came in at 6:00 and it is still running pretty steady. I got a chance to see how my new 2 pipe sap ladder works today. Between watching that and watching the releaser fill and dump it is going to be hard to get any work done around here.

[white mt]

Russ its nice to hear the sap is starting to flow some.I plan to tap by the 6th of march .

[Mac_Muz]

Seems like everyone else is getting sap, but fer po' ol' me.. i have 3 test buckets out, and nothing to show for it. Myabe I''l put some in a slightly different location today so I can have 2 set of 3 buckets empty.

Oh well, sooner or later it has gotta flow.. right? :confused:

[KenWP]

For me its even worse since I have never seen sap flow out of a tree so it sounds like one of those urban legends. Sort of like Big Foot.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

KENWP
it will happen
RICH

[Mac_Muz]

Well fer grins and giggles I plugged in 5 buckets, for a total of 8. One of these new 5 was a little damp after I pulled out the bit.

I made me a reel hi tek tool from a coat hangar. I might get Billy May's to sell em for 19.95 for a pair! Won't that be nice. Of course the money is just for shipping.

Anyway where a steel coat hanger turns back on it self (either end) I cut it off and hammered out a spayed edge, rolled that down and made a mini hoe.

Since there is a natural hook in the hangar I left the other end as is, and it can poke thru a regluar tree tap, in the event something moves in and sets up house. The hoe of course is to rake out drilling chips.

I can tell I will be RICH! :rolleyes:

[Russell Lampron]

Hang in there guys, the sap will flow in your area soon. It was only 27 degrees here this afternoon but the sun was warm enough for a little sap flow. I now have close to 350 gallons of sap and will be boiling tomorrow afternoon.

I had to work this morning so I couldn't do any sugaring stuff until this afternoon. I got some new laterals strung, put in the drops and had sap flowing just in time to watch the lines freeze up. I have close to 500 on vacuum now and would like to be at 700 by the end of the season.

Mac Muz you better get a patent on that little hoe before the maple manufacturers steal your idea.

[Russell Lampron]

Everything had been going smoothly here until yesterday. I fought freeze ups all day but finally boiled for the first time. Now that all of the systems have been tested I am pretty confident that the rest of the season is going to be good. It doesn't look like the sap is going to run again until the end of the week but then it looks good for at least 5 days.

[Russell Lampron]

We put out 73 buckets and added more laterals to the new section of my woods yesterday. With the buckets and new taps I have over 600 now. I've got to cut some wood for the outdoor furnace this morning then I will be on leak patrol while the RO is recirculating this afternoon. I'm going to boil tonight and am hoping to have 600 gallons of sap to work with.

[Parker]

600 gallons-wow, running better for you than me...

[Russell Lampron]

Parker it's that SP 22. It really sucks if you know what I mean. I have 6 reds that I put buckets on and didn't get a drop of sap. The ones on tubing are giving up the sap though. It isn't very sweet but the RO takes care of that. I boiled in 615 gallons of sap last night and only made 8.75 gallons of syrup. I never checked the sugar content of the raw sap but the end result shows that it wasn't very sweet.

[Amber Gold]

I think I'm having the same problem. For the amount I've boiled I think I would've gotten more than the 5.5 gallons of syrup I've made so far. At one point this season I did check sugar content and it was about 1.8-1.9...didn't test any of the stuff this weekend.

[Dill]

Yup, I've run 180 gallons of sap and so far have only finished 1/2 a gallon. I'm buying a sap hydro today. I think the sugar is way down.

[Mac]

I have 2 sap hydrometers... long story... both read the same.. I am getting 2 - 2.2 @ 38 degrees on reds that have never been tapped. Little higher on the sugar maples. Guess thats about average...5" of snow here now and still coming down.............

[Russell Lampron]

The maple gods are smiling on us now. It has been running here since yesterday and it's still coming pretty hard. The RO is recirculating right now and the vacuum is pulling more in.

I don't know how much sap I didn't get because of a releaser malfunction but it is fixed now. The clip that the float pushes on to make it dump fell off of the rod. I've gotten more than a gallon per tap so far even with the malfunction.

[michelle32]

Hi Russ. Just talked to the guys at Sunnyside. They where saying that you whet to MV. I to went there would have graduated in 83. I don't remember you though. Do you remember me Keith Descoteaux. Where only about ten minutes away over here in Pittsfield. Would like to check out your setup sometime if posible. Looking to add vac next year to lines.

[Russell Lampron]

Hi Kieth,

I did go to MV but I graduated in 1975. I am home this afternoon and will be boiling later if you want to come over. I am the last house on the right on Pleasant St extension.

[michelle32]

I can't make it today. I work nights just getting ready to head out at two. Maybe if you boil this weekend I could make it over if i'm not boiling myself. I should be able two make it though my girl friend Michelle can boil if need be.

[Russell Lampron]

Had a record setting night last night. It was an awesome night for boiling. My son in law and I boiled in 825 gallons of sap in alittle over 5 hours from start to finish. It was all the evaporator too. The membrane is getting slow in the RO so I have been babying it. I was boiling 6.5% at the start and 8.5% when we finished. The RO was putting out the concentrate at a gallon a minute and was having a hard time keeping ahead of the evaporator.

[powerdub]

Dang 1975! You don't look any onlder than 52 or so. Anyhow, how old are your membranes? I am in the habit now of replacing them every two years. Seems like sometime during the third year they crap out. Might be my machine too. Glad to hear you are getting bigsap. Keep hitting those boiling sodas.

[Russell Lampron]

Kieth I may be boiling tomorrow night and it looks like Saturday and Sunday as well.

Scott this the sixth season on my membrane. It didn't get the best of cleaning when it was new. I had a hard time understanding Lapierres generic manual that is written in Frenglish. I have always punished it too. I am doing the recirculation thing this year and as long as I keep the high pressure down it will still do about 120 gph. I just swapped in a used XLE-4040 membrane tonight, I used it a little last season and it worked better than my NF90-4040 does. As soon as I sell some syrup I am going to buy a new one.

I got about 100 gallons of sap over night and even though the temp didn't get much above freezing I got another 90 gallons today with the vacuum. It was too cold for the buckets to run.

[powerdub]

I notice you didn't address your age, whats up with that?

[Russell Lampron]

Scott with your "Dang 1975!" comment I was thinking that you really thought that I was younger than that. This hobby helps me stay in shape. I put on a lot of miles walking mainlines on snowshoes.

[white mt]

Hi russ you talk about the vac system giving you sap on colder days that a bucket wont.I was wondering what temp to set my thermostat at to kick the pump on .any advice

[tuckermtn]

we have our thermostat set to come on at 32 and shut off at 30....curious what others have theirs set at...

[Russell Lampron]

Hi Dan,

I have someone that turns my pump on for me and he turns it when things start to thaw out. The only real cold days that it will run are the ones with good sun early. I have had it running as cold as 27 degrees. If it is cloudy the lines won't thaw out.

If you have to run your pump with a thermostat do it like Eric does and you should get some sap. If you are home and can keep an eye on it you may want to shut it off manually because it can still run pretty good at 29 degrees if the sun is out. My woods have been cut pretty clear so my trees get sun from the time it comes up until it sets.

Some guys with liquid ring pumps don't shut them off. They just let them run all season unless they get a long cold spell.

[Russell Lampron]

It took a while for the sap to start running yesterday. The buckets didn't do much but the vacuum pulled in over 400 gallons over the past 3 days. At 5:00 the releaser was dumping every 2 minutes and was still dumping every 3 minutes at 7:00. I will be boiling this afternoon and what I don't get today will be boiled in tomorrow when the Cub Scouts come over for a tour.

[KenWP]

Today looks like it will warm up faster. The forecast for all this week looks good.

[Russell Lampron]

The saps a running in Loudon. I boiled in 950 gallons of sap yesterday from what was gathered from Weds evening through yesterday afternoon. My wife checked the woods tank at 7 last night and there was over 100 gallons in it already. It was empty at 5:30.

Still struggling with the RO but the XLE membrane is performing better than my NF90.

I am going to clean the evaporator before I boil again to try to improve the grade. It is a good thing that I live in NH and can call the commercial I was making yesterday grade B. It has excellant flavor but is as black as a boot.

[Stickey]

I've got some of that "boot syrup" too, it is incredible tasting though!

[Russell Lampron]

Boiled in another 525 gallons of sap last night. Didn't have time to clean the evaporator before I started like I wanted to. Still making NH fancy (Darker than Grade B Grade B) syrup. Had the evaporator humping all night. I was splitting the pine limb wood into kindling size pieces and my son in law and I were feeding it to the evaporator every 3 or 4 minutes. I took less than 4 hours start to finish to turn that 525 gallons of sap into quality product.

[Russell Lampron]

Cleaned the evaporator and all of the tanks and still making NH Fancy. I wish I could get back up to grade A. Boiled in another 425 gallons last night. This is the first time that I have had to boil for 3 days in a row since the season before last.

I have been getting awesome evaporation rates out of my 2x6. I have been feeding it kindling size pieces of dry pine about every 4 to 5 minutes and getting evap rates in the 40's. Making 425 gallons of sap disappear in 2.5 hours from start to finish is fun. I don't know what my concentration rate has been with the RO. I have been too busy splitting wood and feeding the fire to check it.

[Amber Gold]

Do you think you're making NH Fancy because you're holding on to it for a few days?

[Russell Lampron]

I have been boiling it off as fast as I can collect it. I have boiled for the last 3 nights in a row and everything was boiled in when I was done. I don't know if it is the red maples, the miles of mainline or the pumping and RO. I don't think it is a sanitation issue because I keep things clean. Last night I basically started with a clean evaporator and fresh as in not sitting in the evaporator at all sap in the flue pan. I was hoping that the syrup would lighten up as I boiled but it didn't. It seems to be caramelizing in the flue pan even though I am boiling off a lot of water in a short period of time and have an almost constant draw off at times.

[Amber Gold]

What levels are you concentrating to? Is that why you're caramelizing in the flue pan?

Constant draw-off would be nice. I'm about 1.5 hours between draws.

[TapME]

Russ; you are in good company. Didn't Matt make Maine's finest last year?
Glad to see you have sap but not glad to here about NH fancy. It will come around to a nice a grade.

[Russell Lampron]

Boiled in another 610 gallons of sap last night. The sap came in hard after a slow start. My son in law says that the releaser still dumps when the flapper on the bottom is immersed in sap. The 550 gallon tank was almost ready to overflow.

I have been too busy keeping wood split, the evaporator fired and the filtering under control to check the sugar content out of the RO. I have found a sweet spot with the RO though and if I run it so that it is putting out 2.5 gallons per minute of concentrate at 300 psi I can pretty much keep it going all night with 1.5 to 2.0 gallons per minute of permeate flow. Thats roughly 240 gallons per hour plus. Not bad out of a 150 gph machine. I start recirculating a couple of hours before I boil and keep adding just enough to the feed tank while I am boiling so that most of the time it is recirculating. If I can work it into the routine tonight I will take some sugar % readings to see where I am at.

[powerdub]

I am interested in % consentrate at those flows. Those are pretty impressive numbers. Just for comparison, with these new membranes, I am running 340 gph on a 250 gph machine and bringing the sap from 1.7% to 8%. I am however running at 400 psi and flowing about 1.25 gpm concentrate. That is not bad considering I could not do that last year with 2.5 year old membranes.

[Russell Lampron]

I had 440 gallons of sap to boil Thursday night and took 300 gallons of water out of it before I started. It was going into the evaporator at 12% which is higher than I normally do it. Only boiled for 2 hours to get it through from start to finish and made 6 more gallons of NH Fancy. Things were happening so fast that I barely had time for a boiling soda. The RO was really slowing down at the end so I took last night off so that I could run 3 wash cycles through it. I have 400 gallons in the woods tank and maybe 50 more in the buckets to gather this morning and boil today. I would like to see the color come up but this stuff is boiling good for dark syrup.

[3% Solution]

Good morning Russ,
Sounds like your have just a fine time at it this year.
Glad to hear you "ALMOST" didn't have time for a soda!!!
We had 80 gallons of real cloudy sap to boil yesterday, man what a chore, the way it was boiling I thought I was making Commercial, stuff wouldn't boil good at all.:evil:
That stuffs coming off the pan today and we're going to start over tomorrow.
Well, glad to see things are going good for you.
I'm going to send you a PM.
Have fun!!!

Dave

[Russell Lampron]

Took a little field trip to Maine this morning to see how Matt was doing with his Maple Sunday open house. When I got there he was trying to get the line to his feed tank thawed out, his sugar house cleaned and some syrup canned. I jumped in and helped get things going for him and got to see his new evaporator in action. He had a good turn out and I got home soon enough to take care of the action here.

I had the best run of the year here today. The weather was crazy with heavy winds, scattered clouds, and snow flurries and the trees were doing the BIGSAP DANCE and loved it. The bulk tank is nutted and as soon as I can get the valve thawed in the morning I am going to start concentrating it. It's not going to hit the evaporator until it is over 20% and I will see what that will do for the color of the finished product. Hopefully it will lighten it up a bit.

[PerryW]

Russell,

You could tell the trees really wanted to run today, but it just never really got above 35 deg at my sugarbush in Littleton. Some of my buckets had a big ball of ice almost the size of a baseball and ran 1/2 a pail in spite of the cold & wind.

[Russell Lampron]

Perry,

I didn't think that the buckets would run much here yesterday because it only got down to 28 degrees overnight. It was a good surprise to get a gal per tap out of the buckets and even more out of the vacuum.

The sap isn't going to flow today but I would much rather have it not flow because of the cold than because it is too warm. This will be the first day since the 10th that I don't get sap if it doesn't run.

[PerryW]

I didn't think that the buckets would run much here yesterday because it only got down to 28 degrees overnight.

I think they ran because Saturday's run never finished since it didn't get warm enough.

I would much rather have it not flow because of the cold than because it is too warm

I agree 100%!

[Russell Lampron]

I pulled a bonehead move on Monday and pumped 600 gallons of 2.1% onto the ground. I really needed that to get my gallons of syrup per tap up too. My grandsons Cub Scout den came over Monday evening for a tour and to see how syrup is made. Luckily I was able to scrounge up 100 gallons of sap to boil. They were all watching the thermometer when I did a draw off and they all had a good time even though it was too cold for me to take them into the woods to show them the vacuum and how it works.

The sap started flowing again yesterday after a one day lay off making it the only day in 14 with no sap. I am getting things cleaned up and ready for the up coming Maple Weekend Open House. The phone has been ringing alot more than usual so I am hoping for a good turn out.

[Amber Gold]

Do you think the sap will run good all weekend? What do you do if you run out of sap?

With your fancy RO and 3 hr boil times how do you boil all day during maple weekend? Do you run non-concentrated sap through it and drag your feet?

[TapME]

Good luck to all you on your maple weekend in NH. May you have more sap than you need.

[Russell Lampron]

It looks like the sap should run at least until Sunday. It looks like Sunday might be a wash this year too. They are predicting rain. I didn't have enough sap for the second day last year so I filled the feed tank with water and pushed the sweet through with that. I don't like that method though the syrup comes out really dark and there is a good chance of scorching the pan. Something that I don't want to do with a sugar house full of customers. This year if I don't have enough sap for Sunday I will drain the evaporator and just boil water. The customers will be able to smell the maple and see steam and I won't have to pay that close of attention to it.

On a lighter note my syrup started to lighten up a bit last night. It is still NH Fancy and I will boil what comes in today and hope for some grade A. Fridays run will be saved for Saturday and will be mildly concentrated so that I can demonstrate the RO and be able to make the sap last a while.

On the 3 hour boil time issue. My sap came in from the woods at 2% and out of the buckets at 3% last night for the last 2 days run. I had 700 gallons total and concentrated to a high point of 9%. The evaporator was lit at 7:00 and I was all done at 10:15. I haven't added it all up yet but I filled two 5 gallon jugs and still have alot in the canner. All of my 5 gallon jugs are full now so it is time to start filling the 55's.

[Amber Gold]

That's a good idea Russ. I was wondering what I was going to do if I ran out of sap. Didn't get to boil the 320 gallons I collected yesterday. Hopefully will be able tonight. Not sure what today's run will bring...left the vac. pump on all night.

[Russell Lampron]

Collected another 500 gallons of sap yesterday and boiled it in in the hopes of getting some lighter syrup. 500 gallons concentrated to 11% doesn't last long and 2 hours after we lit the evaporator we were out of sap. The syrup was just starting to lighten up on the last draw off just like the night before.

My son in law and I came to the conclusion that if we are going to make lighter syrup we have to tap more trees so that we can boil longer. The goal is to get to at least 1000 for next season. My goal for a long time has been to get to 1300 taps on my 2x6 to match what my parents used to do with buckets and a 4x12 when I was a kid. I will be there next year if the funds allow it.

[TapME]

Are you trucking the sap or you using a line to get it to the sugarhouse Russ? Just thinking about the color of you syrup and the long pipe.

[3% Solution]

Hey Russ,
How's things going in the middle part of the state??

Dave

[Russell Lampron]

Lou I have a 900 foot pipeline from the sugarhouse to my tank in the woods and pump it to the sugarhouse. No more trucking but I need a bigger pump to get it there faster. The farthest taps are 2300' away from the woods tank with a sap ladder in between.

Dave things are going pretty good as they have for most of the season. Things have been a lot easier this year because of having all of my taps in my own woods. The mainlines that I installed last fall and the new taps are producing alot of sap and getting from point A to point B like they were supposed too. Richard and I have figured out how to get 45gph out of my evaporator and I am at 90 gallons of syrup for the season so far. It sure is fun to turn 500 gallons of sap into syrup in 2 hours or so.

[Russell Lampron]

Had an excellent turn out for the first day of maple weekend. The one day sales were better than any previous entire weekend sales. It was all NH Fancy too. It's amazing what 2 news paper adds and alittle vanilla ice cream with maple syrup on it will do.

Matt Roy and his wife Gena came over from Maine and brought me a little present. Now my pretty stainless base stack and stack are all shades of dark blue and purple. We stuffed the blower that he brought over in front of the draft door and let it rip. The stack grew 2", the steam was pouring out of the stack and the condensate went from a trickle to stream. Cant wait to get it permanently hooked to see what Little Bertha can really do. We were getting 45gph out of her without a blower!

[royalmaple]

OH Yeah!! Petina the stack in about 3 minutes. Now were talking.

[Russell Lampron]

Had a better turn out for maple weekend on Sunday than I expected because of the weather. Went to The Olive Garden after it was all over with some family members to celebrate the record setting weekend.

The sap is still flowing here although it is coming in very slow. Thank God for vacuum. Without it I don't think that I would have shattered all of the records that I have this season. I still have just over 600 taps like I have had for the last 5 or 6 years only this year they are all on my own property and 550 of them are on vacuum. I have already collected 3000 gallons more sap than my best year which was last year and had about 330 in the tank last night. I have also passed last years syrup total which didn't seem possible for a while in the early season when 3000 gallons of sap only yielded about 40 gallons of syrup. I won't have a final total for a while yet I hope.

[Maplewalnut]

Nicely done Russ, congrats on the great weekend. You guys had abad year last year it was defiinitley your turn. I am going to have to stop by one day this summer to see how you have that beast cranking so many gph.

[TapME]

Nice to see that the crowds still came in the rain Russ. Keep up the great work. Next time I'm down that way I will have to stop by and bring a couple of boiling sodas.

[Russell Lampron]

Tried out my new toy last night and have it pretty much dialed in. My son in law got the blower that Matt brought down on the weekend all hooked up to Little Bertha and we tried it out last night. The doors and arch front were a light cherry and the steam was rising off of the pans in nice big clouds. No more splitting wood for us!

We had 625 gallons of sap to start with and concentrated to 10% we were able to turn it into syrup in a little over 2 hours. The evaporator came up to a boil almost as soon as we lit it and we ran out of sap all too soon. You know what that means. More taps for next year! Got to have at least 1000 to keep Little Bertha fed.

This season has been so much fun that I hate to see it end. Thanks for the compliments guys and everyone is welcome to stop by and check things out. I like boiling sodas and talking maple. We got a light freeze last night so I hope that it is game on. I need more sap to play with my evaporator more.

[Russell Lampron]

Added up the totals for the sap that I collected this season and came in at 8885 gallons. Last season I collected 4790 from about the same number of taps. The big difference, 23" of VACUUM!!!!! and having all of my trees in my own woods.

Learned to run my RO differently and managed to get through the season with a partly clogged membrane. Gonna put the acid to it and see if I can get it clean enough to use for another season. Using it the way that I do now recirculating my sap back to the storage tank I can get pretty good flows until the sap gets to about 12%. Then I can only get about a 1/4 of a gallon per minute of permeate flow and by rinsing it I can get it back up to 1.25 gallons per minute for a little while.

[PerryW]

Russell,

I see that you are having good luck tapping red maples. I probably have 200 taps of red maples I could easily add to my main 650 tap sugarbush. Do you disconnect them when they start to bud?

[Russell Lampron]

Perry,

I don't disconnect my reds when they bud out. I just make commercial syrup and sell it bulk. I have been doing this since 2001 and have only had one season where the sap ran long enough for that to be a problem.

If you have that many reds close by you might want to tube them in so that they could be disconnected if you wanted to. The extra sap from 200 taps on vacuum is quite a bit and will pay for the expense of getting them on line. If your not going to add vacuum don't bother.

[NH Maplemaker]

I was thinking of tapping my red next year! Was thinking of spraying them with fluorescent orange paint. Then if reds look like there budding out just pull the orange taps! That way I can say to son and son in law go pull and cap all the orange taps!! What do you think? Jim L.

[maple sapper]

My theory is you need to 10% smarter than who your dealing with. So sounds like you could idiot proof it that way.

[PerryW]

Was thinking of spraying them with fluorescent orange paint


I would just use surveyor's flaggin on them instead of ugly orange paint. Or use a different color tubing on them.

[Russell Lampron]

Jim sounds like a good idea. Paint, flagging tape or different colored tubing are all good ideas that may be son and son in law proof. Hopefully in time they will learn how to tell the difference between a red and a sugar and no marking will be needed. I use flagging tape to mark leaks that need to be fixed and that one will work if you use a different color tape to flag leaks if you do the same.

Got another toy yesterday. I tried out my new used filter press last night. It is a hand pump model and it moves a lot more syrup faster than I expected it to with ease. I thought that I would be pumping all night to get 8 gallons of syrup through it but that wasn't the case. I filtered some syrup that I had already filtered with my flat filter and filter papers and got alot more dirt out of it. It was amazing how much crap was in the filter aid and papers when I was done. The before and after samples showed a big difference too.

The sap flow has been at a stand still here since Thursday. I hate to call it a season. It was such a fun one for a change. Is it April already?

[maple sapper]

Make sure your son and son-in-law arent color blind.

[NH Maplemaker]

maple sapper, funny that you say that. Because son in law is color blind !So I guess that the flagging is the best way to go. Only thing with flagging is the wind may raise hell with it.
As far as the boys being idiot there not! There just learning as they were never able to get involved before now. Family help is the best kind of help. Maybe the dream will live on long after we are gone ! Jim L.

[Russell Lampron]

Jim you are right about family help being the best kind. My 9 year old grandson already has dreams of taking over the operation when I get too old. I taught him how to draw off syrup on maple weekend and he does a good job. The only things that he hasn't done yet are run the RO machine and fire the evaporator.

[Amber Gold]

Give him a couple of years and you could be sitting in the corner drinking boiling sodas while he's running the show for you. Good deal.

[Mark-NH]

Russell,

Did you pick up a grade by using a filter press? Curious as to how much of a difference they make over flat filters?

[Russell Lampron]

Josh that is the plan. Even if he is running the evaporator by himself I know that there will be plenty of other things for me to do.

Mark I didn't pick up a grade but the pressed syrup is sparkling clean. I do have some syrup that is right on the grade B sample and I will see what that looks like when I run it through the press. I think it will just get cleaner I don't think it will get lighter.

[NH Maplemaker]

Russ, don't get to old to fast ! There is plenty of time for our family's to run things!! Lets take our time and enjoy it first then it will be there turn ! No harm in teaching them as we go! Jim L.

[Russell Lampron]

Jim,

Joseph is only 9 years old so I'm not planning to let him fire Little Bertha for a couple more years. I figured that teaching him how to draw off syrup was the prize for lugging wood, running laterals, tapping trees, hanging buckets and being the first one to grab a pail when it is time to gather the buckets. He's got sugarmakers blood and a good teacher. I'm not planning to hand over the reins anytime soon. I'm having too much fun.

[NH Maplemaker]

Russ, I remember the day we were all over to your place and Joseph was leading the charge To get things done!! That's what it is all about "FAMILY, GOOD FRIENDS AND MAPLE"! No not the beer!!! Jim L.

[Russell Lampron]

It has been getting colder at night here than predicted and the sap is still flowing. I could easily see that the trees in the new section of my woods were still producing and the old section had all but shut down. My son in law got the drill out and had time enough to ream the taps on one of the mainlines that had shut down and it is now flowing again. Going to ream the rest of them today as it looks like I should get sap at least through the weekend. The old section is getting all new drops for next season.

Started to fill a mersh barrel last night and I would like to fill it if I could. The RO has been working overtime to get the sap sweet enough to boil but it gets it there.

[Russell Lampron]

After scorching my syrup pan Thursday night, changing it out and then scorching my other pan Saturday night I decided it was time to pull the plug and call it a season. The late season sap that I had been getting just didn't want to be boiled. Other than the last 2 boils it was a pretty much problem free season for a change which made it a lot of fun. After I add everything up I should be at or above a quart per tap even with the sap that didn't get boiled.

I set new records for sap gathered, gallons of syrup produced, sales on maple weekend and sales overall to this point. Most of the syrup that I made was NH Fancy but the customers don't question it for the most part and the ones that do end up buying some after they get a taste. I have been having trouble keeping quarts on the shelf and it looks like I need to can up some gallons and 1/2 gallons too.

For next season I am replacing all of the drops in my old section of woods and want to add 2 more lateral mainlines to pick a couple hundred more taps. I also want to get a 2" pump to pump my sap back up the hill and either build a bubbler for the evaporator or have one built.

[Amber Gold]

Are you talking about air injection for your flue pan?

[Russell Lampron]

Yes, air injection for both pans. It keeps the crap suspended so that it doesn't burn on, increases the evap rate and makes a lighter colored finished product.

[Amber Gold]

Considering adding over fire air to my evap. this year. Can you use the same blower for over fire air, under fire air, and the air injection? I want to see 100 gph out of my evap. next season. It would be a fairly cheap modification to get 10% (I think) evap. rate increase.

[Russell Lampron]

No, I will use a seperate blower with an air filter on the inlet.

[Russell Lampron]

I got most of my cleaning done this weekend. When we were tapping trees we didn't do a very good job of counting. When I washed the buckets I found that I only had 77 of them out not 83 like I previously thought. Got the taps pulled and tubing washed on Thursday. Washed the feed tank and bulk tank Saturday and also did the final rinse and membrane preservative treatment to the RO and filled the evaporator with water and vinegar. Also got the buckets pulled and the woods tank up to the house Saturday evening. Today the woods tank and 2 gathering tanks for the 4 wheeler got washed and put away. The membrane removed from the RO and the RO drained. Also built a fire in the evaporator to get the cleaning solution hot and washed the buckets. Didn't have the ambition to drain and pressure wash the pans. That will wait for another day.

I still have to finish cleaning the evaporator and I still need to clean the releaser but other than that the cleaning, which is the worst part of sugaring season, is done.

[markcasper]

Russel, Could you give simple instructions on removing the membrane and as you said it-- membrane preservative treatment, or something on that order.?

On the last batch last week, I did fill the storage canister full or permeate right off the hose in preperation for this. Thanks, Mark

[Russell Lampron]

Mark I mix a tablespoon of membrane preservative (Leader Brand) with 10 gallons of permeate in my wash tank and when I am done flushing the RO I circulate that through the RO for 20 minutes and drain the wash tank. After that I unbolt the cover on the top of the membrane tower and lift the membrane out. I put that in my storage canister filled with permeate and bring it into the house where it can't freeze for the off season. I then drain the RO completely and wait for next season.

You can put a gallon of glycol in with the membrane preservative solution to lube the pumps but I never have.