plans for next year?

[PATheron]

Whats everyones plans for the coming year? Any big expansions? Always fun to hear what everyones thinkin about while thier supposed to be doing thier 9 to 5 jobs. Im going to be sticking about where Im at for the coming year here. Probly add a few taps that I didnt get on the existing system and have some line to finetune better and other than that pretty much hold steady. Want to get a second high pressure vessel and am hooking up dedicated wash lines for the remote tanks to keep them pressure washed. Little things like that. Hope someone is doing a big expansion so we can get something to be excited about. Ive got to hold steady about two years then Im going to put a big one in. Got to wait though till I can afford it. Theron:)

[Hurdhaven Farm]

Everything cleaned up and put away for this year but already planning for next season, glad to know I am not alone! I have visited a few sugarbushes lately to see how their tubing systems are set up, getting ideas how best to set mine up. Sugar makers are the best for sharing their time and ideas.
I've been spending a few hours in the woods most days thinning out the softwoods and opening up the crowns on the maples. I don't get as much cut as I should cause I find myself spending a lot of time plotting where mainlines might go, or where the best place for the releaser and tank would be. Why is the low spot always the furthest from the sugarhouse?
In the sugarhouse itself I will add more sap storage and work on idiot proofing( that would be me!) the header tank filling procedure so I don't overflow sap.
I will see how finances go as to what new or used equipment I can afford. The want list is long and deep but my pockets are not!

[forester1]

I got my land logged last summer. I retire from my job in two weeks. My sugarbush and land will be my main retirement activity. I am going to put up tubing this year. I need to get a vacuum pump and run it on gas. I will be stimulating the economy in the sugaring supply sector. I counted up my potential taps and get about 700 in the part I planned for this year. Maybe more. I bought a 1984 yamaha snowmobile with only 2100 miles, since there is no winter road access.

[KenWP]

Now that I know what to expect after my first year I have to increase my boiling capibilities at least 3 fold to cut down how many hours it takes me to even make a gallon of syrup. I will spend the next year trying to do that. I also have to get some kind of system to haul sap and store it. Hauling 100"s of gallons of sap out of the bush in 5 gallon pails could damage a gay pretty fast.
I would like to tap my freinds trees next year as he has about 300 trees close to the road all in a group with no deadfall to tangle with. In the trees I tapped this year its full of years of deadfall that no one will ever remove as they just keep the property for hay land and deer hunting and to cut the cedars off of. When the snow was deep it wasn't to bad as I walked over the deadfall but once it melted I had to climb over or go around to haul sap out.
I also have to find more buckets instead of the jugs I used. A lot of my trees filled on a good day the jugs by noon and if I could not get to them fast enough I lost a lot of sap on the ground. Even with the proper buckets some trees could fill one to over flowing on the good days.

[Jeff E]

Finish tubing my woods, which will bring an additional 800 trees or so, and work with some others around here at getting there nice maple stands tapped with buckets, for selling me sap. A few young bucks are excited about the deal, and will really go after it.

[mountainvan]

trade in my 2- 4x 40 membranes and towers for 1- 8". Talking to 3 land owners, 2 I already tap some of their trees, to add taps and vacuum. One bush is virgin and up the road. Possible to add 500- 1,000 taps this year. I may need to hire some help next year.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Next year I need more storage, both in the woods and at the sugar house.
Need a better way to get sap from the back bush to the house, 2 foot deep ruts for 1/2 mile and moving 250 gallon at a time doesn't cut it.
Add 300 new taps to back bush and about 100 or so that I can pick up around the fringes where I currently tap.
Get some of my air lines on wire and properly sloped...ran out of time this year.
Ditto on some of the pump line.
Get the sugar house battens on and the woodshed built.
Visit a bunch of mapleholics around the country!
Doug

[Paddymountain]

Got to go fetch the new(to me) evaporator this week 30x8 ,then I'll have to figure out how to make it fit in my existing lean-to , also have to get more taps and buckets. need to cut more firewood (does it ever end?) But for now its soon time to plant garden!!!

[220 maple]

This is the time of the year when I dream big, I usually make a list of things I need to do before next season, Vacuum my gravity bush, add more lines, repaint the sugar house floor, put in a new finishing pan, set the 2000 gallon milk tank that was purchased 8 years ago so maybe it would get some use!
the list is quite long every year. I will get somethings done on that list, but it would be a small miracle if 75% of the list was completed.

Mark 220 Maple

[ennismaple]

1) New evaporator with pre-heater - probably a Hurricane or Force 5 capable of 225 GPH.
2) Move 800 gallon feed tank to new platform outside because new evaporator will be too high.
3) Demolish building where 800 gallon and 600 zero tanks are now. Prepare base, add a foot of clear stone and 8" reinforced concrete. Move unused 1200 gallon open top tank to new building. Leave 600 gallon tank in place for emergency storage and move 800 gallon tank to "New Bush".
4) Replace remaining purple tubing and some of green tubing with semi-rigid.
5) Sleep.

[Russell Lampron]

For 2010 I am going to:
1) Replace all of the drops in my old section of woods.
2) Cut and drag out some culls and other non maples.
3) Add 3 new mainlines and replace my last 1/2" one for an additional 300 plus taps.
4) Have my son in law make an air injection system for my evaporator.
5) Take down and reroute the 1" mainline that I have 25' up into one end tree so that it is at ground level. Falling to the ground wasn't fun when the support pipe decided to break when I was working from a ladder that I had leaned against it.

[caseyssugarshack93]

still have to clean tubing
Put a big addion on the sugarhouse
Bigger r/o
Add 3-400 more taps holpfuly,
New vac pump
New releaser maybe

[maple flats]

For 2010 season put addition on sugarhouse, (kitchen, RO room and bathroom), buy RO, add 4-500 more taps. Change any drops over 3 seasons old. Add some more tanks at the sugarhouse. Get large permiate tank and plumb it as a drainable water system. Bigger generator or tie to grid. On the evaporator, finish my preheater and make splash guards to keep the jumping sap IN the flue pan. Then for 2011 season, add vacuum and more taps.

[RUSTYBUCKET]

For 2010, I'm looking to increase the number of taps to at least 100. Also called for pricing on a new 2x6 today.

[Sugarmaker]

WoW if you could harness that energy!
My spring dreams are always much bigger than what I can get done.
Here's the list to do for 09:
- Build a candy machine
- Build a cream machine
- Design and build a steam enhancing unit for the old 3 x 10 to try to coax 110 to 120 gallon out of it and reduce boiling time.
- Look for few more taps (but don't tell Cheryl).
- Maybe re-stain the sugar house.

Here's what will probably happen:
- I will get a bunch of parts for the machines, never get them done by sugaring time, and be talking about them next season at this time too.
- I may be lucky and get the wood shed full of enough wood to make some syrup.
- The house will suffer cause I am tinkering with maple stuff I shouldn't be!
- I will spend a large part of the summer cutting and splitting wood for the house.
- Lawn mowing is the other time sponge .
- And I may get to work with the bees a little too.

Chris

[stoweski]

For 2010 I plan on starting tapping for the first time!

I live on 10 acres of woods with over 100 red & sugar maples. I got the itch just after visiting a sugarhouse a few miles from me. Now I have plans for a 12 x 16 of my own. I have to share it with my SO as we also keep bees so it's a sugarhouse in more ways than one.

A big thanks to those of you who post picts of your sugarhouses - It's looking like I'm building a sugarhouse similar to royalmaple, father & son, and tuckermtn's.

And since I'm on to naming members, rustybucket, your looking at a 2x6... you getting rid of your old rig? I'm looking for a simple 2x4 (or even a 2x3) to start out. I have a barrel that I can outfit for the first year if necessary but I'd rather get something more significant.

Thanks to all who post. Plenty of info on here to satisfy my itch.

Keith

[3rdgen.maple]

Well I'm gonna get a really really long peice of mainline with the biggest badest pump made run it from my sugarhouse to Pa. right into that big tanker sitting at Patheron's place. I need to get some of that sap back that he sucked all the way to his place. And if I have any money left after that I will put as many taps as I can on vac for 2010. Reside the surgarhouse. Put an addition on to get the holding tank out of the main room.

[sapman]

I hope to get the rest of the reds online (500-800?) that I didn't have time for this year. Be ready to tap and get any good Feb. runs like I missed this year.

[PerryW]

Change any drops over 3 seasons old.

Just wondering why you would need new droplines ofter only 3 seasons?

The average age of my tubing is 20 years? Is vacuum that finicky?

[Dave Y]

Studies have shown where new droplines will produce more sap than old ones. As much as 110% more. This is due to the the bactieria living in your dropline. when tree are running the are at positive pressure. When they stop running they go to negitive pressure and can/will suck sap and bactieria back in to the tree. resuting in less sap. thats the short version.

[PATheron]

Third Gen- Now thats not very nice although if you had approached me on the right day this year I may have just givin it to you. Good trick to keeping that sap from sucking back is to never turn the pump off if your on vac. I never turn mine off unless it looks like its going to be froze up for maybe a week or something. If the laterals are all froze up its ok. Theron

[Father & Son]

Like Sugarmaker my plans and eventual outcomes will vastly differ,

1) Buy a filter press, no more fighting gravity filtering
2) Build a steam hood and pre-heater
3) Build addition on the sugarhouse
4) Add vacuum to the gravity tubing I put up this year
5) Tube a piece of woods I didn't get to this year.
6) GET WOOD DONE EARLY!

The filter press is purchased!!!!!!! Now finances took a hit for everything else.
The wood is almost half done.
Plans and materials for steam hood in process.

Hey, maybe this year I will get something done instead of waiting till the last minute.

Jim

[Jim Brown]

Hey Jim what knid of press did you buy?

Jim

[Father & Son]

Jim,
A hand pump press. I don't need to filter as much as you BIG producers.

Jim

[Dave Y]

There are a lot of things I would like to do. Not sure of what will happen for next year. I would like to add vacuum. and elimante all of my buckets. I would also like to sell all of my bulk tanks and get a 5000 gal open top tank for the sugar bush and a 3000 gal open top tank at the sugar house. I would also like to build a separate building for a sugar house. But I doubt that will Happen this year. I would like improve my sryup to firewood rate also I dont want to cut 40 cord of wood this year so I will probably cut 50! Not sure what will happen though. I have yet to recieve any stimulus.

[Father & Son]

Dave,
You haven't misused enough funds to qualify for a stimulus!

Jim

[Dave Y]

You would be surprised at the funds that I have misused in my life.

[maplecrest]

make sure sugar house is ready to go before i tap a tree. this year i had to sell 4400 gallons of sap because the sugar house was not togather and ready to go.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Dave,

I don't know if the time and cost you put into replacing drops will pay for itself if the drops are only 3 years old. Yeah, it might help a little but I would think will putting drops on 3 year old tubing, it will still suck some back up from the tubing every time you turn off the vacuum and still contaminate the drop over the course of the season.

[Dave Y]

Brandon,
I know your reply was to Maple flats, i would like to but in. Stephen Childs Did a study on sap production with old drops and new drops. The new drops out produced the old drops by as much as 110%. That is a lot. I am thinking of doing the same thing.

[Haynes Forest Products]

Im not a math wiz but what I hearing is if I get 1 gallon per day with the old drops I could possibly increase that by 110% so I would end up with over 2 gallons per day. If this is true why would someone with tubing systems even think of going to vacuum to mearly increase sap production but instead just replace the drops every year and double their sap output.

I used to have VWs as a kid and we were always trying to get MORE POWER so living in Chicago we had J C Whitney and Warshowskies and they had these great catalogs that showed all these great products that would increase HP buy Headers 25% air cleaner 10% smaller fan 5% Carberator 35% red plug wires 15% gold tiped spark plugs 12% bigger oil cooler 8% side air scoops 20% Walnut steering wheel 1% The only real improvment I ever got in HP was getting rid of my girlfriend.

I hear if you leave raw sap in the evap it will clean it like brand new and I have left my sap filter full of sap over the summer and sure as heck it was stinky clean but clean. I have seen the crap that comes out of lines that have been blown out pressure washed and sealed up and squirl chewed. All I do is pull taps under vacuum and plug the taps and my lines look cleaner than most I see and the new sap cleans out the snots and I run it clear and I made more sap this year than last so new taps and drops....Thats the ticket

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Haynes,
The study is on vacuum taps, in fact for someone like Brandon with an entirely gravity system, it may not help as much. Procter is currently doing a research project that does a comparison on a yearly basis of new vs. old tubing systems. Also included is a system that is washed each year using water and air mixture. So far, new tubing each year consistently produces the most sap. The question becomes not if more sap is produced but at what point it becomes economically feasible to replace lines. Merely replacing drop lines is probably not as good as replacing everything, but is much cheaper.
I never did see any scientific evidence that JC Whitney products increased mileage or power but they sure had a good sales pitch.
Doug

[Haynes Forest Products]

And a cool pictures Did you know they were in the same bldg

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I think the increase would be 10% if it is even that high, not 110% as DaveY may have mistakenly put 110%. If it was 110%, everyone would be replacing them.

10% in a 1 gallon per day run per tap would yield another 12.8 us ounces of sap or an extra gallon of sap over the course of the season if you averaged 10 gallon of sap per tap. By the time you figure time, cost of tubing and spout, it will add up too. Not criticizing Dave at all for doing it, just thinking that replacing the drop is like putting on a band aide on a larger problem because the bacteria will suck back up out of the tubing and contaminate the drop all season long and by the end of the season, you are back close to square 1. I'll be the first to admit that this wouldn't be the first time in I am wrong.

[Russell Lampron]

The study that Doug is talking about has just completed it's 4th season. For the first season 4 new tubing systems were installed with 200 taps on each system. The first group is the control group and gets all new tubing every year. The second group got new taps each year and for this season got new drops instead. The third group gets new spout adapters every year and the fourth group gets nothing new unless it is for a repair and gets washed with water and compressed air each season.

I haven't heard the results of this years tests but want to find out. The results of the first 3 years showed that the tubing systems that got new taps or adapters had a slight decline in sap production and leveled off. The forth system was showing a steady decline in production each year.

In my own woods I have 250 taps that have been on vacuum for 5 years. I added a new section this year that so far has 211 taps. It was clear to see at the end of the season that the new section was still running good when the old section had stopped completely. When I pulled the taps and washed the tubing the old section was full of white slime and stunk of soured sap. The new section was much cleaner and didn't have any of the white slime in it.

It was clear to see that there needs to be something new in the tap hole every year to get the most sap possible for the longest time. I am going to replace all of the drops in the old section before I add any additional taps. It doesn't make sense to me to add more taps until I can get the full potential out of the taps that I already have.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Brandon,
I'll go along with Dave. The figure I heard was 110%. It was compared to tubing that was over 5 seasons old. Research is showing a steady decrease in production as the number of years of use increases. Yes, you are right, it would be better to replace everything. The drop lines alone are an attempt at an economical compromise. I too am planning on putting my bush on a 3 year rotation.
Doug

[brookledge]

It would be nice if the manufactuers would make tees with the top being a quick disconect. That would make it easy to remove the drop to sanitize it.
I have seen some setups with stainless steel taps that had quick disconects in the middle. That makes it alot more expensive than if they could make it so the drop could be removed at the tee. Another thing I hate doing is cutting off tubing. seems like you always nick the barbs and increase the chance for vac. leaks. Of course if you remove the drop you need to have something to plug the line so that insects don't plug them up.
I have been using sanitary spouts and have been cleaning them and then boiling for 10 min and have been getting good results. I have also tried to leave my vac pump on longer until it freezes solid that way the sap doesn't get pulled back into the tap hole.
keith

[Russell Lampron]

Keith I have been doing the same thing with my vacuum pump. One of the things that I noticed when I was out in the woods as it started to freeze though was that the mainline and lateral would freeze while the trees were still running. It was just enough for the trees to suck some sap back in because of the vacuum in the trees. I could actually see the sap going back up the drop into the tree. Just a few feet away the lateral was frozen solid.

[maplecrest]

i am a firm believer in spout adapters. i have 10 year old tubing that ran as good as new tubing with the clean new spouts.as the season went on i had the same volume comming out of all taps new and old. the south bush quit 3 days before i gave up. but the west east and north were still running when i pulled the taps.

[PATheron]

Im still confused. Are you guys talking about gravity too or just vac. Seems to me you could use old drops if you let the pump run all the time and change out the adapters every year in the tree? I know what your saying about watching it run backwards and Ive been paranoid about that but Ive yet to ever see it go all the way up the drop to the hole when I have had to take the vac off for some reason. Im sure must be it does. I think the best thing is to just let the pump run if its electric and try to run the gas one till the lats are hard if a guy can. Also with my vac Ive never seen a two gallon per day run in daylight hours I dont think. I will run a gallon and a half during the day and if it does run through the night I will get two gallons per tap. Sounds like up north some of the guys do better than that but one thing that skews my numbers are significant numbers of the smaller cull trees that are tapped. Guess ill have to wait till I put a big bush in somewhere else. The 900 taps across the road on the neighbor are all good taps, actually really nice taps and this was the first year on them and they would run a bit over a gallon per tap most every day. Actually come to think of it they probly do 1100 or 1200 a day. Theron

[Dave Y]

Gentlemen,
The new drop out ran the old drops over the course of the season not in one day. The old drops stop running and the new ones continued to run for up to two weeks. that is how one out produces the other.

[Dave Y]

Another thing that was discovered in this study was that when the trees go negative pressure they can suck sap as high as 13.5 inches

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I used 250 new spout adapters on 5 year old tubing this year and in one bush I had it split in the middle by a fence and I saw basically no difference on the side of the fence that had the adapters vs the side of the fence without them. Both sides endured many days in 50s and 60s throughout the season and they both basically quit running at the same time and a freeze did not recharge either of them when my north side taps that I tapped aprox 17 days later were recharged and running good. After 6 weeks and they had both stopped running, I pulled the taps and all the holes looked nice and whitish wood inside including the aprox 65 taps on the one side of the fence that were 5+ year old taps. I only sanitized these taps with alcohol and the other side of the fence had 172 taps with new spout adapters. If it was ever a year to prove them, this was it with the crazy weather we had this year and I saw hardly any difference at all.

My conclusion, I won't deal with the hassle of using them again. They slow down tapping a lot and slow down cleanup a lot more. They are about the same speed as alcohol sanitizing each spout. Maybe alcohol does that good??

Conclusion # 2 I got about 450 gallons less sap this year than I have gotten in my best year and the weather this year was difficult for sap flow and I feel very fortunate and blessed to get what I did. Maybe on vaccuum it makes some difference on sap, but my sugar content has gotten higher each of the last 3 years and sap quanity has been close to same which leads me to believe that these studies might be true for vacuum, but I don't see it in gravity. I am not seeing basically any difference between now and when tubing was new 6 seasons ago. Last year, I got 2400+ gallons in 5 days and lost probably at least 100+ that ran on the ground and made 50+ gallons of syrup from that 5 day run of sap.

[3rdgen.maple]

Theron was not trying to be mean. Just jealous of the year you had, but not jealous of the work you put into it. It was a bad year here and the only conclusion I had was all that vac you got there dried my trees up in NY. LOL. Good job man and get after it next year too. I got to get some taps on vac for next year so all that input from you on the trader made the decision pretty clear that with the weather not being worthy of us bucket guys I gotta make the change or bust.
As far as the talk about replacing tubing goes just curious but how does one come to the conclusion in a 4 year study. I have three bushes that never produce the same from year to year. Bush one might outproduce bush 3 and vice versa next year. I have a group of three trees that have not produced in 3 years. Questioned it here on the trader earlier in the year. I was not going to tap them anymore. Well dad tapped them when I was at work and those 3 trees were the best runners this year. I think wind, temps, snow etc. is to unpredictable. If there is more wind out of the north one bush might be more protected from it than the other bush for example. Seems to me that it would take alot longer than 4 years to come to a conclusion. Curious about this cause I want to switch over to vac next year. If this is the case then I would be wanting the to buy the cheaper 5 year tubing over the 10 or 15 year stuff or am I off base here.

[PATheron]

3rdGen- Down here everybody buys the 5 year. I think all the inconsistincies( not sure that is right) that youve been seeing will go away with the vac. You have to have just the right conditions for gravity flow and every little thing seems to affect it but with the vac its just not that way. With my stuff if its over 32 degrees the sap runs period. If you have the right conditions it runs even more but none the less it always runs. My neighbor went to vac after he saw what I did and he bought a small ring pump, gas job, and hooked it to his existing setup. The tube had been run pretty much right for vac. He stuck the pump on it and it performs pretty close to what mine is. The tubing is several years old, including the drops, and he just uses the new adapters every year so he has new plastic and it performs real good. I dont think it does quite as good as mine becouse I can leave my pump on all the time but it doesnt miss my numbers by much Id say. I think the recipe is high vac, never shut the pump off if you can, new plastic, properly installed line. Thats the combination Im going with. I would have made a lot more syrup this year if I could have single passed large volumes of sap through the ro at the end of the season I think. I think what I missed would have paid for my new ro but the bottom line is I can only afford to buy so much stuff per year and thats that. Im super happy with the season and next year Im going to work hard to do an even better job! Theron

[maple flats]

I didn't have vacuum this year but should in 2011. Everything had either all new, new drops or new adapters. My all new ran slightly better and longer on a per tap basis but not a great amount. Looks like big results won't be until I add Vac.

[Russell Lampron]

The study that Proctor is doing is still on going but the results after the first 3 years shows that there is less of a drop off in sap volume with something new in the tap hole. The study is being done with all systems on vacuum so it doesn't help the gravity guys as much.

After the third year the woods with new taps or adapters were within 85% production of the new tubing. The tubing that was only washed was hovering around 75% It is too soon for a report for this season and the study will go on for at least another season.

I can't wait until next season to see how my woods will perform with all new drops in the old section and new adapters through out. I feel that I left alot of sap in the woods this year because of the 5 year old drops and taps in the old section.

[Steam]

More taps, more wood, and more help. I'm so glad my wife doesen't read the Mapletrader.

Gregg

[Alty78]

Attempt to get 500 taps on vacuum to get a start on the switch from buckets to line. Should be a fun experience getting everything to work. Plus building a preheater for our evaporator.

Alty

[dano2840]

working on getting onto some land with 1000 taps, if i get them i plan to put it on vacuum. had a 1000 gal tank given to me by another sugar maker who i just met a month ago ( gues we are pretty good friends) and buying 2 500 gal tanks from my dad which should fit the bill for storage up there. (i know with vacuum it wont, but for right now im gunna keep telling my self it will) its about 75% 1 tappers but it was logged a while ago so the spacing is good and its not a huge area, which is also nice, i can run it right down to his drive way and get power from his house, PERFECT! only down side is i have to haul sap down center fayston road about a mile and a half of an almost constant steep hill, like the kind thats always icy in the winter time and the kind that when you have a trailer loader with 4 or 500 gal of sap and you start sliding at the top of the hill your SCREWED!!! gues i will have to make good friends with the town and pay them off with syrup to sand the crap out of it. the road is in 2 towns though. my neighbor has a 4wd allis chalmes 6080 that will go any where, maybe i will have to get him to fix the clutch and the starter and put ice chains all the way around, that might do it, if it doesnt and i skid all the way down i gues i will have to crank the wheel ditch it in his pasture on the side of the road and jump before i came to rt 100 go through the gardrail over a steep bank and into the river? hmmmm maybe i should just go the extra 9 miles take the back way all the way to rt 100 on the other end of the valley! i dont know we will see when we get there, when i post pictures of a tangled wreck and me with 2 broken legs a broken arm and collar bone throwing wood into the evaporator with the only good arm! LOL but first the owner has to talk to the forester and make sure it wont be logged in 8 years, (hes got it in current use and the land has to be logged every 15 years to keep it that way) but he can put it into current use if im sugaring it so it should be win win. i hope

[michiganfarmer]

My supplier just told me about new spiles with one way check vales in them. He hasnt seen them yet, but he is trying to get his hands on a few to show people

[ennismaple]

My supplier just told me about new spiles with one way check vales in them. He hasnt seen them yet, but he is trying to get his hands on a few to show people

Leader is supposed to be developing those.

I started my own test this year. I kept track of how much sap I gathered from each bush. Next year I'll use adapters in one bush where the tubing and spiles are about 7 years old. I'll do the math for each season to see how much sap I got per tap overall vs the bush where I've used reducers. That should tell me if it makes sense to buy new adapters every year.

[Seguin Sugarbush]

1) New evaporator with pre-heater - probably a Hurricane or Force 5 capable of 225 GPH.
2) Move 800 gallon feed tank to new platform outside because new evaporator will be too high.
3) Demolish building where 800 gallon and 600 zero tanks are now. Prepare base, add a foot of clear stone and 8" reinforced concrete. Move unused 1200 gallon open top tank to new building. Leave 600 gallon tank in place for emergency storage and move 800 gallon tank to "New Bush".
4) Replace remaining purple tubing and some of green tubing with semi-rigid.
5) Sleep.

Hello Ennismaple
I like your list of projects for next year,I will stick to number 5 on your list for now.We hope to meet you at the summer tour this summer.
Dan Seguin

[ennismaple]

Hello Ennismaple
I like your list of projects for next year,I will stick to number 5 on your list for now.We hope to meet you at the summer tour this summer.
Dan Seguin

Sounds good - I'll see you on July 18th! Only #5 will be done by then...

[PATheron]

I dont know if any of you guys remember but at one time someone had a glass bowl releaser for sale that was all mounted on a board real nice and neat and ready to use. Anyone remember who it was or if its still for sale. Theron

[caseyssugarshack93]

theron are u talking about Treefinder? he HAD a glass milk relaser on a board that i bought from him. theres one on ebay tho if your looking http://cgi.ebay.com/SURGE-BENDER-MILKER-MILKING-RECEIVER-JAR-FOR-MILK_W0QQitemZ360143742452QQcmdZViewItemQQptZBI_Fa rm_Supplies?hash=item360143742452&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

[PATheron]

Casey- That is the kind I was talking about. How did yours work for you and how many taps do you think it will do? Theron

[maplecrest]

thereon they do not work at high vac will ice up.spent week end looking for vac tanks. due to releasers icing up.i thing you should find a 300 gallon vac tank for your lower woods with a well pump and pump the sap to the sugar house. did you sell your syrup? haven is not buying right now. was in coscos in burling ton quarts of canadian 9.95. vt qts. 17.95. so the syrup is out already and the prices are dropping like a rock

[caseyssugarshack93]

i ran about 250 on it and worked great i think u can run around 400 on it and id say thats the max but i dont really know it worked good for me and was cheaper than buying a new releaser for a smaller bush i got, its pretty neat to see it work, how many taps do u plan on adding it on ? and i had one prblem this year when it froze soiled because the check valve at the bottom froze up before the trees stopped running and it froze soild but it untawed,

[caseyssugarshack93]

maple crest, how did cleaning the tubing work ? do u like doing it better than rinsing? i think next year thats what im going to do is do it under vac and not rinse but i dont know, i already pulled my pumps so i gotta rinse now with my 1inch pump maybe next year ill use air and water but a guy at leader said it just turns to vinage and rinces out the first run so who knows, im sure not washing dont affect how much sap u get if ur using new adaptors every year

[Grade "A"]

Theron, I used one for 220 taps last year and it would work ok when the temps were about 40 or above, below that the top were the vacuum supply line hooks to the releaser would freeze up. The problem is were the vacuum line hooks up there is a bunch of small holes and the air going by freezes the mist of sap. I had to keep an eye on it all the time. This year I made a releaser with some of the parts of the bender releaser and it works great.

[caseyssugarshack93]

i never had that problem, just luck i guess i really like them, They work good

[Grade "A"]

I was pulling 23" of vac through mine, maybe I was getting alittle greedy.

[caseyssugarshack93]

what was happing to urs u would get moisture in the vac line ? and freezing ?

[PATheron]

What I was thinking of doing was using one of the glass releasers on a little bush down the road of maybe 200 taps. I was thinking I would use a dairy pump and tube it up real nice so when I go ahead and do the rest of the bush I would just carry on where I left off. Just thought it would be fun to play with. So I would only be running comfortable dairy pump vac with probly 200 taps on it. See if I can do a half gallon with the dairy pump. Ill put the kids in charge of it. Jeff- I did sell the syrup. With the amount they made up north I decided to peddle it. Only have a 55 left at home for home stock. Only thing I have left to do now is finish pulling my taps. Thanks for the info on the glass releaser. Theron:) :)

[caseyssugarshack93]

R you buying more land theron to add more taps ?

and no problem on the releaser

[maplecrest]

casey, will see what happens. i spent the weekend talking with large producers that pull under vac . i pulled 7000 in 3and 1/2 days. and that is what they all do.

[caseyssugarshack93]

i dont think it will make a differnce washing or doing what ur doing under vac cause onces all that S$%^t drys in the lines and the bacteria dies then it will wash right out the first run, i think thats what im going to do next year

[PATheron]

Casey- Im not buying any more ground. I have permission to tap lots of trees if I want. Im good friends with the neighbors and I give them lots of syrup and they dont mind at all. Jeff- Im pulling it all under vac and thats all Im doing too. Next year the first barrell is mersh and were off and running. I cant imagine washing that much. Maybe I will if I get bored but I really doubt it. Theron

[caseyssugarshack93]

pulling under vac seems like the best and simpliest way, sucks i already pulled my pumps from the woods Darn it, well now going to truck some water to sugarbushes and start pulling taps,

[ennismaple]

We pulled and vacuum washed about 3300 taps in 3 days. I couldn't let the milky crud in the lines sit there until next spring!

One more thing to add to my to do list for next year: I need to replace another tank shack! I went to drain the tank in our upper bush after we washed the lines and the old building and tank had a pretty good lean on it. I was hoping to get one more season out of it but the floor's so rottern you can step through it in spots and the beams it sits on are in no better shape. I'll demolish it, put down a foot of stone and pour a concrete slab this summer. I don't want to worry about it again in my lifetime!