steaming drill bits in Andover- 2009

[tuckermtn]

Tapped 50 this afternoon with my girls...one drilled, one hammered. Lasted about 10 taps and then they had had enough. Of the 50, about 15 were running- not bad considering the thermometer in the truck was reading 22-24 deg. w/ bright sun...

Mark (co-op partner) tapped his earlier running 25 taps today also...

set up stock tank, vac. pump and temp. control later in the afternoon in anticpation of tapping our 135 tap bush tomorrow or Thursday morning.


still need to wash buckets and set up dump station for the f-350, clean up sugarhouse, etc...but if the sap comes on Thursday/Friday we'll be ready...

[Amber Gold]

After the season's over I'd like to make a trip up and check your place out. Is Parker close by? I'd like to see his as well...see how big Mighty Marvin really is.

[Cardigan99]

Good luck over there Eric. I hope the sap is running good for you! We're still going to hold out for next weekend. Same time as last year for us, and we thought that was a week too early but the itch is setting in.

Josh, I've seen Mighty Marvin. The fire box is as big as a hot tub.

Todd

[tuckermtn]

tapped about 100 of the 130+ we have on vacuum this morning- would have liked to finish but the girls were ready to mutiny...hope to get the rest of these in tomorrow and hook the vac. up. Perhaps hang a few buckets as well... maybe be up to 225 or so in by the weekend.


Josh- yes Parker is about 10 min. from my place..I can see a couple of his sugarbushes from my house...

Todd- best of luck to you as well up on the other side of Ragged- when I'm grooming up there I have a good view of Cardigan- any chance I could see you place?

[Russell Lampron]

Josh think of Mighty Marvin this way. Going by pan size you could put 4 evaporators like yours inside of it.

[Cardigan99]

Thanks Eric. We sit below the top of Brown Mountain so you can't see us, but we're a little over 2 miles southeast from the summit Cardigan. Just sight a little bit to your right and you'll be looking right over the top of us.

Todd

[tuckermtn]

lined up a babysitter for the girls today so I got the rest of the mainline taps in and vacuum running...pump seems most happy around 23-24"- hot, but spit does not sizzle..

need to replace some of the old green saddles on the 1/2" with cut-in/stars. There are 2 trees out there that I think this will be the last time we tap them- they look a little ragged...

got up to around 40 this afternoon and good sun, but not much running...tomorrow is a crap shoot- then cold again after that.

[Amber Gold]

Do you think I can fit Mighty Marvin in my sugar house...

[Russell Lampron]

Mighty Marvin is a 5x16 evaporator. Is your sugar house big enough for that with the stack?

[tuckermtn]

hung about 100 buckets today, tapped some of the shorter tubing/tote runs, and we are 90% tapped. Parker- not sure if we are going to get over to tap Fultons this year or not...I'll give ya a call...

was running only a little bit by afternoon- but its still 37deg out a 1am. Tomorrow's forcast looks amazing, but we'll see...

need to work on wiring up the bilge pump for the bucket dump station as I think its going to get a work out over the next few days. likely gather late tomorrow and fire up Sunday morning. Bring it on....

[Amber Gold]

I think Mighty Marvin would fit and nothing else. I'd have to leave the doors of the sugar house open just to feed it. It would look impressive though...

[Parker]

Eric- whats the latest?

[tuckermtn]

we gathered 325-350 gallons today off of 400 taps...was hoping for 1 gal/tap but I'll take it...sweetened the pans and drew off 3+ gals. -but haven't graded yet. Probably have another 50 or so gallons of sap to grab tomorrow- will push it though tomorrow sometime. Sugar seems low for early runs- around 2%

Have been impressed with a "natural vacuum" all 5/16 tubing run we are experimenting with this year- 48 taps - produced more than 55 gallons....probably was more but the two totes we have set up in tandem began to leak out the hole in the handle...time to move the dinged up stock tank over there to catch the good runs...

Finally got our trailer hitch dump station set up and working today- love the fact that its low enough for my 7 year old daughter to dump into...great to have the help...

[tuckermtn]

collected about 100 gals of sap left over from yesterday's run--2% sap- total syrup from ths first run was 5.875 gals - medium amber, good taste. Lots of sand- might try to clean pan and filter out sand- hopefully can make some light after that...

Vacuum on our 135 tap bush seemd to make the difference over this last run- almost 2 gal/tap where as most everthing else we've tapped was .5 to .75 gal/tap. If this keeps up, the vacuum will make $$ sense for certain this year...

[powerdub]

I have not heard anything so I can only assume the thermostat is working fine. Sounds like your are off to a pretty good start.

[tuckermtn]

just got an update from the Tucker Mtn Maple guys (I'm traveling with family for a few days)

Dave and Mark gathered 350 gal of sap on Tuesday afternoon/eve. Boiled till midnight on Tuesday. Gathered again Wednesday evening- close to 500 gals- including some 300 gal from our vacuum bush (135 +/- taps) We've never had that bush run that hard in a little over 24 hrs...I've been on the fence about vacuum in the past, but it seems to be critical this year... Boiled again till midnight- still had 600 gals. waiting for Thursday's marathon boil...looks like BIGSAP is upon us...

Powerdub- yes the t-stat is working perfectly...sp-11 has been running in the 21-23" range since we tapped a few weeks ago...thanks again for the wiring assistance...

best of luck to all out there in mapleland...

[powerdub]

Giddeeup! Love modern technology!

[tuckermtn]

just got a note from Mark that they guys gathered 750 gal of sap yesterday (Sunday) - was from both the late run on Saturday and most of the run yesterday.

Made 28 gals of syrup so far, all medium A. Have enough sap on hand for at least another 15 or so...

Forecast looks amazing for the next 10 days. Hope the season can hang on till Maple Open House weekend which is the 28th-29th. More importantly, hope our wood can hold up that long...

-eric

[tuckermtn]

quick update- 72+ gals so far for the season...all medium- just gathered another 350 gals from 3/4 of our taps...vacuum made a big diffference today for us.

did a quick acid wash of front pan in hopes of improving grade a bit...sap still running 2-2.2 %.

supposed to get cold here tonight (15-20 deg ish for a low) so hopefuly will re-set the trees for next week...

good luck to all maplehaulics...

[wally]

hey eric,

sounds like don's old pans are getting a good workout. 75 gallons, eh?

i've got about 12 so far :lol: and all dark stuff. at least the sap is running.

tim

[tuckermtn]

yes - the pans are getting a work out- had them up over 60gph last night with some pallet wood and pine...soda-kegged up another 10 gals tonight - holding at medium. Dave is finishing up the last of the sap as I type...still have probably 300 gals we didn't gather from this afternoon- will gather late A.M after doing some driveway maintience / mud management...plan on putting the roadside signs out tomorrow if all goes well...then more scrounging for wood...

[tuckermtn]

with the cooler temps and winds today and yesterday thought the sap would slow down...nope...gathered another 630 gals from 400 taps. Some buckets had 4 gals since friday at 5pm (+/-40 hrs).

had problems with releaser and pump again today- this time the moisture trap did not work (was sitting a little off level and when it filled up the ball missed sitting on the exit port) so had to drain and re-fill sp-11

jugged up 7 more gallons- now into dark amber...

cold tomorrow...off looking for wood...

[PerryW]

Surprisingly it ran some even though the temp. bairly got above 35 deg., but only a small run of 175 gallons (good run is 500 gal for me).

The grade is still right on the Fancy-Medium border.

[Amber Gold]

Jealous you've made so much syrup, I've got about the same number of taps and have made approximately 35 gal this year.

Ran straight pallet wood yesterday for about 20 minutes and got it screaming. Not sure what the evap. rate was. Ever had a problem with the float not keeping up? Almost burned my flue pan. Not sure what was going on, but it was getting reallly low.

[tuckermtn]

Josh- yes the pallet wood makes it really cook...but its a lot of labor cutting it small enough- and you need to feed more often...I wish I had a water/sap flow meter to see just how many gph its doing burning pallet wood...

never had a problem with the float not keeping up...check to see if the pin that goes into the float is staight- if its bent, the float can move around and not give you a consistent depth...

good luck...

[PerryW]

Ever had a problem with the float not keeping up?

Yup. When the sap level in the storage tank gets lower, the pressure at the cold sap float goes down (reducing the flow) and the pan runs lower. Also, after the evaporator has been running an hour or two, all the bricks have heated up and your evaporation rate is higher, so it needs more sap per minute.

[Amber Gold]

Eric, a fellow trader directed me to a place where you just pick up 4'x4' boxes of pallets already broken up...no work involved. It's pretty sweet. They burn the 2x4 stock and give away the flat stock. I'm going to run it deeper the next time I run straight pallets.

Perry I have noticed it doesn't always run as fast when the tank's low. The bottom of the tank is about 3'-4' higher than my float box.

[PerryW]

Josh,

The bottom of my tank is only a few inches above the float box, so when my tank is full the vertical (head pressure) is many times more then when empty.

But I usually only have to raise my cold-sap float 1 notch to compensate.

[tuckermtn]

scrounged up some marginal slab wood today- had some cheap labor so got it chunked up and into the wood shed...

pickup up 100 gals of sap left from sunday and a bit from the late afternoon run today. boiled for 3 hrs this morning for a school group...looked like we might be getting close to b grade...

forecast looks good till sunday...maple weekend open house both days...

best of luck...

-Eric

[tuckermtn]

850 gals of sap today...ave. 2 gal tap...huge day for us...going to bed- dave is taking first shift- I'm back on at 2am...

wood fairy dropped of some nice dry slabwood this morning...we should be good to go for a while...

cheers-

eric

[tuckermtn]

broke the century mark for syrup this morning...making grade A dark...was the first time I've watched the sunrise from the sugarhouse...off to the day job then its back to the sugarhouse as it looks like we should get another good run today...

[tuckermtn]

720 gallons of sap in 24 hrs...yikes...raining here now so likely will shut down overnight.

one thing I come to learn in my maplehaulic's therapy is to come forth and admit when I have sinned- and I did sin tonight- I turned my vacuum pump off while the sap was still coming in...please forgive me...

learned that my f-350 can easily take a full 425 tank. Actually rides quie nicely as the sap doesn't have room to slosh around....

cheers-

-Eric

[Russell Lampron]

Eric you shut your vacuum pump OFF! I shut mine off just long enough to check the belt tension and top up the oil then turned it back on. I still had 15" in the lines when I turned it back on.

The way that I am set up now My Sierra 35 doesn't haul sap anymore but it did like it when the 325 gallon tank was full.

[Amber Gold]

I agree, if it's above freezing my pump is on. Aside from my mishap yesterday I don't think it's been off since Monday or Tuesday. Even on Monday when it wasn't above freezing I still managed to get 50 gallons of sap.

My F250 like the 210 gallon tank...doesn't even hit the helper springs. I'm wondering if I can use a 325 gal tank when I get bigger.

[PerryW]

I see F250's with the 425 gallon tanks all the time.

My GMC 3500 rides nice with 425 gallon on it. In fact, the weight of 425 gallons of sap is less than when I load it with 3/4 cord of green hardwood.

[Parker]

Eric- I must have misread that last post of yours,,,,you shut the pump oooffff,,,,,,,?,,,,,,,???????????????????

[tuckermtn]

great turn out for maple weekend- again about 1/2 folks we knew and rest just people passing by...boiled from 9am-5 pm - gathered 130+ gals from our buckets at 6pm + mark brought 200 gals so we still have 600 gals on hand for today. jugged 7.5 gals on Dark A

looks like we might just get showers today rather than steady rain for the second open house day...I hope its like the resturant business on the Cape that we were the busiest when the weather was bad since folks didn't want to be on the beach, etc...

good luck to all..

-Eric

[tuckermtn]

well, wishful thinking- was slower than frozen grade B here yesterday in terms of visits and sales for the open house...still did a good bussiness on Saturday to make up for the off day on Sunday.

Pulled in another 200 gals of sap yesterday and left the vac. pump running. Not much chance of freeze this week so we may be done...at 118+ gals for the season so far...made first grade b yesterday.

have a good one...

[Russell Lampron]

The rain and cold made the open house slow here yesterday too. I had enough sales Sunday to add to my record breaking day Saturday to make it a record weekend.

Lets hope the sap starts flowing again so that we can set somemore records. The weather liars could be wrong.

[tuckermtn]

our small bush on vacuum still keeps chugging along...150 gals off 135 taps in 24 hrs when nothing else is running...love it...

jugged up another 9 gals last night of good tasting grade B

got some more fuel for the evap and will keep on keeping on- looks like a chance for a freeze here tonight...after that not much. Likely pull taps this weekend.

-eric

[PerryW]

Will you guys quit making me want to go vacuum!;

[tuckermtn]

Perry- again I was on the fence about vacuum- but this year its been very noticable how much more sap we have been getting on vac.

picked up another 100 gals this afternoon- dumped the moisture trap at 10:30am, almost no sap in tank- back at 5:30 pm 100 gallons in the tank (off 135 taps) love that vacuum.

[tuckermtn]

light freeze last night...vac kicked in at 8am- 150 gals at 7pm tonight. 225 gathered, plus another 100 or so to get tomorrow. still "making it sticky" as my fellow maplehaulic puts it...

[PerryW]

Surprisingly, it ran pretty good today even though it only got down to 28 deg last night. Make another 7 gallons tonight and I'm up to 80 gallons (80% of full crop).

The sap was still running when I gathered at 5 PM, so I should have between 100-200 gallons in the morning.

[tuckermtn]

gathered 100 gals last night, 225 this morning and still have 100 in the field...about 30% of buckets were apple juice. think we'll pull em tomorrow...

making grade B- up to 135 gals now...hope to make 145ish?

-Eric

[tuckermtn]

pulled taps this morning- almost made it though the sap left from Friday- still have 100 gal or so for tomorrow night.

should be close to 150 gals- right about on for our per-tap ave. over the last three years...

good luck to all those still at it...

-eric

[wally]

congrats on becoming NHTOA's program director, mr. johnson.

[tuckermtn]

thanks Wally- one of my projects is to have a landowner-oriented class on maple sugaring...

just couldn't let this forecast pass me by...freshened 135 taps which is our only bush on vacuum- going to see what happens over the next 4-5 days, which are all forecasted to go below freezing at night...budds still look tight on the sugars...

rest of the taps are pulled, but still have some commercial grade syrup in the evaporator- maybe make enough this week to pay for the upgrade of the releaser to one that actually works...the hobby releaser has been a real P.I.T.A$$ this season...glad to see Laperrier is willing to take them in exchange...

[tuckermtn]

sap was running okay this afternoon...about 60 gals of milky sap in the tank- cleaned the talk after pumping out- hopefully that will help the quality a bit...not sure if all the effort is going to be worth it, but would kick myself if I didn't try.

the grade b gallons seem to be the hot item this year...we have sold almost 25 gals of the stuff- need to jug up some more as it is disapearing fast...

we have made almost 50 gals. more this year than last but I'm already a little nervous about not having enough on hand for holiday orders, etc...

supposed to get into the mid-20s here tonight...we'll see...

[Russell Lampron]

Eric I have noticed the same trend here. On maple weekend all of the syrup that I had out to sell was grade B. Just about everyone that came bought some and most never questioned it. There were a couple of people that wanted to taste it first and they ended up buying after they did. I canned up more last night. I can't keep quarts and larger on the shelf.

[Parker]

Eric-you didnt pump the milky stuff on the ground did you??? DONT MAKE THE MAPLE GODS MAD!!!! You have to boil all you get when you redrill!!!! You just wont get clear sap this time of year,,if you dont want to boil it give me a call and Ill buy that milky stuff from you,,,if you do boil it,,run your pans deeper than normal and be ready for "THE POGIE BOAT" smell........have a lot of defoamer on hand

[tuckermtn]

just checked the pump and tank at chase hill on the way home from work- looks like the pump was on most of the day but the f#%!ing relaser filled both of the the moisture traps up again...wonder how much sap I didn't get this season b/c of the releaser... Still trickled in most of the day- but once I emptied the moisture traps and got the vac on again the sap came in pretty well...going to see how it runs the rest of today then see how much I can boil tomorrow. Parker- thanks for the running deeper pans reccomondation...

-eric

[tuckermtn]

got a total of 150 gals of extra sap from reaming on sunday...but the sugar was low, so only got 2 gals or so of extra syrup for the effort...was warm but not running today. Pretty sure its the end of the sap...

left the valve open between the pans last night. as I was shutting down...oops...lost probably 20 gals of sweetened sap. will chase with water tomorrow and see how we make out...

-eric