March Journal

[Russell Lampron]

March has finally arrived. I will be boiling for the first time this season today with my own evaporator. Things continue to go smoothly this season and I am anticipating a good one. The month for maple syrup is here and I hope that everyone has a good season.

[tessiersfarm]

I put out a few taps yesterday and got permission to tap some more. This is the month I have been waiting for. Will be over 120 taps this year and maybe 150, no competition for the big guys but it keeps me busy. I can hardley wait to boils.

[Clan Delaney]

I was just wondering if someone had started a March Journal... and here it is!

This March, I predict we'll break the record for most visitors to the Maple Trader at the same time (169, 03-23-2008 at 08:32 PM). My guess is March 15th... hmmmmmm... at 8:06.

Tapped the trees in the yard yesterday. Planning to get the ones in the neighbor's yards and down the road today.

I'll be trading most of my sap to fellow Trader DaveB this year, and he dropped off a collection bin yesterday. Just need to get it leveled and rig up a cover for it.

[maplekid]

well got to boil yesterday brought in 160 somethin gallons and boiled it off in less than four hours i had the doors glowing and had it foam the hole time. i rebuilt the arch in the back of the fire box and that must have done the trick. didnt draw off any yesterday but will wait to boil in the middle of the week. suppose to have a good 4-5 days of good runs. going to another sugar house down the road and going to help him boil.

[caseyssugarshack93]

worked in the one of my small bushes today got that tapped around 230-240 taps soon to be around 300,started at 10 and got done at 2 had to work on some laterals so that took some time, sap was running out of most of the trees, IT'S GETTING CLOSE HERE

[Clan Delaney]

This March, I predict we'll break the record for most visitors to the Maple Trader at the same time (169, 03-23-2008 at 08:32 PM). My guess is March 15th... hmmmmmm... at 8:06.

OKay, so I was a little bit off...


Most users ever online was 181, Today at 10:13 AM.

[maple flats]

I boiled my first of the season yesterday, 175 gal. Just getting close to syrup when I ran low on sap and had to shut down. These 175 were from 200 new taps on my new bush. about 300 more are tapped and will be online with the next run. Ny last 100 will also be ready. Forcast calls for cold til Thursday. Thurs might start but more likely Friday. Sat looks perfect. My long range for Sat says cold overnight Friday, then Sat might hit 52 and below freezing again Sat night and warm Sunday. That will be my first good flow of the season if they don't change the forcast too much. Should be boiling all weekend and finally start having product to sell again.

[dano2840]

IM BACK! Got home from florida at about 6 as fast as i walked through the door i walked right back out it to the sugar house and took the tarp off the concreet and took the boards off around it that formed the footing, i gues we had a few warm warm days while i was gone, going to install evap tommarrow

[3% Solution]

danno,
Did you feed the mouse??
Hope so, those are the only good stocks right now!!
Hope you had a good time, it's always nice to get away.
Now let's get going, you don't have much time, but do it right the first time.
Have fun.

Dave

[Sugarmaker]

March 1,
Two weeks till open house NWPA TASTE and TOUR! March 14 and 15. Come one come all!
I made maple products most of the day. Visited with fellow sugar maker Paul Burgess from Springboro tonight as he stopped by and bought the last of my 7/16 cast spiles.

I still have some Wheeling style buckets, about 75, for sale they have varying degrees of rust in the bottom.

I may look for some nice 5/16 stainless spiles for the buckets around the sugar house for next year.

Also considering buying a big industrial type mixers, three speed Hobart. Anyone out there using one of these to make maple products? Maybe making cream?

Several orders coming in from the web site and other inquiries.

We had a nice article written about us and making maple in the Erie Lifestyles magazine this month.

Chris

[Revi]

We are still way below freezing here, but it sounds like next week it may warm up a bit. We tapped 200 on Saturday, but there was no sap coming out yet.

We need some warmish weather to get things going.

Now that it's March it can happen any time.

In like a lion, out like a lamb.

[Stickey]

I put in every tap I could get my hands on just before the 2 days fore casted to be in the 40s. 22 taps with a yield of about 20 gallons. Tank was starting to freeze this morning, probably solid by now. Played with the blocks, level and really heavy concrete culvert (chimney) , split some dry pine to toothpicks(kindling) and Dad started bending the pan (hope he finishes it this week) I wanna cook next weekend, I know, I know....Patience grasshopper.

[mapleman3]

Busy day today, was in the north bush , tapped about 250 so far, got home split more wood to clean up the wood area for the impending snow storm coming tonight... the sugarhouse needs a good straightening out... guess that will happen in the next few days.. all has to be done so I can boil by the weekend.. hopefully it will warm up by thursday so I can get sap running for Sat boil

[mapleack]

We boiled 320 gal of sap today, bottled about 5 gal. Added on another 40 taps on tubing and hung 67 buckets. My tap total is at 886 right now, man I'm tempted to get 14 more, though I'd only want at least another hundred after that. My girlfriend helped all day, tapping, boiling and canning, I've definately got a keeper! The trees were running real hard this afternoon, I'm sure we'll be boiling some tomorrrow.

[Jerome]

Still waiting to tap, here in Central Ontario its -17c this morning and clear.

[dano2840]

looking cold until friday, i think i will brick the arch on thurs, its supposed to be 30, Do you need to wait till it gets above freezing to brick or no? but may start tapping after school on friday, if i dont on friday then on sat, going to go get the arch in an hour or so and cut the hole in the roof for the stack and replace the bed of the arch with some good tin, then run a line from the road to sugar house, hoping i will have the slope so i can just turn a valve and sap will go from my transp tank on the wagon down to the sugar house on grav with out the need for a pump, going to get the tank stand built today to, the only place for it is in the back of the sugar house going cross ways or in the front going cross ways but if its in front that means any one over 6 ft will have to duck when they come in, hadley seems to think it will be colder in the back of the sugar house but the fire box is facing that way, then he said the fire box will make the sap too hot in april so he wants to put it above the door, i dont like that idea but its just for this year until i can build a off shed for the tank, gotta go over to the woods and make sure every thing is the way i left it before i took off for florida, the guy might have painted the tank for me i dont know i will have to look, but ive gotta crack the piggy bank open and put some get up and go juice in moms car if im going to do any running around to do this stuff, so i gotta go good luck to every one out there i will keep you guys posted if i have time, maybe in study hall at school or on my lunch period, again good luck to all, may the boils be long and the sap run HARD, BIGSAP BIGSAP BIGSAP

[KenWP]

Cold deary day here today also. The weather is supposed to warm up some starting friday here also but with it cold up till then the most that might happen is some more snow will melt and let the sun at the ground. I might consider tapping thursday and then the taps will be good untill the middle of April if the 4 to 6 week time frame is correct that they are good for.

[3% Solution]

WP,
Snowing here, about 2-1/2" so far!!!
Temp is 16
Looks pretty.
Getting suck of this snow.
But shortly I'll be saying, "It's too hot, I hate this weather!!!"
Can't be pleased I guess.
It's supposed to warm up here the end of the week and the weekend.
Hope so.
Well take care and have fun!!!

Dave

[Stickey]

Just returned from a "tromp" with the little one, snowin so hard lost sight of the dog for a bit. Turns out she was sittin 25' away with a fresh blanket of snow covering her. I whistled and she popped up out of the white abyss. Can't find my camera, wanted to take some pictures of snow covered gear, not a very original idea, but traditional and might give me a chuckle down the road. Wife agreed to help me get a photobucket going so hopefully I'll get some photo's up, give me something to do on days like this. Stopped by Dads garage, pans coming along nice, shouldn't take him long to weld her up(maybe tonight :D ) I think he's excited to boil too. Funny how sugaring seems to draw people in.

[KenWP]

Starting to snow here today. I got filters lined up and ready to boil and will get every thing disinfected to tap today and tomorrow. Wife has really bad hands so am bakeing bread for me also. I know I Know.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Danno,

Brick the arch and cover it up with some tin or something not flamable and put a heat lamp inside or a couple of high wattage light bulbs to help the refrac cement dry properly or light a small fire in there afterwards to help it cure.

[Sugarmaker]

Still making value added maple products to stock the shelves. Going tomorrow to buy a big mixer ($$$$). That should turn into a maple project of some type:)
Several orders coming off the web site which is a nice surprise. Also have a new pick up truck in mind too (more$$$$$$). None of the above would have happened if I had been busy boiling sap:) Its going to set me back a ways but you only go around once in this old life.

Dave Y did you get boiled out from under your sap pile? Getting very cold out there tonight.

Jake,
Glad to hear you made some good syrup how was the grade? We made all medium so far and the sap looked just great? sugar content in the sap was 2.1% to 2.4%.

Dave 3%,
Dorsey ( our grandson) came home today!!!! We are very happy grandparents:)

Regards,
Chris

[peacemaker]

full steam ahead

[Dave Y]

Chris,
I have sap up to my ears right now. I had some problems boiling and got behind.
I have everything taken care of now and will be back at it tonite. Everything is froze up tight. Going to have a man get me thawed this afternoon, then go to work on it.

[Gary R]

Froze up big time! 3 degrees. Bought a 12" digital thermometer from the Mapleguys last night. BIG SAP ALERT was posted:) Weather forcast shows at least a week of great sap weather possibly starting tomorrow. I think I'll take a little time off from work.

[3% Solution]

Good morning all,
Well here I sit, inside looking out at the new snaow fall (3"), we missed that one!!
The ole thermometer on the wall says it's 8 outside, BRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
The weather forecast says starting Friday it looks like sugaring weather, we'll see.
Glad to see everyone is getting the bugs worked out and as peacemaker said ........ full steam ahead!!!
Ahhhh a new truck huh sugarmaker, nice!!
Sugarmaker,
That is just wonderful news about Dorsey, just great!!!!!
It won't be long and he'll be following you around asking about everything in his little world!!!
Stay safe all!!!

Dave

[PATheron]

Gary R- You are going to have so much sap ITS GOING TO BE COMING OUT YOUR EARS!!!!!GO!!!GO!!!!GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Theron

[Sugarmaker]

Just bought another toy that I was talking with Jim Bortles about, an old Hobart mixer model A-200 cant wait to dump in some liquid sugar and let it do the work.

Here comes the SAP!

Chris

[KenWP]

Is below zero here again tonight and thats in farenheight so will take a couple good days to thaw this country out. has to be some way to coax sap out of a tree. Maybe I can slip a toonie in the branches some place and bribe the tree.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Forecast this AM says Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the 40's. Freeze up again Monday followed by highs in the 30's. Guess it is time to drill some. Hope to have enough sap by Sunday to start to make mistakes with all the new stuff. Hopefully there will be a final tap count here by early next week but I don't know for sure....need lots more fingers and toes. Should be around 26 or 27 hundred. I will be buying sap from three bucket bushes, a 200 tap newbie, an 800 tap old hand who is no longer able to boil, and my former Amish hired man who borrowed 350 buckets yesterday. All told, about 4000 taps+or-. Looks like my new RO will get a good work out. May start right out with the recirculation thing. Wish I had more storage available....Theron, how soon will you be done with that milk truck tanker? I'm glad I got the full bank 7" press. Looks like that will be at it's limits. I still have the stuff to do some through the cone filter so I guess I can do both. Guy from the propane company is coming today to put the piping in the new Sugar house. Once I show him what I want, I intend to get out of his way and get to the woods Sleep will only come in snatches fro now 'til April 15. Look out all you guys over 500 ft in elevation. Once I get this new pump started and the siphon going, your trees are gonna dry up:)

[PATheron]

Doug- Im not sure when Ill be done with it. I might have to haul it up and drop it off for you and then take my RO up to Matts. I think hes going to be in sap up to his ears too. I just looked at the forecast and holy cow. I think it will be pretty great here unless it just goes too warm but I dont think it will. I think were going to get a lot of sap. Im in kind of a nice cool spot tucked in a little dip at 17-1800' so I actually have snow when nobody else does. I think it makes it a real good little sugar bush. Im saying this is going to be a banner year. If you say it it will happen. Im an optimist through and through and its always worked for me so thats how its going to be. BIGSAP=BIGSYRUP=BIGMONEY. Theron

[dano2840]

going to be 30 tomarrow, going to get the arch on blocks today, and put the new tin on, maybe build the tank stand idk, hadley wants to be there when i do that so i dont know when it will get built, he also wants to be the one on the roof to cut the hole for the stack, i tried to reason with him and just let me go up and do it but he wants to, hes afraid the sawsall will kick back and knock me off the roof, my argument was if it knocks him off the roof it will be harder for him to recover than a young kid like me who will heal up alot quicker, but he still wants to do it, going to plumb up the little tank today to, get that squared away,maybe start tapping tomarrow, to speed me and hadley up alittle on getting this stuff done, if the stands not built by friday, im going to build it same with the hole for the stack, im hellbent now, nothing is going to stop me, (unless i fall off the roof cutting the hole for the stack lol) then paint the tanks, clean out the transport tank plumb the feed tank and put the off load line from the road to the sugar house, put the pans on the arch, clean them up, collect some sap and make a fire and we are off to the races.

[HHM-07]

dano

i guess i missed it , what did you end up getting for a rig ??? sounds like you are going to be ferrrry busy for the next week or so good luck



Dick

[Dave Y]

I finally got some syrup made last night. Not as much as I would have liked but it is as start. The fire is not living up to its potental. I have a new blower coming to day. 222 more cfm's that should help. although I wish I would have waited a half hour before i orderd it because I recieved some info that I may have gotten a different motor. I will have to see the differance

[dano2840]

plumbed up the tank at my lil' bush yestarday, was done by 5:30 and started tapping at 5:45 stopped at 7:30 put about 60 in with the headlight on, no evaps not ready but that i can do at night with those artificial sun things they call lights going to get the little bush all tapped today less the buckets as i havent cleaned them yet, probably about 150 taps idk yet, i will keep you guys posted, ITS COMING ALONG!!!! YAY!

[brookledge]

I'd say that virtually all producers should be in good shape this weekend and many days next week.
I can't wait; punishing myself by getting no sleep or very little.
Bring it on
Keith

[mapleack]

Boiled 340 gal of sap tonight, trees started late but were running very hard. I expect a great day tomorrow. We got caught up on bottling, man I love a girlfriend that bottles! Hope everyone is ready for the BIGSAP coming in the next week!

[dano2840]

it was about 31 yestarday with a warm wind, i tapped until 8, when i started tapping the trees that i tapped the night before were running alittle i started tapping and just told my self im going to get this woods done tonight, battery ran out at 7:30 with 15 taps to go, saw a BIG coyote in the woods looked up there he was went " get outa here you mangy mut" and he ran off, i chuckled alittle but i got the trees tapped, about 15 while teedering on my ladder as there is hardly any snow, about 175 in that smaller bush, put the line in the tank this morning, tarp over it, before i went to school, its over 40 right now but rainy, it was pretty wind when i came in but the trees out side of the school library right now arent moving so i think its died down for the day, going to tap half of the big bush tonight after i paint the tank, i dont care how long it takes half of its getting tapped, then i need to finish putting the tin in the arch and brick it and light a little fire and clean my pans as well as keep the mortar warm, need to get the stack hole cut in the roof, hadley said he was going to try and get the stand built in the sugar house and get the feed tank up on it, which will be AWSOME if he gets that done, i hope he gets the hole done too, because he wants some one to be there if i do it, but they have the farmers market tomarrow so idk how i could do it, his boys are going to help me tomarrow so maybe i will do it while they watch, one is 15 so he knows how to call 911 when i fall off the roof, lol Got to put some sand down on the drive way up to my big bush my AWD honda crv was sliding all over the place yestarday, a 2wd jd 5203 with chains wont be any match with 500gal of sap behind it, it will push that thing right around and into the ditch if i dont sand the ever living crap outa that hill, at least there is a logger friend of mine who is logging right up the road who could pull me out w/ his skidder of excavator, i gues i will borrow a loader tractor tomarrow and go down to the town shed and grab 2 or 3 buckets of sand and just drive them down the road to that drive way, another thing i gotta do, im really moving now i stayed up till 10:30 last night working on my arch and sugar house, trying to get ready, im going to boil this weekend weather my feed tanks in place or not, im hellbent its goin to happen for DANO!
good luck to all of you, i probably wont be on the trader till monday, wont have time! ok gotta get to class cya l8r

[jrthe3]

had to move the float box to out side the pan cause with the hood on now can't see what it is doing built new float box and got it all plumed up last night got 300 gallons in bulk tank waiting till tonight to boil when i gather the rest

[jrthe3]

here are some pics of new float box had to buy new float cause old one would nto fit in new box

[mapleack]

BIG SAP in Western Pa. I just talked to my Dad, who sounded pretty frantic about the fact that tanks were running over and buckets were running over! He's trying to keep up and I'm stuck at work! Looks like a late night of boiling for sure. We also have an educational program at a county park tomorrow to finish preparing for. Busy busy!

[danno]

Did somebody put a garden hose in my bulk tanks?

So, I've been boiling hard for the last couple of days and not making squat for syrup - so I tested the sap. 1.5%. Blah! Hope that turns around.

Anybody else seeing low sugar?

[Stickey]

7 gallons collected this eve, picked up 12 more taps(JIC), filter cloth, hydrometer and cup up at Sunnyside maple in Louden on thurs. cut and hauled home 3 more heaping pickup loads of standing dead pines yesterday. Burned some in the OWB, burns nice and hot, but fast.

[mapleack]

Just got in from boiling, its 2 am. Collected 750 gal of sap, left at least 250 more out in the woods. I would've gotten it all done except for a partial catastrophe at about 6:30 pm. Have any of you burnt a syrup pan because of honey bees? Crazy question isn't it. Apparently today, with the high temp reaching 65 degrees, honey bees (probably mine) entered the sugar house enmasse this afternoon and proceeded to commit suicide in the flue pan. Note that we have no hoods. All fine and well, they'll get filtered out right? Wrong. Being that our evaporator is a raised flue, there's a second float to let sap into the syrup pan. Note that while there is room for sap to pass the float valve, apparently there isn't room for about 8 dead bees to pass through, thus impeding the oh so important flow of sap. I was busy in the bottling kitchen readying to filter 15 gal of syrup when I realized I hadn't turned on the water pump, located in another part of the sugarhouse, while my dad and a neighbor ran the rig. Passing by the rig on my way to the pump I noticed an out of place smokiness, but was in a hurry to turn on the pump. On my return trip 20 seconds later I noticed the smell again and my alarm senses went off big time, the faint haze of smoke over the syrup pan helped. I looked into the float box, saw it bottomed out, and the 8 plus bees blocking its path. Organized pandemonium broke out to flood the pan and shut down. Knowing that it had to be scrubbed, and knowing that I still had 500 gal of sap that needed boiled I proceded to shovel all the wood and ashes out, then run the blower for 30 min to cool down the arch. Then drained and removed to scrub. Found some nice fresh bubbled solder under the black stuff. Uh oh. Put the pan back on the arch and added some water. Drip Drip Drip. (insert choice expletives here) Made the decision to try to get it to sugar over, remeber the 500 plus gallons that needed boiled. So we filled her up, lit a fire and boiled for 4 hours, after a 3 hour shut down due to the pan. When I quit I think it was still seeping, but not a steady drip drip. Hopefully it'll finish sugaring off tomorrow and I can limp through the rest of the season.
Sorry for the long story, but I hope you enjoyed reading it more than I enjoyed experiencing it!

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

No freeze yet at 4AM but it is close. Maybe a bit just before daylight? Sap has slowed down some but still running. Hope we get a bit of frost to get it going again. Have 1950 taps in on the front bush. Got vacuum over 20" on all but about 200. Hope to get the leaks found in that one early this AM and then hit the 800 plus in the back bush. Do the buckets tomorrow. Oh, and I need to get the RO going and process some sap. Storage is getting quite full. Should be making steam by tonight. Change your clock tonight.

[ejmaple]

mapleack,

same thing happened to me yesterday, but i don't know what caused the float to stick. luckily i was able to block the syrup pan off before it was contamanated. after scrubbing and resodering two seams in the flue pan in 2 hours i was back boiling. we are having a great run the past two days so hopefully this was isolated. ed

[maple flats]

No excitement yet. I only got 180 gal yesterday, boiled last night and another 115 today. No freeze since Thurs morning. No freeze forcast tonight but Monday morning says 24 degrees, then up to 40. If forcast holds true I might get 4 days to boil this coming week. All of this on 600 taps. Sure wish i had my RO and Vacuum, that would have made poor days into good days. All told I have only picked up 455 gal sap on the season, tested 2%. It has not yet given me a good day so far. Based on last year and pro rating to my tap count for this A good day should give me between 7-800 gal and a great day over 1000. (all gravity for this year.)

[maple flats]

I've had help. So far this season I have had help boiling. A friend who I am quite sure is going to start mapling has given me many hours of help. He helped tap one day and has several hours of boiling so far. He is a mason by trade and puts in lots of cellars each year. He starts the first of the season this monday but when i mentioned that it will run a few days during the week he said he'll be down (after pouring concrete or laying blocks all day). He has the bug bad. He has located and gotten permission from the farmer to tap a several acre hillside, with what he counted as 350 trees and about 450 taps. Sounds like he might grow faster that I did. He is 48 and plans to retire at about 50. That is when he will start mapling. He asked if I would help him set up the tubing and I could get some of the sap. Not sure how that will work yet. He reminds me of myself from the first couple of years when I started.

[gator330]

One of those days that you just can't make syrup!!! Pulled about 130 gallons of sap. Ran fast, shut of faster. Started with great hope for a fast hot boil. New blower, new vertical wall... no mater what I did no good boil. Half way throught the day the vertical wall came out, Didn't help? Blower on, blower off... No good boil, hot not hot. 218, 218, 215 what the?!?!?! Any way pulled a batch and took it to the house to finsh on the stove. Ended up with two gallons. Did better today doing a pan full as a batch. Fire, take down X-mass lights, fire, split wood, fire, feed horses, fire, feed kids, fire, feed dogs, fire, more wood pull finish, bottle Be glad to go to work in the morning!!!!!

[KenWP]

Got most of the trees I wanted tapped untill I ran out of spiles again. Yesterday looked promising as a couple trees I tapped ran when I took the bit out but with the temp going up last night instead of down every thing stopped. Supposed to freeze Sunday night so hopefully that helps out a bit.

[tessiersfarm]

Tapped some more buckets this morning and checked back to find them running this afternoon. Set another tank this afternoon and started to lay out the main line run. Hopefully will get some mainline and 50 or so taps in tomorrow. Will need to collect buckets tomorrow morning, first. Possibly boil a little tomorrow afternoon or evening. Looking like maybe another run tomorrow afternoon and then again tuesday. I think the season has begun here in Maine.

[mapleman3]

No Bees for me but did make some mud today.. I wont get into it here as I wrote up my woes on the Mass tapping(belchertown 2009)

but sugar was high today 3% roadsides and 2.5 in the bush... not bad at all !!!

[Stickey]

Another Pickup truck load of standing dry pine cut today. Reconfigured trees with multiple taps from hanging buckets to tubing into 5 gallon buckets, to free up some buckets for in the woods. Got permission to "do what I want" with 11 acres 3 miles down the road. Gathered 7 gallons this morning and 8 this eve off of 22 taps. Raised the count to 29 this eve. Going to finish welding and fitting the pan tomorrow, MAYBE boil some sap tomorrow, if not, I might need more storage.

[dano2840]

got the arch bricked, tank in the big woods painted yestarday, started tapping the big woods yestarday/ today, so far have 216 taps in the big woods with about 100 to go, so probably will be around 500 taps with the couple buckets i plan to put out, feed tank is up on barn cribbing (cribed w/ 6x6's) i think thats a 1000 gal tank, put the pans on the arch, its aleader drop flue (old) and it has a really strange float design, there is a like 3" deep pan that sits in the flue pan on the dividers, and the sap goes into that and the float sits in the flue pan, an arm goes from the float up over the little pan and to the pipe shut off, but the little pan has 4 holes 2 on each side, and there isnt any other hard ware that came with it, so i dont know how to direct it to the back of the flue pan where it needs to enter, its a strange set up, never seen an interal float like this i think iwould be better off with just a valve and my self controlling the sap flow, oh yea and the tank at the bottom of the sugar woods that had a leak that dripped once a min when there was only 10 gal of sap in it now drips like once every 10 sec, with 175 gals of sap, thats a 400 gal i think, going to finish tapping tomarrow, cut the hole in roof for stack clean 500 gal gathering tank, plumb up feed tank and boil if i can figure out the float, i think i will have the old owner come down and help me with it

[3rdgen.maple]

Well gents the sap flow is well below par. Collected 130 gallons today should have been more like 600 gallons. temps are right on so I hope it is gonna get better, maybe the trees are still in the thawing stage. Anyways boiled it down in 3 hours enough to sugar the pans. What a difference compared to the old flat pans that would of took me 10 to 12 hours last year. Man what an improvement. More sleep for this guy. I want more sap.

[caseyssugarshack93]

Got a pretty good runtoday, 1200 gallon tank half full, Pump is still running as of right now filled it at 10pm, should be filled by tomorow and get the other sugarbush up and running tomorow morrning, should get around 2-300 gallons out of there tomorow, Today wasnt such a good day for the Alamo, or the honda enghine, brand new honda leaks a little oil and my alamo pump has some oil isses, hope tomoorw is better

[Russell Lampron]

The sap has been running here off and on since Thursday. The total for the last 3 days is just over 400 gallons and I haven't checked it this morning. It looks like we are going to get a freeze tonight than a cold day tomorrow. That should recharge the trees and get things flowing again. When I was working in the woods yesterday I noticed that the snow has melted away from the bases of the trees. The season has just begun here.

[3% Solution]

caseyssugarshack93,
In December during the ice storm, I bought a brand new Honda 3000, ran it for 12 hours and there was oil leaking!!!!
It was the seal on the shaft, the local dealer (I bought it in Pa.) took right care of it.
Where is your oil leak?

Dave

[3% Solution]

Russell Lampron,
Yup off to a slow start here too.
Got 70 gallons yesterday, that's about 1/2 gallon per tap.
Pulled off some light syrup.
How's the pumping system back to the sugarhouse working?

Dave

[tessiersfarm]

I too got about 1/2 gallon per tap yesterday. Tapped some more today and it was running a little. Got up 200' of mainline this morning and I am running laterals this afternoon. Hope to sweeten the pans tomorrow.

[Sugarmaker]

Taking a little break from making syrup and maple products over the last three days. Our taps are not running as well as the folks that just tapped a few days ago. Strange weather and spotty runs. Temps are right during the day and possibly will get a freeze on Monday night which should crank it up again.
Wow all you guys are doing a great job making syrup while its there!
More on the PA post.

Regards,
Chris

[KenWP]

I have a grand total of a half cup of liquid from one tree. There were a few wet ones when I tapped but they all shut down. Supposed to be cold for a day so hopefully that helps a bit. It is supposed to be over a week early for here according to what info I can find.

[caseyssugarshack93]

i got 400gallons off 705-725 taps just getting started here, Only been running the pump at 15inches

[Stickey]

Finished the pan (for now). Sap flow has slowed wayyyy down?:confused: Not cold enough last night? The big dogs in town put out their buckets yesterday.

[gmcooper]

Finally got the vacuum system working today and about 850 tapped. Sap was running decent yesterday while I was finishing tapping. Lots of limbs and branches came down in the woods the past few weeks. Most of them seemed to land on the tubing!
Still have a few vacuum leaks to fix. Left branch main holds 22", center main holds 26", right main only holds 15-16". Guess I know where to look.
Guess I better get the sugar house cleaned and ready now.
Mark

[sapman]

My wife helped me finish out the 575 taps in our new bush Friday. Vacuum held pretty well at around 25" on the dry line. Everything going great, and looking forward to getting the reds ready and tapped (3-600 additional taps), which all need to come in on a big sap ladder. Late Saturday, vacuum pump broke down. Probably won't be fixed til Tuesday. Bummer. But with it running for about 30~ hours, we got about 1600 gallons. Still waiting to boil it, as we ran buckets today, after looking for pump parts, which didn't materialize.

Tim

[Russell Lampron]

3% the pump line is working good. It is slow though, it took 1 hour to pump 300 gallons up the hill. The pipe alone holds 40 gallons of sap. I boiled in 615 gallons of sap last night. The grade, dark amber. I don't know if it's because of all of the reds that I have now or the long slow run but the sugar content was low.

[Acer]

Imagine an overweight man with one good hand, on snowshoes, doing the limbo under a mainline wire in a stream bed paying out a 400' roll of 3/4".

That would be me.

D

[PATheron]

Acer- Be proud of yourself. Your showing everyone that you WANNNNNNNNNN IT!!!!!!!

[Stickey]

Just test fired the home made evaporator with some water. Only got a boil in the back half of the pan, it was snowing pretty hard so I didn't stay out too long. I think it's going to work with some minor tweaks. I have around 50 gallons of sap, so if the weather is good tomorrow, I'm going for it.

[Jim Brown]

Russ; I spoke with my dealer last evening and nearly every one he has talked to started with Med. Amber and we were all making dark or "B" by this weekend.Must be going to be the year of dark syrup.who knows?


Jim

[Russell Lampron]

Jim I think if I had boiled on Saturday it would have been lighter. I saved all of my sap from Friday and Saturday and boiled it with Sundays run. Too many things to do and not enough time to get them all done. I am caught up now though and can keep up with it better.

Dean that must have been something to see. Have you made any syrup on your new evaporator yet?

[Hop Kiln Road]

Russ - I gather 200 gallons of 2.3 late Friday afternoon and boiled Saturday morning. I had the draw off at 217+ and quit. The almost syrup was remarkably light. Gathered 100 gallons of 1.9 Sunday PM and boiled and the syrup that came off was very dark. There are great forces incontrol of the universe! Bruce

[Revi]

We're as ready as we'll never be.

We sweetened the pan on Sunday and we're getting lotsa sap today and tomorrow, so another boil on Wednesday!

The season has started now.

[Russell Lampron]

Bruce it's the bacteria that had a chance to grow in it over the weekend. I found a lot of it in my filter papers. It will start running again today and if I get enough to boil tonight I will see if it lightens up.

[dano2840]

well went to boil in 200 gals last night in my bush, and im sitting there the pumps pumping and the level in the tank is staying the same, walked the line heavy heavy heavy light, darn, yep the line was froze because of the snow fall yestarday covered it, it was froze about 30 ft from the sugar house, it was 7pm and i figured it was already to late to fire up the evap, any way, so i said screw it im going to bed. hadley said he would pump it up today, i had 100 gal in the big bush tank across the road, but didnt have the gathering tank ready, probably will have atleast 500 gals tonight, yestarday i went to check the tank in the big woods and realised that the guy who put the tank on the stand forgot to put the logs in the middle of the tank to support it even though he had cut them and piled them right next to the tank, so that idiot put his back up against the tank and pushed up with all his might and put the logs in, took a good amount of the bow out of the tank, the tank being unsupported i think may have caused the leak in the seem, its one of those "5 gal bucket" leaks nothing major, stupid guy forgot to support the middle, i gues im going to have to have a talk with him......
people are going to think im pretty stange chewing my self out though.....im going to take a 4x4 and the hi lift over today or tomarrow and jack the middle up and really fix it properly, and fix my arch the same way

[Acer]

Hey Russ,

We stole the first batch out of the syrup pan and finished it on propane.
Pans are sweet now and next boil we will get some syrup off the evaporator.

Learned not to poke the coals when its close to syrup, almost foamed it over by doing that.

Also learned that a couple dry hardwood chunks up front really makes a difference when using damp pine.

Dean

[dano2840]

was just told by a friend of mine that her grand farther (who i buy my slab wood from) paul hartshorn, who has his sugar house about a 1/2 mile away, but any way she told me his pan "bursted" and he wont be able to do much for like a month or some thing, im assuming hes having new pans maid. idk im going to give him a call tonight and see whats happing, im going to be pretty swamped with my own sap but maybe i could buy sap from him during a cold snap, that sucks i would hate to have that happen to me, he has like 4000 taps, wondered why i hadnt seen him going by in that old ford dumptruck w/ the tanks in the back,

[danno]

well went to boil in 200 gals last night in my bush, and im sitting there the pumps pumping and the level in the tank is staying the same, walked the line heavy heavy heavy light, darn, yep the line was froze because of the snow fall yestarday covered it, it was froze about 30 ft from the sugar house, it was 7pm and i figured it was already to late to fire up the evap, any way, so i said screw it im going to bed. hadley said he would pump it up today, i had 100 gal in the big bush tank across the road, but didnt have the gathering tank ready, probably will have atleast 500 gals tonight, yestarday i went to check the tank in the big woods and realised that the guy who put the tank on the stand forgot to put the logs in the middle of the tank to support it even though he had cut them and piled them right next to the tank, so that idiot put his back up against the tank and pushed up with all his might and put the logs in, took a good amount of the bow out of the tank, the tank being unsupported i think may have caused the leak in the seem, its one of those "5 gal bucket" leaks nothing major, stupid guy forgot to support the middle, i gues im going to have to have a talk with him......
people are going to think im pretty stange chewing my self out though.....im going to take a 4x4 and the hi lift over today or tomarrow and jack the middle up and really fix it properly, and fix my arch the same way


dano - this is the 1st year I am pumping sap from the holding tank to the sugarhouse. We used to tractor it over. Anyway, I've fitted all my transfer lines so that after I pump sap, I hit the lines with a 20 lb. portable air compressor to clear any sap left in the lines to prevent frozen lines. It's not such a problem late in the season, but early with all the freeze ups, you will constantly be fighting frozen lines if you don't blow them out.

[dano2840]

collected about 430 gal last night, was going to hook up the elec. pump to take sap from the gathering tank by the road and pump it into the tank until i realised the drain plug on the pump was missing, all the hardware stores were closed, so there is 230 gals sitting up near the road, going to get the pump plumbed up and boil that and what ever runs tonight, MADE MY 1ST GAL OF SYRUP IN MY NEW SUGAR HOUSE AND ON MY NEW EVAP LAST NIGHT, EVEN WITH THE FLUE PAN NOTBEING LEVEL AND EVEN WITH THE FLOAT GASKET FALLING OUT AND MISSING! YES, TASTED SO GOOD IVE WAITED 10 MONTHS TO SMELL THAT SMELL AND ITS FINALLY HERE! NOW ITS TIME TO START REDEFINING WHAT MONEY LOOKS LIKE!

[mapleack]

collected about 430 gal last night, was going to hook up the elec. pump to take sap from the gathering tank by the road and pump it into the tank until i realised the drain plug on the pump was missing, all the hardware stores were closed, so there is 230 gals sitting up near the road, going to get the pump plumbed up and boil that and what ever runs tonight, MADE MY 1ST GAL OF SYRUP IN MY NEW SUGAR HOUSE AND ON MY NEW EVAP LAST NIGHT, EVEN WITH THE FLUE PAN NOTBEING LEVEL AND EVEN WITH THE FLOAT GASKET FALLING OUT AND MISSING! YES, TASTED SO GOOD IVE WAITED 10 MONTHS TO SMELL THAT SMELL AND ITS FINALLY HERE! NOW ITS TIME TO START REDEFINING WHAT MONEY LOOKS LIKE!

Congratulations, all that hard work is coming together to pay off!

[Stickey]

Yes congrats Dano. I made my very first batch ever yesterday. Started with about 50 gallons of sap in the tank around 11:00 am, boiled and boiled and boiled, after cooking off about 20-25 gallons pulled some off and finished it in the house in a sauce pan. Made like 14 oz of pretty dark syrup, but the hydrometer finally floated and that made me smile. Spilled some onto my hand while canning it OUCH! and some other choice words. Licked it off the counter, had too - every drop soo precious. Pulled a second sauce pan full to finish around 8:30 pm and flooded the pan with 5 gallons of sap and let the fire die on its own, leaving me something to start with. The second pan finished another 12 oz around 9:30 pm, this time a little lighter. Ate pancakes for breakfast, YUM, gathered another 20 gallons this morning (didn't get to it yesterday) so now I have about 25 in the tank and about 8 in the pan with some good color to it. WOOHOO!
Lessons learned - takes a lot of boiling sodas to make syrup, everything is dangerously hot, little bubbles covering the top means its close, MY syrup tastes soooo gooood!:)

[michelle32]

Sticky it always taste better when you spend that kind of time firing. I had a half pint last year spent long long days boiling. I had 100 taps then and your right don't waste any of it even if you have to like the counter. If we drop any here the sap hound gets it. Thats her payment along with left over pancakes. Gathered 150 gallons yesterday or I should say Michelle gathered 150 gallons yesterday. She went back out this morning and got more not sre how much. I'll boil tomorrow.

[Justin Turco]

I tapped on the 4th and 5th, got out about 400 taps.

Gathered maybe 160 gallons on the 8th, and sweetened up the pans. Our honda sap pump is giving us problems. Doesn't want to start.

11th: Boiled about 350 gallons today. Making Dark amber. My first impression is that there is not as much sugar sand this year. Tapped another 30 on tubing. And put out 6 buckets with the kids for them to tend right close to the house. I'll buy the sap off of them. Still haven't got my RO plumbed yet. But it's sitting in place... and paying to heat that place, so tomorrow I'll have to get on it. I've also got a few buckets to put out for myself to tend. It's nice and cold tonight so sap should run good tomorrow. (I'll try to get those buckets out early.) Busy day tomorrow. Sap pump is acting better now??? Seems to have fixed it'self. ???? hmmph.

Sugaring is heaven. Man I love it! (That could be the syrup talking, I've had a lot tonight.)

Justin

[caseyssugarshack93]

Got a pretty good run today, Got 635 gallons, Of 700 taps,just got done r/oing it got about 200 gallons of conentrate,boil that tomoorow that puts me to 1010 gallons so far this year and now setting buckets,

hope everyone has a good season

[Brian Ryther]

Vac pumps are off, evap is in burn down, things went as they should have today. Warm day, 1.5 gall of sap per tap (average), cold night. If this pattern holds we will catch up to where we should be soon. Last 30 gal today finally broke back into med amber. 200 gal in barrels, 20 gal in bottles. 780gal to go. Evap gph is in the dumps. I think the flues are dirty. With the syrup pan on I just cant get to the flues to clean them. If I can find time I will pull the front pan and give the flues a good cleaning. I havn't been to work in two weeks I hope I still have a job!!
Make hay when the sun is shining.
BR

[PATheron]

Brian- GO!!!! GO!!!! GO!!!!- I have the same problem cleaning my flues. Bout inpossable. Plus when your just trying to keep up what can you do? Good luck buddy! Glad the vac is good. Theron

[mapleman3]

900 gallon day of boiling yesterday(saturdays evening collection and yesterdays collection-total 1020 gallons)didn't finish it all....... Tired


but ready for tonight

[KenWP]

Time for syrup it looks like. I have waited my whole life to see sap come out of trees like yesterday. Only a few trees started going strong but the others woke up and smelled the coffee finally. I got over a gallon from one tree in the yard which I find acceptable. I could hardley wait till darl last night to go collect buckets for the day and see what I got. Now to see the others wake up and I will be complaining about to much sap.

[mapleman3]

I'll never complain of too much sap... just complain of no where to put it ;)

[Stickey]

I did my second boil yesterday. Started around 9 am with 5 gallons of concentrate from previous batch. cooked off about 45 gallons of sap, finished 4 batches resulting in about 160 oz of syrup and left me with about 4 gallons of concentrate (I think its pretty close to syrup, but I will dilute with fresh sap for next boil). Gave up on trying to filter finished syrup (after almost spilling it on my hand again) , now I filter when I draw off a batch to finish and just strain the finished syrup. finished up around 8 pm, cleaned everything up this morning, eating waffles with the best syrup ever on the them. We're getting the hang of thing around here (I think.)

[dano2840]

gave up on leveling my arch it liked to move around to much and just shimmed the pans, worked like an evaporator aught to work instead of the whole front pan becoming syrup, little bush ran hard yestarday, had a photographer stop on the side of the road and take pics. but he didnt come in and ask permision if he could which kinda ticked me off, the big bush was still kinda froze up but it was running pretty well, made 8 or 10 gals last night went from dark amber to med amber to fancey and back to med amber last night all great syrup burned almost a cord of wood, things were working great, oh yea and the 1/4 steel shimms left some big gaps, pink fiberglass insulation solved that! its going to run hard all week i will be a tired boy

[Brian Ryther]

Evap is cooling down again. 2600 gal of sap through the evap, 1000 still on the ground, 60 gal of syrup. (no ro) 40 dark 20 med. 1.8 gal of sap per tap average today. good night.

[PATheron]

:lol: Brian- I know youve got to be tired but there'll be lots of time to sleep in august. Thats what Jerry told me the other day. Im not hearing any complaints but I know youve got to be wearing down. I just want you to do one thing, REACH INSIDE AND FIND YOUR INNER SUGARMAKER!!!, Your on the front lines fighting the war everyday just to make a dang gallon of syrup. Its got to be a miracle that any of the stuff is made what with releasers hanging up, lines freezing, evaporators slowing down, wood going up in smoke at breathtaking rates, vac pumps running too hot, etc, etc. Good luck buddy, youll make lots. Theron

[mapleman3]

"wood going up in breathtaking rates" !! ya Theeeeron your not kidding, this 3x8 is a lot different than a 2x6 in consumption , I just had 3 cord delivered , I was looking at the wood pile and thinking, Man I still have another 100 gals to make and I'm not sure I'll have enough... so.... now I feel much better. it's not split as small as I would like it but it doesn't seem to be slowing her down when she's at full steam, and I have my blower cut way back. If i opened her up!! HOLY MOLY there would be a plume of sparks 50 ft in the air out of the 14" stack and the fire dept would be here in minutes, I'm on a main road and I'm sure I get plenty of double takes as the cars go by!

I'm over 60 gallons now, expect to be 70+ tonight, should hit 100 by the weekend. 200 gallons is looking more and more obtainable at this point.

[PATheron]

Jim- Let the fire just fly, your a SERIOUS SUGARMAKER! The neighbors will have to just mind there own business. You ought to see dad boiling that 20% with the draft door removed and all the wood I can get in it. Jerry took some bricks out of the back and WOO DOGGY no need to scoop out much ashes. There all out back on top of the bulk tanks. Dads been a little jumpy lately but I told him with the taps were running he really needs to step up to the plate a little and just quit complainin. Get that 200! Theron:mrgreen:

[KenWP]

My partner or keeper is starting to believe me that I can make some kind of maple syrup this year now. She figured that from the trees I had that there wouldn't be enough sap to bother boiling. After yesterday she has it figured out that I have more then enough trees to make up some syrup and then some. Once all the trees wake up I am going to be busy.

[dano2840]

OH MAN! my big bush musta thawed out yestarday because just like my small bush it was starting to let loose! shimmed my pans and now instead of the whole front pan becoming syrup all at once it now works like an evaporator should, ive got 'er pretty near down to a science, i know my rig now and can control it pretty well, burnin through wood like its goin outa style, collected 850 gal yestarday, boiled about 350 stopped at 12:30 for the 3rd night in arow, forcast is like 20s @ night and high 40s day for the rest of the week, im grindin going to skip school thurs, will be over run, now know the TRUE meaning of BIGSAP! hadley is real happy and has been boiling right along w/ me a big guy that works for him had me come up and put up 20 taps the other day @ his house, they gave 55 gals yestarday, 2 nights ago i went from D.A to M.A to fancey and back to M. A and my fire was even and constant. started making fancey last night and each back got lighter and lighter, made 10 gal of NICE fancey and had my evaporator going the hardest its been yet, had a 4ft flame coming out of 18ft of stack, the 1" boards on the inside that are still farely green caught fire near the stack, that was a OH SH$! moment a little fire nothing big the stack had moved over up against the wood some how, but Mr. Hose put a stop to that FEW! mom dont know that her sugar house that she paid to have built caught fire alittle so SHHHHHHH DONT TELL....... things are going great, i thought i was only going to end up with 450 taps and i ended up with 600 YAY! Physically tired - very but mentally im in it for the long haul and excited for more, friends and family have been stopping in and staying a while, its great, a BIG step up from that A frame tent i made from split rail fence rails and some green house plastic over that old 18"x6' last year! expecting another 800+ gals today, going to have to consume 4 or 5 coke classics tonight and turn the radio right up to keep the eyes from closing too early in the AM tonight, its a LOT a LOT of work but i wouldnt have it any other way, good luck to you all, i hope your season is going as well as mine

[Brian Ryther]

Boiling day 11. Stats. Areas with high vac 13.4 gal per tap. Area tubed for vac but no vac 6.7 Gal per tap so far. I have been keeping detailed records this season and the writing is on the wall. I will get 20 gal of sap per tap on high vac, no vac will see 10 gal per tap. You better believe that royal will be selling another pump with my first syrup check and maple guys will be selling another releaser. A speaker I listened to this year said you can not control how much syrup you make a year but you CAN influence how much sap you produce. Every body should be able to produce 20 gal of sap / year. With less than 1% sap I will not hit my syrup goal, but I will have collecetd enough sap to have been able too.
BR

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Danno,

I have all the exposed wood on the inside of roof and trusses close to the stack covered with ceramic blanket and stapled on, so I don't have to worry about it especially with running stack temps I am running. If it catches fire when it is green, you have better be careful the rest of the season because it will keep getting drier as the season goes on.

[sapman]

Brian, less than 1% sap! I've been crying over my 1.7~! Have you kept track of the gravity tubing sugar content versus high vac.? I've heard high vac does diminish sugar. For the last week I haven't been able to maintain over 22-23" in the bush (my first year with vac). Have you needed to go around and tunk your taps in a little to keep vac. high? I need to go spend a couple hours in the bush soon.

Tim

[Brian Ryther]

I try to find one or two leaks a day. I have re thunked three times. I have found that my bigest leaks have come from hollow trees. I pull these taps and will remove the trees in the summer. Two days ago I found one of my pvc fittings shattered. I will remove all pvc this summer. Sap sugar content is bad all around vac vs no vac (<1%). Road side buckets test higher (1.8%) Has anyone had experence with sugar % increasing during the year or am I stuck with boiling water for the rest of the season.

[danno]

My sugar content has barely nudged. 1.4-1.5 on my vacuum trees. Nice steady 3 on my two field trees that are on buckets. What I would do to have several hundred of those field trees. I'm thinking RO just because of the sugar content. In past years I've never seen my vacuum trees over 2.

My theory is that the low sugar content this year in CNY is due to diluted sap caused by the 5" of rain we received over the past couple of weeks. Ground is still saturated. I think the trees were just sucking in that moisture - causing huge sap runs with low sugar. Or, I may be clueless.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

dANNO,
Here in NNY we are short of moisture, have a huge amount of sap and it is testing way below what it usually does. Can't explain it. Blame MA Nature.
Doug

[KenWP]

I seemed to have lucked out. I had 5 gallons short of 40 gallons and figured i would make it anyways since my trees shut down for a couple of days and boiled yesterday and got almost a whole gallon of syrup. I had tested a few times and it had tested almost 2.5 for a couple of days so it seems okay. They are all new trees if that helps any. Made a semi dark batch of good tasteing stuff.

[Revi]

Our sugar content has been 2 or 2.5 this year so far. I test the bucket trees, so they may be different from what's coming out of the tubing, but not much.

We are getting a lot of sap, so it's good we aren't just boiling water.

[3rdgen.maple]

KenWP How does it feel to officialy be a syrup producer. You want more don't you. So do we all. Congrats on the syrup I know it has been a long wait for you. Our trees here shut down wednesday evening. Just the way it is I guess. Needed the break anyways had so much sap in storage boiled everynight this week till 2 am. NOT TONIGHT FAMILY TIME. Glad to get a little break. Gonna be a good sap weekend.

[KenWP]

Thursday night and its cold outside finally. Will see waht tomorrow and the weekedn brings this time. I love to pick berries and gather mushrooms and such but theres snow on the ground and I still get to be out in the woods. I got a half pail of sap today and the snows melting good now so I can actually get around a lot better. I have trees that I know just haven't thawed out yet even that will produce a little bit yet. Learned a lot at least.

[HudsonHawk]

KenWP.......... Barry here from NH. I was wondering what you're using to measure your sugar levels....sap hydro or a refrac? I'm a very small time producer right now (hint..wanna get bigger!), and boiling water or near to it doesn't turn me on too much!!

[danno]

3rdgen - I was in your neck of the woods last night - took a ride up to camp to make sure all is well. I don't know if there in an area in the NE that gets and keeps snow like that area. Still had to snowshoe in last night. A solid 3' of snow still up there - this morning walked out with no snowshoes and did not drop down an inch.

[KenWP]

I paid $15:95 for a hydrometer at the CO-OP with french directions that I am useing to test my sap. They are weird instruments becauase they are calibrated for sap to be 68 degrees and if its colder you minus so much. I wonder if they figured you tapped trees in the summer or something. They have a syrup hydrometer also but the directions are really weird and its hard to translate into english and make sense of it as its calibrated for 136 degrees and if its hotter you have to add or subtract also.

[3rdgen.maple]

3rdgen - I was in your neck of the woods last night - took a ride up to camp to make sure all is well. I don't know if there in an area in the NE that gets and keeps snow like that area. Still had to snowshoe in last night. A solid 3' of snow still up there - this morning walked out with no snowshoes and did not drop down an inch.

Yep welcome to my world. Where you driving a truck with a gathering tank in it? Was following one home last night and I didn't reconize it. I guess the snow has advantages and disadvantages. Sure does take most of the day for the trees to get running. But I think it helps our season last a bit longer though. And yep it is finally nice to be able to walk on the snow instead of falling knee deep in it. Do you have a lady by the name of Colleen that helps you out? I'm installing a 4 color printing press in Warners and she works there and is always talking maple with me. Just curious.

[Stickey]

I did my third boil yesterday. Made some improvements to the evaporator before I started. I put an extension on my draw off spigot, so we don't scorch the stock pot, or our hands while pulling a batch to finish. I also built a preheater for the sap on the chimney stack, with a valve and feed line. Those improvements were great, made boiling sooo much easier. 9 am to 9 pm, cooked down all 65 gallons of sap on hand, finished about 1.75 gallons. Sap really slowed down and the buds on the reds are getting pretty fat, however things froze up pretty good last night.

[KenWP]

In the down time here I am working on a different preheater also.Trying to use up all the heat from the stack thats going to waste. Just trying to get the chill off the sap a bit better. My other preheater works well but dosn't heat up enough sap at a time and if things boil right I can out run it so that goes luke warm. I thing it will warm up enough today for the real trees to run as so far for 3 days just the boxelders and a couple sugar maples have given much.

[Stickey]

Yeah Ken, I was killing my boil by adding cold sap. I put a large stock pot on top of my stack, with a valve and some tubing feeding the pan. I can regulate the sap flow with the valve. Its sweet. I am trying to add the photos now.

[HudsonHawk]

I think I may either get a sap hydro or maybe even one of those $65 refractometers I saw online. It would be nice to know if I'm just boiling water or actually making maple syrup!!!!

[HudsonHawk]

Checked out your photos.....Nice set-up...love the warming pan!!!! You're boiling a lot faster than we are, but looking forward to improving next year already.....

[KenWP]

So far today is not going to great. I have a few trees running and some that even ran yesterday are not today go figure. I do have one more tree running that never did before so thats a plus. Still about 4 hours to go so who knows what kind of results I will get. Trees never started to run in the yard untill almost 2. I can see that April might be sugar month around here. Also scored a extra large SS pot at a garage sale this morning. Lady said it wasn't for sale as it was her brothers but I sulked and she sold it to me anyways.

[PerryW]

Well it's not running too good here in Lyman NH today. Just never got quite warm enough hitting only 37 deg. Just a couple more degrees would have made all the difference

My bigger sugarbush (about 650 taps) in Littleton at a slightly lower elevation is running some. I should get about 150 gallons of sap by sunset plus a few gallons from yesterday.

Once it warms up, that bush should give me 500 gallons.

Up to 30 gallons and hope to make 100.

[danno]

Yep welcome to my world. Where you driving a truck with a gathering tank in it? Was following one home last night and I didn't reconize it. I guess the snow has advantages and disadvantages. Sure does take most of the day for the trees to get running. But I think it helps our season last a bit longer though. And yep it is finally nice to be able to walk on the snow instead of falling knee deep in it. Do you have a lady by the name of Colleen that helps you out? I'm installing a 4 color printing press in Warners and she works there and is always talking maple with me. Just curious.

No on both counts - no gathering tank in the back of my truck (at least not this year) and no Colleen - although Warners is right down the road from me.

After the last warm up I though I may be done. Sap was really slow for the past few days, but picked up nicely today - about gallon/tap. Vacuum, Vacuum, Vacuum. When I shut off the vacuum to clean the releaser, my sap flow just about stopped. About 10 minutes after starting it back up, sap flow was back in business. Looking at the sap - we're defintely into commercial. No problem - I'll boil it.

[sapman]

I ran vacuum Friday from about 2 until 8, but had probably stopped sooner. Got about 300 gal. or so. Started it Sat. by 1:30, dumping every 2 minutes at 4pm, and had about another 1000 gal. when I shut it down at 11 tonight. This is off about 850 taps now, almost 1/3 reds. Sugar content stinks. But my buddy on gravity got basically nil, so I feel fortunate.

Tim

[Brian Ryther]

Buckets! With vac lines frozen today I went collecting buckets in search of sap, and I found some. 200 buckets 400 gal of sap. 600 tap gravity line gave me 400 gal, 1300 vac taps gave me only 400. So, 1200 gal total and 35 gal of syrup, my sugar % is back to where it should be. I was never so happy to see "b" again. It had been about 200 gal of "c" since I had seen a "grade-able" daw off. Back to reality tomorrow. I hope the sap runs again soon.
BR

[sapman]

Today the vacuum didn't do so hot here, either. Maybe 600 gal. with the pump running 4 hours earlier than yesterday. But we had our biggest collection on the buckets so far. This was since Thursday, but 800 gallons on 300 buckets plus 100 gravity tubing taps. But even with all that, along with the 1800 gal. of woods sap, the ratio still appeared to end up at about 62:1. I sure miss straight roadside sap!

Tim


Tim

[KenWP]

Today Monday looks like a bust again. At least its cold and no sap instead of overly warm and no sap. I will have to tighten up spiles all over the place tomorrow as everything will be leaking all over again. The rest of the week looks not to bad untill the weekend. I might have to put more taps in so that if I get a run it will give me enough to boil a bit before season end.

[PerryW]

Ken,

The good news is:

Last year at this time, my syrup tally was ZERO gallons, and I ended up with 95 total for the season.

I also have only had one half-decent run this season (400 gallons). The rest have been 200 gallons or less.

[KenWP]

I do not see any real heat forcast for a while and I have a lot of trees still surrounded in snow yet. I am sure there is a bit more sap to come but when is the guestion. Drives me crazy collecting a couple ounces here and there from over a hundred taps now in order to get a half pail of sap every day.

[PerryW]

Holy cow Ken. You have over 100 tapped! I'll wager you'll be looking for a new 2x6 evaporator about the first week in April.

[KenWP]

I would be pretty amazed if I get a full buket of sap around here. I have one super tree that gives me good sap and the rest just dribble tiney amounts. Pretty frustrating for a beginer.

[michelle32]

When did you tap. If the flow is this slow for you you may have taped to early. For the amount of taps we do we can wait till the weather gets better. Keep track of your first good runs each year and ajust your tapping to that. You will end up with taps that run better and longer. You may be able to get this data from some of the other syrup people around you. It just seems you are alot further north than most of us.
Keith

[KenWP]

I tapped some the 5 and 6 of March and the rest a week later then that. My only good run was the 17th and then slowed down again due to the weather.A few have only been tapped since last thursday and friday.

[michelle32]

Perryw is closer to you and he has vac and from the sounds of it he's just getting going now. So you should be right around the corner here. Keep track of your first good flow for next year. Maybe move your tap time by a week or two. Let the other guy's chime in and see what they say. I think you jumped the gun with all the talk south of you. Just my two cents.
Keith

[Revi]

I went around on Maple Sunday and some were just getting started.

It makes a big difference where you are, your elevation and which way your land faces.

For some reason we have been getting bigsap for the past 2 weeks.

We face north and have woods trees, but we seem to be running every warm day anyway.

[Revi]

Check out the Treemet from Proctor Maple Research Center. The sap is flowing on the south side already:

http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/?Page=treemet1.html&SM=cammenu.html

We may get a little run today too.

[KenWP]

I have a wicked north east wind right now that's keeping things cool in places. When I walk down to the west end out of the trees they are just starting to run a bit. This week looks good on paper for sap to run but one never knows. This has been a pretty intresting experience so far if you ask me.

[Brian Ryther]

Back from the day job tonight. After meeting with Gov. Douglas to talk about stimilus $ this morning i raced back to NY to collect sap. 1200 in the sugar house, 600 still on the ground. Sap is running hard tonight, especialy early Feb tap gravity line (600). Vac lines chugging along. Tanks look like they will be full by the time it rains tomo am. Tomorrow will be a marathon boil. It has the chance to break the 3/11 record of 80gal/day. Lets hope the wood pile holds up.
Theron Don't Be a Quitter. A lot of us are using you as our bench mark. If you only make 1/3 gal per tap then you need to keep the pump running until july. Do you realy want it?

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Just got up and started more sap through the RO. I got 2 and 1/2 hrs sleep and going to move sap now. Only rest RO has had is while rinsing. Not sure how much is out there but the pumps ran all night and it didn't freeze. This should be a day that vacuum pays. Over 500 gallons now and hope to be over 6 by bedtime (whenever that is).

[mapleack]

Final boil last night. Season total of 6,300 gal of sap from 886 taps. I definately need vacuum. Still have a little syrup to bottle so I'm not sure of the total there. Sugar content was terrible all season, but not much to do about that besides buy an RO. Now its all down to cleaning, pulling taps, and getting the evaporator switched to gas/ tuned for next year.

[dano2840]

well it froze hard the night before last- real hard, and then was 55 when i got out of school i was thinking "full tanks today" as it hadnt been warm enought to run the 2 days prior, i went up to collect the big bush and it was colder up there about 40 but the trees werent hardley running couldnt figure it out but have come to the conclusion that it is because its so dry and we havent gotten any moisture, but my little bush was just starting to run good when i checked it and its real dry down there, so i dont know, but the syrup pans was pretty well rittled with nitre and sugar sand so i took the wire grill brush to it for 3 hrs and i got all of the stuff from my boiling on the pan but there is still alot from previous owners, its a tin pan and im not going to use acid, hopefully my grade will go up because the pan was DIRTY, gotta clean the flue pan this weekend made about 53 gals so far

[mapleman3]

Well, 1000 gals boiled today, whew a long day, still about 280+ in the tank, I had to shut her down, I couldn't control her on the last few drawoffs, kept scorching no matter what I did. I fear the pan is too coated with niter and is greatly effecting the movement of sugar. I hope it's not too warped, I will get some acid and do a scrubbing tomorrow night. hopefully it will help. man though I had it cranking for 8 hours straight today, it was after the shutdown and the next 200 gallons that she got tired.
guess I will hold the sap till sat morn Uggh. I hate holding sap.

[Brian Ryther]

2000 boiled today. 50 gal of "B". Glad to see a gradable syrup again. 1000 still in tanks, with vac lines stil running strong. Havn't collected buckets in days. Every one is overflowing. I should not have gone back to work on Monday.
At Verona this winter Steven Childs touched on the topic that they fond that there were bad tappers. Elonged holes, not settig the taps correcctly etc... I have found the same in my sugar woods. I found today that here are also bad fire loaders. I was able to out fire my father by over150gph. He was getting mad that I was using so much wood, but at the end of the boil I was hours ahead of where we normaly are. Some times you need to take matter into your own hands and do things right! Sorry dad.

[KenWP]

Well I had my best day of sap yet and have lots to boil tomorrow now. If I get a little bit of sap tomorrow I should be able to make 2 gallons of syrup. Its raining here a bit and not supposed to freeze tonight so I doubt if there will be much for a few days now. Just get going good and then slows down. I have never wanted it to freeze at night before except during hunting season.

[PerryW]

Also got a pretty good sap run here in the Littleton NH area. I gathered 300 gal at 1 PM yesterday. It continued to trickle out all last night and I should have another 400 gallons of sap to pick up this morning.

Up to 55 gallons so far and hoping for 100. Very light light-amber yesterday.

[Brian Ryther]

It has been a good run. I have not pulled any taps but I think I only see one more big boil in my future. The pump is still running. I have made a barrel a day for the past 5 days. Monday night is the only freezing temps in the 10 day forcast. 555gal in barrels so far if I hit 600 I will be ok with that. .29 gal per tap, I would like to see .33. Checking stats today I found that for the year I have averaged 50.1gal of sap per gal of syrup produced. I have found that the high vac lines have produced twice as much sap as the gravity lines and buckets. No big suprise there. If I were to have been a 1/2 gal per tap year I would have run out of wood a week ago. Good fortune, or bad year? Should chime in soon with year end totals.
BR