Who is still going in the N.H. area?

[Parker]

I had the best run of the year yesterday and today. I have 300 taps(health spouts) on tubeing. The best previous run was 350 gallons over 30+/- hours, the last 36 hours I have picked up 575gallons at 2%!!!!! And there is another 250 gallons in the tanks.This is my first year doing it by myself (I have helped oters in the past) This is the first time these maples have been tapped in old timers memorey so I dont really know what to expect. I am hauling the sap to a buddy who boils it. From what I have herd around here most everyone has had a poor year. I am very interested in vacume ad would like to talk to someone who knows somthing about it.

Parker Rowe
Salisbury, N.H.
Good luck to all.

[Parker]

how warm did it get at your place yesterday? I was surprised it kept running over here because it was in the mid 50's and in the past it has stopped when it hit the 49-50 deg. mark. With 200 taps what do you boil on? do you have a filter press? Run vacume? I will be setting up my sugar house-evaporator this summer and am looking for ideas. I have visted lots of diffrent folks and picked up some good Ideas (I think). I have a 3x12 king with raised flue grim pans and will be putting a blower on it. I am kind of concerned about blower sizeing, the one I have came off of a forced hot air furnace and I think it might be too big. Any Ideas?
I have to go pump, Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!

[Salmoneye]

Put a rheostat on your forced air unit...Turn it on full to start it, and let it warm up, then turn it down to the desired speed for your wood...

Since Wednesday I have gathered 250 gallons and have another 150 in my tanks to get this AM...This is on 160 taps...Sugar is still around 3% and the grade went up from Dark Amber to Medium Amber yesterday...

[Sugarman]

Hi Parker,
WE had a good run over here in Marlborough. I boiled in about 700 gals yesterday and the grade went to light. Can't beleive this late. Trees were running like mad when I was gathering so im sure theres a bunch again this morning.
Bernie

[Parker]

Marathon sap hauling! since the 9th I have been getting 400 + gals. a day!!! Yesterday the sap was comming out of the mainline like water out of a garden hose! It is suppose to be in the 20's tonight and 40's tommrow and simmilar for sun. nite. But i guess in the 70's on tues. I am watching/ tasteing for the buds. Good luck
Parker

I picked up a Surge vacume pump today, A model No.2 (looks real old) any ideas what I need for cheap releaser?

[mapleman3]

Ok... I hate to say it but maybe I need to buy some bud syrup or something... so I know what it tastes like. :wink:
Jim

I have 220 taps (170 buckets and 50 on a line). As far as I am concerned the sap hasn't ran until the past few days. On Friday I gathered about 400 gallons. It was the best run ever. The buckets were all overflowing. The sap was about 2.5% and I was starting with a clean pan. I boiled up 7 gallons in about 10 hours. (not bad for having to sweeten the pan)

On Saturday I gathered another 300-325. I am hoping for another 300-400 for tomm. I will boil as much as I can for the next few days since I think that it gonna be over REAL soon.

[Russell Lampron]

The producers who pulled their taps at the end of March missed the best
runs of the season here in Loudon, NH. The sap has been running like
crazy here since 04/09. Just finished a marathon boiling session at 2:15
AM. I see I am not the only one making lighter syrup. Went up from "B"
on Weds to dark early Thurs and medium later on thurs and stayed that
way thru Sunday AM. Looks like possibly another run on Monday. Pulling
my taps on Tuesday. Production went up from 18 gals at the end of
March to 42 gals total now. Made 56 gals last year and what I thought
was going to be a bad year has turned into a pretty good one. Still
surprised at the color change, supposed to make light syrup at the start
of the season and dark at the end not the other way around!

Russ

[Parker]

THE FAT LADY HAS SUNG IN SALISBURY!!! The sap was running pretty well today but I could smell a littel somthing and the sap looked a little greenish. At my other tank the sap was cloudy. It had to end sometime. Are there people still going in northern areas, Canada? Anyone have Vacume intel.? On 300 taps I wound up with 35 gals. of syrup with a 100-1 trade ratio. So that would be 3500 gals. of sap. All of the stuff was in the 2% range, even the shmung today. Now its time to start on the sugar house. Im thinking bigger is better.
Good luck to all
Parker

[Brian]

I live near St. Johnsbury, Vt. I have 300 taps, 150 on vacuum the other 150 on buckets. My family and an occasional friend make up the "BUCKET BRIGADE". My wife helps me the most, she even boils and gives me a break from time to time. So far, we've bottled 47 gallons of syrup. Today we made about 10 gallons, it is still in the stainless steel milk pails, we will bottle it tomorrow. We use cone filters with a pre-filter and they fit the stainless steel milk pails perfectly. When we get all done boiling, we reheat it on a king cooker, double check the density and the grade, then filter it once again and bottle it. It looks like we still have atleast one more run this week.

Brian

Brian-
Can you describe the components in your vacume system, I am very intersted in setting one up and am looking for Ideas,
Thanks and good luck

[Salmoneye In VT]

Will be 20 tonight here south of Burlington...

Peepers have been singing for 3 days now...Will run tomorrow and then I am betting it is done here...Buds are still tiny and tight though...Boiled Sunday-Monday and got 8 gallons of Dark Amber...so far 30+ gallons on my 160 taps...

[Brian]

My vacuum is a delavel 40 milker pump with an old air compressor motor. I built an A-frame over it and ran about 10 ft of 1 1/2 pvc pipe with a trap so condensation water would not go in the vac pump. I bought a new manual releaser good for 500 taps. the releaser sits on a 500 gallon bulk tank. My tubing is all behind the house and runs right to the bulk tank. The only work involved is gathering the buckets. My bulk tank runs directly to the arch, all gravity. My arch is 30x8 converted to oil, so my wood pile is now liquid! I love it, no more wood for me. Next year I hope to get a better canning system. I'm looking at a couple of things, not sure yet though. I'm not big enough for a filter press. I made 15 gallons med A last weekend, the lightest I've made this year, the rest was darkA and B, back and forth. The last syrup I bottled was B. I've made 56 1/2 gallons so far this year, I hope the sap keeps running.

Brian